Communicating across 5 generations
Posted on April 20, 2020 by Cicilia Visser, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Each generations' core character traits provide insightful clues to their communicative preferences.
Maya Angelo famously said people will forget what you have said, or what you have done, but they will never forget how you made them feel.
This speaks true for creating synergy and mutual respect across vastly different generations. Engage with people in a way that makes them feel validated and you win their hearts and minds.
Communication across the 5 generations:
Traditionalists, born 1927 -1945
Traditionalists (Matures) grew up in the era of World War II. The military played a formidable role in their upbringing, which makes hierarchy, respect, structure, and routine important values for them. Ensure you go through the right channels when scheduling an appointment, be punctual, clear and concise, and have a hard copy of the document or points of discussion.
Baby Boomers, born 1946 – 1964
Baby Boomers grew up in the Apartheid era, many served in the South African Border Wars, and were predominantly state-dependent for study bursaries, work opportunities, and pension funds. Baby Boomers are known to be ambitious, loyal and competitive. As with Traditionalists, they prefer scheduled appointments with personalised face-to-face communication or a phone call followed by email correspondence.
Generation X, born 1965 – 1981
Often called the forgotten generation, Generation X, have less distinguishing attributes than the two large generational cohorts it is sandwiched between. Generation X-ers grew up in an era of AIDS education, divorced parents, commercial computers, DSTV, and the dawn of the internet and mobile technology. They are adaptive, skeptical, self-reliant and don’t assimilate to corporate identity. They value work-life balance and prefer to work individually, at their own pace, with face-to-face meetings scheduled weekly or bi-weekly. Feedback and instructions should be brief and in person, and important notices and information should be communicated via email.
Generation Y, born 1982-1994
Generation Y or Millennials grew up during South Africa’s first democracy, reality TV, social media and global warming. Generation Y is a big cohort and the older segment, Y1, relates more to the defining attributes of Generation X. Millennials mostly prefer team collaborations, collective workspaces, continuous feedback, and frequent meetings. They prefer a flat hierarchy where leaders are approachable and open to their input. Communication platforms include the broad spectrum mentioned above with the addition of short text messages on group chat forums.
Generation Z, born 1995 – 2010
Generation Z is the true digital natives and grew up in an era of smartphones, the internet of things, artificial intelligence and the economic downturn. They are known to multi-task on 5 devices simultaneously, have poor literacy skills, and research has suggested they have a shocking 8-second attention span. Generation Z prefers to communicate visually (emoticons, symbols, memes, GIFS), using voice-notes (not voicemail), face-to-face video calls, and short text messages with abbreviations. The golden rule when communicating with a Gen Z-er is to keep it short and concise, 5 words and a picture, and involve the senses with podcasts or video tutorials.
