Greetings from an over-entitled, conceited, Generation Y know-it-all! Nice to meet you , I’m the twenty-four year old guy on your team that Bossman just brought on board and you’re not quite sure how to work with¦

I get it , I understand that Generation Y gets a bad rep. We’re not willing to settle , we are habitual askers of “why” and we always want our work to have meaning , and yes, sometimes we think we’re smarter than you and don’t give you enough credit where credit is due. But hey, maybe we deserve a little respect as well.

Inter-office politics are never fun , I’ve seen my fair share of drama and gossip in the workplace, even in my short term in the “career world”. It can get ugly, even uglier when you don’t take time to understand what your team wants and needs, and how to best get everyone working on the same bandwagon together.

For what it’s worth , I’m here to help , I’m here to tell you that all youngin’s like me aren’t that bad , that we can bring a lot to the table , but we want you to bring just as much. Here are three MAJOR points to focus on when working with the Generation Y community.

Stop stifling our creativity

Four words: Micromanagement sucks, encourage innovation. People my age want meaningful work , we want something we can invest our all into. The minute you start breathing down our neck , the minute your stop trusting us to do good work , is the minute that trust is breached and the creative juices come to a screeching halt. This isn’t so much a Generation Y thing as it is an “everyone” thing. When you hire someone , you hire someone assuming you can trust them to do their job, right? So what’s the point in hand-holding and micromanaging every step of the way? Loosen the reigns a bit and, until you have to, give your team some freedom to think creatively, set goals, and meet them on their own.

We want to learn from you

We’re young, we’re brash, and we think we know everything. Well heads up , we don’t. Not at all. And to top it all off , we actually want to learn from you. Generation Y (speaking collectively here) is hungry for knowledge , we read , we blog , we network with others, and for what? To learn – challenging ourselves to try new things and think in new ways. So when you bring us on board, you’ve got to be willing to help us learn. Not only will it help someone like me mature and grow into the role , it will help you by developing your team , setting them up for long term success. Don’t shrug us off as know-it-alls, be open to helping your younger team members learn and grow.

We’re the same as you

Really , I get tired of hearing that Generation Y is so different , that we are the ones who want meaningful work, wanting to be trusted and craving freedom. Come on…that isn’t Generation Y, that’s everyone. This post isn’t even about Gen Y (are you starting to get it now?) , it’s about effectively running any business with any demographic. The number one way to build a successful business is to establish outstanding relationships , both internally and with your clients/customers. And every relationship starts with trust. You trust me , I trust you , and we all live happily ever after.

What thoughts do you have about Generation Y in the workplace? Do you have any examples from experience?

On December 29, 2009, Alexandra Levit posted a video on Brazen Careerist in which Jason Dorsey shares his thoughts on how managers can engage new Gen Y employees on their first day at work. Known as the “Gen Y Guy”, Jason is a frequent speaker and corporate consultant who helps organizations engage and retain members of the Millennial generation.

Usually, the featured posts get a number of comments. To date, this particular post received only one – mine – in which I wrote that I thought Jason’s three ideas were great and that I could make the case that these tips apply to any new employee regardless of the generation – they are simply good on-boarding practices.

I am interested in others’ reaction to this short clip. I particularly would like to know from members of Gen Y if Jason speaks for you – do these three things matter to you on your first day at work. And from those Gen X and Baby Boomer bosses to whom Jason seems to be speaking, I am eager to hear your reactions. So what are your comments?

Bicycle Dreams, directed by Steve Auerbach, is the story of the 2005 Race Across America – a 3000 mile bicycle race from San Diego, CA to Atlantic City, NJ. The synopsis from the official website reads:

They are seekers, madmen, and angels hell-bent on riding across America on a bicycle in less than ten days. But what begins as the adventure of a lifetime is transformed in an instant when tragedy strikes the race. These voyagers discover what is truly at stake as they pedal on, praying for the deliverance only the finish line can bring. By journey’s end, some are saved, others are lost, but all learn that the fuel that takes a soul toward its own true destiny is desire. … Top riders finish in under 10 days, riding over 300 miles per day and sleeping only a few hours per night. Amid the sleepless grind, riders must endure the searing heat of the Mojave Desert, the agonizing climbs and descents of the Rockies, the driving winds of the Great Plains, and the twisting switchbacks of the Appalachians before the final sprint to the finish line in Atlantic City. With little prize money at stake, the fundamental goal of the race is simply to finish, a challenge half of all riders fail to meet.

I have seen a lot of documentary films. This one is without question in my top 5 of all time. See it.

What I do want to address is the concept of individual contributor. In most organizations, this is the place where everyone starts. We have no direct reports. Our manager, who hopefully is competent, gives us assignments. And while we may work on a team, we deliver results by doing the work ourselves – alone. Bicycle Dreams and the Race Across America it documents is a story about individual contributors – those “seekers, madmen, and angels hell-bent on riding across America on a bicycle in less than ten days”. However, what becomes crystal clear is that while one individual is pedaling the high tech machine called a bicycle across deserts, mountain ranges and tall grass prairie, they are not alone. In each case, a sizable support team accompanies the racers in a large RV and provide medical, physical, mechanical, nutritional, and emotional support along the way. Each cyclist needs – no, is totally dependent on – his/her support team to succeed. And what is amazing is that the race is not necessarily won by the fastest racer, but by the fastest racer with the best support team.

So after seeing this movie, I began thinking about whether or not individual contributors in the workplace actually go it alone. Are the individuals who receive the highest performance ratings totally independent or – like the riders in the Race Across America – are they dependent on others for their success? Before I share my point of view, I’d invite comments from others. What do you think?

About three times a week for the past six months, a Baby Boomer or Gen X boss rants to me about a member of the twenty-something or Millennial generation who has done or said something that leaves the boss speechless. The rant usually begins with, “You wouldn’t believe what happened and often includes the words “slacker, “entitled, “uncommitted, and “Facebook junky. And with the same frequency, I also hear twenty-somethings, complain about their technology-challenged bosses who cling to outworn policies and procedures, who need to “get a life, and who don’t really care about the twenty-something’s career.

As someone who tries to earn a living by helping people to “work and play well with others, my cross-generational work is focusing more and more on helping Gen Xers and Baby Boomers understand the newest generation , the Millennials , and conversely helping Millennials adapt to a world of work that the generations that came before them created.

There is a major transformation occurring in organizations today. Baby Boomers are going to transition out of the world of work, as we know it , maybe not as fast as once thought given the decline in value of various retirement accounts. But they will move on. The reality is that Generation X, the next in the birth order, is much smaller than the Boomer generation. So future talent and a significant percentage of the leaders of tomorrow are going to come from this Millennial or twenty-something generation of flip-flops, nose studs, and tattoos.

So www.workingwithtwentysomethings.com is the new blog for and about the twenty-somethings in the workplace. I invite you to check it out.

I will continue to post blogs related to workplace issues from the current topic list here. However, I’ll address cross-generational workplace topics in the new blog. Thanks!

Fortunately, there were two twenty-somethings in the training session. One responded: “For us work and play all run together and we don’t adhere to a rigid work schedule or work from 8 , 5 and then play. We have a work ethic , it’s just different from that of older workers. Just give us the assignment, tell us when it is due, and let us do the work.

This is exactly how Google works. They have a preponderance of young workers (20 and 30 somethings) and they make the workplace very fluid. And¦they hold people accountable.
Over the last few months, I hear a lot of older workers and even some Gen X’ers bashing the Millennials or twenty-somethings saying they don’t work the way we do and that they are not prepared for the world of work. That statement begs two questions.

The first is, who says that Millennials need the same attitudes toward work? Isn’t work about getting results on time? Why do we still need rigid, out-dated policies about when one has to work? Take the advice of the Millennial in my training session: give an assignment with clear expectations, tell the employee when it is due, let them do the work, and hold them accountable for the results.

The second question concerns why is the youngest generation in the workplace unprepared for the world of work? The answer is a seriously flawed education system that only permits positive feedback, rewards just showing up rather than results, and gives so much latitude to students about when assignments are due that they have very poor time management skills and no clue what a deadline is. It is time for revolutionary thinking in education to better prepare students not only for work but also for life.

When more and more people opt for flexibility in work, which could be as simple as, working at home, I wonder what “working and playing well with others will look like in the future. In the good old days when everyone worked in the same location , or at least a finite number of multiple locations , you could actually see if people were, in fact, working (and playing well) with others. With situations like Lucas Allmon where he may never even meet a client face-to ,face, the only thing anyone will see are the results , not how they are produced. And that scenario may drive the control freaks of the world off the proverbial bridge. About a year ago, I wrote a blog about my first job. I had a boss who believed that if you are not sitting at your desk with your pencil poised, you were not working. That was a long time ago and that is a good thing because this example of control freak behavior would not work today.

I’m sure no one would be surprised that the management cognoscenti have coined a term for people who work together in multiple locations and who may never see each other but are accountable for a collaborative work product , that term is a “virtual team. Here’s the deal. A virtual team is no different than a traditional team. Apart from the fact that members of a virtual team may never meet face to face (they could teleconference or use SKYPE), they still need clear goals and expected results, defined roles and responsibilities, established systems and procedures (like how they will communicate and make decisions) and clear definition of the kind of relationship the team will have in working together , that is, its sense of community. As I think about it, the longing that some have for a different kind of relationship is not only possible, but there are a number of great practices for building effective and satisfying relationships that still apply. If only some managers could get over the control thing¦

I came across this quote in a blog on zenhabits.net titled “12 New Rules of Working That You Should Embrace Today. Aside from the fact that article is a little judgmental and reductionist (why not 14 rules or even 20?), I think the themes of collaboration and improvisation are noteworthy , and are valued especially by the twenty-somethings of the millennial generation about whom I have commented in prior blogs.

First, let’s talk about collaboration. One of the characteristics of the baby boomer generation is its competitiveness. As my colleague on generational issues Wendy Shannon points out, boomers are competitive because there are so damn many of them! I had to try out for the baseball team, the orchestra, the play, and compete for a place in my entering class in college when there were way more applicants than spaces. And when I was in graduate school in the early ˜70′s the reality was that there were way more Ph.D.’s than open positions. My friend Tom Brady, who was a philosophy graduate student at the University of New Mexico at the time, told me that UNM had an opening for an assistant professor in philosophy and that there were over 500 applicants! So the boomers learned how to compete.

In organizations today, boomers hold the majority of leadership positions and therefore set the direction and policy for those organizations. Hence, most organizations are more competitive than they are collaborative. It is one thing to compete externally in the marketplace for customers and talented employees. However, competitiveness often gets out of control internally when employees on the same project or department are competing to get ahead in their careers because of the policy of “up or out that seems to dominate most organizations. Peter Senge in “The Fifth Discipline talked about how mental models or assumptions that people hold can shape the way people think and act. He emphasizes the importance of questioning assumptions to see if they have become outdated. I think the assumption that internal competition is a good thing for an organization needs such questioning. The idea that collaboration is the new productivity tool is worth examining. The twenty-somethings understand the value of collaboration. Maybe the Boomers can learn something from them – instead of seeing them as so different.

Second, let’s address improvising. In the context of the blog, improvising means adapting, changing ways of working, and utilizing technology most effectively. I know a lot of boomer leaders in organizations who find trying new methods, new ways of thinking, and new technology too scary and so they resist change. As a result, I think there is a possibility that large corporations may become casualties because of their failure to adapt. Rapid changes in markets and resource availability , especially non-renewable fuels- will force improvisation. And I see examples of corporations resisting change frequently. Here is a simple – almost trivial example. There is a readily available piece of software called Skype. It’s free and with a camera and microphone attached to your laptop , which is usually built in in newer machines, you can talk with and see people anywhere in the world there is Internet access. And yet, the norm is to hop on a plane, travel across country or continent in order to meet face to face. Just think how adapting new technology can aid collaboration.

The author of “12 New Rules of Working That You Should Embrace Today, Leo Babauta, ends by stating that the ideas he put forward in this article do not have main stream acceptance. So as I reflect on the quote that sparked this blog, I wonder how many corporations will prevail?

As most of you know, since 1991, I have been an independent consultant who helps managers and teams get work done through and with others in a way that is both satisfying and effective. I advocate that a sense of humor in the workplace is a healthy thing and that at the end of day performance (that is, the result that we get) matters. I have found that what contributes to employee retention is when employees at any level know what is expected of them, how they are doing, how the boss will consistently relate to them, and what chance they will have for development.

When I have been in organizations (or conferences) where these funsultants put participants through bizarre activities that even the most sympathetic would be hard pressed to see as relevant to the business, I have a number of thoughts:

First, I am usually annoyed. Not everyone has the same idea of fun. The activities these funcilitators introduce are usually embarrassing to many and I do not think public humiliation is a good thing in any context.

Second, rarely if ever does the funsultant or the organization explain “why we are doing these humiliating activities. In other words, like the ropes courses of the 90′s they have no business relevance.

Third, I wonder what in the world the leadership of the organization is thinking. Are they covering something up?

Finally, part of the emphasis on fun is the fear that a lot of organizations have that they will not be a hip place for the twenty-somethings to work. The youngest generation tends to claim that school, work, and anything for that matter needs to be fun. In the last MBA class that I taught, the class ranged in age from 23 to 58. When we talked about expectations on day one, the four twenty somethings (out of a class of 15) told me that the class needed to be fun. When I asked what “fun would look like, they uniformly said no lectures, just games! Because of the well-documented talent shortage many , not all – corporations lack the guts to have the “here’s the deal talk with this youngest generation and explain work expectations. Instead, they opt for the “fun is good approach.

Now lest you think that I am a curmudgeon, I’ll end with a quote from the Southwest Airlines web site:

“More than 37 years ago, Rollin King and Herb Kelleher got together and decided to start a different kind of airline. They began with one simple notion: If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fares, and make darn sure they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline. And you know what? They were right.

Ah, what a refreshing idea, deliver results AND have fun!

I think they do. However, most are products of a seriously flawed education system where passing standardized tests has replaced helping students to learn how to think.

The tension between the generations in the workplace is increasing dramatically and the reality is that these twenty-somethings are the ones filling the pipeline of talented workers and future leaders as the baby-boomers retire. I am interested in hearing from others on not only their experience with generational tension in the work place, but also how we can better prepare twenty-somethings for the world of work AND how the world of work needs to adapt to this newest generation.

There is now an entire generation – the Millennials – who have grown up in a culture where everyone is wonderful, where only positive feedback is present, where everyone gets an award for just participating in an activity, and where outstanding achievement in school, athletics, or any other endeavor tends to get downplayed so as not to make others who did not achieve at such a high level feel bad – or worse yet, where everyone gets an “A”. So these twenty-somethings are entering the workplace expecting to get rewarded for just showing up.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a Baby Boomer. I grew up in an era when sometimes you tried out for the team, play, orchestra, or choir and DIDN’T make it; when teachers arranged seats in the classroom according to class rank; and when not everyone got into the college they wanted or got hired by the company where they really wanted to work. In other words, there was competition. And yes, a competitive environment can have serious flaws. However, this nonsense of not recognizing achievement because it will somehow segregate people has to stop. The reality is that in the workplace people get performance reviews – at least annually – and not everyone should get rated at “greatly exceeds standards”. Unfortunately, the twenty something’s saying “I’ve never gotten anything less than an ‘A’ in my life” will not cut it. This participation award mentality has created an entire generation who find negative feedback and dealing with adversity difficult. And adversity is exactly what businesses will have to deal with in the future. It would be a much better world if schools, community programs, and families helped young people find their talent instead of having them falsely believe everyone is great at everything.