Greetings and happy 2017 to all of you. I wanted to kick the new year off with a discussion about engaging your team as a manager and a leader. Employee engagement and experience is one of the key business imperatives of today’s work environment. Executives recognize that talent has won the war on talent, and companies need to do whatever they can to attract and retain top talent to compete. Today and tomorrow's workforces have a different set of requirements for their managers and leaders.
The workforce of today and tomorrow will no longer accept management and leadership blindly. Employees want to be more than an ID or a name on the roster. They want their uniqueness to be respected and to realize their potential. They do not tolerate being belittled, berated, and ignored. They do not want a career that resembles that of their parents.
In the past, it may have been easier for leadership and management to ignore the demands of the newer generations as they came into the workforce. After all, we were conditioned to be tough and climb the corporate ladder one rung at a time. We were conditioned to sharpen our elbows and drive towards winning at all costs. Our titles carried enough weight to garner respect and obedience. We grew up in the shadows of recessions and fear for job security. We had the hope of entrepreneurship in the form of the Internet Bubble burst in our face.
As Millennials enter the American workforce, they bring a different perspective and leverage than their predecessors. They grew up under a different type of conditioning. They had different experiences in and out of school. They inherited huge technological advances and are accustomed to innovation at the pace of monthly software updates and reimagined devices every year. They demand work-life balance so they can spend the time to care about the environment, social justice, and health.
Why can’t leaders and managers ignore their needs? Millennials are the largest generation since the Baby Boomers. They will soon make up 75% of the American workforce. They also have the tendency to walk away when they are not satisfied with their surroundings. Their resumes read like a temp agency assignment history. Many opt to remain in the comforts of their parents’ homes while creating something ingenious as a start-up company. For Corporate America, this represents significant onboarding and turnover costs, as well as loss of competitive advantage by the inability to attract and retain top talent.
So it is critical for leaders and managers to think about how to create a work environment that attracts Millennials. One way to do this is to win at employee engagement and experience. Said differently, win the hearts and minds of today and tomorrow’s workforce. Here are a few ways you can do this as a leader or a manager:
1. Align with a greater purpose – Lead with a purpose that resonates with people who work for you. Tie business efforts with creating a sustainable world and improving the human condition. Help drive your team performance towards something greater than business results. How can you articulate the importance of generating revenue and cost savings to fund sustainability and corporate responsibility projects?
2. Appreciate uniqueness – Go beyond acknowledging your team’s presence. Spend time to appreciate each person's uniqueness. Break down the barriers that once defined the pecking order. Demonstrate that you care about their unique contributions to the team and the world around them. How have you shown that you appreciate the uniqueness of the members of your staff?
3. Recognize & reward things that matter – Take care of the team that takes care of you. Drive your team contributions by celebrating accomplishments, above and beyond efforts, and milestones. In what ways have you recognized your team publicly for their contributions?
4. Nurture employee and team development – Key to winning hearts and minds of your team is to make them feel like they are growing, challenged, and not bored. Take the time to coach and provide feedback. Cultivate and support a learning culture. Challenge your team through stretch assignments. Selflessly drive career growth and train your replacement. What can you do to keep your team motivated through development?
5. Participation awards company with growth – The workforce of today and tomorrow need to feel involved with dictating the growth and direction of the organization. This generation grew up winning awards for participation. So, let them participate! Many companies have begun to set aside dedicated time away from day-to-day tasks for their employees to collaborate and innovate. The power of the many has significantly surpassed the pace and quality of specialized incubators. The sense of contribution motivates employees to engage. How can you trust in the autonomy of your team and get them involved in driving future success?
My daddy’s workplace was one that focused on getting everyone to conform to the culture of the company. His workplace was one where you did not make waves. You do what you were told, and tried your best doing it the way you were taught to do it. Family and health came second to getting the job done. Often, when sustainability and ethics were in conflict with business results, business results won. When I was growing up, I was conditioned by my daddy and people at work to continue those traditions.
In many ways, I adopted management and leadership styles of my daddy’s workplace even though in spirit I was in disagreement with much of it. I have personally been a naysayer when it comes to catering to an incoming generation that differs vastly from the way I approach work and life. However, as I spend more and more time working with them, I realize that my generation paved their way by instilling in them a different set of values than the ones that were passed on to us. We taught them to be what we wanted from work and life. We knew we would benefit from enabling their success in breaking the mold. This generation of powerhouse companies is far more innovative and productive than the ones that came before them. Among other things, these companies are successful because they shed the old ways of managing and leading. They will not entertain any candidates that they believe come from the old mold. Frankly, if we do not learn to evolve our way of leading and managing people, then we will be the ones who end up sitting on the outside.
Thank you for reading this post. As always, please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments and share with your networks if you found it to be useful.
Stay Cheesy,
The Rambunctious Rat
The workforce of today and tomorrow will no longer accept management and leadership blindly. Employees want to be more than an ID or a name on the roster. They want their uniqueness to be respected and to realize their potential. They do not tolerate being belittled, berated, and ignored. They do not want a career that resembles that of their parents.
In the past, it may have been easier for leadership and management to ignore the demands of the newer generations as they came into the workforce. After all, we were conditioned to be tough and climb the corporate ladder one rung at a time. We were conditioned to sharpen our elbows and drive towards winning at all costs. Our titles carried enough weight to garner respect and obedience. We grew up in the shadows of recessions and fear for job security. We had the hope of entrepreneurship in the form of the Internet Bubble burst in our face.
As Millennials enter the American workforce, they bring a different perspective and leverage than their predecessors. They grew up under a different type of conditioning. They had different experiences in and out of school. They inherited huge technological advances and are accustomed to innovation at the pace of monthly software updates and reimagined devices every year. They demand work-life balance so they can spend the time to care about the environment, social justice, and health.
Why can’t leaders and managers ignore their needs? Millennials are the largest generation since the Baby Boomers. They will soon make up 75% of the American workforce. They also have the tendency to walk away when they are not satisfied with their surroundings. Their resumes read like a temp agency assignment history. Many opt to remain in the comforts of their parents’ homes while creating something ingenious as a start-up company. For Corporate America, this represents significant onboarding and turnover costs, as well as loss of competitive advantage by the inability to attract and retain top talent.
So it is critical for leaders and managers to think about how to create a work environment that attracts Millennials. One way to do this is to win at employee engagement and experience. Said differently, win the hearts and minds of today and tomorrow’s workforce. Here are a few ways you can do this as a leader or a manager:
1. Align with a greater purpose – Lead with a purpose that resonates with people who work for you. Tie business efforts with creating a sustainable world and improving the human condition. Help drive your team performance towards something greater than business results. How can you articulate the importance of generating revenue and cost savings to fund sustainability and corporate responsibility projects?
2. Appreciate uniqueness – Go beyond acknowledging your team’s presence. Spend time to appreciate each person's uniqueness. Break down the barriers that once defined the pecking order. Demonstrate that you care about their unique contributions to the team and the world around them. How have you shown that you appreciate the uniqueness of the members of your staff?
3. Recognize & reward things that matter – Take care of the team that takes care of you. Drive your team contributions by celebrating accomplishments, above and beyond efforts, and milestones. In what ways have you recognized your team publicly for their contributions?
4. Nurture employee and team development – Key to winning hearts and minds of your team is to make them feel like they are growing, challenged, and not bored. Take the time to coach and provide feedback. Cultivate and support a learning culture. Challenge your team through stretch assignments. Selflessly drive career growth and train your replacement. What can you do to keep your team motivated through development?
5. Participation awards company with growth – The workforce of today and tomorrow need to feel involved with dictating the growth and direction of the organization. This generation grew up winning awards for participation. So, let them participate! Many companies have begun to set aside dedicated time away from day-to-day tasks for their employees to collaborate and innovate. The power of the many has significantly surpassed the pace and quality of specialized incubators. The sense of contribution motivates employees to engage. How can you trust in the autonomy of your team and get them involved in driving future success?
My daddy’s workplace was one that focused on getting everyone to conform to the culture of the company. His workplace was one where you did not make waves. You do what you were told, and tried your best doing it the way you were taught to do it. Family and health came second to getting the job done. Often, when sustainability and ethics were in conflict with business results, business results won. When I was growing up, I was conditioned by my daddy and people at work to continue those traditions.
In many ways, I adopted management and leadership styles of my daddy’s workplace even though in spirit I was in disagreement with much of it. I have personally been a naysayer when it comes to catering to an incoming generation that differs vastly from the way I approach work and life. However, as I spend more and more time working with them, I realize that my generation paved their way by instilling in them a different set of values than the ones that were passed on to us. We taught them to be what we wanted from work and life. We knew we would benefit from enabling their success in breaking the mold. This generation of powerhouse companies is far more innovative and productive than the ones that came before them. Among other things, these companies are successful because they shed the old ways of managing and leading. They will not entertain any candidates that they believe come from the old mold. Frankly, if we do not learn to evolve our way of leading and managing people, then we will be the ones who end up sitting on the outside.
Thank you for reading this post. As always, please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments and share with your networks if you found it to be useful.
Stay Cheesy,
The Rambunctious Rat
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