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This is the longest chapter in Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y so far, so I’ll be splitting chapter seven into three parts with this being part one.

Chapter seven focuses on helping Gen Yers learn to how to manage themselves at work. Bruce Tulgan says lots of Gen Yers come into the job having an advanced set of skills having developed their specialties at a young age. He cautions today’s managers who insist they didn’t have their hands held when it came to doing things like showing up on time, dressing appropriately or refraining from cussing on the job. Managers will have to do what they can to help Gen Yers fill in these gaps of maturity they also bring along.

Tulgan says managers need to teach them to care about the basics, teach them to be more aware of those gaps in their repertoires. and to fill those gaps one at a time. Read More

I read a lot of Seth Godin on the Internet, mostly at his blog, but I’ve never bought one of his books. For my birthday and Christmas I asked for two of them:

1. All Marketers Are Liars
2. Meatball Sundae

Godin wrote on his blog a while back that all the information in his books are also available for free on his blog, all you have to do is sift through the posts to find it. While that is true, it’s like saying all the ingredients to make mushroom risotto are available in the grocery store and all I have to do is buy them and prepare it. Going to a restaurant is quicker and easier so for the same reason, I asked for these two books.

I only received All Marketers are Liars and I haven’t picked up Meatball Sundae yet but I think a combination of watching Seth on the TED Web site, reading numerous reviews and keeping up with his blog, reading the book wouldn’t add much value to what I’ve already discovered. All Marketers Are Liars is an older book and wasn’t discussed on his site as much as his newer titles so giving it a read seemed like a good investment. In all I read it over two weekends and his style of writing is very conversational which I enjoy. Read More

Found this on the Make Magazine Web site. I buy Make in the bookstore every couple of months and dream that I would have the time or even the aptitude to tackle even 10% of the projects. Same goes for the reason why I’ve been subscribing to Canadian Home Workshop for several years and get all giddy when the Lee Valley Tools catalogues show up. The good news about this is I actually could probably replicate it! Yeah, I can use a camera and tripod!

flight patterns from Charlie McCarthy on Vimeo.

A few weekends ago I picked The Age of Speed off my bookshelf. I usually read one book at home, one on audio book in the car and then one at the office. I had just finished reading Here Comes Everybody and while I have been thinking of reading The Starbucks Experience, this one had been sitting on my shelf for a while.

Author Vince Poscente’s overall theme is there are four type of businesses today, Zeppelins, Balloons, Bottle Rockets and Jets, but only one of them will lead to continued success.

Jets are the companies that recognize speed is a natural phenomenon of today’s society, grasp hold of it and align their business with characteristics of the speed economy will be the only ones who realize true growth and success. Read More

I worked from home on Friday and enjoyed the long-weekend off. I actually read another book, The Age of Speed that I’ll be discussing in a later post, but for now, back to Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How To Manage Generation Y.

The fourth chapter focused on how to treat, or interact, with Generation Y workers. The second half of the chapter specifically dealt with creating a reward system for Gen Yers.

Chapter four is titled “Practice In Loco Parentis Management,” which is Latin for in place of the parent. It has traditionally been used for a place where a school or a ward would be in charge of care for the child, but author Bruce Tulgan likens it to taking over the tutoring aspects of your Gen Y employees without taking over the emotional growth responsibility that is definitely reserved for the actual parent. Read More

Today I read chapter three of Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How To Manage Generation Y titled “Get them up to speed quickly and turn them into knowledge workers.” Again, author Bruce Tulgan provides an easy to read, step-by-step plan on making Gen Yers great employees.

Day one for a Gen Yer is the most important day, Tulgan’s metaphor is to plan for a Gen Yer’s first day of work like you would plan for your child’s birthday party.

Gen Yers want to hit the ground running but they don’t want to be put in to sink or swim situations. They want to hit the ground running with lots of support and guidance every step of the way. Read More

Chapter two of Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y is titled “Get them on board fast with the right messages,” and focuses on recruiting and hiring Gen Yers.

What I’m really enjoying about this book is the practical advice author Bruce Tulgan gives that you can put in to action right away. I’ll feature a few tips in this post Read More

I recently began reading Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y by author Bruce Tulgan. I picked up because in my job as the Communications Manager I regularly work with two full-time employees who are my direct reports and then upwards of 15 part-time student employees who are also direct reports and as many as 30 part-time students who work on the Student Association who are not my direct reports but who I am engaged with on a regular basis. Read More

I took this from Harvard Business Review online. It’s not the actual story, How to Perfect an Elevator Pitch About Yourself, it’s actually from a follow-up comment the author left after readers had asked questions.

Thanks for your comment and great question on what a makes a personal “headline” work. I think in order for a 1-sentence encapsulation of who you are and what you can offer to really resonate with an employer, it needs to have 3 characteristics.

1. It needs to be utterly genuine. What do you think your value to en employer really is? What have you been proudest of in your work life? What do you love to do? If you focus on those things, your energy will come through.

2. It should focus on things that most managers and leaders find difficult, or grapple with. What thorny problem can your particular talents solve?

3. It should paint a picture of a rosy future for the hiring manager him- or herself, and/or for the corporation. Who doesn’t want to “shine”?

Here are a few examples that I have heard in the past, and found really compelling. They are specific, but then again, all personal taglines need to be.

“My specialty is taking messy and complex processes and streamlining them.”

“I can teach any junior person how to work effectively with data and numbers.”

“I’m a ‘fixer’. I’ve turned around distressed businesses and departments before, and those are the situations I thrive in.”

“My core skill is gathering information, often from people who don’t want to give it up. I’m persistent, curious, effective – and I dig deep.”

- Posted by Daisy Wademan Dowling

I came across this neat idea over at SoulPancake.com, the idea is you write a ten-word biography of yourself. I thought it would be a challenging exercise to both sum up your life thus far and then only have ten words in which to do it.

Here’s mine:

Parents kicked me out, found myself in my love, Alison

And here is the love of my life:

This is us circa many, many years ago at a friend’s wedding.

What would your ten-word biography be?