When talking candidly about topics concerning everything from influencing skills to authenticity, a point was touched upon about the younger generation and their response, or lack-thereof, to each of these things. Questions were raised about what it took to have a genuine influence on people in the workplace and what the reality behind operating as an authentic professional truly meant. Do you need to be intimidating to be influential? Smart? Successful? Accomplished? Do you need to expose your weaknesses and beliefs, be they political or religious to be genuinely authentic? How do you gain respect from others and most importantly, how do you do so while simultaneously reaching that younger generation that seems to unapologetically full of entitlement? How do you bridge that gap?

As a member of that younger generation myself, I felt it my duty to speak up. Surprisingly, the answer is quite simple. While the professional world of today is a dog-eat-dog market full of fast information and competition, there is one thing that it sorely lacks; And that one thing, is humanity – the very thing that the 20-30 somethings can’t find through their beloved Googles, blogs and Blackberries.

As a part of that generation myself, I have been influenced by so many people along the way. However, unlike things may have been before my time, it wasn’t by the people who knew more than me, or competed with me to prove their rank, it was the people who made a difference by taking the time to form a relationship with me, be it large or small. At the end of the day, the internet can provide us with all of the hard information that we need, but they are not people. And that’s where the true value lies. Remember, it’s not about competition, but compassion, not about rank, but respect, and never as much about quantity, as it is quality, three things that a computer, cannot compute.

Next time, before you tell the kid down the hall what your worth by spouting out your list of accomplishments and skills, tell them first about the baseball game you went to last night, the type of beer (or wine!) you drank, the college you went to and what you loved (or hated) about your freshman year roommate – and then go through the report with them. Once people expose themselves as humble, honest, genuine, authentic players in the game only then do things become real, and only them, do they become respected influencers to that hard-to-crack generation.

By Guest Blogger:  Devin Cirillo

Marc Prensky, in the article, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, proposes that educators should bend over backwards and revamp the educational system with methods like educational video games to fully accommodate students who only speak and understand the so-called digital language as a result of growing up in the digital age. As a person who grew up around the beginning of the digital age, I disagree. Technology must not replace natural human development in the real world.

Obviously, digital technology can do things for you so you don’t need to do it yourself. This is great for saving the time of talented, hard-working people. However, it’s a big problem for the younger people who never learned to function without it in the first place. In this case, technology practically creates what I think is a learning disability, not a different language. Then technology presents an opportunity, or a trap, for people now and in the future to never become someone who will do something with their life. I see that as a big problem.

The new language of the digital age is attractive to the lowest common denominator because it requires such minimal effort. When so much is done for you, what reason do you have to develop abilities such as the use of correct spelling and grammar when spellchecker will fix everything for you? This attitude of  “Why bother learning?” becomes all encompassing. These digital native kids often fail to appreciate the value of their own hard work. So as adults, they’ll likely be very unreliable. The digital immigrants of earlier generations work hard to assimilate into the new culture of technology, but the digital natives are cutting themselves off from the knowledge and skills of the past. The sad reality is, the majority seldom use technology to improve their selves intellectually as the older generations would hope.

Almost all I see from my peers is hours spent on social network narcissism and viewing humor sites; nothing cool like researching the legends of the careers they’re interested in, finding interesting art, learning about ancient civilizations, looking up the latest scientific discoveries, reading inspirational business blogs, or reading news from other countries. The kids are missing out because they generally don’t learn to think and search that way. These kids coddled by technology throughout their development will not become the geniuses of older generations with the brilliance to design and create the websites, movies, music, computers, and video game platforms that they love and want. The digital immigrants/bibliographic natives, with their imaginations and work ethics from the pre-digital days plus their use of progressive technology to supplement their causes are the winners.

Discovery Conference Centre uses caring and innovative human minds along with technology to help you optimize the efforts of yourself and your business.

Posted by Laura Gros

The theory of entropy says that everything falls into chaos unless constant energy is put into preserving the order. It was originally meant for natural sciences, but I see it all over the place in business and in personal relationships. We always have to keep trying. I believe that there are infinite ways for people to keep on improving their selves and the world for the rest of their lives. Development is life long. Any greatness humanity has achieved has happened through adaptation.

I have an idea of what we humans can do next for the sake of our civilization through the work we do for it: Remove our emotional human pride from the equation for a better end product. Get over yourself, control your impulses, and be rational. Efficiently producing something beneficial for the people is most important. Not your ego. This is what really makes the greater businesses thrive and compete well. Think about it.

Everyone makes mistakes. Forgive yourself, fix it, try not to do it again, and move on. This is the way to grow. Let the appropriate people know when you’ve made a mistake so it can be fixed if you can’t fix it on your own. Any person who uses their brain would respect you for such efficient action. Wise people ask for constructive criticism. It is better for some collaboration of ideas to be in anything you do. A person never needing any help isn’t something that happens in real life. It suggests that you have integrity if you’re open to the possibility that you could be wrong. When nobody asks for help or will admit that they were wrong or made a mistake, the project is going to come out terribly. No consumer will want what your group has done no matter how much you pay to advertise.

Sometimes your coworkers will in fact have better ideas than you in some situations. That’s reality, and more power to you if you can recognize good work from people around you. If the best you can do is not better than someone else’s idea in a cooperative situation at work, it is more respectable and sensible to let them take the prize for setting up the better solution for the greater objective. Let them inspire you to improve your skills and hone your creativity. It doesn’t help to put down others in your mind and refuse to acknowledge that maybe you just aren’t doing a good enough job. Don’t point fingers. You aren’t a petty high school kid. You’ll never get better if you don’t take responsibility for how you’ve been doing what you choose to do. You don’t become something really special without thousands of hours of progressive experience. Keep thinking hard about the ultimate goals, and the little goals and upgrades you can make to get there.

Discovery Conference Centre is here to serve you and the people you serve. Beautiful, well-equipped meeting rooms with teleconferencing technology offer all you need for successful business meetings, job interviews, arbitrations, depositions, and other operations that help you make this planet a great place to live.

Posted by Laura Gros