You have no doubt heard the stereotypes about the members of Generations X and Y, the large majority of them negative, condescending and mean-spirited. “They are lazy, undisciplined and unprofessional.” Or perhaps “they are self-absorbed, incapable of making decisions and unmotivated.”

While I am sure that many younger people fit the stereotype, many that I have met – and hired – do not. I, myself, have yet to attain the lofty age of forty and I cannot recall a single time when I was labeled as not having a work ethic. Not one to take offense or personal umbrage at prejudiced opinions, I am careful to make sure that I don’t adopt the jaded or limiting views of others, no matter how things appear on the surface, but I am eager to discover exceptions to apparently inescapable labels.

My generation (Gen X) and those who came after (the nefarious and notorious Millennials formerly known as Gen Y) are a different breed. We don’t work, think or act like previous generations and we are often misunderstood and mislabeled (as is true with many ADD/ADHD diagnoses). We have grown up in a period of unprecedented prosperity, where reality was stretched and bent by millions of people who were given the tools to live beyond their means, a state of mind that quickly became the new “normal.”

As I mentioned I have hired many Gen Xers and Millennials as I find them to be some of the most creative, passionate, devoted and praise-worthy people around. They haven’t yet become jaded by life in the big world and as a result, they continue to think and dream big. What they lack in experience is often counter-balanced by zeal and where they are unrealistic, they are amenable if not hungry for words of wisdom to help them navigate the circuitous path called life.

That said, you must learn to speak their language. These generations are much more dependent – for better or for worse – on praise to spur on development. They are not as likely to take a basic set of directions and run with them and may require a bit more hand-holding than members of previous generations would have. Instead of criticizing them for these proclivities or as some may claim, peccadilloes, embrace, nourish and creatively enfold them. Constant criticism only drives them deeper in their shell.

In my experience, so doing does not result in the encouragement of dilettantism, neither does it create namby-pamby workers who would be better off in a nursery school than the work place, in fact, it does quite the opposite. It creates superheroes! Some of my best, most productive, most creative and still after all that most promising staff are under forty and I refuse to let stereotypes arbitrarily limit what we can do as an organization.

Why choose “business as usual” when business can be redefined for the better? If my enthusiasm and optimism is only due to my youth and inexperience I will stand corrected…but in the meantime, let us continue to press onward and upward, both young and young at heart!