Chuck Underwood

Pioneer and Scholar of Generational Dynamics, Host of “American Generations with Chuck Underwood” on PBS

Chuck Underwood is one of the founding scholars who pioneered the field of generational study. As founder/principal of generational consultancy The Generational Imperative, Inc., he trains, consults, and conducts research for American business, government, education, and religion on a long list of generational strategies.

Book

His book, America’s Generations In The Workplace, Marketplace, And Living Room, is the most comprehensive presentation of generational dynamics and business strategies ever published; the “bible” of generational studies.

Television

Chuck is the creator and host of the national-television PBS series, America’s Generations With Chuck Underwood, the first such series in the history of national television. This miniseries presents the life stories, thus far, of the Silent, Boomer, GenX, and Millennial generations. It is humorous, poignant, and unforgettable storytelling, presented by Chuck to a full-house theater audience. It’s a mesmerizing stroll down Memory Lane AND a forecast of each generation’s future.

Career Highlights

Having studied and researched the generational values and beliefs that guide the decision-making of Americans for more than three decades, he is one of the elite, top-tier generational speakers and consultants on a long list of generational topics and strategies and is consistently evaluated by audiences as the nation’s best generational speaker (see “Testimonials” on this page). His clients are a Who’s Who of American business, government, higher education, and all other sectors.

Early Career

Chuck had spent his earlier career in the mass media of radio and television, first as an award-winning broadcast journalist and national sports play-by-play announcer, and then as a creator and producer of original programming. He has hosted and produced shows that have aired nationally and internationally. His 7th national-television show in his PBS series about America’s Generations will be on the air, city by city, in 2017 and 2018 and is entitled “Boomers Up – No Excuse”.

Chuck Underwood Today

He recently developed the first training program for mental-health clinicians in Generational Behavioral Health Care Strategy. He also pioneered the study of generational leadership eras and their enormous impact on the direction of the United States, and then made this topic into a national-television show on PBS. The most comprehensive book ever. The first TV series ever. Breakthrough generational research and training. You get the idea. Audience testimonials that consistently begin with “The best I’ve ever heard”. The bottom line is this: maybe you don’t need “the best”. But if you do? Up there at the very tip-top of generational speaking, there is Chuck Underwood. Singular in his knowledge and his ability to deliver a life-altering, spellbinding presentation to your audience.

The Mega-Force Of Generational Leadership

Each generation takes its turn at leading America. They begin their careers at entry level in their 20's and gradually work their way to the top. When their generation fills most of the decision making positions in American business, government, education, and religion for roughly two decades. During that time, they instill their unique generational values throughout the nation, and those unique values always push America in a direction that is different from the leadership era of the prior generation. Then, they retire. And the next generation begins its leadership era. What we now know is this: Generational Leadership is more influential on American life than any 5 U. S. Presidents or Congresses. Its power is nothing short of staggering. In 2011 and 2012, the event that occurs only once every two decades is HAPPENING. The White Silent Generation Men, whose values led America during the 1990's and 2000's, are now retired and have handed that "leadership baton" back to the Baby Boomers, who will now instill their generational values throughout American leadership. Because of the profound differences in core values between the Silents and Boomers, America is about to undergo ASTONISHING transformation. Even more profound: with the retirement of the Silents, the ENTIRE AMERICAN HISTORY of leadership by white men comes to an end. With the Boomer era beginning this year, American leadership is now dual-gender and multi-ethnic. And Boomer females and minorities bring their own unique sensibilities and sensitivies to leadership. The leadership era of the past twenty years - the Silent Era - will go down in history as one of America's worst. Why? How did that happen? The Boomers hold the promise of delivering one of the best. Why? And what about the future leadership eras of GenerationX? It is a very troubling forecast. What can be done about it before GenX'ers begin their leadership era? The younger Millennials' future leadership holds tremendous optimism and hope? How? Why the generational differences? Chuck leads the audience through this keynote in this completly original, easy to understand, and profound keynote about America's generations.

Generational Workforce Diversity, Human Resource Strategy, and Leadership Development

Each generation brings unique core values, career attitudes, strengths and weaknesses to their work. And so it is imperative for employers, management, and employees to understand those differences. TGI's training programs in Generational Workforce Strategy help organizations to recruit the best employees from each generation, onboard them, as new hires, train them properly, manage them effectively, help all employees to maximize their fulfillment with their work and, with that, their productivity, enhance inter-generational understanding and cooperativeness amongst all employees, train current leaders in generational diversity and generational leadership, prepare future leaders and, by doing so, help to ensure orderly succession of leadership, and much more. Chuck says: "Retaining Silents and Boomers. Retaining X'ers and preparing them for management. Recruiting Millennials and helping them to embrace realistic expectations. Training in Generational Workforce Diversity is no longer optional. It's now imperative. It's all about productivity, turnover reduction, teamwork, and bottom line."

Generational Marketing Strategy

Chuck Underwood's training programs, research, and consulting in Generational Marketing Strategy are designed to assist TGI’s clients in each step of the marketing process: 1. Market Research 2.Development Of Products, Services, Facilities, Events, And Brand 3. Marketing Research 4. Marketing 5. Advertising 6. Public Relations 7. Selling 8. Relationship Building 9. One-On-One Interpersonal Skills 10. Customer And Client Service Chuck says: “Well-executed generational marketing strategy consistently delivers what all marketers desire but seldom get: it cuts through the clutter and resonates with each generation it targets. And so, generational considerations must now be a permanent “filter” through which American business runs all of its marketplace planning, creative work, and final decision-making.”

Generational Selling and Customer Service Strategy

There are 5 living generations of Americans. 4 of them are still very active in the workplace and marketplace. As sales professionals, each generation has distinct skills and attitudes towards selling. As customers, each generation has its own preferences when it comes to common courtesy and customer/client service. Chuck Underwood’s training programs helps each generation of salespeople and customer-service personnel to understand these differences, bridge the generation gaps with clients and customers, and achieve better sales results and customer satisfaction. Chuck says: “Two of the key breakdowns in selling and customer service are (1) ignorance as to the preferences of other generations of clients and customers and (2) sharp differences in what constitutes common courtesy. Beyond their control, Millennials and GenX’ers came of age when courtesy became a casualty of Americans’ suddenly rushed lives and time-poorness. The problem is, the other three generations remember – and prefer – a more courteous customer and client experience than younger generations have ever witnessed. The solution is generational selling and customer-service training.”

Generational Research

American business has arrived at a pivotal moment. With four distinct generations active in, and critical to, the marketplace and workplace, a new wave of generationally-designed research is now essential in many, MANY, industries. Generationally-designed research studies are different from traditional demographic and psychographic studies. Chuck Underwood has designed and managed generational research studies for clients in retail, architecture and engineering, the trade-show industry, soft-drink, consumer packaged goods, insurance, and the healthcare industry, among others. Some studies focused upon the marketplace, others upon the workplace. And always, the findings revealed vital and original insights that demographic and psychographic studies would probably have missed. Chuck says: “In TGI's generational research, the all-important Discussion Guides in qualitative research - and the Questionnaires in quantitative projects - are guided by 23 years of generational research and are designed to capture the influence of generation-specific core values on consumer decisions, career choices, and lifestyle preferences.

Finding Our Way Back

Our nation is a mess, and we all know it. Government is too politically divided to be able to lead us out of it. The once-thriving American Middle Class - the key to Just About Everything - has been reduced to near-nothing. The single biggest ethnic group in the nation is completely overlooked and has finally reached its breaking point. COVID could have been a simple three-month fix last summer, but we failed spectacularly as a nation to deal with it because of our distrust of our nation's major institutions. And our own self-pity. And ignorance. Our government has mishandled another military conflict and our troops are coming home, having not been permitted by their politicians to win it. The cable news channels are among the most damaging institutions in the history of the country. The only serious news media in America, daily newspapers, are so weakened and short-staffed they're focusing only on four topics. And their Editors don't understand they've entirely missed The Big One. We're all tired of the bitching, ignorance, ineffectiveness, and global embarrassment our nation is suffering. We want a path out of this death spiral. We want to rally. We want the USA to again lead the world with ethics, compassion, vision. Well: from one man and his 35 years of study comes the explanation that explains why America is such a colossal mess. And with the explanation comes the solution. Yes. S-o-l-u-t-i-o-n. It is the most urgent presentation in America. For every audience. From the nation's most spellbinding - and well researched - speaker.