Helping Generation Z Manage Their Image
Franklin Delano Roosevelt won four presidential elections as a man with polio. While U.S. voters knew it, he labored tirelessly to mask the fact that he was disabled. He only allowed photos of him above the waist to prevent showing his wheelchair. He had a car he was able to drive with his hands alone, demonstrating he could do what anyone else could do. He wanted to appear strong and fit as the leader of the free world.
Margaret Thatcher served as prime minister of England in a male-dominated parliament. She worked with a voice coach to help her speak in a lower voice tone, sounding more like a strong, authoritarian leader. She also labored to mask her blue-collar past. There was a persona to manage.
We live in a time and a society that spends an exorbitant amount of time managing our image. Social media platforms nudge us to pay attention to how we look, and if it’s not good enough, we filter our photos and videos. Younger generations, especially, have learned to take dozens of selfies to capture the perfect photo to represent how they look and who they are. Sadly, how we appear is often more important than who we really are.
Let’s Get Real
I am not suggesting that image management is unimportant. We all have a reputation to uphold or improve. How we look to others is either genuine or artificial and each of us must assess what’s most important to us: how we look or who we are. Hopefully, the two are one and the same.
I will go out on a limb and suggest we help Gen Zers to deepen trust by being real.
Social psychologist and writer Erving Goffman was considered by some to be "the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth century". He wrote a book called, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. He used a dramatic approach to social interaction, viewing it as a performance where people present themselves to others, using various techniques to manage the impressions they make. He found that individuals who are transparent fare better in life. For example, those who are open to being part of a stigmatized group fare better than those who practice “covering.” Goffman believed we should draw our identity from what is most important and while we don’t flaunt it to others who might disagree, we must be who we are unashamedly.
It is quite liberating, but also quite difficult.
Covering is something we all do, depending on who we are with on any given day. The healthiest people balance being who they truly are, but not throwing it in the face of others who are different. They don’t try to offend or hurt others, but neither do they shy away from their values and identity. As we play different roles in our day, we display a series of masks to others, always staging how we appear and constantly trying to set ourselves in the best light. We play this series of roles, depending on what we’re doing: a spouse, a customer, a father, a friend, etc. But each of us has a fixed character—a true one—in which we do well to stay true. We won’t need to be duplicitous. This fixed sense of self serves as a compass.
Three Steps to Help Gen Zers
Members of Generation Z have grown up in a strange time of fake news, augmented reality, deepfake and other forms of artificial intelligence. Below are some fundamentals you can share with your Generation Z comrades to build a genuine reputation with others.
1️⃣ Discuss the common fear of judgment.
As our children move away from home, we must make a move as well. We are no longer a supervisor (unless they ask us to be one). We are now consultants, who advise only as we are invited to do so. This metaphor has helped me to reframe my role in their lives. My son and daughter have different temperaments; one is far more welcoming of our input than the other. While I respond accordingly, I assume they’ll ask me if they want my input.
2️⃣ Discuss making a list of personal values.
Across the board, Gen Z are wrestling with their beliefs and values, how to express those ideas and perhaps, most of all, how to be friends with others across their differences. When they reflect and create a list of their personal core values, this enables them to develop a clear sense of self. When a person possesses a set of values they need less validation from others. When they are unclear on their values, they look to social media to offer validations through views, likes, and shares. When a paper bag is set on a picnic table, it will blow away with the first wind that blows. Fill it with sand, and it’s apt to stay put. Values work like that sand that stabilizes them.
3️⃣ Discuss the ideas of pretense vs. integrity.
When people are pretentious, they pretend to be someone they’re not. When they display integrity, their words and actions align. Integrity doesn’t mean they’re perfect; it means they are “one.” It’s taken from the same root as an integer. No one is pretending. Today, it seems like most people are pretending on social media. They’re like Potemkin Villages. A "Potemkin Village" refers to a deceptive facade or a situation where an impressive, but ultimately false, appearance is used to hide an undesirable reality; named after the Russian statesman Grigory Potemkin, who built fake villages to impress Catherine the Great. I say, let’s tear down those facades. Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players in it…” In short, we are always performing. Let’s remind Gen Zers of their desire for authenticity and help them build integrity.
I can’t wait to make my new book available to you this fall:
The Future Begins with Z:
Nine Strategies to Lead Generation Z as They Disrupt the Workplace.
Release date: November 2
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