Managing Generation X: How to Bring Out the Best in Young Talent [Paperback]

Bruce Tulgan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2000

The book that exploded the slacker myth and introduced the world to the real GenX: flexible, technoliterate, information-savvy, entrepreneurial, and perfectly adaptable to the new just-in-time workplace.

Managing Generation X explains Generation X to its employers. It tunes in to the free-agent mindset that has swept across the entire workforce and serves as the best source of information on a generation that is leaving an indelible mark on the culture of American business. GenXers' willingness to walk away from any unsatisfactory employment relationship launched the staffing crisis that plagues employers today--and has allowed them to become the most entrepreneurial generation in history. Managing Generation X shows employers how to tap this valuable, quirky labor pool. GenXers speak in verbatim interview narratives on almost every page, offering their firsthand experiences as well as concrete advice on how to manage them (and how not to). Through the clear lens of Managing Generation X, we can see the future of work and the workforce of the future.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This is an update of Tulgan's 1995 guide to the new workforce, which he compiled when he left a Wall Street law firm to start his own consulting firm. Relying on interviews with 100 Gen X workers, he attempted to debunk stereotypes about these latest entrants into the job market. Tulgan, himself a member of Generation X, found that these employees are not "slackers" but, rather, are flexible, technologically savvy, and self-confident. He disputes misconceptions that they have short attention spans, are disloyal, and are unwilling to defer gratification. He then recommends management strategies that will optimize their skills and traits. Over the last five years, Tulgan has interviewed thousands more Xers, and he has fine-tuned his original observations. In 1995, he had Xers growing up watching images of themselves on The Brady Bunch and Mork and Mindy. Now he identifies Ally McBeal as their cultural influence. But the biggest change, as Tulgan notes, is that many in this age group are now in positions of management themselves or that they may even run companies of their own. David Rouse
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Author

A guide to managing rising young stars. Managing Generation X, my first book, is a guide to managing rising young stars in the workplace. In candid interviews, Generation Xers discuss their work experiences and identify effective and ineffective management styles. One of my goals in writing the book was to move beyond the pop-psychology surrounding Generation X and examine the deeper issues unique to Xers in the workplace. Thank you for your interest.--Bruce Tulgan , October 21, 1999.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 287 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Revised Edition edition (January 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393320758
• ISBN-13: 978-0393320756
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,379,760 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bruce Tulgan (New Haven, CT) is the author or coauthor of numerous books including, NOT EVERYONE GETS A TROPHY (2009), the best-seller IT'S OKAY TO BE THE BOSS (2007), and the classic MANAGING GENERATION X (1995). Since founding the management training firm RainmakerThinking, Inc. in 1993, he has been a sought-after keynote speaker and seminar leader. Tulgan's weekly video newsletter is available for free at www.rainmakerthinking.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More relevant than it was two years ago!, July 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Managing Generation X: How to Bring Out the Best in Young Talent First Edition (Paperback)

It takes a recruiting and retention crisis to make businesses really wake up and take notice of Tulgan's commentary on the needs and expectations of Generation X. Of course every generation wants what they want--training in marketable skills, creative challenges, growing responsibility, performance-based compensation, timely rewards, etc.--but the difference is Xers negotiate for these things at the beginning of their careers-- not waiting around to climb some corporate ladder for five years before they get them.

Xers are challenging organizations to make the radical changes they've been dragging their feet on for the past 20 years.

Tulgan makes the case that the new fast-paced, global, techno-centered economy demands workers who are flexible, techno-savy, adaptable, entrepreneurial; people who are willing to reinvent themselves daily, jump from project to project, team to team. His star Xers are just those people.

As a management trainer, I'm meeting them and their bewildered managers every day. And it's clear that the dialogue between and among the generations is one of the healthiest--and hotest--topics around. Tulgan's book provides a springboard for a coversation that can only result in positive changes for everyone. Xers are "the workforce of the future," helping to define "the workplace of the future" for all of us.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Building Block for Future Management Relationships, August 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Managing Generation X: How to Bring Out the Best in Young Talent First Edition (Paperback)

Tulgan's book is important because of what it stands for. It's not a call to arms, but a call for workers and managers to get together to consider what has changed about today's world of work and, in particular, the motivations and behaviors of younger workers.

Most, if not all, young readers in the workforce will relate to Tulgan's message and hope that more managers take the time to listen to Tulgan's argument. Older readers will either take note and better manage their younger troops, or they will defensively reject Tulgan's work because of its implication that they are doing something wrong.

It's fun to read about individual workers' real life experiences being "managed." As one who has been on both ends of the management relationship, the book reminds me that there is not one right way; rather, I must be flexible and think of different ways to motivate and retain employees. I don't have to decrease my demands of workers. If I get it right (with Tulgan's help), I can be a more demanding manager and get more out of workers in a mutually beneficial relationship. Check out Tulgan's concept of "fast feedback" and other motivational ideas. This stuff works!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dangerously Accurate, November 3, 2000

By 

Mark DiNino (Rockland, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Managing Generation X: How to Bring Out the Best in Young Talent (Paperback)

I am about as much of a GenXer as can possibly be being born in 1970. For my entire life I saw a great deal of things as "off key", such as the broken homes, the druggies, and being mistreated by many of the Boomers in the workplace. This book proved to me that it was not just my little world, but an actual issue. Bruce disarms the sterotypes of GenXers extremely well. This is a must read for anyone, Xer or Boomer, to successfully manage the most driven and innovative generation in American history.