Generational Traits –Polischuk

TLMI held its Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, last month under the theme of "My Generation – Leading Strategies for Multigenerational Trends and Technologies." As the theme suggests, the focus of the session presentations was on generational tendencies and technology trends and leadership. Cam Marston of Generational Insights gave an entertaining and informative presentation on generational traits; this was followed by two related presentations by Scott Klososky of Future Point of View highlighting leadership and emerging technologies.

I called Marson's presentation entertaining because there was much laughter in the room as the traits he described struck home with those of us in the audience. He classified the generational groupings as: Matures (68+), Baby Boomers (49-67), Gen X (34-48), and Millennials (13-33).

Marston described the things that are important to Matures and Baby Boomers (as related to companies and the workplace) are the history of the organization; name recognition; and tenure in the marketplace. For Gen Xers and Milliennials, it's more related to how things affect their lives; how things make them distinct; and how things will impact their future. A clear difference in these broad groupings is that those now 49 and greater were raised in a time when fitting in and not standing out in the crowd were valued, while those young people who are less than 48 years old grew up in a period where being different and standing out was encouraged.

Marston showed how recognizing generational tendencies could be applied in a work situation (sales "calls" for instance). For Baby Boomers, he says that you need to show them what you can do for them and how they can save time. Communications is best done face-to-face, followed by telephone and even email (with full sentences and an opening and closing).

Gen Xers want to see a list of all available products, services, and options, and they'll use technology to verify what you're telling them. Marston made an interesting observation: "Gen Xers don't buy products, they stalk them." For communications, Gen X types generally prefer email and will screen phone calls, responding to messages more likely by email versus calling back. They generally don't make tough decisions face-to-face, preferring to do their research and think things over.

Clearly, these are general trends and traits; the human personality is much too complex to pigeonhole any one person into a cookie-cutter box. Marston even mentioned some exceptions to these generational traits: oldest children, military, and raised on a farm. In the end, the only thing the same for all people is that every person is different.

Tom Polischuk, Editor-in-Chief

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