Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
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Dear Bev,
What is wrong with today’s youth? Why do millennials think they deserve to be promoted and given raises when they haven’t paid their dues? I have been in this profession for 25 years and I’ve never seen anything like the young people we are hiring today – lazy, unmotivated, but still thinking they deserve the trophy. Parents have done these kids a disservice by thinking everyone deserves to win. Tell that to the NFL or NBA – everyone can’t be a winner! I’m sounding sour, but I am so tired of bringing in these team members who have stars in their eyes and then lead to disappointment.
Are most firms struggling with this? I want to hire the 50-year old who is still hungry and motivated. But my HR person tells me this would be discriminatory.
J.S.
Dear J.S.,
It’s interesting to get your note in the same week I had the pleasure of working with a number of top advisors and the discussion turned to the “next gen.” We had some next gens in the room, and they shared their insights. But one of the advisors said it is hard to work with colleagues who get their information off TikTok.
There is negativity when older advisors (and that can mean 45+) talk about the next generation, especially millennials. Millennials are aging – the newer generation coming into the workforce, those born in 1998 and after, are Gen Zs. They will have their own styles and are more of the TikTok generation.
It saddens me to hear more experienced advisors talk about the younger generation. I have the pleasure of teaching undergrad and graduate students (most of whom are very early 20s) each semester. Most students are engaged, motivated and eager to learn. I leave every semester hopeful about our future based on the students I engage with during the term.
Some insights to consider:
- Whenever we dislike someone else’s approach or behavior, the tendency is to label it judgmentally. Words like “lazy” and “unmotivated” obviously characterize someone in a negative light but also in a manner that gives them no chance to improve. If you can change your lens so you focus more on “This person needs to learn,” or “This person is focusing on the wrong things,” it will help you move to a more productive way of providing support. The difference is between labeling the person as “bad” versus “learning” or engaging in poor choices for their behaviors.
- Younger team members need coaching and mentoring. The older generation tends to think in terms of “I built this on my own, let them figure it out too.” But that is self-defeating for the people with knowledge who can coach and mentor. Why not share knowledge and support? Why not provide guidance and learning opportunities? To say someone should do what you did is short-sighted at best and egotistic at worst. Today’s younger generations learn more at a younger age. My 18- and 19-year old students are getting dressed up and presenting to outside experienced professionals for their final grade. I never did anything this advanced at 18! They have access to internships, information, international travel and learning and professors with hands-on knowledge unlike someone who went to college 25 years ago. It is a different world and the times have changed. Managers need to keep up with these changes, too.
- Find connection points. I read a lot about the difference between the generations and yes, our experiences growing up influence us. I lost friends and colleagues in the 2001 World Trade terrorist attacks and my youngest daughter wasn’t even born when it happened. Our world views when we reference 2001 are completely different and there is no way we can fully understand one another’s perspective. However, we can look for the places where we do connect and build on those. In our professional lives, we’ve had different cultural experiences. But we can find sameness too – it just takes some attention and focus.
- You get what you expect. If your worldview is that the younger generation is lazy, unmotivated and not willing to work very hard it’s like the yellow VW bug. You probably haven’t thought about one in ages. But once you have a conversation about them, you will now see a couple of them on the road in the next few days. We see what we are focused on and what we want to see. I expect students who are engaged, motivated and fun – when I get one that isn’t, I consider them to be the outlier. I have professor colleagues who think students are all disrespectful and disengaged and somehow their classes are full of the proof of this. How is this possible? It’s often our lens, not the actual experience. Try putting on a different lens and see if your experience with your younger team member doesn’t change as a result.
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry, in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. She is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. Beverly is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).
She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.
Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here. 
