Next Generation Next Destination

BAD BEHAVIOR TRANSITIONS TOO

In the February issue of the Point newsletter Susanne Biro wrote about bad behavior of “otherwise talented, educated senior professionals“ she has worked with as a leadership coach. Among those behaviors are:

• Lack of respect for others and their time
• Rescheduling at the last minute or not showing up at all
• Not returning phone calls or replying to e-mails and thinking it’s okay
• Taking calls and e-mails during meetings

This indicates how they are likely to treat clients and colleagues. Biro wrote “It seems  professionals today have forgotten what it means to be professional. We have allowed each other to become lazy, as what was once considered to be rude behavior has slowly become acceptable.”

Generations Y and X have been criticized for similar behaviors. Where do you suppose they learned these behaviors from?

Biro referred to a term coined by Dov Seidman in his book How: Why How We Do Anythig Means Everything in Business - “out-behaving the competition.” He believes that those who treat others with respect and dignity will prevail. It matters! 

Phyllis Weiss Haserot       www.pdcounsel.com 

FORECAST: RE-HIRING IN RETIREMENT

n      The  counterpart to succession preparation as we experience an aging workplace is another forecast: Employers Will Accommodate Older Workers Like Never Before. Employers need to get the work done; many workers, including successful professionals and executives, want to keep going whether or not they really need the additional money to live comfortably. The Herman Group suggests that employers will see the benefit of avoiding recruiter fees and expensive contract help by bringing back their retired personnel on part-time, seasonal or temporary bases, even if the older workers can dictate their own terms. I can envision organizations hiring their former personnel with knowledge no one else would have to the same degree or dissuading them from going elsewhere for the typical “busy seasons” or employing them for training and coaching the next generation to continue top service to clients.

 

      This will require sensitivity in communication to younger workers about the benefits to them and facilitation of cross-generational dialogue within work teams and mentor partnerships. But it sounds like a win-win for many organizations seeking continuity  of client service and culture.

 

        Phyllis Weiss Haserot    www.pdcounsel.com

NEXT GENERATION SKILLS GAP: What Boomers Need to Teach Gen Y and X

The "Corner Office" column interview in the New York Times on September 20, 2009 featured Linda Hudson, president of the land and armaments groups at BAE Systems giving an important perspective on corporate culture and the deficiencies of business school education. When asked by the Times' Adam Bryant what she would like business schools to teach more of, she responded:

"Business school graduates come with a large amount of theoretical knowledge. "But they don't have a clue of what it's like from a people-skill point of view, or the coping skill perspective of learning to deal with disappointment and failure. They come in here thinking that, first of all, they're going to run the company overnight. Many of them are convinced they've never made a mistake. They're not accustomed to encountering road blocks or disappointments. We give them all the book smarts, but we don't tend to give them the other skills that go along with business."

We hear the same themes from many professions and industries - in business, law, medicine, engineering and so on. The education system is focused on data and theory rather than incorporating a healthy portion of how to communicate effectively and relate to people -  colleagues, clients, customers, suppliers. It is the latter set of skills that enables people to become leaders that others will follow and to achieve necessary change in a fast-paced world. And in that fast-paced, time pressured, billable hour-type world, few individuals in the more senior generations have financial incentives to train and mentor the new young, blood brought in supposedly to invigorate and perpetuate the organization. On the contrary, they may feel they are digging themselves an early grave.

While Generations Y and X may be extremely technologically literate, most of them don't measure up to the Boomers and Traditionalists in people skills. Through mutual mentoring each can learn from the other, but there has to be a greater value put on communication and inter-personal skills in schools to lay the foundation, and the organizations that hire the young candidates need to persuade and partner with educational institutions to make sure that happens.

Phyllis Weiss Haserot     www.pdounsel.com 

CROSS-GENERATIONAL COMMUNICATION: GEN Y AND NONVERBAL CUES

My August monthly Inter-Generational Relations e-Tip was a checklist of differences in and perceptions about communications styles among the generations. (E-mail me at pwhaserot@pdcounsel.com for a copy and/or to be put on the subscribers list.) On a related point, in a fascinating article on the "Taste" page of the Wall Street Journal (August 28, 2009) ,Mark Bauerlein makes a powerful case for the need to bridge the gap between the Gen Y/Millennial texting culture and use of what anthropologist Edward T. Hall called "the Silent Language," nonverbal cues or body language and voice tone. Mr. Bauerlein is a professor of English at Emory University.

Spending so much time with texting and e-mail as well as Facebook from a young age, Gen Y has developed less skill than previous generations reading nonverbal cues and interpreting tone of voice, pauses, etc., that can be experienced in person or on the phone. (Gen Yers use cell phones more for texting than for voice calls.) It seems the lack of nonverbal communication experience would impede interviewing skills and negotiating skills. The primarily electronic communicators are missing expressive behaviors which transmit feelings, attitudes, reactions and judgments. This is even more damaging in cross-cultural circumstances, which becomes increasingly significant in a world of global economic and political dependency.

And many Gen Yers don't realize that others, particularly other generations, do see nonverbal meaning in behavior such as checkling e-mail, etc. during meetings and not looking at a person who is talking to them because they are multi-tasking.

While it may reduce tensions for other generations to realize that this behavior is not intentionally rude, but rather is just young people acting on what they know (or don't know), the fact is the latter tend not to be well equipped for negotiations, interviewing, navigating the "political" dynamics of the workplace, or even their own job interviews.

Employers and managers need to be sensitive to teachable moments and to provide training early on in what we might term "holistic" communications skills.

Please share your thoughts and experiences.

Phyllis Weiss Haserot   www.pdcounsel.com

TRANSITIONING THROUGH CROSS-TRAINING

When I talk about flexibility, I mean more than flexible hours or location. Cross-training so that people can move from one role or specialty to another enables firms to be nimble and people to remain productive when the economy sours in their area of focus.

As we move toward the "new normal" and rethink business models, we ought to be thinking about whether individuals' roles have become over-specialized to the detriment of overall goals.

The Wall Street Journal Managing/Theory & Practice column (June 22, 2009) titled "Firms Shift Underused Workers" points out as a consolation of the economic downturn that employees are gaining new skills as they are forced or volunteer to be more versatile in order to retain their jobs. It says that this versatility is found most often in smaller firms, but there is no reason that cross-training couldn't be offered at any size firm.

A poll by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) in March found that 34% of 467 human resource executives reported that their employers had retrained employees for new positions in the last six months.

I believe that's a strategy that will pay off well for organizations in any type of economy and will appeal to Generation Y/Millennials who are drawn to lattice-type careers where they are continually learning new skills and becoming more valuable to employers.

Phyllis Weiss Haserot    www.pdcounsel.com