Nothing warms the heart of a Gen Xer like The Muppets

They can dish it out, but can they take it?

Last week I was teaching a seminar to a group of mostly Babyboomers sprinkled with a couple Xers and Millennials. It's been a while since I taught a group of "grown ups" and it got me thinking about the differences between teaching Boomers and Millennials.



I'm a Gen Xer, so working with the generations that came before and after me can be a challenge. But I'm starting to think the Millennials can be the tougher students to deal with. Here's why: It often feels like the Millennials can dish it out the criticism, but they can't always take it.



"Teaching can be a humbling experience," a friend of mine emailed me recently. Boomers have high expectations of the instructor, but they are also sympathetic to how hard it is to teach. They want to "get it right" - and they will question you until you explain your points in a manner that they understand.



Millennials also have high expectations. But to them, the responsibility for their learning often is on the instructor. They don't do the "Let me make sure I understand this..." challenging like the Boomers. But in the end, if they don't have fun - or they don't get the grade they want - they get mad at the instructor. The Boomers get mad at themselves when they don't the grade they want.

GenerationXpert in Wisconsin

GenerationXpert Suzanne Kart will facilitate a 1-day seminar Thursday in Neenah, Wisconsin on the topic of lifelong learning.

Ten Valedictorians and trophies for everyone: Why Millenials have a hard time sucking it up and moving on

When I was a kid I saw the movie Top Gun. There is a line in the film that has always stuck with me: There are no points for second place.

I think this is something that Boomers and Xers understand pretty well. That’s what we grew up with. Competition. There is only one winner.

In the workforce, that’s something you need to understand if you want to succeed. Otherwise, each time you aren’t the “winner” (the award winner, the one who is promoted, the one recognized at the meeting), it will eat at you. This is something Millenials struggle with.

A lot of writers misinterpret this fact. In fact, Millenials are often called narcissistic. I don’t think they’re narcissistic. I just think that they don’t always "get" that there is just one winner. They grew up their whole life all being “winners.” Everyone gets a trophy at the end of the season. And 10 people get to call themselves valedictorian.

I think the parents of Millenials did a good job of instilling self-esteem. However, they now need to learn that all results are not equal. And there are people who are better than you are. If you want to be the best, you need to be BETTER than everyone else – not just as good.

GenerationXpert on Public Television

I was on air Wednesday night on Delta College Quality Public Television co-hosting the Winter Pledge Drive with Q-90.1 Programming Manager Howard Shaper. That's me in the center and Howard above me.

Why I need to retire early

I have been thinking about my preschool child recently and her ability to use the computer. My first grader also liked the computer from a time that she could barely talk - and couldn't use the potty at all. For both of them, once they learned to use the mouse, they were good-to-go and could learn just about any game on NickJr.com.

I, however, did not grow up with computer games, really. We had Atari, but only about 3 games (my Babyboomer parents really couldn't see the point in paying $20 for new games, but that's a whole other story). Our games, however, were not educational. Or if they were, they were not fun.

Fast forward 30 years and I am trying to learn database software. It's really not sinking in and I have to write all the directions down for any little thing I need to do. It's frustrating, because I'm used to things coming relatively easy for me.

I imagine that 20 years from now, when my kids enter the workforce, I will be a dinosaur. Because they can learn so much now from their computer games, there brains will just be hard-wired differently and they will be able to "get it" easier and quicker. Instead of facilitating seminars on what the future looks like for marketing - I will be conducting lectures for history buffs who are fascinating that there were people born before cable television existed.

I imagine that I will be the equivalent to today's grandma who keeps breaking the remote control and refuses to give up her rotary phone.

"Back in my day, we didn't have those fancy-shmancy video games. All we had were Barbies and Stars Wars figurines."

Gen Xers - it pays to be the small generation

A recent study from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College argues that the size of "one’s birth cohort affects wages throughout one’s working life, with members of relatively large cohorts (at all stages of their careers) earning a significantly lower wage than members of smaller cohorts."

A lot of Gen Xers worry that we'll get passed over in the work world either by Boomers who stay in the workforce longer than previous generations or by Millenials who are nipping at our ankles as we climb the corporate ladder. However, this study says that the smaller the generation, the larger the wage. And Generation X is the smallest. Rock on Gen Xers!