I saw an interesting article. I have a Google Alert set up to let me know when something new is issued on the term, 'Millennial'. It notified me that there was an article in Forbes online. The article is titled, "Millennial Women Battle with Older Unwanted Mentors". Since this subject comes close to the book I am writing, I thought I would comment. Rather than establish a formalized bi-directional mentoring program between Baby Boomers and Millennials, it seems that informal mentoring is occurring in businesses which is infuriating the Millennials. The article states that in almost every office there are older women who think it is their duty to inform all the other women about how to wash the coffee cups, monitor lunchtime microwave use, and here's where it really gets dicey, proper office attire. The problem with this is the Millennial women don't want or appreciate this kind of mentoring. "They say these older co-workers are old-fashioned, too judgmental and don’t understand their values. In fact, communication style (72%), technology use (65%), work style (53%), and priorities (52%) are the four most reported clashes between Millennial women and their older colleagues, according to the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation (BPWF)."
Millennials, women or men, do not take on the same value set as their parents, the Boomers have. In fact this is the basis for my title, Baby Boomer-Rang. I had as a sub-title "How to Leverage Your Skills + Digital Natives for Success in Business" but have since modified it to be, "How Bi-Directional Mentoring Can Help You and Your Millennial Employees Win". I may change the sub-title again but the thesis is that what the Millennials are is in great part due to the influences of their parents, the Baby Boomers. I contend that this pattern is consistent with the G.I. Generation who parented the Boomers. However what's significant now is the size of the Boomer generation who are about to retire and the Millennial generation that is even larger who are digital natives. The combination of the size plus the technology revolution creates a unique problem in business that requires a unique solution.
I believe a systematic approach to bi-directional mentoring is the answer. The Boomers need help with technology. Note that the Millennials are tech-dependent not tech-savvy but there are and will be advantages that they can bring to the Boomers as technology continues to explode. And the Boomers who mentor the Millennials must be trained to focus on soft skills like leadership and networking and not on information as Millennials clearly understand how to find facts through growing up with Google. And each group needs to be taught about the other. As in the case with the example cited in the article, if businesses allow informal mentoring to occur they may do even more damage than no mentoring.
I'll keep you posted as I progress through the book. I have much of the structure of the book completed and have about 11% of the first draft content done. More to come....
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