457: Cracking the Millennial Code - Ryan Vet - a podcast by ACT Dental

Cracking the Millennial Code

Episode #457 with Ryan Vet

Now, more than ever, we coexist with multiple generations in the workplace. And to help you navigate the challenges that can bring, Kirk Behrendt brings in Ryan Vet, owner of Speaking Consulting Network and author of Cracking the Millennial Code, to share advice that will help you better understand the people you work with. Cancel generational stereotypes, not one another! To create a balanced, collaborative environment, listen to Episode 457 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Understand what shapes someone’s identity and personality.

Learn how to listen to people different from yourself.

Don't make generalizations about others.

We are more similar than we think.

Give people grace.

Quotes:

“The first thing that is most important, and people don't often start here, is what are your priorities? Priorities are different than your goals. Your goals are, ‘I want to have this much in the bank account,’ or, ‘I want to be on the cover of this magazine or be interviewed on this news station.’ And all those goals are great. But priorities are really, what are those things that no matter what you're doing in life, whether you're being the best toilet scrubber you can be — which, I have owned cleaning companies and I have scrubbed plenty of toilets in my day — or you're running a multinational company, what are those things that never change?” (4:30—4:57)

“If you get your priorities straight, you can do just about anything you want.” (5:07—5:10)

“Even in my own career when I've seen things not go the way I had hoped, or encountered failures, often, it’s because those priorities are not in the right order, and you start to get off-kilter.” (5:10—5:20)

“[The second piece of advice] would be, surround yourself with people. I always have three people in my life. The first is my co-runner, someone I'm running alongside of, someone that's in the same stage of life, going through the same things. The second person I always have is the forerunner, the person who’s run ahead of me, who has been there, to mentor. And then, the third person I have is someone that's a couple steps behind me, because I often find that as I'm trying to coach or mentor someone else that's coming up and is a little bit younger or trying to get into a new career path, I learn more from trying to coach them than anything else that I do.” (5:23—5:58)

“The title [of my book] has “millennial” in it. It’s really not about millennials that much at all. In fact, if you look at page count, maybe only 20% to 30% of it is about millennials. The rest of it is this intergenerational connection, how they interact, and how one generation influences the next generation. And the reality is, whether you're in a corporate office, a dental office, at home, or your neighborhood, you're having some of these interactions with people from different generations, or that were raised by parents of a different generation, which is something I talk a little bit about in the book as well. You could be a millennial born to boomer parents or Gen Xer parents, and you're going to be a different millennial than your fellow coworker or classmate.” (8:57—9:40)

“We all have blind spots. And so, as I was doing research, of course, I knew all the stigmas that millennials are known for. In fact, the back cover basically has a list of the things that millennials often get dinged on as far as their flaws. But what I quickly found was, we are the way we are because of our parents. And our parents are the way they are because of their parents and the way they were raised.” (10:18—10:42)

“When it comes to hiring, understanding some of [the generational differences] and how they're looking at it is important.” (11:38—11:43)

“Millennials actually want to be...

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