Tom Watson pulled off one of the most unexpected performances in the history of golf this weekend.  Yeah, so he didn’t quite get the job done on the 18th, but I think the performance as a whole teaches a valuable lesson - particularly to marketers and corporate management around the world.

A 59 year-old almost won one of the most difficult tournaments in all of golf.  How is that possible?  Why was he able to pull it off?  He’s too old to hit irons into 200+ yard par threes!  When PGA tour players were hitting 5 or 4 irons, Watson was hitting hybrids and 3-woods!  It’s an enormous disadvantage!

Watson’s performance broke down a lot of mental barriers for a lot of Champions Tour players, I bet.  And I think that’s the lasting memory that many pro golfers will take away form this year’s championship.  Old, young, veteran, rookie - they all have a chance of winning, so long as the skills are sufficient and they’re able to break through mental barriers to allow themselves to succeed. It’s an individual thing - the golfer has to be able to believe that they can do it, and they need to put the hours in on the range to perfect their skills.

But hold on - this isn’t necessarily what management experts are saying!  They’re all caught up with broad-sweeping generalizations about Gen X, Gen Y, millennials, boomers, etc.  And they recommend strategies for managing each generation in the workplace - frequently ignoring the fact that the workplace is comprised of individuals, not sets of employees with inherent generational characteristics.

Tom Watson was an exception to the “rule” at the Open Championship - he didn’t perform in the way that he was supposed to based upon his age and generation.  His generation isn’t tooled to compete on the golf courses of the current generation - meticulously groomed greens and 600-yard par-fives!

But he almost won.

And that’s what concerns me about all this posturing going on about how to manage millennials, or why Gen X is going to do something extraordinary in our organizations.

Sure, there’s good research that identifies trends in behavior, and trends in common characteristics.  But common sense should suggest that if you’re not providing an employee with an INDIVIDUAL experience, with individual goals and a management style that acknowledges that each person in the organization is unique, then you’re going to have serious problems.

With regards to my specific generation - Gen Y - I think a lot of the research misses the point.  The reason why a millennial might seem like they “expect the world” from the company is not because they were spoiled by mommy and daddy - it’s because they feel as though they are a square peg in the organization, and their managers are used to having “circles”, so it all feels weird when they’re being forced into the circle hole.

And frankly, if you are being forced to morph into something you’re not just so that you can be lumped in with the rest of the cattle, then you’re going to expect your company to give you something in return for that sort of Transformer act. Otherwise,  you’re just not going to be happy at work.

I think it’s a good reminder, having watched the Open Championship, that we need to be more careful with the segmentation as marketers, or the “Gen whatever needs to be managed in x,y,z ways” stuff as managers.  People respond pretty darn well, regardless of generation, when they are able to be themselves and to use their strengths.  From a PR perspective, people respond pretty well when you have a 2-way conversation with them and truly consider their perspective.

Tom Watson wasn’t a freak exception to a rule - we just built up this expectation in our heads that a 59-year-old couldn’t even come close to winning a major.  Let’s take that lesson to the workplace - being a member of a particular generation doesn’t mean someone inherited any or all of the traits that are identified in the research.  Just like Tom didn’t inherit a crappy golf swing after his hip was replaced 9 months ago.

Either way - I bet you can save a lot of money by not buying the research or consulting services and, instead, just committing some time towards listening to and conversing with your employees on a 1-to-1 level.

I bet one of the best feelings Tom felt all week was when people stopped expecting his fake hip to give out, and started thinking “darn, this guy is actually capable of doing this!”