Debates Geny Y Style!

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The Helicopter's Continue!

Check this article out!
http://www.thetartan.org/2007/11/19/news/parents

Are Millennials Down with CEO Whip Crackers?

In the recent article by George Anders in the Wall Street Journal he highlights a study done by a Professors Steven Kaplan out of the University of Chicago Business School.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119543240896797405.html

His major finding:

"We found that 'hard' skills which are all about getting things done, were paramount,"

"Soft skills centering on teamwork weren't as pivotal. That was a bit of a surpise to us."

You will have to read the article to get more information on this study. But I found it interesting that the CEO's who are being celebrated as effective are those that "get the job done" rather then those who include the team. I wonder how this is going to play out with Gen Y as they hit the workforce? Gen Y tends to want to work for organizations where they can collaborate with others and value immensly being involved in the process. If CEO's who are effective tend to lean more towards command and control to get the job done. I am not sure in the future they are going to be very good at retaining people. It would be interesting to take a look at these qoute on qoute effective CEO's and see what the retention is like at their companies.

The Most Important Skill in the 21st Century

"The most important skill in the 21st centruy is to learn to how to learn."
The World is Flat: Thomas Freidman

The Curse of Helicopter Parents on Leadership

There is a new generation coming to the workforce (Those born between the ages of 1981 – 1998). Some call them Millennials, others call them GenNexters. Whatever you call us we are a new and distinctly different generation. Get ready because we are your next generation of leaders. One of the traits being stereotyped on us is that we are lacking the ability to connect the dots. When trying to achieve a simple task some of us need a little more guidance to complete the task. For some this is true. The root cause: over zealous parents, parents who do too much for their children. No doubt you only want the best for us, but you are over coddling us, negating our ability to connect the dots and to eventually become leaders. I recently heard an executive from a major U.S Insurance Company exclaim:

“The other day I told my daughter to take a bath so she went up stairs to take a bath. About ten minutes later I asked my husband if she had gotten in the bath, he said no she is just sitting in there. I asked my daughter why she did not get in the bath, she said to me ‘I got in the bath but you did not tell me to turn the water on.’ Baffled, I asked her to take a bath and turn the water on.”

While this story certainly seems a bit exaggerated, it makes a good point. Those parenting our generation have gotten so over involved in our lives that they hinder our ability to connect the dots necessary to complete the simplest tasks. This inability will have wide sweeping negative effects on our ability to be leaders. A critical attribute a leader must have is the ability to see what needs to be done and connect the dots necessary to get the task done. in other words to take the initiative.

Although it is critical that parents raise their children in such a way that they can develop the skills necessary to connect the dots, the responsibility does not rest on the parents. Those who have been cursed by a helicopter parent need to understand that they are ultimately responsible for their own life and if they aspire to be a leader they will need to learn how to overcome the curse.

See the next post for overcoming the curse.

Millenial Leaders and the Five Practices

In a recent article in IndustryWeek Jim Kouzes was quoted as saying that “Collaboration is a social imperative – without it you can’t get extraordinary things done in organizations.” Not only is collaboration critical to successfully getting things done in organizations, but to the newest generation of workers, namely the Millenials (those born between the years of 1980 and 2000), collaboration is a breaking point. I am talking about the kind of collaboration where your voice is actually viewed as legit and is taken seriously as a viable perspective to contribute to the greater good. This doesn’t mean that our opinions have to be agreed with, but it means that we have to feel listened too and that we are contributing to solving meaningful challenges.

Those of you who have had a Millennial in your office you know what I am talking about. We are the type who wants to share our opinion on everything, even when it is not wanted. This is because we grew up sharing our opinion and collaborating. For many of us we collaborated with our parents even about how they disciplined us when we did something wrong. Simply asking what we think will not work.

I was recently reflecting back on my experience in school and figured that by the time I got to college I had already been to at least five trainings and four week long camps where I either learned or taught skills like collaboration, communication, and team work. Nonetheless my generation is coming to the workforce with a lot of unprecedented skills to share, the companies that will win our allegiance in the up-and-coming labor crunch (your aught to read up on this one) will be those who learn how to value what we have to say and help us contribute to the organization in a meaningful way.

Secondly, if you want the Millenials to come to work for you after college you will have to increase your M-Factor. What do I mean by the M-Factor? The M-Factor is the degree in which employees perceive the organization as contributing to a meaningful cause or the greater good in society. This Generation perhaps more then any other, because they were raised by parents who experience/lived the 70’s have an innate desire to contribute to the greater good. As a result when organizations create a vision for their organization that includes influencing the world for the greater good their M-Factor will increase. In turn organizations will do much better in the recruiting arena if they wear their M-Factor on their shirt sleeve.

Now how does all this relate to leadership…many of the top organizations are run by a command and control bureaucratic structure. This type of organizational structure fly’s in the face of the way Millenials want to be engaged at work. Leaders who have a command and control organization realistically are not going to be able to change their organizational structure over night, but in the mean time they can carve out a space within the organization where Millenials feel like they can contribute and collaborate for a greater good. Secondly, organizational leaders should take a look at the Ten Commitments correlating with each of the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. If leaders learn how to lead with the Five Practices they will be a millennial ahead in engaging the future workforce. In their essence the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership speak vibrantly for the Millennial Generation and our approach to getting things done.