Editor's note: Generational differences in today’s real estate organizations have created friction and organizational disconnect that have negatively impacted business efforts. This article is the second in a four-part series intended to uncover the secrets of managing the different generations, to promote and nurture successful, generationally diverse real estate organizations. The first article, Managing Generation X: A Guide for Real Estate Professionals can be found online.
Do you ever watch commercials? I don’t mean just in between your favorite shows; I mean actually watch the commercials. Not too many people do, but as a consultant and facilitator I find information from a variety of different sources, including T.V. commercials.
Take, for example, a commercial a few months ago for the Honda Element, a boxy-looking, retro style 4-cylinder of a ‘car’ that no self-respecting Baby Boomer would ever step into, let alone drive. Honda knows this, of course; they didn’t create the Element for the Boomers, they made it for Generation Y, and if you look closely at how Honda markets its Gen Y creation you can get a real sense for how organizations are tailoring their business efforts (from marketing to managing) to address generational preferences.
The commercial begins with an empty white set, onto which Lego’s 
above. The Lego’s land and connect to slowly, but surely, create from the ground up the Honda Element vehicle. Throughout the ‘building,’ there are no words being spoken; only a little Gen Y background techno music. When the car is complete, however, the music stops and the announcer says, quite simply, “Every piece has its purpose. The Honda Element.”
Now putting aside the magic of building a car out of Lego’s that pour from the sky, if we focus for just a minute on the tag-line we find the key to managing Gen Y'ers. What we see is that, just as we can best tailor our management efforts to manage Xers by coming to know them as tech-empowered, fiercely independent change experts, we can also enhance our Gen Y techniques when we know and understand Gen Y’ers as a collaborative workforce seeking meaning in the workplace; where each and every one of them, in truth, ‘has a purpose.’
Gen Y Facts. Before we get there, however, first a few Gen Y facts: Generation Y, otherwise known as the Millenials, is most often defined as being born between 1977 and 1994. According to this definition, Gen Y’ers are currently between the ages of 11 and 28. [Author’s note: if you are employing the aged 11-16 section of this generational cohort, we need to have a different talk altogether].
There are roughly 73 million Y’ers in the United States, a generation roughly comparable in size to the much-heralded 78 million Baby Boomers (ages 41 to 59) and overwhelmingly larger than the Gen Xers (at only 48 million). According to the most recent census data, Y’ers comprise approximately 24% of the national labor force and just more than 23% of the
Figure 1
Y’er Core Characteristics. As we discussed in the first article in this series, the key to managing any generational segment of your workforce is understanding the generationally rooted values and preferences of that group; that is, their core characteristics. In the same way that knowing and understanding real estate consumers allows us to serve them better, knowing your Gen Y professionals’ generationally-driven attitudes, values, demands and preferences will allow you to manage, train, motivate and lead them more effectively.
In an effort to discern the Gen Y core characteristics, consider, for a moment, a few of the seminal events in their lives:
w 1991 - Gulf War (smart bombs on TV)
w 1992 - Rodney King (beating, trial, riots on TV)
w 1993 - Branch Davidian /
w 1995 -
w 1995 - O.J. Simpson arrest and trial (ninety-five million television viewers witnessed the white Bronco police chase live; 91% of all persons viewing television watched the verdict)
w 1997 - Princess Diana’s death
w 1998 –
w 1999 – Columbine school shooting
w 1990’s - Development of the Internet
w 2001 – 9/11
As you can see, these events vary in nature and character, but not in scope. What I mean is that this generation grew up exposed to it all – they watched, surfed, downloaded, recorded, listened to and maybe, just maybe, even read about everything that was happening in their world, including events so horrible they were once considered inappropriate for children who were thus protected from them.
Not this group, of course. They watched live, with the rest of us, as the Davidian compound burned in
Out of these events emerged a generation of young adults schooled early in the ‘facts of life.’ As a result of their exposure to these events (and others), Gen Y’ers today are a very unique group of workers, whose primary core characteristics should be identified, addressed and harnessed for the benefit of your organization. The Gen Y characteristics include the following:
Optimism. Perhaps one of the most fascinating Gen Y characteristics is their optimism and resiliency, especially given their history. On the face of it, should not these young adults be terrified, self-preservationists? On the basis of the number of horrific school shootings alone (Littleton, Colorado; Jonesboro, Arkansas; Pearl, Mississippi, to name a few) should not this group be a shell-shocked, demoralized cohort of very afraid skeptics, rivaling the Xers in their cynicism of a hopeful future?
The data tells a different story, altogether. In reality, the great majority of studies done to date suggest that Gen Y’ers responded to these and other highly visible (via T.V. and the Internet) tumultuous events with resiliency, followed by high powered optimism. For reasons that may be debated in another forum, the fact of the matter is that Gen Y professionals are far more optimistic that their generational elders, the Xers. Gen Y optimism is a tremendous workplace asset that can and should be taken advantage of to help drive your organization’s real estate service mission.
Collaboration. As I mentioned above, this group believes strongly that every piece has its purpose, i.e. that every person (white, black, brown) has his or her purpose. ‘Working together’ has particularly strong value for Gen Y’ers, who believe that teamwork and ‘joint efforting’ are not simply better ways to operate; they generally see such collaboration as the only way to attain the best results. Although I suspect that this intense desire to be aligned does stem somewhat from this group’s collective response to adversity – often too overwhelming for any one person to handle by themselves – whatever the cause, the managerial reality is that this group believes strongly in collaboration and is likely to crave such workplace positioning in their jobs.
A Quest for Meaning. Perhaps one of the most important Gen Y characteristics real estate managers should be aware of and addressing is their passionate quest for meaning in the workplace. To better understand this quest, consider the following question: In the last decade, which family member most often served as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in the contemporary family unit? If you answered ‘the youngin’s,” you answered correctly, albeit in Texan (which is perfectly acceptable).
Real estate managers must understand that for most of their relatively short lives, Gen Y’ers have been advising, counseling and assisting their ‘elder’ familial colleagues on everything from “How do I make the time on the VCR stop blinking?” to “How do I open an email?” to “How do I set up a wireless network in the house?” Put another way, your most junior employees and sales professionals have been serving as executives for years before they came to you and your organization. With this background in mind, managers must understand – if not accept – that these ‘junior’ professionals will be seeking meaningful work where they can contribute in meaningful ways to the ultimate success of the organization.
Gen Y Management Solutions. With the above as our foundation, we can turn to what steps to take today to use this valuable information to improve management effectiveness, and to use new techniques to help drive your company’s success. In order to better manage, train, lead and motivate your Gen Y’ers to the collective benefit of your real estate organization, I suggest you take the following five (5) steps:
1. Use your Gen Y’s talents. So you have (or you’re thinking about getting) Gen Y professionals who are optimistic, confident and resilient? I suggest harnessing these Gen Y talents for the good of your organization. As radical an idea as that sounds (sarcasm intended), the challenge for managers is to see and work past old economy resistance based on the age of these professionals, i.e. the managerial reality that someone in your organization will discount Gen Y talents on the basis of youth and inexperience alone.
To the greatest extent possible, real estate managers should resist this outdated management ‘strategy’ and, instead, embrace Gen Y’ers as a valuable, immediately accessible resource. Remember, Y’ers ‘grew up’ a lot faster than anyone else; and, they’ve been serving as executives (CTO’s in their families) for years. The manager who is able to account for Gen Y youth while simultaneously taking advantage of the Y’er professional’s significant organizational talents will succeed in using the Gen Y dynamic to help drive her real estate organization towards continued success, productivity and profitability.
2. Encourage Gen Y’s to work (and play) together. Gen Y’ers love to collaborate and, in that same regard, they love to work (and play) with their colleagues, who oftentimes double as (best) friends. To the extent that your organizational culture will permit it, find ways to allow and encourage such aligned interaction for these younger members of your team. You will find that through such close collaboration, your Gen Y professionals will be happier and more productive, thus further empowering them to contribute to your organization’s mission.
3. Go high tech. You may have noticed that Gen Y’ers are the most tech-savvy, Internet-sophisticated professionals the real estate workplace has ever seen. What you may not have noticed, however, is that real estate organizations that fail to use these talents and/or fail to provide contemporary or cutting edge technologies to empower their teams will not be able to retain Gen Y’ers in the long run and thus take advantage of their considerable talents.
As quickly as your budget will allow, arm your firm with the latest and greatest technologies to further your organizational mission; not only will you be able to use these technologies to recruit the best Gen Y’ers but, moreover, these young, energized, confident professionals will stay with you and tell their friends about their workplace. If you aren’t already generating this king of buzz within the Gen Y talent pool, imagine the possibilities (and the payoff) of being the Gen Y firm to work at – with young Gen Y real estate professionals using the latest in real estate tech tools to drive consumer service and improve overall performance.
4. Give your Gen Y’ers a purpose. As much as your Gen Y professionals desire a collaborative, tech-powered workplace, they’d give it all up (if they had to, which they don’t) to do meaningful work. To improve your management strategies, consider not only fostering your younger workers’ involvement in mission critical firm projects but, additionally, providing your young teams with opportunities outside the office to improve their community. This particular tactic has multiple benefits: your organizational Boomers will enjoy the status and reputation boost of being community leaders and, at the same time, the organization will benefit from providing its Gen Y professionals with something they instinctively crave: the ability to ‘make a difference.’ This management solution is a win-win for today’s contemporary real estate manager and should be taken advantage of as soon as possible.
5. Lead them. At the end of the day, your Gen Y tech savvy, confident, optimistic, collaborative professionals are still young and in need of leadership. Filling this need is critical, as is doing so with leaders who are honest and forthright (they have seen plenty of the other types). Although Gen Xers did not embrace role models, Gen Y’ers did - and continue to do so. To the extent your organization can lead and nurture these younger professionals with role models of high stature, you and your organization will see the returns as your Gen Y’ers grow and learn in an organization they respect and commit to.
The Wrap-up. As I mentioned in the first article of this series, each and every generation has unique assets to contribute to your workplace. Generation Y is no exception and, when properly managed, these younger members of your team can and should be amongst your strongest performers.
In some respects these generationally-based management techniques are not all too different than proper gardening. In the same ways that different plants require different amounts of sunlight, food and water, the key to getting the most out of your Generation Y professionals is using the Gen Y specific information we have to nurture and grow them into organizational contributors and performers. When you take the time to know these team members and to address their generationally driven preferences and values, you won’t be disappointed with the success and improved performance you and your organization will gain as a result.
