Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

I have a habit of highlighting as I read, and this book has more yellow in it than any of my others! As an Xer (former military officer and now clergy), I saw myself on just about every page. Tulgan offers many excellent insights into the formation of our generation and how we are best approached. He also offers some truths that are true for GenX, but not necessarily unique to GenX. The first half of my book has more yellow in it than the last half, in which Tulgan begins to restate himself. Nevertheless, this book is worth the price of admission and is a must read for all managers.

It's fantastic. The book captures the generation gap in the workplace in the nineties and captures the mindset of my generation better than any book or article I've ever read. Read it.

Excellent way of really getting to understand how Xers work and think. Reading Tulgan's book has inspired me to make changes in the work place and has changed my relationship with Xers in a very positive way. Thanks Tulgan!

I am a "member" of Generation X. I was very optimistic about reading this book, but after reading the first half I am now extremely embarrassed to make that statement. What a frustrating book! I found myself rolling my eyes and groaning in disgust as I read how Generation X is picked on by the evil (and obviously clueless) Baby Boomers. A consistent underlying message in this book was "Xers will do a good job as long as we get what we want, when we want it, and how we want it, otherwise we just won't bother to make the effort because obviously we aren't appreciated. I'm sorry, Bruce, but the Xers needs for autonomy, credit for the results they produce, opportunities for creative expression, and the ability to learn and grow (to list only a few examples) is something all professionals need to flourish. I don't think it really matters what year we are born. Your constant whining that "Nobody understands us!" is insulting to Xers that are able to work and adapt within an environment that encompasses three almost four generations. If Xers are so adaptable and we are so great at solving problems on our own why the need for this book? If Xers are so creative and innovative won't we figure out a way to work within the current market and still be able to "think outside the box?" Bruce, this book is over 200 pages of you tooting your own horn and trying to convince us that you have stumbled upon a revolutionary method of management. I laughed out loud when I read your statement that "you were struck by the fact that more senior lawyers in your firm (your first job after law school and the bar exam) didn't have a clue about how to manage people your age." And you wonder where people get the idea that Generation X is arrogant. Maybe that's just what they told you.

Hogwash! The author is a prime example of the sense of the 90s, as were TQM, MBO, and other dead management fads. State the obvious, print it, and sell it to the masses. His contextualization is as meaningful as any other qualitative or quantitative measurement. These measurements, when taken out of their place in the general order of things, reveal a self-fulfilling prophecy, often of little value, that has no relevancy in the complex and holistic dynamics of contemporary organizations. What worker doesn't want to be empowered, enabled to organize around a common vision, think out of the box, and get positive feedback and recognition for his or her accomplishments? What enlightened manager hasn't realized that the workforce is changing, that future problems will need fresh new solutions, that the management methodologies of the past will require a discontinuous intervention? These requirements are not unique to Xers or to any other segment of the workforce. Organizational relativism has evolved, not because of the input of a few "25-35" year olds, but because of hundreds of external forces, because of change itself. As such, it has created and continues to create a new cultural relevancy, and in turn, dynamic organizational relativism, one that has different scarcities and commodities. Managers should not waste their time trying to bring a special management technique to a segmented part of the workforce, but work toward change interventions that are in balance with a holistic view of the organization and its needs. The Xers did not create this new relevancy, it created them! The author should try a different whine, I suggest a 1992 Merlot.

As a baby boomer, I found this book exceptionally insightful and grounded in real world research. Since I manage many GenXers, every page turning example jolted my thinking. I now have a better understanding of how to attract and retain the GenX employee. Thanks, Bruce Tulgan for the wake-up call!

This book was on our corporate reading list for mangers, otherwise I would not have picked it up. After picking it up, the only reason to continue reading was to write this review.

The author does spend a fair amount of time whining about the raw deal Gen X has been dealt by Baby Boomers. For some reason, he believes his whining to be unique to Gen X. However, I recall reading the same whines from classmates as an undegraduate 20 years ago. The expectation that life should be handed out to young people on a silver platter is not unique to Gen X or to this author.

The author tries, in a lawyerly fashion, to recast the rap that Gen X'er have "short attention spans" as actually being a "unique relationship with information". Please. This is an insult to all generations. Either a person can concentrate or they can't.

Once you get past the whining and the lawyerly rebuttals of his perception of popular opinion of Gen Xer's, you get some anecdotes and quotes from some of his "Star Xers" on what makes for good and bad (Baby Boomer) managers. And for the most part this input is accurate regarding good management practices. It is also information that has been published by numerous authors who have not cast it as a Gen X vs. Boomer battle.

Outside of the anecdotes, I see only one other use for this book. If you could get a list of the author's clients and short their stock, you may do well over the near term in your investments.