Birthdays are time for celebration. Particularly if you are 9, 19 but maybe not 49.  100 years ago getting to 49 was a result in its own.  Now, apparently I’m reaching my peak as an entrepreneur. Yes really. Grey hair, experience and a dizzying array of contacts, and VCs are more likely to invest in you.

However, Silicon Valley stats do not bear that out, and an article by LifeTwo

The average age of these start-ups is 26.  

 
But the maturity of these young founders is that in many case they have have gone out and found ‘adult supervision’.  Google has Eric Schmidt, Mark Zuckerberg can be found regularly in with Marc Andreesen at the Creamery in Palo Alto.

Which gets me to my point – eventually.  The heart, the energy and the workforce of any company you build is going to be full of 20-30 year olds. Gen Y, iPod Gen or Digital Native.  People can’t agree on the term, but they do agree that they are wired differently.  The extensive research for Don Tapscott’s book GrownUp Digital has shown that they think, work act differently. Not worse. Not bad. But differently.

So the issue is at 49, how do I relate to them? How do I understand them? How do I run a company where they want to work and can thrive? And how can I learn from them.

Does the idea a company event with them fill you with horror?  There is age and the digital divide.

But let’s just look at their life vs. your. Your house plants are alive but you can’t smoke any of them. There is more food in your fridge than booze. You hear your favourite songs when you’re in the lift and, while you still like to see the dawn, you prefer to have had a decent night’s sleep first. Finally all they talk about is where they’re going next and all you want to do is go to bed.  

But – remember. They are the face and voice of the company. Particularly in serviced-based industries it is the lowest paid staff who touch the customers every day – in person, over the counter, on the phone and on email , Twitter and IM.
So what is the solution?

Attitude:  It is not new technology, it is life.  Don’t switch off mentally as well as physically.  Embrace new technology and change.  Hell, my mother at 87 sends me emails and texts. I marvel at my 7 year old’s grasp of technology without skipping a beat.

Connect: Use every opportunity to understand and talk to them. Yes it feels strange at first. Stilted possibly. Find areas of discussion starting with open questions, “What, When, How, Who, Why”. Small talk, meaningless at first, but they it will build into more significant conversations. Remember, they are just as keen to be recognised by senior people in the organisation.

Pupil: Put yourself in the position of a pupil, not teacher. Look for clues not give views. Be open and patient and start to learn how they view the world.

Project: Give yourself a reason to connect. For me it was designing the Nimbus Control for iPhone interface - putting myself in their shoes. It was exciting, scary, refreshing, frustrating and rewarding

I really need to take these ideas and write the book “Managing the iPod Generation – How can you manage them when they can’t hear you”.  So many (old) people have asked me for a copy when it is written.

Better get on writing that book before I’m too old and need to pee every 20 minutes.