How To Manage The New Workplace Reality

With clear caution against stereotyping people by age, Valerie M. Grubb has written an incredibly insightful book on how to manage the new workplace reality. A reality driven by the fact that by 2020, 25 percent of the labor force will be over the age of 55, and Generation Z is just now entering the workforce. All of which will drive a clash of cultures that demands a new management approach.

Key takeaways from Grubb's new book, Clash of the Generations, include:

Old habits - not old people - kill innovation, and pairing veteran workers with younger ones has proven to spur innovation at many companies.
Learning is a lifelong pursuit, and motivating senior team members to develop their skill sets is just as important as mentoring new and mid-career members of the team.
Employees and managers worry about job stability, and taking part in developing individualized career plans for your talent is a critical way to retain them.

In the book, you'll learn about:

The New Workplace Reality
Defining the Generations
Fostering a Culture of Inclusion
Setting the Stage for Great Performance
Being an Inclusive Manager
Promoting Growth Opportunities
Managing Differences in Work Ethic
Managing Different Work-Life Balance Expectations
Managing the Differences in Career Development Planning

And, you'll read some fascinating case studies about these organziations:

Chegg
Hy-Ko Products
TECT Corporation

Valerie M. Grubb

Today, Grubb shared with me her answers to these questions about a workplace with Baby Boomers Generation Xers, Millennials and the soon-to-come Generations Zers:

Question: When do you believe most businesses will fully experience the impact of Generation Zers?

Grubb: The latest generation, commonly referred to as Generation Z, Post-Millennials or Nextsters, were born in 1998 so businesses can expect this new group of employees to show up any day now (either as interns or full-time employees).

Question: How best should a leader pro-actively prepare for that impact?

Grubb: If your company is still struggling with how to manage the Millennial generation, it’s time to get serious about your management practices and training! I have five recommendations that leaders can immediately implement:

Demand inclusivity – all voices matter, not just those new to the office or with more senior experience. By ensuring everyone is heard, your teaching respect for all which can positively affect employee motivation and engagement.
Understand that work ethic means very different things to each generation and this includes time in the office. Both Millennials and GenZ are incredibly entrepreneurial and will expect more independent work environments. So ensure your leaders are managing employees by the goals they accomplish, not by the hours in the office.
Train your managers on the value of appreciation. Millennials certainly brought the concept into the workforce but GenZ will take it to a whole new level. If your managers are stuck in the old ways of motivating and engaging employees (including not rewarding and appreciating employees), even previously successful managers will start to experience turnover.
Focus on development opportunities from the moment your GenZer (or Millennial) shows up in the office. If they are not learning, they’re looking for opportunities at your competitor. Take advantage of that strong desire to learn by offering professional development opportunities from formal training to informal mentoring options.
Step up your communication game. GenZ and Millennials are going to assume that no news = bad news, including that management doesn’t care about them. That can spell trouble for even the best of companies and it’s something leaders can immediately implement.

Question: When a leader helps to facilitate mentoring within his/her organization, what works best?

Grubb: Pairing Baby Boomers with Generatioon Xers, Millennials or Generation Zers? Any why?

Both! Learning occurs up, down and sideways, so focus on the goals of what your trying to get out of the mentoring relationship, then pair up the generations to accomplish the mission.

Boomers and Xers can gain a significant leg-up on technologies and the interests of younger workers by being paired up with Millennial and GenZers. On the flip side, more senior employees can help Millennials and GenZers with what it takes to lead in a corporate environment (and how to move up that timeline).

As long as both employees walk into the partnership with the right attitude (that we both have something to learn), your mentoring programs can result in a more engaged and motivated workforce (and one that’s smarter too!).

Grubb is the founder of the consulting firm Val Grubb & Associates Ltd. During her career, she served as vice president of NBC Universal and played a key role in creating both Oxygen Media and IAC.

Thank you to the book's publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

Comments

How To Achieve Human Leadership

Human Leadership: The Courage To Face Ourselves And Each Other is Kristen Hadeed ’s newest book. It’s a raw, personal account of losing herself in service to others and the challenging work of finding her way back. It’s a story of burnout, ambition, resentment, grief, reinvention, profound self-examination, and the courage it takes to share what you discover with the people around you. By learning to face herself, tell the truth, and take ownership of her choices, Hadeed became a more courageous, compassionate leader and built a life and business that would take care of her, too. Hadeed’s journey shows that leadership doesn’t have to mean endless sacrifice or self-abandonment. Human Leadership offers a different path―one where courage, honesty, and humanity become the foundation of meaningful leadership and a meaningful life. Part memoir, part invitation, Hadeed’s story will empower you to: Recognize the values, fears, and limiting beliefs driving your lead...

How To Build A High Performing Sales Team

Based on Stephanie Friedman 's 20 years of sales experience, her new book, Built to Grow: A Handbook For High-Performance Sales Teams , is the perfect step-by-step, go-to-market field guide for startup founders. Friedman offers readers a structured and repeatable methodology for building a high-performing sales function from a company’s earliest days. The book is divided into three phases of startup growth— Experiment, Build, and Scale. Within each of the three phases, Friedman covers: Sales Playbook Hiring Revenue Management Customer Success Compensations Culture Internal Collaboration Some of my favorite takeaway tips from the book include: No matter how experienced your salespeople are, any high-performing sales organization should follow one simple but important rule: No call without an agenda. This helps reinforce the necessary discipline around call preparation and ensures your customers have the best possible experience when talking to your...

3 Things To Avoid When You Give Your Next Speech

If you don't want to get your speech off to a bad start, the communications experts at Speechworks suggest you: Don't apologize (particularly about your anxiety or lack of preparation. Apologies put your audience on the defensive. Don't start by telling a joke (which may not be all that funny, or is irrelevant, or that may even be offensive to someone in your audience). Don't beat around the bush (including, don't list off a lot of people you want to thank. Don't waste your audience's valuable time) Instead: If you need to deal with your anxiety, practice like crazy . Rehearse particularly your first line over and over. Start your presentation by laying out for your audience a key issue that they are facing in their business . If you must thank someone, do it at the end, or thank your introducer briefly, pause, and then start right into the meat of your message .

The Playbook For CEOs To Lead Under Pressure

“Most CEOs spend years mastering strategy, finance, operations, and execution,” says author Andrea Petrone , “Far fewer spend time defining who they are as leaders.” He adds that all too often the leadership style that got a CEO to the top becomes the very thing holding them back. More specifically, after more than two decades coaching CEOs and senior executives at Shell, Unilever, Takeda, EssilorLuxottica, and PwC, Petrone noticed a pattern: sustained pressure was pulling leaders away from who they were. Fortunately, in his latest book, Reinvention at the Top: The Playbook for CEOs to Lead Under Pressure , Petrone introduces the Throughline, an architecture that helps leaders align their identity, message, and presence so they can lead powerfully under pressure. Whether stepping into a new role, navigating a crisis, or reinventing an organization, Throughline offers CEOs a practical roadmap for leading without losing themselves. As you read the book you will discover: ...

Searching For The World's 2012 Fittest CEO

The CEO Endurance World Championship is a made-for-TV event covering six grueling stages of competition from September 13 - 16, 2012 , and featuring 25 top CEOs that combine success in business with a healthy and fit lifestyle. Each of the six stages is designed to test the CEOs - mixing strategy with endurance - and at the same time be very entertaining to watch. The goal of the competition is to identify the World’s Fittest CEO . The CEOs that have been chosen to take part in the event were hand-picked for their athletic ability and, more importantly, for the charity for which they will be racing. The overall winner will earn the coveted title of Fittest CEO® plus the opportunity to donate $50,000 to the charity of their choice. The entire competition will be filmed and packaged into a TV show (“The Fittest CEO®”) that will: illustrate the breath-taking beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains profile a number of charities that the CEOs will be racing for applaud CEOs who c...

How To Make One Bold Move A Day

Shanna A. Hocking ’s new book, One Bold Move A Day , is all about meaningful actions women can take to fulfill their leadership and career potential. Specially, Hocking reveals the transformative mindsets needed to make one Bold Move a day. Those are: Gratitude Mindset And Mindset Happiness Mindset Progress Mindset “Each of these four mindsets individually plays a special role in the process of continuously showing up for yourself and others,” explains Hocking. “Each mindset contributes in a different way to your success, but they all complement each other and together they will become the foundation to your Bold Move Mindset.” Hocking explains in her book that a Bold Move is one that challenges you to grow . “Sometimes it’s about capitalizing on an opportunity, and sometimes it’s about creating that opportunity for yourself,” explains Hocking. Keep in mind, too, that a Bold Move for you might not be the same as someone else’s. ...

High-Performing Teams Are Made Of This

According to Ron Ricci and Carl Wiese, authors of the book, The Collaboration Imperative , high-performing teams have the following characteristics: People have solid and deep trust in each other and in the team's purpose--they feel free to express feelings and ideas. Everybody is working toward the same goals. Team members are clear on how to work together and how to accomplish tasks. Everyone understands both team and individual performance goals and knows what is expected. Team members actively diffuse tension and friction in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. The team engages in extensive discussion, and everyone gets a chance to contribute--even the introverts. Disagreement is viewed as a good thing and conflicts are managed. Criticism is constructive and is oriented toward problem solving and removing obstacles. The team makes decisions when there is natural agreement--in the cases where agreement is elusive, a decision is made by the team lead or executiv...

Six Leadership Actions To Leverage Employees' Differences To Strengthen Teams

The new book, All The Difference: Six Leadership Actions To Bridge Perspectives, Strengthen Teams, and Create Value , teaches how leaders can turn their team's individual differences into deeper trust, greater creativity, and winning results. “The greatest risk of unmanaged difference isn’t conflict: it lies in the ideas, insights, and opportunities that may never surface,” explain the book’s authors, Susan MacKenty Brady , Stuart D. Kliman , and Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Leslie C. Smith . They suggest that you look around your team to fully see people with different communication styles, perspectives, cultural norms, and capabilities. These differences are expressed in all kinds of ways, such as casual gestures in a meeting, a colleague's opinion on a current event, or an intense work style. Often, those differences can lead to friction, even conflict. You may try to manage around them. But, for you and your organization to fully leverage the strengths of your team’s diffe...

How To Be A Tough Enough Leader

Tomorrow brings a compelling and timely book about how tough enough you need to be as a leader to lead your team to greatness without being a jerk. The book is Tough Enough , by leadership coaches John Baird and Matt Hunter . The authors explain that building a high-performing team requires a new form of toughness―not based on bullying and bravado, but rather pushing for exceptional results in a way that is firm, fair, and respectful. Drawing on decades of coaching top CEOs, elite founders, and ambitious leaders, Baird and Hunter break down seven specific habits that define the strongest, most effective leaders, from being clear about the company culture to strategically unleashing emotional thunder. They set the record straight on when to prioritize understanding and empathy, when it’s time to be direct―and, most importantly, how to do both at the same time. Their no-nonsense approach gives readers the tools to calibrate their toughness and compassion in a ...

Book Review: Les McKeown's The Synergist

Why do so many teams and groups fail to perform --achieving compromise at best and gridlock at worst? According to best-selling author Les McKeown , the problem lays in conflicting personality types: the Visionary with big ideas and little execution. the Processor who insists on putting every detail through a system, slowing things. down the Operator who just wants to end the meeting and get back to the "real work." It takes a Synergist , says McKeown to end the gridlock. A Synergist, who can take all three--the bold dreamers, the pragmatic realists, and the systems designers--and knit them together into a dynamic, well rounded team. " Most importantly, the Synergist is a role anyone can learn ," explains McKeown. And, he teaches that skill set in his new book, The Synergist -- How to Lead Your Team to Predictable Success . A Synergist : sets their personal interests below the best interests of the enterprise as a whole. sees the big picture of...

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog