Experts predicted that the biggest winners of the COVID crisis, which started in 2020, would be the generation born between 1973 and 1984, the Diplomats. They had all the talent to make good on this prediction. Let us add that we are talking about the winners of the 2008 Great Recession, as most of the owners, managers, and decision-makers of the companies that emerged victorious from the crisis came from this generation. Thus, it seemed evident that the process that began in 2009 — the complete displacement of other generations from the stage of success — would now be completed. But this was taken for granted by this generation, and many eventually paid dearly for their overconfidence.
Before the crisis
If we say that the Authoritarians were lucky to be able to build companies with undisturbed, self-taught knowledge, and the Precisionists had the fortune of being able to create a company or career in a market that was revitalised after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the greatest advantage of the Diplomats was that they appeared in the managerial market at the very beginning of globalisation. They were the ones who could speak the language reliably, understood IT, and had a truly global vision with their international outlook. Moreover, this generation experienced many positive and dynamic global events, making this group into communicative, influential, and diplomatic people. They understand “games” very well within companies, and if they build their own company, they really want to create something unique. Many times, their knowledge and products are far from true uniqueness, but they can cover this up so convincingly that representatives of other generations often eat their words with a “big spoon”. For this reason, they built careers easily and quickly, making good use of the opportunities offered by the Great Recession. While it is common for older generations to not be able to articulate their knowledge properly, this generation can readily sell non-existent knowledge to the outside world. Their post-crisis success was largely due to this, as when everyone was still licking their wounds, or just standing on the brink of collapse and watching the events at home, locked up, they were already attacking. They gained a serious market for themselves, gained huge self-confidence, and were not afraid to show their success, so they also appeared in the consumer market as premium buyers, which in turn attracted serious attention from other generations. The younger ones looked up at them, they easily became idols, and the older ones, even if sometimes envied, looked appreciatively at the managers of the new age. We can safely say that this generation rode a chariot into 2020.
After the crisis
It was precisely because of this that everyone now treated it as a clear fact that this ride would continue. But that’s why people say that when you’re at the top, the only way to go is down. Well, it was hard, yet many succeeded in avoiding a freefall. Some struggled, however, because they immediately started reaching for quick success. But that wasn’t the biggest problem either! This generation was the initiator and creator of the startup era (Facebook is perhaps the most well-known story from this era). So, this generation, quite precisely because of the generational effects they had in their childhood, was really able to reinterpret business perspectives. Of course, this is true for all generations a bit, but it never happened to the same extent as for the Diplomats. This generation was able to show off real stars and idols. The biggest trouble, after all, was that after 2008, a lot of people believed this about themselves, even those who were just average or below-average, but who were at the right place at the right time. Managers who can create a truly successful, sustainable market position must have an outstanding Expert personality factor. This helps them to transcend the superficialities of their generation, which relies so heavily on communication. Because this is only true in the short term! They are the ones who really like the stage and think that if they can stand there, everything is fine. So overall, this generation was the biggest disappointment in 2020, and this disappointment will continue well into 2022. This does not necessarily mean that their careers have started to decline or that the company they manage will no longer be successful, but it does mean that without the presence of the Expert, the development will not be so dynamic, success will not come so easily, and people will see that their knowledge is often average. The pandemic has severely narrowed the stage of manipulation and influence, significantly weakening the role of the Diplomats.
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