Despite the entrepreneurial heritage of the U.S., for the G.I. Generation, Traditionalists, and Boomers, your family name and legacy could still open or close doors, so building a reputation was a multigenerational endeavor. Today, however, Gen Xers and Millennials are measuring the value of membership in companies, associations, and non-profit organizations with a new yardstick.

Exclusive membership into private clubs, societies, and fraternities has long been a carrot to dangle in front of the ambitious and talented. The time, energy, and resources required to establish the network, value propositions, and elite status of membership were daunting. But today, the combo of technology and talent can give Xers and Millennials tools to level the playing field, to network socially, and to create their own groups.
As declining membership in professional associations, traditional service organizations, and fraternal clubs reaches crisis proportions, many Traditionalist and Boomer members are nervous, frustrated, and puzzled. The question that rolls around is, “How do we get more young members involved?” A valid question, but the answer requires a willingness to be open to change. Many times, clients in both the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds will complain to me that they just don’t understand what these young people want. I hear, “Why aren’t they volunteering for committees or participating at a higher level in the organization?” Then I ask those clients to look around the room at the people to their left and their right. How many of them are under the age of fifty-five or sixty? When was the last time any of them personally extended the invitation to someone under forty or thirty to serve at the higher levels? Usually, they reply that they are waiting for those younger people to get more seasoning. But when I ask them how old they were when they took on their first significant leadership role on a charity board or professional committee, they remember with astonishment that they were about thirty-two years old.
Baby Boomers often get into the rut of thinking of themselves as the young rising energy of the new generation. While it was extremely true in its time, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Baby Boomers, you are over forty now. It’s time to invite the new young voices to sit at the table with you and encourage them to express their views with the egalitarian weight that you fought so hard for in your thirties. When you invite in Gen Xers and Millennials, however, be ready for them to bring in fresh ideas, tools, solutions, and an ASAP timeline to the problems you have been anguishing over for years. They will be ready to jump in and collaborate with energy and can-do enthusiasm.
The quickest way to shut them down, turn them off, and ensure that they start looking for a new place to work, volunteer, or play is to respond with comfortable standby lines such as:
• We tried that before and it never worked.
• We’ve always done it this way.
• You haven’t been here long enough to know this, but….
• It it’s not broken, don’t try to fix it.
• You’re not old enough to remember this….
• Hey, kiddo, that’s a really nice thought; I remember when I
was your age…. (You start talking about yourself at length.)

The solution to this problem is to create a Mentor-Up Environment. It’s easy to think that people younger than you don’t have enough knowledge to understand the “complexities” the way you do, and that may be true to a point. However, leaders today are missing a key opportunity to capture both the creativity and loyalty of young people by not giving them an opportunity to “Mentor-Up.” The people side of the equation is where we need the Boomers and Traditionalists to mentor the Xers and Millennials. However, reverse mentorship comes into play when it comes to technology. We see a twenty-two-year old with tattoos and piercings mentoring a fiftyplus leader in a blue suit and starched color and tie. Mentor-Up creates an informal or formal relationship where the younger person is recognized for his or her expertise in a particular area and encouraged to train older team members on that skill.
An opportunity for cross-generational bonding and understanding is to have Millennials design Mentor-Up workshops on a basic technology skill-set the team needs, and then hold a weekly mentoring session. Other formats for training can include short YouTube or internally hosted video trainings on high need skills like shortcuts or how to use a piece of software more effectively.