Archive for Coaching
It’s tough enough getting people to collaborate effectively within/across teams because of this little sticking point called “people behaviors” that’s oftentimes overlooked, but now we’re facing yet another collaboration challenge playing out before us ~ the Baby Boomer, Gen X and Millennial “Great Divide”. And let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that the Great Divide doesn’t exist because the facts and anecdotal data prove otherwise.
If you’re a Baby Boomer (born 1946-1964), just take 10 minutes and have a heart-to-heart talk with a Gen X’er (born 1965-1979) or Millennial (born 1980-1999) who you have a trusted relationship with, and REALLY LISTEN to what they have to say. Based on my work with clients as we’re proactively tackling the Great Divide…
Gen X’ers are irritated that Baby Boomers are blocking their way to advancement. Baby Boomers aren’t retiring for a variety of reasons. They’re maintaining their key leadership position stronghold. To further exacerbate the situation, a portion of the Baby Boomers in key leadership positions are behaving as “lame ducks”, to put it bluntly. That bad behavior would aggravate any top performer regardless of when he/she was born.
Millennials on the other hand, are irritated with Baby Boomers because they’re not effectively engaging Millennials in key areas:
- Connecting on a human-to-human basis
- Understanding what motivates Millennials
- Providing 1×1 value-add, real-time mentoring, coaching and feedback
- Working with Millennials to create career paths
- Communicating with Millennials using engaging technologies (e.g., social networks, IM, Twitter, Smart Phones)
- Supporting Millennials’ work/life balance needs
- Creating sustainable virtual teams (which, by the way, save companies HUGE quantifiable dollars plus increase productivity if thoughtfully planned and implemented)
And what do Gen X’ers and Millennials have in common? First, both groups are loyal to people but not to organizations, which means…Baby Boomers, you must genuinely connect with both groups in order to engage and optimize their potential AND retain them! Second, both groups are turned off by Baby Boomers who place monetary-driven (greed-driven) personal, company and shareholder agendas before “the good of humanity.” Baby Boomers, you’re still holding key leadership positions and you’re highly influential, so you can start setting a different tone within your organizations and teams by actively weaving in meaningful opportunities that support “the greater good”.
So what’s the business case that would compel organizations and teams to address the Great Divide? First, some statistics. Although estimates vary by source, roughly 70 million and 48 million comprise the Millennial and Gen X U.S. workforces respectively, or 118 million collectively, compared to 70+ million Baby Boomers. It’s official ~ Baby Boomers, you’re in the cultural minority. It’s no longer about “you”. I can say this because I too, am a Baby Boomer. But reasons to tackle the Great Divide go beyond that:
- Baby Boomers owe it to the next generation of leaders and to society to position Gen X’ers and Millennials for success. That’s what genuine leaders do. They take action based on the big picture and the greater good.
- For every Millennial that quits, and they will quit if their key needs are not being met, expect turnover costs to soar. For a company that employs 5,000 with a $50K average annual salary and annual turnover rate of 10% and cost of 50% (turnover costs can range from 50%-150%), reducing turnover by just 3% can save the company $3.75 million annually ($8.75 million vs. $12.5 million).
- For every Millennial and Gen X’er that doesn’t feel engaged, the person is operating at some percent less than 100%. Using the previous example and assuming 2,080 planned annual hours per employee, if 20% of the workforce is operating at 80%, the productivity drain is roughly 416K hours or $10+ million annually, which means that 200 FTE’s (full time equivalents) are showing up for work, are on your payroll and contributing a BIG ZERO to the bottom line. And let’s not forget that unproductive employees slow down productive employees, so the productivity drain will grow vs. shrink if ignored.
One last tip – don’t refer to a Gen X’er or Millennial by these two or other common generational names. Although Baby Boomers aren’t typically offended by their generational title, the same is not true for those generations that follow. Another cultural difference!
How are you tackling the Great Divide? Please share your comments with us!
Thank goodness that many of us have Achievers in our organizations! Achievers get things done! Why? Achievers, as defined by StrengthsFinder 2.0 “…feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day, Achievers must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about themselves. And…’every day’ to an Achiever means every single day ~ workdays, weekends, vacations. No matter how much Achievers feel they deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, Achievers feel dissatisfied.”
That’s great, right? Well, not so fast. Those same Achievers oftentimes (unintentionally) overlook or underestimate how their need to work in hyperdrive doesn’t necessarily align/integrate with their organization’s change culture, change capacity and change appetite. I know this because I used to be one of those Achiever people who built Achiever Teams who could “take any hill” at 150 mph, not realizing that the rest of the organization wasn’t ready for our stealth capabilities! But one day the light dawned and I “got religion.” I realized that I could still be an Achiever and build Achiever Teams, but instead of taking one hill at 150 mph, we could successfully take several hills at a reduced speed if we implemented “right fitted” Organizational Change Management (OCM) Plans for each of our major initiatives. And the cool thing ~ even though more upfront thought was required to build and more energy investment was required to implement OCM Plans, when properly executed, OCM Plan results saved us time and money, increased our outcome success rate, and created client and organization goodwill!
My advice to all Achievers ~ including those Leader Achievers that I’m currently coaching ~ keep achieving, but before starting that next big initiative (or even small or medium size initiative), analyze your culture, its capacity and its appetite relative to Organizational Change and build a realistic OCM Plan that meets your company’s needs. And if you have any time left over, being the Achiever that you are, look for other creative and subtle ways to move your organization forward so you fulfill your needs without driving change too hard and too fast ~ which will frustrate both you and your company if your change adoptation rate isn’t realistically calibrated with your organization’s change adoption rate.
More to follow with Part II as we explore “Learn How to Successfully Approach Cultural/Organizational Change”!
The Business of IT and Human Connectedness
Posted by: |TechEdge LLC is pleased to announce that our president, Gwen Walsh, will be presenting at the upcoming event, “The Business of IT and Human Connectedness”, presented by NEO IT Think Tank. Here is the full program description:
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The Business of IT and Human Connectedness
Presented by NEO IT Think Tank
September 22, 2010
Corporate Plaza 1
6450 Rockside Woods Blvd S
Independence, OH 44131
Gwen Walsh, President and Founder of TechEdge, will be our program speaker.
Being in the Business of IT, a large chunk of our success depends on our ability to understand and positively influence our customers, executives, managers, peers, staff and business partners. Every time we engage in a conversation, pitch an idea, investigate a problem, fulfill a request, initiate or implement a change, address (or fail to address) a conflict or provide a product or service, we’re being evaluated and judged by others. The cold, harsh truth is – each interaction and corresponding judgment directly impacts how others perceive us, how they will react to us now and in the future, whether or not they will support us in the work that lies ahead and how our legacy will be shaped.
Because we’re in the Business of IT and predominantly focused on technologies, activities, tasks, pressures, deadlines, you-name-it, we oftentimes forge ahead without critically thinking through our human-to-human interactions. Before you know it, we’re working in environments where trust, collaboration, positive attitudes, high productivity and employee morale are plummeting, and silos, territorialism, personal agendas, infighting, apathy, negativism, adversarial relationships and missed deadlines and service levels are on the uptick.
We must create environments where people genuinely matter, and to do that we need to become better at HUMAN CONNECTEDNESS.
Our next Face-to-Face meeting will address Human Connectedness. We will:
- Define Human Connectedness.
- Discuss the compelling reasons for increasing Human Connectedness.
- Ask simple questions that will help us assess our own Human Connectedness effectiveness.
- Explore the principles that, when followed, create a Human Connectedness environment.
- Take away tools that can be immediately applied in your workplace to increase your Human Connectedness factor.
Special thanks to Clay Bediant, VP at Ratliff & Taylor, for sponsoring our location.
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You can RSVP to this event on LinkedIn or Facebook. We look forward to seeing you there!
