Get the Book Today
Get your copy of Gen Y Now and start learning how to be a better leader. If you need one copy for yourself or many copies for your team, we can accommodate your needs.
Reaching Out Too Quickly: A Developmental Area for Gen Y?
Written by Buddy Hobart on April 1st, 2010
Recently we posted a conversation about some of my current prejudices toward Gen Y. Specifically, I am referring to my sense that Gen Y reaches out too quickly to their social networks to solve problems instead of spending time and energy critically thinking through the issue. It is my contention that reaching out too quickly and too often might hamper one’s critical thinking and problem solving abilities.
After discussing this with several very successful individuals, the following are some points that were made during these conversations:
• “I do think that dealing with tough decisions results in being better prepared / equipped to deal with difficult matters in life. It has been my experience that most of the very difficult matters in life are truly dealt with individually. If you think of career, health, and certain family crises, individuals need to be self-reliant in dealing with challenging issues.”
• “I subscribe to the notion that experience is a good teacher. Hence, if one is faced with adversity, generally he/she can figure out a way to deal with it. However, if an individual waits for friends and neighbors to deal with the problem or resulting anxiety, how will they really deal with it when/if they have to all by themselves?”
• “When I look at my career, I know there were far more intelligent people with far better education that mine, but, I was elected CEO and they were not. I think that one of the reasons that I was chosen was because I was self-sufficient.”
• “I think it is one thing to be team oriented and another thing to be paralyzed waiting for that input. One of the issues that I see with Gen Y is a certain amount of paralysis while they await others opinions.”
• “I do have a concern about Gen Y and some of their critical thinking and crisis management skills. I think one of the by-products of social media and instant connectivity is the need for instant support and input. Sometimes decisions need to be made individually.”
The people quoted above are all senior level executives from firms ranging from 120-20,000 employees. These individuals (at least in my opinion) have always been open minded and visionary leaders. I have never found any of them to be close minded toward Gen Y.
Maybe I am looking for input that validates my current prejudice. Maybe it is a developmental need for Gen Y. Maybe, just maybe, I am not being prejudiced but looking at an opportunity for Gen Y. There is a chance that social networking has created an unintended consequence. For all of the experience, intelligence, and drive Gen Y “brings to the party,” maybe they are not developing their problem solving and critical thinking abilities to the extent that they could.
I hope that I am not looking to simply validate my prejudices. If I am, I am sure folks will let me know. If I am not, then maybe we have become to address a Gen Y developmental need.
What are your thoughts? Is Gen Y overdependence an unintended consequence of social networking?
No comments yet.