Twice your age

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I’m smarter than I look. No, seriously.

Or at least we are all trying to tell many of our co-workers that.

Scott Ginsberg, also known at the “Name Tag Guy,” recently posted “How to be Taken Seriously by People Twice Your Age.” He points out that it is not rare these days for a young professional to be working alongside someone twice their age.

I often hear varying opinions of the latest workforce generation by the Baby Boomers we are now in business with. But as young professionals, that is not something we can control. However, we can control the image we project as we try to establish ourselves as idea generators and reliable professionals in the work place.

A brief excerpt from Ginsberg’s blog post:

THE QUESTION IS: How are you supposed to be taken seriously when you’re the youngest person in the room?

SHORT ANSWER: Being proactive and powerful without coming off as arrogant and annoying.

Most of us can admit to exuding a little arrogance when we landed that first job out of college. Did you walk in like you owned the place; like you were ready to take over as the president on day two? More of us did that than we’d like to admit.

On any given day, many YPs are ready to conquer the world. Or are we? While that enthusiasm is something to be embraced, maybe it could be put to better use.

Time and learning can be humbling. If there is one thing that is clear to me now, it is that there is no replacement for decades of experience. We need to embrace those we work closely with that have it.

Once we can admit we have a lot to learn, we will open ourselves to a boundless book of knowledge. And we’ll gain respect along the way from our more seasoned peers.

But we also need to stick to our guns! We may be right a lot of the time. Some of the most innovative new ideas are coming from the younger generation. And with solid data to back up our ideas, people will listen.
Yes, we will create our own paths. But we also have take off the blinders and observe the established culture around us.

It is one of the building blocks of success.

Comments

[Susan Ramsey]

"Once we can admit we have a lot to learn, we will open ourselves to a boundless book of knowledge. And we’ll gain respect along the way from our more seasoned peers."

Jason, so well said, but permit me the edit of "more seasoned". This applies to us all, no matter our age.