Dear Boss, Its All About Me

A couple of days late, but I finally got around to reading this past Sunday's issue of the Boston Globe Magazine. If you haven't read it yet, the cover story - "In Praise of Arrogance" should serve as an eye opener for any business owner who is having challenges hiring employees and will likely need to hire the crop of twenty-somethings entering the workforce.

The article covers the realities of "the entitlement generation' - those born after 1970 (although I would prefer they move that to at least 1974) and their impact on the country/workforce. This is the generation of "upstarts at the office who put their feet on their desks, voice their opinions frequently and loudly at meetings, and always volunteer – nay, expect – to take charge of the most interesting projects. They are smart, brash, even arrogant, and endowed with a commanding sense of entitlement. These young people were raised on a daily regimen of praise and flattery from their baby boomer parents and from teachers who embraced a self-esteem-boosting curriculum."

What makes this article interesting is that it expresses the opinon that this type of behavior will breed a new generation of entrepeneurs and that narcissistic behavior is exactly what America needs to stay competitive. To a certain degree I can concur with that - some of the most successful entrepreneurs that i know have a pretty strong narcissistic streak to them. After all, you have to have a high degree of confidence in yourself to take these types of risks. Fortunately, America always seems to breed a the right number of entrepreneurs who can create game breaking innovations that lead to companies that employ the rest.

And theres the rub that the authors fail to address. As Judge Smails aptly put it in Caddyshack "the world needs ditch diggers to". What happens when there is an entire generation that has no interest in digging ditches as a starting point but instead believes that they are entitled to the corner office and the big paycheck? If the whole is greater than the sum of the parts and the parts have the mentality that "it would be hard compromising with a lot of different people whom I might clash with," how exactly are we as a nation going to build companies that have the size, scope and talent to compete globally?

America has always celebrated the power and uniqueness of the individual as that is one of the defining characteristics that make us a successful country. But I can't help but wonder if this generations inability to overcome its sense of entitlement will tip the balance of the golden mean and set us back at the very time we need to leap ahead.

Philosophical ponderings aside, the concern for all of us today is how do we deal with this generation and integrate them into our current businesses. I don't know the exact answers but I do know that if any company is going to thrive in the near future its going to have to change its approach to work and management of its employees. At the very least its going to require a strong set of managers who have the skills to lead. Fortunately, we do know how to build leaders!