We continue with part two of this interesting article on the challenges of managing Generation Y...
Generation Yers have an eye to improve how things are done, and they are constantly noting a manager’s behaviors as examples of how they themselves might act in future endeavors. They also have a discerning eye for the difference between “fake” mentoring and genuine interest. They are hypersensitive to being brushed off and given a canned answer. The people in their lives who take the time to show a genuine interest are the ones they are willing to work hard for.
Maybe it’s because their parents were so busy earning dual incomes, working long hours and trying to get ahead that Generation Yers really value the highly engaging time with their parents and other authority figures. Generation Yers will not waste their time paying attention to someone if they think they’re viewed as an expendable asset and unworthy of the time. They will write you off as a heartless manager, and their loyalty will soon fade.
So, the first strategy is to mentor and mean it. Use every opportunity as a learning moment; see it as a chance to share wisdom with them or help them learn from your mistakes or missteps.
Take off your defensive hat and put on your development hat, and start speaking from a new reference point. Try not to infer their motives, but instead keep an open mind about their ideas. If you give them the benefit of the doubt and believe they are asking out of curiosity, then you view the questioning from a different framework.
Since baby boomers tend to be political and suspicious, they assume others are just as political and suspicious as they are and often begin to play a power game. This is simply not the case with Generation Yers. Their questioning is much more innocent than that. It can truly be a desire to make a process improvement on something that might strike them as bureaucratic, not a question of your authority.
Leave the tones of power and authority out of the picture. Generation Yers won’t pick up on the subtle messages anyway and instead will be annoyed by your lack of candor.
Be sure to answer their “why” questions before they even ask them. Stay a step ahead of them by giving frequent and detailed briefings that provide information they wouldn’t be able to gather on their own.
Give them the benefits of your experience, the history and context of a situation, your thorough understanding of the corporate political climate, some big-picture thinking, tips on how to deal with that difficult colleague or the inside “scoop.”
This is the purest form of mentoring you could do without having to label it “mentoring” in the context of a one-on-one formal session. By doing this, you will build credibility with Generation Yers and, in the process, create loyal employees because you have touched them at a personal level, instead of seeing them as just a cog in the wheel to drive up the bottom line.
Accept Technology
Baby boomers are constantly frustrat-ed with the “in-one-ear-and-out-the-other” phenomenon. Yes, Generation Y processes information selectively due to the abundance of MTV images and resources at their fingertips. They can’t take it all in so they don’t take it all in, and they bring these behaviors to work. This makes them appear slippery about accountability and sometimes leads to end products that are incomplete. This is especially true when they act like they “got it” but actually didn’t and tuned you out too quickly. And maybe some of them are just like workers from other generations who lack accountability.
Take the judgment out of it. Creating a tug-of-war about whose responsibility it is to hear the other just adds more tension and creates a paternalistic, controlling, micromanaging environment that is miserable for the boss and employee. › This is a management issue, not a values conflict or some heavy principle you must win.
Prevention is the answer. Let’s create a new accountability structure and use new technology to do so. Anticipate they won’t remember or hear you clearly, and make sure that doesn’t happen:
- Require an e-mail response confirming their understanding of the project and direction you have just given.
- Ask to see them capture the “to do” in their BlackBerry.
- Ask that they factor in a tickler system that automatically reminds them what their due dates are.
Use the technology to stay in constant communication on the project. Tell them you expect them to e-mail or text message you regular updates on a project. This way you will respond with your thoughts and advice using their technology, and suddenly you have the immediacy they like and the accountability you need and want.
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