COACHING BIASES

I’m a big fan of research as I believe that staying up-to-date and understanding where the world is going and what drives people is a must in my line of work. Research, articles, blogs, video’s, webinars, you name it.

But,

Although research is a wonderful tool to dig deep and support notions with data, it also suggests new realities that quickly enough become new fixated truths that drive bias.

By date of birth I belong to generation X. Born in 1974 I’m characterized as self-reliant and pragmatic. My generation is apparently responsible for the work-life balance concept. I’m also “willing to develop my skill set and take on new challenges, generally more independent than previous generations, and adaptive to job instability in a post-downsizing environment”. I may also come across as “cynic, individualistic, impatience and selfish”.

Millennials are considered to be among the most resilient in navigating change, with appreciation for diversity and inclusion, teamwork and collaboration, but may get a bad rap for being spoiled and disrespectful as well as more demanding than previous generations.

Generation Z are entrepreneurial and tech savvy, tend to want independence and may be motivated by security, may expect the workplace to conform to their needs, and while willing to work hard, they expect to be rewarded.

I can relate to some of the above, but that’s not my point. As I work with different people, of all ages, across different nations and roles, it seems to me that once again over generalization is simply an easy route to take, even if it’s not accurate or beneficial.

As I look at my own life and personal development, I see how character, age, career stage, familial status and culture had influenced the manifestation of the above characteristics. I can serve as a good example of a mix of Gen X, millennial, and Gen Z. And I am not the only one. Within each group you will find a variety of the above characteristics with no relation to age.

I claim that people are unique by nature and as we are striving to stay away from race, gender, origin, or any other classification that may discriminate or carry predisposition, we tend to allow generational perspective to be prevalent. Those categorizations have the tendency to make us overlook talent, to ‘block’ positions due to age or limit our ability to diversify the workforce.

Who said that a start-up environment belongs to people who are at their 20’s? Who decided that millennials are a bad choice for positions that require more tenure due to a longer learning curve because they switch jobs every 2 years? Are Gen x’s more individualistic than Gen Z?

It’s easy to make decisions based on labels but it is something we should all stay away from especially, but not limited to, People Development professionals.