People Skills

Baby Boomers = Born 1946 through 1964, Gen X= Born 1965 through 1980, Millennials (Gen Y) = Born 1981 throuugh 1996, Gen Z (iGen)= Born 1997 through 2010, Gen Alpha=Born 2010 through 2024, Gen Beta=Born 2025 through 2039

I found this chart on LinkedIn and thought it was pretty insightful. During my last few years of work, I managed a team of about 30 people between regular team members and contractors as we worked through a special project. We had a pretty good mix of Boomers, Gen X, Y, and even some Z and when thinking back to my interactions with the team, they pretty much followed these same characteristics - their values, needs, their request for feedback, what they appreciated and valued and what they disliked all seemed to trend toward their "type".

Of course, there were exceptions - I had some Boomers that acted more like millennials and some "old school" Gen Z types that were more comfortable with how a Gen X or even a boomer would behave. But the bottom line was that what worked for one person would be total inappropriate behavior toward another and it became important to understand what one person liked and needed when you interacted with them verses another team member and their hot buttons.

I think you could use this chart just in regular dealings with people even if you weren't leading them. I used it when thinking about our kids (Millennials) and see how they enjoy more digital and social communications and like to be heard and included as part of a team more than my generation which worked in more of a hierarchical chain of command.

Hope you get some use out of this - would love to have you leave a comment to this story with your own experiences or whether you agree or disagree with what the chart says!