The Gen X and Millennial Guide to a Thriving Career

by Al III Smith

Overview

Baby boomers have dominated the workforce for a long time, but these days they are hitting retirement age in huge numbers. It's only a matter of time until gen Xers and millennials monopolize the corporate c-suites. This shift will create organic opportunities for young professionals to build thriving careers, rise to key leadership positions, and boost their earning power. Still, it will be necessary for gen Xers and millennials to build the right strategy because competition will be fierce.

Al Smith, III, a senior learning and development leader, equips you with seven key behaviors to bolster your career. Get a glimpse into what is working now, and forget about the outdated career advice that worked for your parents. You'll learn how to

Understand the new normal of workplace demographics;

Build your brand with differentiated value;

Add traction to your career development strategy.

The workplace is changing, and your career-advancement strategy must change as well. Discover the new rules for the 21st century professional. Your path to success starts with The Gen X and Millennial Guide to a Thriving Career.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781491711514
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/12/2013
Pages:	172
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.40(d)

Read an Excerpt

THE GEN X AND MILLENNIAL GUIDE TO A THRIVING CAREER

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By AL SMITH III

iUniverse LLC

Copyright © 2013 Al Smith III
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4917-1151-4

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CHAPTER 1

THE NEW NORMAL

If you ask ten people for their perspective on how to get promoted, you will probably get ten different answers. The most common answer will more than likely be a generic "just do your job well," followed by a confused "I don't know." Those responses do not provide much clarity. Many professionals have implemented a trial-and-error approach or outdated approaches to getting more from the workplace. Neither option yields the best results.

Happy Careers = Happy Employees

This statement is going to shock you: Employees with promising careers are happier than employees who do not see a path to career growth. Not really breaking news, is it? In 2009, 76 percent of respondents said career advancement is important or very important to job satisfaction (US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2009). This staggering statistic leads to the question, why is career advancement so important to us?

I often say a career is not community service. Community service is something we do for others, while pursuing a thriving career is something we do for ourselves. Does that sound selfish? The pursuit of a career does have a selfish element, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. We do not go to work every day without expecting adequate compensation. Our time, effort, and passion are not free. We must get something of value out of our work experience.

What would you do if your boss called and said your company would be withholding your salary but would still expect you to report to work? Would you go to work or start updating your résumé? The bottom line is we want to be paid so we can make a living. The more promising your career, the better chance you have to draw the salary that will support your desired standard of living.

A good salary is one of the many reasons that we wake up every morning and trek to the office. Here is a list of the most common reasons that my survey respondents said they go to work every day:

• earn a good salary

• enjoy the work

• support my family

• enjoy challenges

• sense of accomplishment

• establish college funds

• living my passion

• like my coworkers

• need the benefits

• don't want to sit at home

Why do you go to work every day? Are your reasons listed above? Circle all of the reasons that motivate you to get up early, battle traffic, and deal with your least favorite coworkers. If you have other reasons that did not make the list, write them next to my list. It is important to understand and acknowledge the value that a thriving career brings to your life as you read this book.

It is obvious that our careers do a lot for us. That is why it is so troubling to see 45 percent of survey respondents say they are only somewhat satisfied with their careers (US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2009). I always wonder about the adverse impact that an unfulfilling career can have on other parts of a person's life. What impact does an unfulfilling job or poor career outlook have on your personal happiness? How does it affect relationships with your significant other, your children, and your friends? I don't want to paint a gloomy picture, but it is important to be honest about the downside of an impotent career.

I remember when I first left Bradley University in 2003 and relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina, because I ran out of money. You may know people who have faced the same set of circumstances. College is expensive, so this is an all-too-common reality for thousands of students every year. With my incomplete college career behind me, it was time to venture into the adult world of jobs, bills, and responsibilities. Starting a career is tough, but it's even more complicated when you don't have a bachelor's degree.

The first two years in Charlotte were very difficult for me. My friends from college graduated and began promising careers, while I struggled to find the right prescription to heal my sick career prospects. It became difficult for me to talk to my friends about their successes when I couldn't contribute to the conversation. Don't get me wrong: I was happy for them, but my own career accomplishments remained elusive. I used to be ashamed of my lack of progress. Especially considering that I knew I had a lot of unrealized potential. There were important needs in my life that were unfulfilled. I wanted to do something meaningful, earn a decent salary, establish some savings, and find a robust intellectual challenge. All of these things could have been satisfied by a productive career.

A deficient career can cause anyone to question his or her ability to do great work. I often wondered whether I would ever pull it all together. That uncertainty dogged me. I am a fairly intelligent guy with a solid work ethic but did not have much to show for it.

Finally, after a lot of hard work and persistence, things began to fall into place for me. I stumbled upon a sales career that slowly gained traction. Talking has always been pretty easy for me. (My brother Chris always told me I'd end up doing something that allowed me to talk because I never let him get a word in. I guess he was right.) It was a liberating feeling.

As my career improved, so did other parts of my life. I was able to reconnect with friends and share my stories of progress and success. In addition, I was able to finally complete my bachelor's degree 5 months prior to the printing of this book.

How does your career affect your life? Is your behavior different outside the office when you are unhappy in the office? This is an important question to consider as you read this book.

Things Have Changed

The baby boomers used to control everything. Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, total 80 million people, and the sheer size of the generation made them an important force. They developed a reputation for being hard-working professionals who lived to work and did not care about work-life balance. The boomer perspective on career management has been the rule because they have been at the helm of the corporate ship. A large part of the workforce, they hold senior positions across all segments of the corporate world.

In 2010 this generation began to hit retirement age at a rate of 3,800 people per day, and by 2020 the rate will almost triple (US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2013). The Great Recession's impact on retirement accounts caused a number of boomers to delay their golden years of relaxation, but this massive exodus from the workforce is still inevitable. The baby boomer generation will eventually retire, and the country will need competent, capable professionals to fill the massive void they leave behind.

The workforce is expected to grow by 10.4 million workers between 2010 and 2020. While the number of workers aged 16–24 will decrease by 2.6 million, the number aged 25–54 will increase by 1.6 million, and the number aged 55 and older will increase by 11.5 million (US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2012). We don't need to worry about a shrinking workforce; the concern is the aging-out of the most experienced group in our workforce. What cohort of professionals is ready to backfill the boomers' roles at the top of the corporate world? Generation X (1965–1980) and millennial (1981–2000) professionals have to pay close attention to the impact of the boomer retirements on the workforce they will inherit. How will the rest of the workforce respond? What are the key issues to consider during the demographic transition? How will this impact future personnel decisions? These are all important questions with which serious gen X and millennial professionals must grapple.

Thriving careers aren't created in a vacuum but exist within the realities of the current workforce. Some professionals will choose a reactive response to the pending workforce changes and wander aimlessly from opportunity to opportunity without a coherent strategy. I wouldn't have written this book if I thought that was an effective approach. Professionals who make the decision to manage their careers proactively and strategically in this new environment are the ones who will ultimately win.

Knowledge Gaps

Many organizations learned to rely on the impressive skill and performance of the boomer generation. This relationship grew closer as the boomers displayed an intense sense of loyalty and commitment to their employers. Many boomers don't understand the idea of switching companies every four to five years, and it is not difficult to find boomers who have worked for one company for their entire professional careers. My in-laws each worked more than 25 years with the same company. This deep sense of loyalty to a company is a hallmark of the boomer generation. Their long relationships with their employers allowed the boomers to learn a great deal about the human, social, cultural, and structural components of their companies, information that allowed them to perform at high levels in their roles for a long time. The depth of their experience allowed them to identify cross-functional synergies in their work and increase productivity.

If you were the CEO of a company, would you find value in an employee base that understood the ins and outs of your organization? Do you think that would help you reach your strategic goals? I certainly can't see a problem with such a scenario. Many companies have taken the boomers' loyalty and experience for granted. So what happens to that wealth of information—and loyalty—when the boomers retire?

Many companies, particularly industrial ones, see the loss of deep organizational intelligence (Harrison 2008) as a significant organizational development challenge. Employees need to explain the company's culture, unwritten rules, and organizational structure. These are critical roles that can't go unfilled. Organizations now have a competitive imperative to transfer this knowledge to younger employees. Someone has to confidently guide departments, business units, and divisions as they execute company strategy.

A 2006 Knowledge Infusion survey collected responses from nearly four hundred human resources professionals from both small and large enterprises, revealing that over 50 percent of the respondents knew that the retiring workforce will cause a knowledge and skill gap, but less than 30 percent of them had a formally prepared, viable retention plan (Harrison 2008). A number of knowledge-retention strategies have been deployed throughout the corporate landscape. Some of the more common strategies involve comprehensive talent-succession planning, mentoring programs with experienced staff and young high-potential employees, and flexible work options like telecommuting and part-time schedules for boomers.

Companies everywhere continue to take steps to hedge against the boomers' retirement, and this workforce change provides an extraordinary opportunity for the right person. You can be the right person. Great things happen when preparation meets opportunity. You can use this book as a tool to jumpstart the preparation process.

The Talent Vacuum

It is time for the younger employees to step up. Organizations are in the process of activating their succession plans to identify professionals who are ready for their next assignment. Executives will move into C-level positions, middle managers will join the executive ranks, and first-level leaders will become middle managers. Of course, I made that transition sound neat, orderly, and seamless, but things don't always happen that way in the workplace. The more important point is that there will be organic organizational movement, and the next generation of leaders has an opportunity to fill the talent void caused by boomers' retirements.

Gen X, with 40 million members, is dwarfed by the 80 million boomers. Millennials account for 72 million Americans, but many are still in the very early stages of their careers. This means gen X and high-potential millennials must answer the call, creating an amazing opportunity for the young professional. Timing is everything, and there could not be a better time to be in the workforce than now.

We are still recovering from the Great Recession, but it is only a matter of time until everything returns to normal. Will you be ready to capitalize on the wide array of advancement opportunities as the workplace demographics change? Be honest with yourself when you answer that question. The prepared professional has an opportunity to thrive, but the unprepared employee's lack of preparation is a meager down payment on an unfulfilling career.

Before we continue, let me add a disclaimer: Members of a generation share some characteristics because of the similar societal environments in which they are raised. However, generational characteristics are not absolute.

For example, I am a member of the millennial generation, but I share many values with baby boomers. As you read the following generational summaries, remember that some of the characteristics may not perfectly match your individual behavior or values, but these generalities reasonably describe the most common traits of each generation. This information is based on the highly reputable work of Lynne C. Lancaster and David Stillman, authors of When Generations Collide at Work (2002) and The M-Factor (2010). Taken together, these books offer a comprehensive analysis of the workplace traits of the baby boomers, generation X, and the millennials.

Who Is Generation X?

Generation X, those born between 1961 and 1980, number roughly 40 million members. This group is defined by their childhood experience as latchkey kids. Increased divorce rates and working mothers caused this group to find themselves home alone, fending for themselves. They did their homework alone and cooked their own dinners. They navigated their adolescent years with minimal supervision. Generation X's unique set of characteristics can be traced back to the structure of their childhood.

Work Values

Pragmatic and practical in their approach to work, gen X wants to eliminate the task. Self-reliance and independence, two critically important values to gen Xers, stem from their experience as latchkey kids. They have been independent all their lives and are easily frustrated by work environments that don't provide independence. Gen X also appreciates a laid-back work environment. They appreciate simple structure but detest excessive structure and hierarchy. The flat organizational structure with reduced levels of hierarchy that has gained popularity in recent years is no coincidence, considering that many gen X members are moving into prominent organizational leadership positions.

Communication Style

Gen Xers value direct and immediate communication and don't like the organizational structure that leads to nuanced, political communication. They place tremendous value on task execution, and direct communication complements that strategy. Pragmatism is critical to a strong workplace experience, and gen X says what they mean and mean what they say. (Sometimes this approach rubs boomers the wrong way because they tend to appreciate hierarchy and apply it to their communication style.) Gen X also values immediate feedback on their performance, which is attributed to their task-oriented sense of urgency about getting their work done and receiving feedback.

Work and Family Life

Baby boomers live to work, so their careers are paramount, and they work entirely too much. Gen X had parents who missed too many dance recitals and basketball games, and they realize that too much career loyalty can adversely impact family life. Therefore, gen Xers work to live, not the other way around; work is a tool that allows them to live better, more fulfilling lives. Work-life balance became increasingly popular as this generation grew in the workplace, and flexibility and freedom became the best way to reward good performance. Work-life balance is a nonnegotiable right, so it is common for a gen Xer to ask for more vacation days during salary negotiations for a new job, while boomers would ask for higher pay.

Career Expectations

For gen X a career is not a one-stop proposition; it is a journey with multiple stops along the way, each providing a different area of skill development and experience. Gen X wants a portable career.

Gen X rose in the workforce during the proliferation of leadership-development programs. Jack Welch pioneered this strategy during his tenure at General Electric, rotating his high-performing leaders through different business units in order to provide them with a diverse set of skills and giving himself the flexibility to plug a strong leader into any area and see success. Gen X built upon this strategy, seeing little benefit in a one-company career. They saw their parents laid-off and dealing with job insecurity, so they expect to work for multiple companies over the course of a career. This doesn't mean they aren't loyal. Gen X members work hard and are loyal to their work and team. They just aren't willing to commit to a company for a lifetime. It is important to them to keep their options open so they aren't casualties of corporate downsizing and restructuring. They've seen that movie, and it gave them nightmares!

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from THE GEN X AND MILLENNIAL GUIDE TO A THRIVING CAREER by AL SMITH III. Copyright © 2013 Al Smith III. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction, vii,
Chapter 1: The New Normal, 1,
Chapter 2: The Differentiation Model, 17,
Chapter 3: Perform Consistently, 33,
Chapter 4: Communicate Effectively, 51,
Chapter 5: Build Two-Way Relationships, 73,
Chapter 6: Be a Change Champion, 93,
Chapter 7: Study Your Craft, 111,
Chapter 8: Advertise Your Ambition, 123,
Chapter 9: Be a Professional, 137,
Chapter 10: Putting It All Together, 145,
Bibliography, 153,