A while back, I worked with the staff of a university recreation center. During the session, I asked them to tell me stories of generational differences they observe on the job.
One person yelled out, “Our work study students leave us notes about what needs to be done rather than doing it themselves.”
I asked him to explain. “Last week, he said, “I arrived in the morning to a note on my desk. It read, ‘There’s no air in the basketballs.’ It had been left by the work study on duty the night before.”
As we all chuckled at this example, I realized that many of the stories they were telling revolved around self-initiative and situational awareness. There were stories of students who went in search of another copier when the first one ran out of toner rather than learning to replace it themselves. There were those who forwarded incoming telephone questions to the supervisor’s voice mail without trying to resolve them. Then there was the one who lost the facility key and just went home rather than calling security.
Now I can get myself in a lot of trouble if I appear to be accusing an entire generation of laziness, lack of common sense, or general denseness. That’s not my point, but in each of these cases, the students’ response when questioned was something like, “No one told me,” or “I thought you were supposed to do that.”
Although the situations described took place at a university, these same students will graduate into positions within your organization. So what to do? Here are three quick suggestions:
First, drill down to the details. In other words, be more explicit in your instructions. Your first thought might be, “They’re going to think that I think they’re stupid.” You risk that possibility, but it’s better to anticipate issues than to be blind-sided by them. Make a list of all the mistakes, oversights and behaviors that you’ve observed. Get other staff to contribute. These situations won’t come to mind all at once, just add to the list as they do. Then build a briefing sheet that covers as many as you can. Distribute this briefing sheet to new people. A few may accuse you of treating them like children an to those people, you apologize. Most will probably just go along. This exercise alone will save you hours of heartburn.
Second, give them permission to act. As much as you may find yourself providing overly specific instructions to some, you may find that others simply need permission to act. Think back to when you were new to the job. You may have thought that you knew what to do but didn’t do it for fear of making a mistake. That’s a natural response. Encourage people to use their reasoning. If they don’t know what to do, they should ask a few questions, size up the situation, and then take action. What’s the worst that could happen? By the way, consider the manner in which you explain all this. Help them to understand that we all learn more from mistakes than we do from successes. Anyone who succeeds knows that life is about risk.
Third, model the behavior you seek, but point it out as you do it. There are times when you just need to demonstrate how to complete a task. In many cases, the steps may be so fluid that you don’t even think about them. But when you find yourself showing others, slow down. Return to the old training principle of show them how to do it, do it with them and watch them do it. Remind them that your mastery is the result of hundreds, if not thousands, of rehearsals. You don’t want to make it seem too daunting, but you do want to help them understand that success takes time.