One of the most common questions I am asked by managers is “how can I manage the ‘younger’ generation?” It seems every second workplace is having challenges between different generations …with differences in expectations of managers, work approach and style.
Let me start by saying that what I am about to tell you will be discussing the generalities of generations. Before you leap in and yell “stereotypes” … listen up for a moment.
The best way I can describe this is by looking at the height of people. Some people are tall and some are short but most people fall within a certain height range or average height.
When people design furniture they look at the average height of people to determine for example the length of the seat in a chair. They base their decision about the chair seat length by looking at general data. That doesn’t mean that the seat fits everyone … for some people it will be too small and some too big but for many the fit will be just right (a bit like Goldilocks).
What you may not know is that the average height of people is changing across the generations. People today are much taller than their counterparts 50 or 100 years ago for a whole range of factors including better health and diet. The generations are physically different as a result of the circumstances they grew up in.
So too with people’s attitudes. There are differences between how generations approach work … what motivates them, how they learn and how they prefer to be managed. There are variances with individuals in the generation … but there are average trends you can observe.
Most workplaces have at least 3 generations of people working with them … Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. These are all terms sociologists have used to describe certain age groupings of people.
Baby Boomers were born just after World War 2 until about 1964. That means that today this means people 45 and older. The sort of world they grew up during their formative years included events such as the Vietnam War, Woodstock, the Cold War, the Moon landing & Civil Rights Movements.
Generation X people were born between about 1964 – 1978 which means people between about 29-43 years of age. They grew up in the era of the pill, no fault divorce, the fall of Russia and the Berlin wall, USA becoming the dominant world superpower, the introduction of PCs and they watched their parents be outsourced and downsized at work.
Generation Y people were born about 1979 – 1994 which means people about 13-28 years of age. They grew up with the internet and the technology boom, they generally had extended periods of economic growth and stability and watched 9/11. They were the first generation where building self esteem was as important as building reading and maths skills and they had very busy school years being ferried from sport to dance to school to homework to school extension.
Each generation sees the world differently. Baby Boomers quite often wear the tag “workaholic” with pride. They believe in doing the hard yards to get ahead, paying ones dues and putting in the hours at your desk at work. They tend to value stability in a job – wanting to see extended periods of time in the one company. They believe with hard work they will succeed. They are loyal to the company and assess their managers based on what they see their managers demonstrate in terms of their own personal work ethic.
Generation X people are more cynical than Baby Boomers. They watched their parents put in the long hours when they were growing up, only to be made redundant. Many Gen X people vowed not to do the same … that they wanted a life not just a job and believe in productive work time not “face time”. They believe that any success is up to them.
They tend to distrust management and companies – believing there are always “hidden agendas” at play. They sign up to a manager … not a company and want the opportunity to express their views and to be heard by their manager. They will change jobs if they are not happy.
Generation Y people are the internet generation. They are used to getting information instantly when they need it rather than holding large amounts of data in their heads. They are self confident and are not afraid to tell people what they are feeling and how a decision affects them personally.
They love to learn new things but also like taking things to conclusion. They need clear goals and objectives to work towards. They want to make a difference to society through their work. They crave constant, honest, mentoring communication with their manager and will quickly leave a company if they don’t get it. They don’t believe in doing the jobs no one else wants to do just because they are the youngest there.
Some Tips to Manage and Motivate the Generations:
Baby Boomers: Help them get a life … give them loyalty … recognise their status and seniority
Generation X: Help them boost their productivity at work … give them flexible work options … provide open democratic management
Generation Y: Build in regular ongoing formal learning … give them clear goals & targets … establish mentoring schemes
By Ingrid Cliff
Ingrid CliffLevel: PlatinumIngrid Cliff is a freelance copywriter in Brisbane Australia and the Chief Word Wizard of Heart Harmony – her writing services studio that helps put … …
Ingrid Cliff is a Brisbane freelance writer and the Chief Word Wizard of Heart Harmony – her writing services studio that helps put your business into words. Visit her website for a free copy of “Copywriting Secrets : Seven Secrets of Compelling Copy and Powerful Words”
Leading a team is not easy. It is difficult to get everyone pulling together, because of diversity of personalities. However all team members will look to the leader, and a good leader will lead through positive influence. Here are some tips that will help you to work smarter and not harder to build the team.
How to Become a Good Leader
If you’re in a position of management or if you are the leader of one organization or the other, getting people to do what you want them to do may seem like a very difficult thing to do. The truth is that it needn’t be that difficult. No need exists for a person to be too nice or excessively mean. You can easily become a good leader by sticking to these professional tips.
Don’t Play the Blame Game:
When your team misses a project deadline or someone forgets to order something they should have, you should seek to blame other people. After all, it happened on your watch and that alone makes you responsible for everything especially in cases where something goes wrong.
Be Clear About What You Expect:
It’s difficult for your team members to stick to the game plan if they don’t have a strong idea about what the game plan is. You should always remain clear and concise when giving instructions to be carried out. You should take the time out to explain to the particular individual what exactly it is that you need them to do and how you expect it done. You should then allow them go off and handle the situation the best way that they are able to.
Accept That Everyone’s Style is Different:
While you may feel that a certain way of doing things is the best way to go, someone else may disagree with you. However you should be too picky about slight details, you should recognize the fact that everyone else does things their own way. What should really matter is that the same results should be achieved in the end. Nothing else counts.
Lead By Example:
You should follow the Eleanor Roosevelt principle and never expect more from your employees or volunteers than you are personally willing to do yourself. You should show everybody in your place of work that you’re willing to join in as well and help the team get things done. They’ll be much more disposed to staying an extra hour or two after work to finish an important project if the team leader stays behinds as well to do the same thing.
Learn from Your Mistakes and those of Other’s:
Everyone at one time or the other has made a mistake. The best thing to do is to learn from these mistakes. This way whenever you or someone else makes a mistake you should take stock of the situation and see if there is any way that the situation could be coped with better. You should then follow this route in the future.
Give Credit Where Credit’s Due:
You should never take all the glory for yourself regardless of how much of a great leader that you are. You should give credit to the people who have made one contribution or the other to your success. You should make them feel that you wouldn’t have achieved any success in your endeavors without them. The truth is that when you think of it, you probably won’t have achieved all that you have on your own.
By Darren Williger
Darren Williger is an over-caffeinated, low carbohydrate eating, wine making sales maker who writes for LeadersPages.com, and TopSalesmaker.com.
Several famous leadership quotes can inspire and motivate you to aim for something that is beyond anything you ever thought possible. Here are a few famous leadership quotes you can ponder on, and some great ways to apply them in real life.
Leadership Quote # 1 – “The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself. – Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton”
Essential to becoming an effective leader is being able to consider the opinion and insight of your subordinates. Although a leader should establish bureaucracy, there must be freedom within the organizational structure to keep ideas free flowing.
Leadership Quote # 2 – “Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. – George S. Patton”
Effective leaders don’t merely instruct. Instead, they delegate tasks to their staff or crew according to their skill, and they trust their team members to do the job well.
When you have confidence in your people’s ability, this will challenge them to live up to your standards and aim to do better.
Leadership Quote # 3 – “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet. – Theodore M. Hesburgh”
This is one of my favorite famous leadership quotes. Success lies in your ability to create objectives and goals. Only then can you determine the steps to take in order to get there. Hence, you will also be able to plan what actions to take in case you experience difficulties along the way.
Leadership Quote # 4 – “I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.” – Woodrow Wilson”
Successful leaders not only rely on their own knowledge, but they make an effort to learn new ideas and leverage from other people’s skills to improve their team’s chances of success.
Leadership Quote # 5 – “The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out and meet it.” – Thucydides”
Leaders need to recognize the risks involved, but should not be afraid to make big decisions. They must pursue their mission with relentless determination. Only when you realize your vision and act on it will you reap the rewards of your hard work.
You can apply these famous leadership quotes towards your aim for greatness.
By Michael Lee
Michael LeeLevel: PlatinumMichael Lee is a master persuader, professional copywriter, self-improvement expert, and author of “How To Be An Expert Persuader… In 20 Days or Less.” His … …
Discover how to possess persuasively leadership skills and ethically use mind control techniques to influence anyone to your way of thinking. Get your FREE course that reveals groundbreaking persuasion secrets at http://www.20daypersuasion.com/secrets.htm
As a consultant, I am often hired for my expertise on workplace leadership. Although few people realize it, there are many different leadership styles out there. Some leaders prefer a very hands-on approach, trying to get involved in everything that is going on. Others prefer to step back and allow their underlings to shine. But whatever leadership styles are exhibited in your workplace, you will get much higher productivity if you make sure that your leaders are the strongest they can be.
Leadership skills training is designed to do exactly that. The problem is, there are baffling variety of leadership skills training programs, and no two are the same. Some of them, in fact, are quite awful. I first became interested in leadership skills training about 10 years ago. I was in one of those old-school seminars involving ropes courses, team building activities, and all of that other Boy Scout junk. Although it was fun for some of us to pretend we were 15 again for a weekend, I doubt we really gain anything from it. The leadership skills training program was ridiculous, and the instructors were just like camp counselors. We were grown man, and it was insulting to our intelligence to subject us to such a program.
It was this that got me interested in developing my own leadership skills training seminars. It seemed to me that Good Leadership Skills training usually fell into one of two groups. The philosophy was either dog eat dog, or all for one. In other words, leadership skills training was either based on a totally individualistic perspective in which the goal was to do as well for yourself as possible, or on a team-based perspective in which you’re supposed to do everything so that the team itself could succeed. Neither of these leadership skills training philosophies seemed to work for me. I wanted to work on something else.
For me, the key to successful leadership skills training is to encourage independent thought. It is not important to indoctrinate your clients with some philosophy of self-actualization, or of collective benefit. Presumably, they are mature enough to tackle such philosophical questions on their own. Leadership skills training is all about skills. It is about allowing people to develop their natural leadership abilities to best work in a style that they choose. Leadership programs help the most when they allow people to develop their own personal managerial styles.
Are you a business owner or an office manager? See time management at work. If you are, it is your responsibility to make sure that your company is making money. Unfortunately, a company cannot profit from employees who do not know how to make good use of their time. Whether you notice an increase in employees socializing on the clock or an increase in personal computer use, it is important that you put a stop to this behavior right away.
As important as it is to know that employees with poor time management skills may have a negative impact on your company and its profits, you may be unsure as to how you should proceed. Your first impulse may be to terminate the employees who are causing the most problems or the most profit loss. Of course, this is more than possible to do, but there are other time management steps that may prove just as successful. To help you get started, a few of these steps are highlighted below.
If you notice multiple employees in your office wasting company time, it may be in your best interest to hold time management at work training. This training can be put on and organized by you or other well performing employees or you can use the services of an outside company that specializes in time management and organization in the workplace. Time management training should involve outlining the importance of proper time management, tips should be shared on how work time should be spent, and consequences should be laid out for those who continue to waste their time, company time, and money. Read more at time management.
Time management software is another way to reduce the amount of money lost due to employees who just can’t seem to manage their time correctly. Time management software programs come in a number of different formats, so be sure to find a program that has features that you and your staff members can benefit from. These features should include automated updates, messages, and reminders on important deadlines, desktop computer calendars, office wide communication at the click of a button, and so forth.
The use of rewards is another way that you can work to improve the time management of your office employees. Although we often associate rewards with young children, adults are likely to produce better results when those results are noticed. Be sure to comment on employees who perform well at the office or meet all deadlines. You can implement an employee of the month program or offer pay raises to those who make the best use of their time.
As much as employees who perform well and improve their time management at work need to be rewarded, those who don’t need to be called out. One of the many reasons why office workers waste time is because many know or feel that they can get away with the behavior. Be sure to first give warnings if you notice an employee of yours who is socializing as opposed to working or if an employee of yours regularly turns in their projects late. Termination can be used as a last resort.
As a recap, employees who waste company time can put your business at risk. As a business owner the last thing that you want is to see your company fail or lose profits. If you are not a business owner, but rather an office manager, it is still important that you take action immediately. If you do not, you may end up taking the fall for the employees who just can ít seem to properly manage their time at work. View time management.
“The best leaders are great because of the way they think. Extraordinary leaders separate themselves by the way they communicate what they are thinking. They have, the ‘Universal Edge,’ in that they understand their audience, and know how to make a connection.” -Doyle Slayton
Four Disciplines of Extraordinary Leaders:
1. Read Books - Read at least one book per month. You will be amazed by the impact this will make on your communication skills and your ability to generate new thoughts and ideas!
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What does outrageous success look like to you? It means your wildest dreams coming true doesn’t it? Lots of money, your dream home. Maybe owning an expensive, super-fast car, traveling to exotic places, or getting the absolute best schooling for your kids. And of course, along with all these great possessions and experiences would come immense happiness, joy, and pleasure. Wow – who wouldn’t want that type of life!
Outrageous success is possible for everyone. In fact, it is your birth-right, a gift from the Universe, waiting to be received. So why don’t you have this outrageous success today?
Revealed here – in order of their importance – are the 10 secret leadership skills absolutely necessary to creating outrageous success. If you can honestly evaluate how well you implement each of these skills, and take steps to improve the most critical areas, you will be well on your way to creating outrageous success!
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