Baby boomer

Self-Assessment

Strengths

Being a baby boomer, one of my major strengths is that I have created a vast network of friends who translate into key customers and suppliers for my employer. Having been around for a while, I have struck good relationships with most of the stakeholders, which is an added advantage to my employer because it eases operations. Given my many years of experience in the workplace, I perfectly understand the tastes and distastes, likes and preferences of customers. As such, I advise my employer on what should be done in order to deliver satisfactory service and experience to customers.

Secondly, I highly value teamwork, and will voluntarily commit myself to creating high-performing teams. Being a baby boomer, I am naturally an excellent team player and will go an extra mile just to make sure the organization succeeds (Havens, 2015). A crucial implication of this is that given my passion for teamwork, I am ready to mentor newly-recruited employees so that they fit in with the organization and deliver their best. In fact, considering the bulk of experience that I possess, I consider myself to be an invaluable resource to my employer in as far as nurturing young employees is concerned. A good organizational memory is also among my strong points. Like most other people of my age, I rarely engage in failing projects. I attribute this to my vast experience and the remarkable organizational memory that I have acquired in the process. Having been in the corporate field for a substantial period of time now, I perfectly know what works and what cannot work. Consequently, managers can rely on me for sound advice concerning strategic plans and moves.

Weaknesses

Even amid all the strengths outlined above, baby boomers have several weaknesses. One of this is the tendency to resist change. According to Johnson and Johnson (2010), the fact that baby boomers have a history of succeeding in most of the activities they undertake makes them skeptical of change. Their organizational memory derives them to believe that the status quo should be maintained. Apart from this, baby boomers do not like being directed (Johnson & Johnson, 2010). Being in this category, I admit that inasmuch as I enjoy working in a team, I often feel offended when someone appears to take an extremely supervisory role on me. In short, much as I respect authority, I do not like the idea of my superior being all over me all the time.

I must also confess that I can be excessively and inappropriately outspoken at times. I am one person who believes in standing for the truth, thus every time I feel someone is giving a misleading opinion, I do not hesitate to point this out. Because of this, I may find myself rubbing my teammates the wrong way, hence creating conflicts in the place of work. One issue to which I am openly and vehemently opposed is sexual harassment in the place of work. I feel grossly offended whenever I notice any slight indication of sexual harassment, even it is in the form of sexually offensive remarks. In view of the increasing prevalence of sexual harassment cases or allegations in the workplace (Powell, 2011), I realize that my outspokenness on such matters could be viewed by some of my colleagues as a major weakness.

Areas of Improvement

Based on the self-assessment results above, there are several areas that I need to work on in order to be a valuable employee in my present and, possibly, future workplace. It is worth noting that all the suggestions made in this report are focused on the need to understand and manage generational differences that may manifest in the workplace. Starting with my strong points, one of the things that I plan to do is to identify a number of young employees whom I will mentor until he/she acquires and even surpasses my capabilities. With full knowledge that my retirement years are drawing closer, I have made up my mind to leave a legacy in my company by mentoring several people so that they can serve as a replacement when I am gone. My specific goal concerning this is to ensure that within the next two years, I have mentored at least three young employees so effectively that they can superbly perform the work that I do, besides bringing new customers to the company.

Apart from this, I need to work on my assertiveness. I understand that people are different and that while I see nothing wrong in voicing my disgruntlement loudly, there are other people who might take this as a sign of disrespect. Thus, to prevent unnecessary conflicts, I am planning to enroll in a short course teaching communication and interpersonal skills. This is an activity that I will be undertaking in the next three months, the objective is to improve the way I communicate with colleagues. I am hoping that by the end of the course, I will have known how to express myself in a calm manner so as to avoid any conflicts.

References

Havens, J. (2015). Us vs. Them: Redefining the Multi-Generational Workplace to Inspire Your Employees to Love Your Company, Drive Innovation, and Embrace Change. Old Tappan, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Available at http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/9780134195100/samplepages/9780134195100.pdf

Johnson, M., & Johnson, L. (2010). Generations, Inc: From Boomers to Linksters–Managing the Friction between Generations at Work. New York, NY: AMACOM.

Powell, G. N. (2011). Women & Men in Management. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications.