In conversations with my boss at work she’s not convinced you need to hand hold Gen Yers as much as Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y might be suggesting. She says that at some point Gen Yers just need to either figure it out on their own or have some freaking initiative.
I agree with her and I think what this book is trying to accomplish is give you the tools when dealing with a Gen Y workforce. Some Gen Yers are really motivated and won’t need nearly the amount of heavy usage of the tips in this book that others well. But some will need A LOT of you using the suggestions from this book with them.
What I’ve found since implementing some of the strategies is I’m getting better accountability from my Gen Y direct reports. At just way over half way through this book I can safely say I’m satisfied with it over all.
Teach Them How to Make a Plan
The assumption here is that Gen Yers already know how to take a project and break it into short-term goals and long-term deadlines. However, what author, Bruce Tulgan, has found through his research is that Gen Yers don’t really know how to make these plans and in fact their schedule for completing goals is really just best guesses.
Tulgan says you should teach Gen Yers how to start with a big project and then break it into manageable tasks. They need to set a realistic estimate regarding how much time each task will take and then set a timetable of short-term, definite deadlines for those tasks.
He says sometimes Gen Yers will resist making plans because in their opinion things change all the time anyway. The benefit of making a plan is that there will be real life interruptions to their best laid efforts and they need to know that they can deal with those interruptions and then get right back to their plan.
Teach Them to Take Notes and Use Checklists
Tulgan says in his research he’s heard many Gen Yers complain that they’ll ask for step-by-step directions how to do something only to be met with “I can’t do your job for you,” from managers. Of course the Gen Yer respond with “How am I supposed to do my job if you don’t show me how.”
This part particularly frustrates me because I learn by watching, reading, researching and of course asking people what to do but I don’t ask nearly as much as I find Gen Yers do.
The key here is to get Gen Yers to make detailed notes and be rigorous with checklist keeping in order to stay on task and do it with few errors.
Checklists are really useful tools. Pilots of airplanes, accounting firms and people responsible for launching nuclear missiles all use checklists for their job so why can’t you? Experienced managers suggest instructing Gen Yers to make very detailed checklists and to ensure they’re using them and actually putting checks beside their completed tasks.
If the Gen Yer isn’t completing tasks properly and using a checklist then that checklist needs to be more detailed.
Teach Them the Values of Good Workplace Citizenship
The author begins this portion of the chapter with the musings of an executive who says he used to be able to pick the good ones out of a crowd but not anymore. He says the clean cut one is just as likely to always show up late and bad mouth his coworkers as is the long-haried one with earphones in his ear is to always say “Yes sir,” and “No ma’am.”
Tulgan says the point of this is you shouldn’t be looking for what gives Gen Yers their deep down motivation, you shouldn’t try to figure out from an interview or a test what their values are. He also says it’s not your job to teach them values and you shouldn’t try anyways because their value system is none of your business.
I could be reading Tulgan wrong here but I think teaching them values – not by forcing them to go to church or attend etiquette classes – but by being the example is exactly what a boss should be doing in today’s age. However, Tulgan says you should focus on teaching them how to behave at work, not the values.
Define What It Means to be a Good Citizen in Your Company
Basically you need to set the rules what is and isn’t acceptable in your company and then live those rules. For example, Tulgan writes of one company who had a “no jerks” rule. Apparently the rule was a bit ambiguous but the premise was to do things like smile at people and be nice on the phone. Tulgan suggests you define what is really important to your company and then keep it simple. Then define what those important things look like. What does courtesy look like? How does honest sound? Finally you need to describe it, spell it out and break it down for the Gen Yers.
The hard part is navigating Gen Yers BS radar. While everyone can have an off day, Gen Yers will be watching closely to see if you live and breathe the rules you’ve laid out for them. So if you can’t avoid being a jerk on a regular basis – don’t have a no jerk rule.
Part 3 of Chapter 7
Yes, this is a long chapter so I’ve broken down into three parts. Next post I’ll discuss:
- You can’t teach good judgement but you can tach the habits of critical thinking
- Expose them to new experiences
- Teach them to be strategic
- Teach them to look at past experiences – there own and others’
- Self-evaluation is the begginging, middle and end of self-management
