I again came across this old video of Simon Sinek, a noted author and inspirational speaker, wherein he talked about his early observations on the younger generations X and Z and their ideals. Some friends with whom I’ve shared his insights have shown me more related videos, which have come out as well.
The new ones, mostly interviews, are sometimes featured on social media and dwell on how the young generation feels with timely topics such as dealing with challenges of teamwork in the workplace setting and how they cope with new management hacks.
As a warning, some of his lectures, however, are not for the faint-hearted. In a few interviews, he’s shown an aura that he can be brutally direct at times. On some topics, for example, he has made it clear that he will not sugarcoat his dislike of the new generation’s attitude, especially in the context of work, if only to help them improve. I have taken a keen interest in this Gen topic of his because, in the first place, we have a millennial in the house, and I was hoping to get a little insight from the ‘out there’, so to speak.
Not to jump the gun, however. I, for one, believe that his observations may have taken the shorter route toward the latter generalizations that he had stated in so many related lectures. For their shock value, consider a few of his observations on millennials:
– Brought up on gadgets and technology, they have generally become ill-equipped to handle face-to-face office encounters or even just plainly talking to people or strangers who knock at the door.
– They have become easily convenienced by shopping online and the like, as compared to older gens who had grown up with direct and longer processes. He terms this as self-gratification at their fingertips.
– Their limited interpersonal skill sets are further compounded by other factors, such as a flawed and devalued reward system in both school education and home parenting, where they have been treated as special. On the whole, it does not prepare them for the shock of the real world, where generally, no one is pampered, and it is a dog-eat-dog world.
– Because of all the above, they are thus emotionally weak at handling rejections and confrontations, required sets needed in future leadership roles.
As one of Sinek’s assumptions that the new gen got low marks when facing adversity, he has added that instead of choosing confrontation, they would rather ignore antagonists completely, thereby ghosting them. At this, all I could say is that this choice of action had also been present in all the generations prior, except maybe during the primitive society, where it was eat or be eaten, and kill or be killed. It is therefore not singularly the millennials’ doing.
This being the case, perhaps Simon’s other observations could be of the same nature as well. The gadgets of our time could have either been iPod tablets, iPhones, or Walkmans, transistor radios, and the like, and the results, such as initial reactions and behavior to new technology, would have been the same or at least closely identical.
With regard to unpleasantness surrounding relationships, along with confrontation and other realities, each generation had also reaped a fair share of these. As this is so, I have to say so sorry, Simon, each generation merely deals with whatever is thrown their way as best as they can. Kitchen sink, ghosting tactics, and all. But an old friend, however, needs to be mentioned. Correcting me and totally agreeing with his namesake, he said whatever we enjoyed in our generation cannot compare with today’s tech, especially with the Internet, which was light-years away from us. At this, I’m willing to believe what Simon says.
