Do You Make These Career Stalling Management Mistakes?

If you're interested in being the best possible manager you can be, check out this article, based on a smart manager who was alienating his new team--and was totally oblivious of what he was doing:

clipped from pressherald.mainetoday.com 'Jurgen," a very bright engineer, descended upon a manufacturing company after his parent company acquired it. While he had great intentions and high aspirations for dramatically increasing the operational efficiency, he was met with fierce resistance. I was asked to come in and find out why. Meeting with Jurgen, I found him to be very bright, personable and an interesting conversationalist. I liked him. However, his team didn't. They despised him. As I interviewed both his direct reports and others who worked with him, I was regaled with stories of arrogance, disrespect and intimidation. While he had big hopes of inspiring greater productivity and turning the plant around, his behavior laid the foundation for his failure.

Gen Y: Why Do They Think That Way?

Have you noticed that your Gen Y employees seem to have a slightly different perspective toward work, authority, and feedback than some of your older employees?

I thought so.

When asking manager training seminar participants what their biggest challenges are, "What's up with those younger workers?" is usually on the list.

To answer that question, I spent the last year synthesizing the current research on Gen Y and interviewed Gen Y employees and their supervisors for clues about how to what motivates them, what drives them crazy, and how to balance meeting their needs with having them meet yours.

Just like with dealing with people who have personality styles different from yours, when dealing with people from a generation that's different from yours, it's really helpful to understand where they're "coming from" -- i.e. how they see the world and why they think the way they do.

Here's how this will help you:

1. It will help you understand more about how to connect with them and be more influential

2. It will reduce your stress level, because the more we understand why someone is doing something that goes against our way of being in the world, the less anger and judgment we have toward them.

3. The less anger and judgment we have, the more we can think and act strategically, rather than have a knee jerk Neanderthal response that makes us look ridiculous and makes the situation worse.

Big Caveat Ahead

I want to be crystal clear here... I am NOT saying that understanding where someone else is coming from means excusing unacceptable behavior.

I'm saying that from a purely practical point of view, we are FAR more effective if we have control over our emotional state when we respond. If we're foaming at the mouth with self-righteous indignation -- no matter how justified - we're simply not going to be as effective as we will if we remain cool and in control of our emotions.

To say nothing of how much more effective at eliciting productive responses in others we are when we maintain our composure.

So, with that in mind, here are 23 cultural factors that have played a major role in shaping the world view of your Gen Y employees. As you scan the list, think about their implications for what your Gen Y employees look for in an employer and what brings out the best in them.

Cultural Factors That Influence Gen Y Employees

1. The Self-Esteem Movement
2. Raised During Child-Centered Era
3. Highly Scheduled and Coached Childhoods
4. Adults as Peers
5. Parent as Coach and Friend
6. It’s Not Important What Others Think of You; It’s What You Think That Matters.
7. You Can Become Whatever You Want In Life
8. Sitcoms: Adults Are Silly; Disrespectful Behavior Is Funny
9. “In Your Face” Modeled and Celebrated: Rap Stars, Music Videos, American Chopper, Jerry Springer, etc.
10. Collaborative Learning Approaches in School
11. Technology Is Just A Normal Part Of Life
12. New Media Shaping Neurological Development for Short Attention Spans
13. Multitasking: It’s Easy; Its Fun!
14. It’s a Global, Connected World… Well, yeah…
15. It’s a Customized, On My Terms World: Starbucks, iPods, Tivo, etc.
16. Diversity Is No Big Deal
17. What I Have to Say Is Important; I’m Important: Blogs, MySpace, Facebook, etc.
18. Children as Activists: You Can Make a Difference
19. Be Rich, Be Famous: American Idol, Dot Com Millionaires, etc.
20. Problems? Blame Others: Personal Injury Attorney Ads, MacDonald’s Lawsuits: Spilled Coffee and Obese Kids, Parents Suing Schools When Child Gets Into Trouble
21. Seeing First Hand the Cost of No Work/Life Balance
22. Enron, WorldCom,… Big Corporations Are Not to Be Trusted
23. Unprecedented Affluence For Many

What Do Gen Y Employees Say About How You See Them

Make an honest effort to know that person and not generalize who this person is. You might be surprised who might be working for you. Don’t assume that I’m coming in as a 23 year old and I’m entitled, and like what you saw on MTV. I can understand where that comes from. If you are 65 year old person and see MTV and that’s your only exposure to 20 year olds, I can see why would think that way. But if you spend time around people like me who paid for college, paid for my car, you’ll see we’re not that way.

Gen Y Employee

Age-ism is an inaccurate approach to take… just because someone is cute and is young… they think they have an attitude… if someone uses that tone and treats me like a young person/little kid then I react standoffish

Gen Y Employee

If you're in New Hampshire and would like to invest in professional development for your Gen Y employees, check out this April 16th seminar

Do You Have "Managerial Bad Breath?"

A good friend and colleague of mine told me a story last week that captures one of the biggest causes of diminished employee engagement, morale, and loyalty.

I see this cause as the equivalent of “Managerial Bad Breath.”

Here’s what happened…

My friend was asked by a client if she would share with the president of her company the work that she does helping people communicate more effectively. Each time my friend tried to explain what she did and how, the president would interrupt.

After multiple times of this, the lady who invited my friend started laughing.

"What?" asked the president, more than a bit irritated.

She Had No Idea What She Was Doing

To her credit, her direct report had the courage to say: "Joan (not her real name) this is exactly why I invited Dana (not her real name) to talk with you. You keep interrupting her and preventing her from talking. That's just what you do to the rest of us."

To HER credit, the president got over her immediate defensive response and practiced good listening.

If this president's direct report hadn't been brave enough to speak up, the president would have continued to alienate her team, and - just like the person with bad breath - never realize it.

The Cost of This Problem

I've been struck over the years by how many morale and loyalty crushing interactions employees still fume about, but have never told their bosses about (not surprisingly).

Even really good and conscientious bosses do things that diminish employee morale and engagement, but never realize it. When I was a supervisor, I had some of these moments of truth myself.

Fortunately, I had coached my team to be honest with me, so they let me know when I blew it, rather than not telling me and all of us paying a price for my not knowing and their simmering resentment.

Think of your own experience as an employee plus tales of woe you’ve heard from others. What is the cost when managers alienate others?

Just a Few Of The Costs:

1. Diminished employee engagement (i.e. not caring as much about helping their employer succeed)
2. Subtle ways of sabotaging the business – such as not working as hard, letting equipment get damaged (“Hey why should I care?”)
3. Not offering ideas that could help improve processes, etc.
4. Absenteeism
5. Turnover
6. "Payback" law suits

Here are a few resources to check out and share:

1) Here's a great article by Dr. Robert Sutton, author of "The No A*&*hole Rule" which I highly recommend. In this article, he shares some fascinating research on how, even if you're really conscientious, getting into a position of power can have a deleterious affect on your level of empathy, courtesy, etc. I HIGHLY recommend that you share this with others. It's for both:

- really "evolved" managers (and parents) who want to do and be their best

- "old school" or "toxic" managers who need a wake-up call

Are You a Jerk At Work?

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/greatergood/current_issue/Sutton.html


2) I also have 2 mini-seminar downloads (7-8 minute podcasts) for you that address this issue:

"Power May Bring Immunity From Feedback, But Not Reality"

"How to Make It Safe For People to Speak Honestly and Openly"

If you go to

http://switchpod.com/p15800.html

and scroll down the page, you'll find them.

Both stories are on my new CD:

The Mindful Manager
http://tinyurl.com/3b6sud

And... if you have stories of how you practice being mindful of how you affect people and/or your use of power (or bad examples), I'd love to hear from you.

P.S. If you're a parent, I highly recommend you check out all resources too, as the overarching principles are just as applicable to being a good parent