Managing Leadership^®

On the basis of a simplistic “narcissistic personality inventory” administered in the form of a survey questionnaire with only two possible answers to each question, some rather remarkable and expansive conclusions are being drawn about the character and work ethic of an entire generation. The current population of college students is being described as potential white collar criminals who lack empathy about others, are irrevocably self-indulgent, and even “genuinely offensive to know.” Three quick comments about this.

First, it seems to me to stretch credulity beyond the breaking point for members of the “me” generation to accede to such absurd observations about anyone at all, much less the generation they raised. We exhibited more than our share of self-absorbed entitlement and, certainly, white collar crime such that we should have nothing left but shame, rather than the gall to accuse others of shortcomings such as these. If we are unable or unwilling to at the very least see our own culpability in any faults we profess to see in others, then perhaps we should just keep quiet about the matter altogether.

Second, what are we to understand that the authors of this peculiar report expect us to do with its equally peculiar conclusions? There is hardly a more poisonous suggestion than that we might project its malignant generalizations onto each - or any - of the individuals who make up this generation. That, after all, is the very definition of prejudice. We’ve all encountered narcissists among our peers or those we supervise (not to mention the possibility that they may have encountered this in us). Of what value is it to assert that the presence of such individuals in Generation Y makes a statement about everyone in the entire age group? How does that help us manage our lives or our jobs - or them?

Finally, there is the issue of credibility. In my encounters with members of this generation - whether as a fellow citizen, consumer, peer, or manager - I, like everyone, have noted that there are the typical generational differences in such things as style of dress, musical taste, and sometimes an informal approach to communication. What I have not seen is anything to indicate any concern at all like those suggested by this report’s authors and the several observers identified as agreeing with it.

Rather, the reverse. Every generation has a tendency to criticize it’s successor’s, but it is far better that, like Cicero, while being pleased to find some measure of worth among our own, we acknowledge - even celebrate - the strengths of those who are filling our places.

I recently have had occasion to observe some of those who are doing just that in the recovery ward of a major naval medical center. These young men and women of the Navy and Marines, like many of their comrades-in-arms of the other services, were returning from war with grievous wounds. But the courage they displayed both on the battlefield and in the hospital as they struggled to compensate for what that courage had cost them can only burnish the martial reputations of these fine services and increase the honor and pride of the great nation that produced them.

This generation - in America and around the world - advances our hopes and surpasses our accomplishments. It is this that we have all wished for in our children from the beginning of time, and it is this that we are, in fact, seeing today. That they do so in such a troubled period of our history makes their hopeful shouldering of the management of the world’s affairs that much more heroic. That there might be a narcissist or two among them should hardly warrant our notice; that there is so much to celebrate about this great generation should certainly excite our admiration.

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