Mind the (Generation) Gap, Part 1: Upgrade Your Programming
Q: My leadership team struggles with our younger employees' lack of initiative. I’m getting a lot of complaints about how much “handholding” and “babysitting” these folks need, and I don’t know how best to help.
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This is a big challenge that requires a multi-part answer, but I’m up for the challenge.
I can imagine this leadership team sounding something like this:
“They need an engraved invitation before they do anything!”
“When I started, my onboarding was someone showing me where my desk was. I don’t have time to spoon-feed these kids. They need to roll up their sleeves and figure it out like I did.”
How do I know? I know because if you are over a certain age (which I am) and you’ve had to integrate younger folk into your team (which I have), you have had similar complaints.
Do younger generations have a different work ethic? Yes. Is yours better? Maybe. Maybe not. Let’s look at how we can separate fact from feeling and create a work culture that works for everyone.
Notice your “default settings”
We all live by unwritten, rarely discussed rules. They’re formed by our family, our culture, our upbringing, and the like. Typically, we’re unaware of them until we encounter something contrary to them. I think of these rules as our “default settings,” like software running in the background that you overlook until it crashes.
Think about the first time you had a holiday meal with someone else’s family. Remember how odd it seemed when Great Aunt Trudy’s apple pie wasn’t on the table? (Or whatever dish is iconic for your family.) It felt wrong, even if you couldn’t say precisely why. Your mind has coded itself with the rule that Thanksgiving = Trudy’s Pie. No pie? Not Thanksgiving. Is this rule true? No. Does it feel true? Absolutely.
The same goes for your default settings about work. You will feel it when someone’s work habits go against one of your rules. Did you have to take a long blink to hide your eye roll? Maybe you felt that stress headache creeping up from your neck? Congratulations! You’ve discovered a default setting! Now that you can identify them, jot them down.
Practice healthy skepticism
You have your list of rules in front of you, and I’d bet you feel a sense of righteous justification. “See! If they just did these things, then everything would be great!” I invite you to rest in that feeling for a few moments. Feeling good? OK. Now, we’ll see if that list holds up to some scrutiny.
Here are three questions to help you decide whether your rule truly supports you, the business, and the clients, or whether it’s simply old programming:
- Could the opposite be true? If “Good employees are here by 9 a.m. sharp” feels true to you, try out oppositional statements. Can “Bad employees are here by 9 a.m. sharp” be true? Can “Good employees arrive at a time that works for them” be true?
- What are the consequences if the rule isn’t followed? If doors need to be open for customers at 9 a.m., arriving before 9 a.m. is a rule with real business consequences. For a team working on marketing projects, unless someone is missing a client meeting, arriving after 9 a.m. doesn’t affect the business.
- Where did this rule come from? I was coaching a team that was experiencing major burnout. As I led them through this exercise, we addressed their rule that “client emails must be responded to within 30 minutes, even outside of standard business hours.” No one could recall the origin of this rule, so the head of the team reached out to the client. Not only did the client not have this expectation, but they found it annoying that people responded after hours to non-urgent requests.
Keep what works
You’re clear on your rules, which rules are necessary for success, and which ones aren’t. Keep the rules that work and ditch the rest. That’s right. Ditch them.
If you, as a leader, can dislodge the rules that cause you to react emotionally, you can respond to the needs of your younger team members with curiosity.
COLLEEN GALLION is an ICF-certified professional coach whose passion is supporting entrepreneurs and founders in building healthy and sustainable teams. For more information, visit www.gallioncoaching.com.
