A humorous Monday article on what the Millennial generation prefers. Echo Boomers apparently will take a self-esteem boost over money, food and sex. Granted, studies like this can be heavily affected by the survey's wording (ie: "your preferred self-esteem boost"). Some thoughts before taking away anything from this survey:
1. A self-esteem boost could be any number of things. Echo Boomers might think of a raise as a self-esteem boost, in which case they would be making more money. They may also see hooking up with a hot boy/girl as a self-esteem boost. Notice how alcohol consumption scored very low - this of all the options would have the lowest affect on an Echo Boomer's self-esteem (or so I would imagine). However, an Echo Boomer's favorite self-esteem boost still beats more money, sex, etc.
2. The article highlights the repeated point that Echo Boomers are the trophy generation. Echo Boomers grew accustomed to receiving feedback on a regular basis and Penelope Trunk has noted this as well - Echo Boomers love feedback. In interacting with thousands of Echo Boomers, I have observed that they highly value verbal positive feedback over many other forms of praise and they like this praise public. In a few tests that I've done, I noticed that public praise beat actual rewards like gift cards. This does align with them receiving participation trophies when they were younger and being praised for participating.
3. Businesses and employers have a variety of ways to use this. Don't assume that traditional rewards will affect Echo Boomers in the same way that they would affect Generation X or Baby Boomers.
4. This does not apply to all Echo Boomers.
