Leadership by Choice: Increasing Influence and Effectiveness through Self-Management

Chapter 7

Leading the Entitlement Generation

Who Is Generation Y?

A generation is a group of individuals born in the same time period who exhibit similar behaviors and share similar life experiences. Generation Y is a group of individuals born between the mid to late 1970s and the early 2000s. There are more than 70 million people in this generation, one of the largest generations in history. Other names for Generation Y include Millennials, Generation Next, the Nintendo Generation, Echo Boomers, and the Me Generation.

Characteristics of Generation Y include:

• Tech savvy
• Multitask-oriented
• Educated (one of the most educated generations in history)
• Team player
• Diverse
• Optimistic
• Entrepreneurial
• Goal-focused
• Lifestyle-driven
• Big spender
• Environment-friendly
• Talented
• Influential

The last time you bought a computer, whom did you consult? Was it a young person in your family? If not, you might have gone to your local Best Buy and bought that computer from a person in the Generation Y age bracket. This generation likes technology. Some of their thoughts about work are:

• “I want to see my ideas implemented.”
• “I like to work for people who respect me and listen to me.”
• “My boss told me that it will take two years before my first advancement, but little does he know that I'll be on Monster this afternoon.”
• “I like to work with others on a project.”
• “Nobody around here seems to know what I can do to get ahead.”

Some events that define Generation Y include the White House scandal, the O.J. ...