I love traveling for business as it gives me the opportunity to meet people in other regions of the country and get their opinons about a variety of things. 

In particular I enjoy connecting and interacting with the younger generation as I find them fascinating.  

During a recent training program one team member turned to the other and said "it's like using the carrot and stick method of motivation."  

His colleague looked at him as though he was from Mars and I had to stifle a chuckle as I listened to him explain what "carrot and stick" meant.

Here's the thing, many young people have no idea what these idioms mean.  

Idioms are words, phrases or expressions that cannot be taken literally. When used in everyday life they have meaning only to those who have heard them before.  

It is a natural manner of speaking to a native speaker of a language. It can be regional or, as in this case, generational.

For example see if you can complete these idioms:

People in glass houses, ___________________

Birds of a feather _______________________

Sticks and stones _______________________

A dime a _______________

A fool and his money _____________________

Actions speak __________________________

Idioms are natural to many Baby Boomers because their parents used them in general conversation. Gen Y has never heard many of these idioms. 

Today's leaders and managers need to understand this as they may find their younger employees have a disconnect sometime during communication where an idiom is used.  

The oldest Gen Y members are 36 years old now. They are no longer young. They have been replaced by the Digital Babies

Boomer generation folks said "Don't trust anyone over 30" and Gen Y are now "the old ones" and over 30 I wonder how they like it.

I say this because I once had a twenty something person in my class say about a baby boomer colleague "I wish she would just retire and get out of the way already, because I can't get promoted until she's gone."

I wonder how Gen Y feels now that the Digital Babies are fast approaching and needing them to get out of the way. 

So YOLO folks soon you will learn through personal experience what the idom "People in glass houses ________________" truly means. Look it up.

To learn more about idioms and their meaning visit The Idiom Site

I would love to hear how you finished the idioms in this blog post.