“Success in business is not about having the most brilliant answer. It is not even necessarily about being “right.” It’s about making things work — and that means developing a really good understanding of the organization you’re trying to affect and the people you’re trying to convince. You need to get away from thinking like a student (“I have the right answer”) to thinking like a businessperson (“I can help make this work”).”
—Plugged In by Tamara Erickson
I just finished this book, with subtitle “The Generation Y Guide To Thriving at Work,” and while much of the book was filled with broad generalizations that come off as trivial at times, its strengths are really in creating context. I knew coming in that different generations approach work differently, and had a sense of why, but the book was great in helping shed light on some of the specific situations you’d run into when interacting with people from different generations, what their approaches would be, why they would think you (the Gen Y-er) are incompetant, immature, or otherwise potentially offensive, and what you can do to assuage those thoughts and convince older generations of your capabilities. Perhaps the most salient points for me were, like the quote above, regarding advice that would be relevant to any 20-something new to the workforce, regardless of generation.
Even more than I would recommend this book to my peers, I would recommend it to my coworkers and other friends and family from older generations. If you ever wondered why I seem crazy, this coupled with the other book I finished this month (The Hypomanic Edge) will help illuminate my mindset. I’ve referenced it already this week: when my boss questioned how recent college grads could expect to live in Santa Monica on minimum wage, I reminded him that most Gen Y-ers rely on their parents for at least some financial support til at least their mid-20s, and don’t think anything of it. Thankfully I am financially independent already (oh crap, still have to do my taxes!), but many of the other characteristics of Gen Y-ers apply to me (confident, immediate, optimistic, concerned for greater purpose over monetary compensation, etc), and I think Plugged In would help anyone understand Gen Y far better than they already do.
