Talk about diversity of perspective and opinion! Five different generations in the workplace provide just that. And smart employers will jump on the opportunity to build loyality, commitment, and purpose while also contributing to the bottom line.
Baby Boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, and Millennials or Gen Y, those born 1977 and 1997, often are portrayed as two generations that don’t always see eye to eye in the workplace.
In their formative years, Boomers were influenced by the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, space travel, and the Cold War with Russia. Millennials were influenced by digital media, school shootings, terrorist attacks, and 9/11.
Despite these differences, though, these two generations may share something in common that could help bridge the generation gap.
What’s that?
Leveraging differences between generations
Both groups long to find a purpose in their careers beyond a paycheck.
Everyone has been made for some particular work and the desire for that work has been put in every heart. ~Rumi
Millennials worry about how much money they earn, but also about how they earn it. They gain satisfaction from their work when they feel they are contributing to something larger and more valuable than the company’s earnings.
Baby Boomers, idealistic in their youth, somewhere along the way became part of the system they fought to change. Now, nearing retirement, many look back and wonder what kind of legacy they will leave. They’re reigniting their earlier desire to add meaning to life.
As we see it, tapping into the two generations’ longing for meaningful work can create an improved outlook for businesses.
Here’s a few reasons why we think smart employes should tap into this opportunity:
⇒ Everything a company says and does contributes to building its brand. Because of this, the actions and attitudes of employees are central to the brand experience for the customers.
⇒ Too many companies begin their pursuit of success by focusing on profit. A better route to sustainable success is to flip traditional business thinking upside down and start with purpose. Purpose drives performance, and performance drives profits.
⇒ Customers feel better about buying from or working with brands they connect with in some way. When they connect with the purpose for why a company exists, customers feel as if they’re a part of something meaningful, just as the employees do. This deeper relationship adds value to every interaction that customers have with the company, which builds loyalty for the brand.
People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it. ~Simon Sinek
When there’s two generations—one older, one younger—and both are seeking greater meaning at work, well, there’s an incredible opportunity.
However, that opportunity to build both employee and customer satisfaction can only be realized if a company’s purpose and values align and connect with employees on a level beyond the bottom line.
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Today’s contributors are Jackie Dryden, author and Chief Purpose Architect with Savage Brands, and Bethany Andell, author and president of Savage Brands.
While there are many factors for the job seeker to consider in landing that new job, one element that’s often overlooked is particularly critical—and that’s job references.
Your employment references will surely be vetted by prospective employers and can ultimately make-or-break the hiring decision.
Unfortunately, job seekers are too often unaware or misinformed of how job reference vetting really works.
6 job reference myths
Here are 6 false perceptions that explain why countless job seekers go for months, or years, without landing that next job.
Myth No. 1: Companies cannot say anything negative about a former employee.
Reality:
While countless companies have policies dictating that only title, dates of employment, and salary history can be discussed, their employees—particularly at the management level—frequently violate these policies. Former supervisors are particularly notorious in this regard, e.g. the boss with whom you had philosophical differences was jealous of you or perhaps even have harassed you. Incredibly, approximately 50% of our clients receive a bad reference, despite strict policies in place.
Myth No. 2: HR always follow the rules.
Reality:
Most corporations direct reference check requests to their Human Resources departments, and they are trained to ensure that nothing negative will be said about me. Most HR professionals do follow proper protocol.
However, be warned: some do not.
When asked whether a former employee is eligible for rehire, some will indicate they are not and may go on to explain why this is the case. Even if they say “not eligible” and offer no further explanation, a potential employer is unlikely to take the risk of hiring you without knowing the reason why a past employer has described you as ineligible for rehire.
Myth No. 3: Assuming HR has nothing negative to say about me, I should be “OK” with the hiring company reference-wise.
Reality:
Prospective employers have figured out that former supervisors are much more likely to offer revealing commentary about former employees. Your supervisor(s) knew you personally and has formed opinions about you, favorable or otherwise. When asked for their opinion, supervisors frequently forget, or are unaware of, company policies that typically instruct them to refer incoming reference inquiries to HR.
Prospective employers invariably seek this supervisory input. (How many times have you been asked “May we contact your former supervisor?”) For this reason, it’s critical that you are aware not only of how HR will respond to reference inquiries about you but how your former supervisor(s) will respond as well.
Myth No. 4: I should have my references listed on my resume and distribute them together.
Reality:
You never want to list your references on your resume or indicate “References Provided Upon Request.” You don’t want companies that may have little or no interest in hiring you bothering your references.
What’s more, you may be wrongly assuming that the references you list truly “have your back.” Countless job seekers offer up the names of references that ultimately provide lukewarm or unfavorable commentary about them.
Instead, you should cultivate your management references carefully, treat them with respect, and update them periodically as a courtesy. In addition, you should have a list of your references readily available (in the same format/font as your resume) to be given to prospective employers. When you offer this list—in a highly professional manner—at the conclusion of an interview, you create a very proactive (and favorable) ending impression.
Equally critical is to have a third-party reference checking organization check your key references. When that step is taken, you learn what previous employers will offer about you to potential new employers. This check ensures that your key references—organizations, previous supervisors, and HR representatives—are truly offering supportive commentary about you.
Myth No. 5: Thinking that a former company against which you took legal action isn’t allowed to say anything negative.
Reality:
The former employer may have been instructed not to say anything definitive, however, don’t assume they’ll skip the chance to make your life difficult. There have been countless instances in which a former boss or an HR staffer has said, “Hold on a minute while I get the legal file to see what I am allowed to say about this former employee.” Most employers are uncomfortable hiring someone who has a legal history. That discomfort may dash your job prospects.
Myth No. 6: Even if I have a negative reference, there is no way for me to prevent a company from continuing to share it.
Reality:
There is something you can do.
Your first step is to obtain documentation that a reference(s) is indeed problematic by utilizing a professional reference-checking firm to document both the verbal input and the tone of voice being offered by your reference. Once a problem reference has been confirmed, the reference-checking firm can identify an employment attorney well versed in assessing possible legal options. One such legal option is sending a “Cease & Desist” letter that suggests that if the reference-giver continues to offer such negative input, legal action would be contemplated against the firm.
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Today’s contributor,AllisonTaylorand its principals, have been checking references for corporations and individuals since 1984.
Are you an employer spending lots of time puzzling over what you need to do to attract millennials? Concerned about retaining those young people once you hire them? Thinking you need to change your workplace culture?
If so, you’re not alone.
Many companies adjust their corporate culture to better appeal to the generation that’s expected to make up half the global workforce by 2020. A generation that’s said to be uncomfortable with rigid corporate structures. A generation that expects rapid progression and wants constant feedback.
If you’re desperate to recruit millennials, have you stopped to consider that how you’re looking at the situation is all wrong?
When companies talk about attracting and retaining millennials, they often take a surface approach. By that I mean, those companies treat millennials uniquely, but that’s not the way they should do it. There’s not one approach you should take with your overall workforce and a separate one to take for millennials.
Your company will enjoy more success if you don’t try to be all things to all millennials. Instead, aim to be an employer of choice where all good people want to work.
An organization will do fine provided it’s willing to get to the core of what it believes in and then holds true to those beliefs. Part of that exercise involves providing a sense of organizational clarity. Clarity makes people want to work for an organization.
Both millennials and those of other generations appreciate clarity. When companies don’t have clarity or are untrue about their purpose, employees become lost. They disconnect and become more likely to look elsewhere for jobs, regardless of their age group.
Be a place where people want to work
To attract all good employees, including millennials, and keep all of them around for the long haul, companies should:
Be clear about their vision.
The most critical ingredient to achieving business success is having clarity.
Having clarity means an organization is clear about its purpose, vision, and the roles of those who carry out the purpose and vision, regardless of what generation the employee belongs to.
Communicate often and well.
Successful companies explain to their employees and job candidates how things are done at the company and what is expected of them. Once people are told how things are, they can opt in or opt out. Usually they’ll opt in. If a company fails to be clear about their expectations and beliefs, people will opt out.
Keep things positive.
Keeping an upbeat atmosphere is essential to a company’s culture and to keeping employees happy. If employers can find a way to encourage a positive outlook and attitude, employees from every generation will be more motivated and will perform their jobs better.
Companies can have practices that engage millennials, however, there must be a holistic view of who the company is and what the company culture is. Having that alone is a hook for millennials—and those of any generation. A company doesn’t have to change their company culture to bring millennials in.
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Today’s guest contributor is Brad Deutser, president of Deutser LLC, a consulting firm that advises leaders and organizations about achieving clarity, especially in times of transition, growth, or crisis.
There’s a new generation in town, and it’s one that employers better get ready for. That generation is 23 million strong and will be flooding the workforce by the end of the decade. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Generation Z.
Generation Z:
Is a confidence-filled group that doesn’t want to miss a thing.
Has the shortest attention span of any generation.
Isn’t quite as open as its predecessors—the millennials—from whom they learned that not everything needs to be shared online.
Wants to change the world.
If employers treat those in Generation Z (born in the mid to late ‘90s to mostly to Generation X parents) like they treated Millennials (born in the early ‘80s to mid ‘90s, to mostly Baby Boomer parents), it will backfire on them. Generation Z is unique, and they best get ready for that.
My experience has shown me several differences in perspective that exist between Millennials and Generation Z.
According to research done by McKinsey, Generation Z is on a search for the truth. “Gen Zers value individual expression and avoid labels. They mobilize themselves for a variety of causes. They believe profoundly in the efficacy of dialogue to solve conflicts and improve the world. Finally, they make decisions and relate to institutions in a highly analytical and pragmatic way.”
According to author and generations expert David Stillman, you won’t find those in Generation Z frequenting Facebook or Twitter as much as their predecessors. Keenly aware of software monitoring, Gen Z are more likely to share their worlds on apps such as Snapchat or Instagram.
Being culturally connected is more important to Generation Z than to Millennials. Many more Gen Zers suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out) than Millennials do.
Those in Generation Z, often dubbed digital natives, have grown up with smart phones, tablets, 3-D, 4-D, and 360-degree photography, which means keeping the attention of a Gen Zer is harder than ever. Their average attention span is eight seconds. Compare that to the 12-second attention span of Millennials.
Millennials are driven to succeed by helicopter parents who watched their every move. Generation Z receives encouragement from parents who urge independent thinking, want them to achieve on their own, and are fed up with not receiving equal pay for equal success at work.
According to an article on Forbes, “millennials may be entitled, but Gen Zers are hyperaware of entitlement and working hard to forge their own path. In fact, according to a report from Adweek, Gen Zers are eager to educate themselves: 33% watch lessons online, 20% read textbooks on tablets and 32% work with classmates via the Internet.”
Social entrepreneurship is important to Generation Z. Why? They’re driven to volunteer and often choose a career in which they can make a difference. There are those who hope the
Generation Z children were raised in classrooms focused on diversity and collaboration. According to Forbes, “A recent MTV reportindicates that 91% of surveyed Gen Zers use technology to gain perspective on people different from themselves, and they believe tech can help them manifest their big ideas to improve the world.” Millennials are often described as the “me-generation.”
Gen Zers tend to be more private than Millennials. Perhaps that difference is a result of seeing the downfall of previous generations in the recent Great Recession.
Because Generation Z feels pressure to gain corporate experience early, they are competing with Millennials who are more likely to wait to gain that same type of experience. The good news for Millennials, who are more likely to chase jobs in the corporate world, is that 72 percent of those in Generation Z wish to take what they learn and apply it to their own business. Only 64 percent of Millennials have the same goal.
As McKinsey points out, the orientation of Gen Zers should be of significant importance to companies and prospective employers. “Companies should be attuned to three implications for this generation: consumption as access rather than possession, consumption as an expression of individual identity, and consumption as a matter of ethical concern.”
Smart employers will start getting ready right now.
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Today’s LeadBIG contributor, Matt Stewart, is co-founder of College Works Painting, which provides real-world business experience through internships for thousands of college students each year.
Louie was doing his job well, He was actively selling Marie on all the reasons why she needed to list his firm’s talent assessment on her company’s website. His boss would have been proud if he could have heard him.
He mentioned making money three times and improving metrics four times in response to Marie’s questions.
“Louie, thank you for reaching out,” said Marie. “I appreciate you taking the time to go things with me and answer my questions. From where I stand, there isn’t an alignment between our companies’ interests, so a partnership isn’t going to work.”
“If I may ask, what interests aren’t aligned?”
“Metrics and money.”
“Wait a minute, Marie. Aren’t you interested in metrics and making money?”
“I am, just in a different way than you are.”
“What’s different?”
“Money and metrics tell me our business is doing well, but they aren’t the reasons we’re in business.”
Back in the 1950’s, the average lifespan of a business was 61 years; today, it’s around 18. Marie wants to beat both of those metrics. Her moonshot goal is achieving what the Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan Hotel in Japan has done. The hotel opened in 705 AD and is still operating. Impressive.
Professor Makoto Kanda from Meiji Gakuin University studied the Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan Hotel and other long-term operating businesses to understand their longevity. His findings? These long-term organizations focus on a central belief, a purpose, that isn’t solely tied to making a profit.
That’s different! An orientation to something more than money and metrics is hard to find in most Wall Street analyses and reporting.
Numbers falls short when measuring success
Quantitative metrics are valuable for tracking and assessing the effectiveness of a specific business process. However, making quantitative metrics the only measure of success creates a number of other issues such as:
While many experts promote metrics and AI as the antidote to bias, that’s not really the case. Bias is built into data and algorithms, and that bias can skew greater over time as the algorithms learn.
Initiative, innovation, and risk-taking lose out because they tend to harm metrics.
The long-term is sacrificed for the short-term.
Certain stakeholders are marginalized because of their minimal role in achieving the “right” numbers.
People fall into binary, either/or thinking patterns that tend to produce an artificial value hierarchy between business practices. For example, it’s not uncommon for companies to believe that improving the bottom line is more important than employee engagement or development.
Quantitative measurements do help people manage more efficiently. However, using a mix of quantitative and qualitative metrics makes managers both more efficient and effective.
A study by James Zenger found that 14 percent of employees viewed a manager who focused only on results as being a good manager. Twelve percent thought a manager who focused on relationships was good.
What about managers who delivered both results and relationships?
72 percent of employees saw them as a good manager. The really sad study finding? Less than one percent of managers focus on both results and relationships.
85 percent of managers prefer either results or relationships. Emphasizing one preference over another means there’s a counter balancing factor that isn’t being used. Picture the playground teeter-totter with one side up and the other down. A singular focus on metrics (teeter up) results in workplaces where employees aren’t fully engaged (teeter down).
The reverse is true, too. Too much emphasis on relationships and too little on results puts sustained business performance in jeopardy.
Going for both money and meaning
Marie’s business, the Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan Hotel, and the one percent in Zenger’s study focus on actions that aren’t solely tied to making a profit.
These individuals and organizations have mastered “teeter-totter” leadership in that they balanceboth quantitative and qualitative aspects of managing and leading. They:
Get things done and are kind
Have high standards and give positive feedback
Have a plan and interact with people
Speak directly and are encouraging
Are decisive and consider impacts on others
Are analytical and have good interpersonal skills
Provide direction and listen to feedback
Are candid and show empathy
Think about today and tomorrow
Are self-aware and trust others
Compete externally and collaborate internally
Measure KPIs as well as smiles and laughter
Deliver the numbers and make people feel valued
Think about places where you’ve worked. Did you thrive in an environment where you were only as good as your last set of numbers? Or where you felt like you were valued and made a difference and were held accountable for solid work performance?
Now think about your leadership legacy. Do you want people to think of you as the boss who only cared about money and metrics, or as the boss they willingly followed because he/she focused on a central belief that wasn’t solely tied to making a profit?
When I was growing up, I envied the little boy next door. His mom asked him questions. Would you like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or soup for lunch? Will you spend the afternoon reading a book or playing?
That’s not how it worked at my house. My folks, especially mom, told me how it was going to be.
While I don’t think Mom intended for it to turn out this way, her telling style was a good life lesson. How so? It prepared me to deal with command-and-control style bosses who wanted answers straight up.
As I grew older, the questions my dad asked took a different twist. He asked lots of questions that began with “have you thought about,”“how/why,” or “help me understand.” Dad said he wanted to make sure I thought things through.
He prepared me to work for bosses who wanted thoughtful answers and options that demonstrated a command of the issues.
I worked for a boss a few years into my career who asked a whole new style of questions. He tested both the logic and emotion of his employees.
His rational was like that of Socrates, who was “well known for using questioning to probe the validity of an assumption, analyze the logic of an argument, and explore the unknown.”
That boss wanted to know how we were going to achieve both quality and quantity or how we would meet our short-term goals without jeopardizing our long-term position. Answering his questions required deeper thought and analysis of the big picture.
Only years later did it hit me that these individuals had gifted me with a well-rounded repertoire of knowing how to respond to or deal with different types of questions.
The key to wisdom is this: constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question, by questioning we arrive at the truth. ~Peter Abelard
Questions lead to discovery and meaning. They can eliminate confusion or point to hidden agendas. They help us reflect, develop critical thinking skills, or clarify intent and understanding. Questions help us make sense of our surroundings, distinguish fact from fiction, or define our purpose. Questions provoke lively debate, satisfy our curiosity, and prompt us to assess our assumptions.
A good question can disrupt, inspire, show humility, and open closed doors.
Research done by O.C. Tanner Institute showed that “asking the right question increased the odds of someone’s work having a positive affect on others by 4.1 times. It made the outcome 3.1 times more likely to be deemed important, 2.8 times more likely to create passion in the doer, and 2.7 times more likely to make a positive impact on the organization’s bottom line.” That’s powerful stuff.
He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever. ~Chinese proverb
So why do we ask less and less as we get older?
Tom Pohlmann and Neethi Mary Thomas with Mu Sigma polled 200 of their clients on question asking. Clients who had children estimated that 70-80% of their kids’ dialogues with others were comprised of questions.
However, those same clients guessed that only 15-25% of their own interactions consisted of questions. Tom and Neethi attribute the reduction in the number of questions asked by the adults to working in a you-need-to-get-it-done-yesterday business environment.
Their advice?
“Leaders should encourage people to ask more questions, based on the goals they’re trying to achieve, instead of having them rush to deliver answers. In order to make the right decisions, people need to start asking the questions that really matter.”
Asking questions that really matter + actively listening to the answer + critically reviewing what’s been shared = a good thing.
