How Do You Manage the Generation Mix?-Here is Your Performance Report!

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Employee Development Systems, Inc.

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May 17, 2010

The Accountability Company

Accountability
Employee Engagement
Professionalism
Leadership Skills
Multi-Generational Issues

7308 South Alton Way, Suite 2J
Dry Creek Business Park
Centennial, Colorado 80112
800.282.3374

Bookmark News You Can Use

In This Issue:

Can You Manage across the Generations?

Here Comes the Gen X Executive!

Situation Room: Feedback in a Defensive Setting

Author Interview: Dr. Ollie Malone

Learn More!

Generational Styles Kit

Chances are, you've struggled with someone older--or younger--who just doesn't see things your way. This assessment will help you understand the differences between the generations and identify ways to "flex" your own behavior to better work with or manage people of all ages.

This kit includes the facilitator's manual and a copy of the Generational Style Assessment.

The Biggest Blind Spot in Almost Every Organization

We have spent over 30 years working with organizations to help them develop the core skills that elicit the best performance and increased personal effectiveness from their employees. We have helped thousands of people become more accountable, productive and engaged in their workplace.

Here is an easy-to-understand infographic to help you utilize your human capital.

Get inspired by the latest EDSI videocasts!

Stop by our webstore for a complete library of employee development and leadership resources.

Thank you for being part of the EDSI community!

Regards,

The EDSI Team

Can You Manage across the Generations?

Whether you are a team leader, manager or seasoned executive, you are likely playing a daily tug of war with the generations.

The workplace includes Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y, and they all have unique characteristics that drive their professional (and personal) priorities. Here are some quick takeaways for managing the generations in your workplace:

Maintain Focus – Help members clearly define how their talents, skills and expertise make a direct impact on the organization's mission and goals.

Takeaway: Find out if your team is invested in the organization's mission, and decide if it is still relevant. How can it be redefined or refined to address the newer generations in the workplace, while also holding on to the investment that the more experienced staff have?

Communicate – Create easy-to-use communication vehicles that cross the boundaries of communication styles.

Takeaway: Maintain consistent one-on-one sessions with team members, but reconsider the weekly team meeting. Is everyone sitting through cumbersome updates, with only 10% of the content relating to each member? This saps energy from employees and discourages communication, because they are all watching the clock.

Customize – Customize incentives to keep staff energized and engaged in doing their work faster, safer and more cost-effectively.

Takeaway: Learn to customize everything from scheduling, assignments, work location and financial incentives. This way you will be able to garner loyalty from all of your staff, regardless of the generational mix!

Here Comes the Gen X Executive!

If you consider yourself a member of the Gen X generation, then you have a few distinguishing traits. You were born between 1961-1981, tend to be wary of institutions, probably have a strong entrepreneurial spirit and are used to working independently, to name a few.

As someone who joined the workplace in the 1980s, you also are next in line for the executive and management class. Here are some unique leadership qualities that Gen Xers bring to the table:

Increased collaborative capacity. Members of Generation X tend to make effective use of complex knowledge and foster innovations through the contributions of many.
Present thought-provoking ideas. Gen Xers tend to look outward. They are likely to pose compelling questions to the team, and look for answers from a wide variety of sources.
Welcome disruptive information. This is an important one. The tendency of executive management to oversimplify an issue in order to gain "clarity" is also a detriment. Generation X managers welcome new information and can successfully assimilate it into the decision-making process.

If you are an emerging Generation X manager or executive, click on the Actions Steps to learn key management strategies.

Situation Room: Feedback in a Defensive Setting

Janis is a network engineer who joined the organization a few months ago. She has missed the mark in numerous technical aspects, which indicates that she doesn't understand her work and the system she is (supposedly) responsible for.

You are her manager, and you have been fielding complaint calls from your client and from Janis's colleagues. Yesterday you tried to give her constructive feedback, but she reacted defensively. The two of you exchanged words, and you ended up criticizing her work more broadly than you had intended to. Now Janis is upset and angry. She may even quit.

What would you do?

Author Interview: Dr. Ollie Malone

Our interview this time is with Dr. Ollie Malone, author of 101 Leadership Actions for Creating and Maintaining Virtual Teams, 101 Leadership Ideas for Effective Presentations, and 101 Leadership Actions for Performance Management (HRD Press).

Dr. Malone has spent over 30 years working in major corporations as an executive, developer of executives, consultant, author and speaker. He holds a bachelor's degree in Communication, a master's degree in hearing and speech, a master of business administration degree, a Ph.D. in adult learning and development, and a D.Min. in transformational leadership.

How has the recent economic situation affected the way people structure their personal and professional lives?

Many leaders are looking for ways to improve the overall quality of life for employees in their organizations—especially when they are less able to do so through financial means.

One approach that many of these companies are using is one that allows employees to work from home one day a week, multiple days a week, or allows them to work from home 100% of the time. But, in most cases, these companies don’t know how to manage employees they cannot see.

The historical assumption was that if employees are there in their cubicles or offices, they were working. Somehow, we didn’t consider that they could be playing solitaire, managing a sideline real estate business, or lining up interviews for their next opportunity. What the current increase in employees working in a non-residential capacity is pointing out is the fact that we didn’t know how to manage their work EVER, and the current situation only brings that reality into sharper focus.

How do you think people have changed the way they approach organizational development?

Since OD (organization development) tends to be the first cousin of training and development, it has often suffered the same fate as T&D: when times get hard, programs, services, and staff gets cut. This penny-wise-and-pound-foolish approach has been institutionalized in most organizations without giving a moment’s consideration to whether this approach makes sense and brings benefit to the long-term strategy of the organization.

What new challenges are professionals facing right now?

For many of my friends and former co-workers, the primary challenge appears to be one of survival. Some have retreated into academia, some have returned to full-time, “inside” jobs, some have retired, and some have moved into areas that are quite different than their training and career preparation.

Moving forward, what do you think is the biggest challenge that organizations will face?

Communicating the value of organizational development in the midst of all of the organizational issues that are demanding attention and resolution is one of the most formidable challenges. If the issue is organizational survival, does it really matter if you have an engaging succession plan?

At some point the organization is going to have to at least ask the question. For too many, issues of longer-term interest are being sacrificed at the feet of “immediate results.”

Thank you for your time, Dr. Malone. When he is not working on the next book or running his firm, Olive Tree Associates, Dr. Malone enjoys spending time with his wife of 34 years.

Featured Tool

Generational Style Assessment Facilitator's Kit

Chances are, you've struggled with someone older or – younger – who just doesn't see things your way. This assessment will help you understand the differences between the generations and identify ways to "flex" your own behavior to better work with or manage people of all ages.

The model is based on four particular stages or phases of an individual's work life:

20s--Gen Y Generation
30s--Gen X Generation
40s--Baby Boomers
50s--Builder Generation

Generational Style Assessment asks you to read a range of different workplace scenarios and then choose the answer that best describes what you would do in a given circumstance.

Sample scenarios:

A newly hired individual in his 40s is already getting good work results but not without irritating a few team members.
A valuable employee in her 50s is taking a great deal of time off to deal with a terminally ill parent.
A newly promoted female in her 30s is having trouble managing older male colleagues and the situation is affecting her work.
A woman in her 20s has suggested a night out for coworkers and has made reservations for a karaoke bar without asking anyone else.

Your scores on the response sheet bring together the style you adopt most frequently when talking to people of other age groups, your backup style, and how flexible you are.

Supporting style Use this tool to bring age-related issues out in the open and discuss how to improve productivity, job satisfaction, management styles, and personal motivation.

$49.95

Purchase Now!