Leadership, Gen Y and The Power of Hands

This morning I spoke to a joint group from the current class of Leadership Tallahassee and Youth Leadership Tallahassee. The topic was Gen Y's at Work and I covered how to make the most of the generational differences that exist today. It was the first time LT and YTL were combined in any joint sessions so it was thoughtful that the program director, Julie Lovelace started the session off with my topic. For me, it was the first time I had the opportunity to speak to group that was 50% gen y.

It was a great experience since it was all about Gen Y, me and all the Gen Y's in the audience were plenty happy to hear and talk about ourselves. The other nice component was having such a large number of Gen Y's that I could ask "How many of you had input on your parents vacations or car and/or house purchase?" Seeing all the hands go up really helped reinforce the point I was trying to make, "this generation is different."

It is amazing how simply being able to have a large number of Gen Y's in the audience changed the dynamics. It was like having living breathing research right there with me. Now that's an idea, maybe I'll take them everywhere I speak.

Anyhow I think it's a great idea to combine these types of leadership programs and work together. And if you're a gen y that is what you sort of expect anyways, to be working with REAL leaders.