Your Motivational Gen Z and Millennial Expert-Your host: Dr. Jason Wiggins
I focus on the motivational aspects with a high emphasize on motivating Gen Z and Millennials (GEN X will also find great value) and the employers who employ them for continuous improvement. This podcast focuses on motivating Gen Z and Millennials to empower to overcome obstacles within our everyday lived experiences. I have a passion for educating, speaking and guiding Gen Z and Millennials to achieve great things. Gen Z and Millennials have experienced so much in a short amount of time as the world continue to move faster. Self-Awareness and belief in our abilities provide a strong foundation for health, happiness and prosperity in a world that offers continuous challenges.
This is a motivational series for Gen Z and Millennials and those who aspire to do great things, while interested in understanding these two great generations and how we can aspire to be better because of the value of motivating through life experiences.
Life is hard, but when we challenge others or ourselves to be successful, then the world demonstrates the value of those who put in the effort. My hope is that each listener will find value and then share that value with others. I am a change leader that is passionate about life transformations and taking our passion and motivation to the next level. YOU CAN DO IT! Remembers Dreams without Goals are just Dreams.
Your Motivational Gen Z and Millennial Expert-Your host: Dr. Jason Wiggins
The Secret for Gen Z and Millennials to work with Older Generations (Episode 175)
Feeling the tension between generations in your workplace? You're not alone. The workforce currently spans Baby Boomers to Gen Z, each shaped by vastly different experiences—from Woodstock to COVID-19. These differences often create misunderstandings that can fracture teams and derail productivity.
What's driving the alarming rate at which younger workers leave organizations? Contrary to popular belief, it's not entitlement or fickleness. When Gen Z and Millennials exit companies after short tenures, they're responding to environments lacking three critical elements: purpose, belonging, and growth opportunities. They're not just looking for quick promotions or fancy perks—they're seeking authentic connection.
Human connection emerges as the universal bridge across generational divides. This means leadership that genuinely cares, transparent communication that explains the "why" behind decisions, and creating spaces where continuous learning thrives. Surprisingly, 65% of younger workers crave face-to-face interaction (though not necessarily in-person), debunking the myth that digital natives prefer isolation behind screens.
The future belongs to organizations that view generational differences as opportunities rather than obstacles. By implementing both traditional and reverse mentoring, companies create powerful knowledge exchanges where wisdom and technological savvy flow freely between age groups. With Gen Z and Millennials projected to comprise 75% of the workforce by 2030, the businesses that thrive will be those fostering authentic leadership and meaningful growth today.
Ready to transform generational challenges into your organization's greatest strength? Start by knocking down walls and building bridges of understanding. When you truly invest in people across all generations, both human connections and bottom-line results naturally follow.
Hello friends, welcome to your Motivational Gen Z and Millennial Expert podcast. I am your host, my name is Dr Jason Wiggins and it is an absolute pleasure to be here today. Today, we're going to explore a little bit about generation, bridging the gaps and also being able to understand how we can navigate all the different generations. Now, this is a loaded question and this could be a much larger topic. So today we're going to talk about the current generations in the workforce. We're going to talk about the key point of how we can magically get all of the groups together in the workplace, and then we'll be able to recreate success within an organization by utilizing one simple method. So let's get started and unpack bridging the generation gap. Currently, we have roughly four generations in the workplace. We have the baby boomers, those born between 1945 and 1996, and the Generation Z born between the years of 1997 and 2012. Now, when you look at these generations, you think about Millennials. The entitled generation. Gen Z they're glued to their phones, they can't stop looking. Generation X, the slacker generation. Gen Z they're glued to their phones, they can't stop looking. Generation X the slacker generation. And then the baby boomers they are resistant to change. These are all the symbols of the youth. They all had different highensity, problematic or opportunities within their areas. For example, baby boomers. Baby boomers were born during the rock and roll era Woodstock, you know, talk about some political turmoil there and so they were really basically a generation of baby boomers. And what was baby boomers? People were having babies at a crazy rate because at that point there was no birth control and we had about 80 million babies born during that era. Then the next era, as I mentioned, the Generation X, the Slacker Generation era.
Speaker 1:As I mentioned, the Generation X, the slacker generation, the latchkey kids, the forgotten generation. Basically, this generation was left at home to take care of themselves. They rode their bicycles all day, climbed trees in the morning afternoon, and then they made sure they came home before dinnertime at night, before the sun set. This generation had a lot of taking care of themselves, why? Because, being known as the last key generation, they were the first generation that really experienced divorce rates, single parent homes, and the parents would be out there working while the other parent would be at a different home. So therefore, generation X had to learn how to survive on their own.
Speaker 1:Then you had the millennials. Millennials were a generation of. They experienced technology at a crazy rate. They were basically the digital pioneers. Why? Because they were pretty much born seeing what electronics could do. So, you know, at the age of three you had the Apple computer and by the time they were young adults they had phones, apple, everything at the hand tips. So they knew that anything they wanted they could get information overload.
Speaker 1:And then you have Generation Z. Generation Z born between 1997 and 2012. They experienced COVID. They experienced they were probably too young at the time, but they experienced 9-11. Well, that was in the heart of what millennials experienced.
Speaker 1:And they are a generation that has experienced the worst pandemic in history. Well, not in history, but at least in the last 100 plus years. Covid really made things very uncomfortable. It made them rethink how they did things, and now they are the most mentally health concerned generation of all time. Why? Because anxiety is like an overflow. So now you look at all of these different generations and now they're in the workforce, and that's not even including the generation that was born between 1926 and 1944. This generation was known as the silent generation. Basically, you are seen but not heard. They also go by the name the builder generation as well. So this generation is still in the workforce, but there's only about 3 million that are currently still in the workforce. I mean, the youngest one is basically close to 80 years old, so it's not real common to have them in the workforce.
Speaker 1:But right now you have at least five generations, and now we got to look at these generations and go what are we? Do we feel uncomfortable with these generations? How do we got to look at these generations and go? What are we? Do we feel uncomfortable with these generations? How do we lead these generations? How do we motivate, how do we inspire, how do we attract and how do we ultimately retain these generations? As I talked about on early on, I was going to talk about bridging the gap and then I was going to talk about one key component that will basically make or break your organization your leadership and the ability to covet a culture that embraces these opportunities, that looks to hire, but not just hire inspire.
Speaker 1:If you have great leaders, you attract, you onboard, you train these great employees. There has to be a common denominator to continue to keep them at your company. Why? Because generations, specifically millennials and Gen Z, are quitting at an alarming rate. I don't know when the last time you looked at a resume for the last five years, it's not uncommon to see five or six jobs or more, within that five years. And it's not because they don't like the company years. And it's not because they don't like the company.
Speaker 1:If you're a Gen Z or a millennial, it's not because maybe their leadership wasn't great. There's a lot of different reasons, but the main reason was there was no purpose, there was no sense of belonging and there was no opportunity for growth. And now, if you look at all of that and then you kind of say what is the common denominator of all this? It is growth. Two words human connection. Human connection is the ability to be able to rally, be able to accommodate, be able to be authentic, transparent and demonstrate to Gen Z and millennials that you are real. This is not a society that embraces dictatorship. That embraces you. Do things my way. It is not about this is hard knocks. This is let's grow with pain. This is about opportunity. This is about being able to learn, grow with purpose, have authentic leadership, have leadership that genuinely cares about you.
Speaker 1:And what does human connection all surround as well? Communication. When was the last time you had a leader in your organization that was not affluent with communication and if you did, how successful were they about talking about the why, the why. What is that? It's a Simon Sinek major approach that demonstrates why do you do something, why is it important? How does it affect me? Why do I need to do it this way? It's not about how we question authority. It's about how we identify opportunities. We knock down the wall, we make a bridge towards understanding each other, and understanding each other is all part of human connection. When you are aware of who you are, where you are and who is leading you, you have a better chance of growing.
Speaker 1:The experts say why are Gen Z and millennials leaving at a huge eclipse? Why are they leaving at such a fast pace? It's really simple. It's really simple. It's lacking human connection. It's lacking the authenticity of the leader, the leader really being concerned about who you are, what you can learn.
Speaker 1:Because when Gen Z and millennials leave the workforce, they are leaving because they are no longer learning, they are no longer growing, they don't see any opportunities. And when you don't see opportunities especially if you're Gen Z and millennials, with all the technology and the AI and everything that's rapidly, rapidly increasing at a pace where your talents yesterday may not be talents tomorrow. Why? Because you sat there, you didn't continue to grow, you didn't learn, you didn't continue to make an impact, and if you stop learning into today's society, you stop growing. If you stop growing, you will ultimately be replaced with somebody that is more business savvy, technologically savvy, the ability to understand new processes and the ability to grow. So if you are a Gen Z and millennial, the main key factor is you're always learning. So when you see a Gen Z and millennial, the main key factor is you're always learning. So when you see a Gen Z glued to their phone and it seems like they only care about what's on their phone, don't look at that as an obstacle or challenge. If you are a baby boomer or a Generation X, look at that as an opportunity. What they are doing right there is learning about how to improve their skills, how to be a better employee, how to bring up you know the opportunity to improve to their bosses to find projects that they want to lead.
Speaker 1:It was interesting the other day I was talking to a software engineer. He'd been with the company for 25 years and what he shared with me is he had an employee we'll call her, jennifer, and after working with the organization for one week, she came up to him and she said I would like to lead your onboarding project and we'll call him Michael. Michael was floored. He worked for the company for 25 years and he can remember his first one or two years. He could even barely open his mouth because why he was afraid of getting fired. And now Jennifer has been working there for a week and wants to lead an onboarding project. Now is this a negative? No, it is absolutely not a negative. It is a positive because really we need more Jennifers in the world and we need to empower those Michaels of the world to let the Jennifers succeed and be engaged and move forward with the project.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe they don't have all the answers, but maybe they will do their research via all the online tools that they have to improve, to cultivate their experience and ultimately build on what they can do with your organization. So they're not worried about when I say Gen Z and millennials. They're not looking to get promoted tomorrow. What they are looking for is feedback, that instant gratification to be able to see that, okay, I'm growing with the company, they value me, I belong. It's not all about perks and benefits. You know some of it is, but flexibility in the workplace, remote.
Speaker 1:It's interesting because I found out that 65% of Gen Zs and millennials want face-to-face interaction. This is part of that human connection. However, I didn't say that 65% needed to be in person. It can be via Microsoft Teams, call, zoom, call. I mean, look at what the pandemic COVID 2020, when everybody left the offices at a record pace and they all huddled into their own houses, opened up their personal computers and, voila, they have a working office. So that, right, there was how everything changed.
Speaker 1:But people still want that human connection. They want that ability to be mentored, to be cultivated, to grow, to learn new things and to be inspired, to be motivated to continue to progress in the workforce. To be motivated to continue to progress in the workforce. They are not looking just to leave. If they gain the tools and they continue to learn and they like that the organization has purpose, that it has the opportunity for growth and that, ultimately, they have their best interest in mind, then, yes, you will continue to grow, because by 2030, 75% of the workforce will be Gen Z and millennials. Baby boomers will be almost phased out, the silent generation will be completely out and Generation X will be at the twilight of their careers, meaning that's where maybe some of the CEOs, vps, coos are going to be residing. But guess what? Millennials are right there taking those top spots within the organization, and Generation X will be pushing them. Each generation is going to be brighter and more intelligent than the previous generation, which is why, if you stop growing AI, all the technology available will continue to replace entry-level jobs. But if you continue to learn and grow, then you will also continue to succeed.
Speaker 1:So what we talked about today was the big problem about generation gaps. But let's not look at it as a problem, not a challenge. Look at it as an opportunity. Knock down the wall, make the bridge, cultivate each generation where you're working together with mentoring. You know it could be an older workforce, you know cultivating a younger workforce, or you have reverse mentoring. It could be an older workforce cultivating a younger workforce, or you have reverse mentoring. Reverse mentoring is where you have the younger workforce helping bridge the gap with an older workforce, like the baby techs. Why do we call it baby techs? Because they are learning how to utilize technology with the help of millennials. So there is not a place where you're too old, but there is a place where you let that stubbornness stop you from learning.
Speaker 1:So let's embrace the youth, embrace Gen Z, embrace millennials. Let them be a big part of your organization. Provide them with tools, provide them with the ability to get things done, empower them and you will see your opportunities within your organization grow. Your organization's bottom line will grow because, remember, gen Z and millennials don't want an organization that only cares about the bottom line. They want an organization that cares about them, that cares about what they can contribute and help them grow. But if you do that, you can also grow your revenue, your bottom line, top sale growth because of the workforce that you have. Top sale growth because of the workforce that you have.
Speaker 1:So again, opportunity, opportunity knocks. Hire, inspire those Gen Z and millennials and you will be thankful. So I want to thank everybody today. I appreciate the listenership, I appreciate the emails and the feedback I get, and the dopamine that I get from all the views is amazing. We didn't even talk about dopamine why? Because that's what drives the fuel of instant gratification today in Gen Z and millennials. But we'll leave that for another day. So again, I want to thank everybody. I appreciate you. I look forward to seeing you next time. So take care, this is Dr Jason Wiggins, your Genesee and Millennial Motivational, and we will talk to you on the flip side. Take care, bye-bye.
