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Webinar — Recording |
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“What is it about Millennials that makes them so needy?”
“Why can’t they stay out of my office and think for themselves?” “If they’re so ****** smart, how come they’re always looking to us for help?” Are Millennials getting a bad rap about wanting so much feedback so much of the time? Yes . . . and no. The questions above are only a few of the comments we’ve heard from busy, overworked managers who are frustrated by what they perceive as the endless parade of questions, suggestions seeking approval, and demands for additional responsibility every day. But this problem, as most others, has two perspectives. Talk to the Millennials and they’ll tell you that they’re anxious to please and frustrated by managers who fail to give them clear directions, always seem too busy to provide feedback and seem to be nothing more than pawns in the big bureaucracy. So who’s right? Everybody!
Consider the busy manager.
If you’ve been managing people for a while, you’ve witnessed the influx of Millennials over the past few years. They never seem to look up from their mobile screens. Many don’t appear to take initiative. A lot of them seem to lack situational awareness, as in “When you’re finished what you’re doing, LOOK AROUND!” One retail manager we know keeps a list of 50 tasks with her that can be assigned whenever she sees someone drifting into Smartphone Land. At the same time, she reports that young employees will ask questions like, “Do we have this in a medium?” rather than looking for themselves.
The safety manager in a power plant tells us of young engineers and maintenance techs who will do the task they’re assigned and then walk all the way back to the office to ask what to do next rather than looking around for what else needs to be done. “They’ve all been shown the maintenance requirements,” he says. “But they’ll spend 20 minutes round-trip asking what to do next rather than stopping to think. If they do that three times a day, that’s an hour we’ve paid them at $35 an hour. It adds up and slows things down.” But . . .
If you’re a Millennial, you’re trying to fit into the world of work.
Chances are, nobody coached you on how work works. No one told you what to wear. Nobody laid down the law about showing up on time and putting in a good day’s work. What you learned about work environments may have come from shows like The Office, 30 Rock, and The Big Bang Theory. If you wondered about something, you texted your friends who may have been as clueless as you. So when it came time to get a job, you probably followed the crowd. You assembled a resume, polished your interview skills and applied to hundreds of jobs . . . using the on-line job search services that are now in abundance. Over time, you hit the lottery and was hired on someplace, mostly likely because of a connection. But here you are, on the job, looking for ways to succeed, pay the bills and so on.
“Now wait just a minute!” You might say . . .
“I know lots of Millennials who are well prepared and do a good job. But they just seem so needy when it comes to approval. It’s like they expect me to give them same attention and trophies they received from parents and Little League coaches. I don’t have the time for that. Besides, they need to grow up. What do I do about them?”
We developed this session for all of these reasons. Since the dawn of employment, managers have made the assumption that those entering their ranks had “common sense.” These newbies could think for themselves. They were punctual. They dressed appropriately. They paid attention. This wasn’t exactly true, but it was closer to reality that it seems to be now.
The big reasons were parental modeling and a trail-and-error world. We had not yet evolved into the age of convenience, consumerism and digital choices where we are today. Previous generations were the products of a trial-and-error mentality that resulted in a sense of resourcefulness. Sure they had to be taught the job. But once they learned the basics you could rely on most of them to use their common sense to figure out the nuances. Besides, going to the manager too often for help would probably destroy your chances for promotion.
But in the past decade, a new breed of employee has joined the workforce doing everything from burger flipping to electrical engineering. Some are extremely well educated. Some failed out of high school. But this issue is not about schooling. They, as previous generations, have tried to work the system, and this time they succeeded. The problem is that these systems are limited to home and school. As they enter the workforce, they’re getting a dose of reality. Attempting to work the system can get you fired and the employer has an expectation that you will think for yourself and “figure it out” whatever “it” happens to be.
The result of all this is a parade of young workers, many bright and well educated, forming a line outside of your office seeking approval, assurance, reinforcement, blessings, confirmation, permission, instruction, validation, praise, compliments, support, and an overall okey-dokey. (Are we a little over the top here? Probably, but not by much.)
So if you’re trying to find common ground . . .
It all comes down to feedback. Managers expect Millennials to think for themselves. Millennials ask lots of questions because they have received a lot of feedback in their youth about how they’re doing and expect it to continue. Each group is frustrated with the other’s behavior! This is understandable but certainly not helpful in the workplace. It’s time consuming and frustrating. The result is miscommunications, lost time, turnover, and hard feelings. And unless YOU act to resolve it, it’s going to get worse!
This is all about self-efficacy!
That’s a fancy term that means a person’s belief in their own competence. Self-efficacy means that you’re comfortable thinking for yourself, not just in the workplace, but everywhere. You face daily challenges like the rest of us, but you drill down into your emotions and come up with the confidence to act, based on the information available. If it works out, you move on. If it doesn’t, you fix the problem and then move on. In either case, you learn from the experience and add it to the collection of insights you’ve developed over a lifetime. As these insights multiply and interconnect, you become more confident and at peace with your place in the world and, more specifically, the workplace. This is self-efficacy.
Self-efficacy is the key to resolving your Millennial feedback issues. We have all struggled to grow the confidence needed to thrive in a new environment. This generation is no different. But self-efficacy takes time to develop. Think back to when you were joining the workforce . . . the uncertainty that you’d fit in . . . the desire to do well even though you did really know what you were doing. Millennials, even the well educated ones, are going through the same trial by fire.
The big difference is the lack of resilience among so many. Let’s face it, many Millennials are coming to this process a lot later in life than previous generations. Why? Their parents, teachers, policymakers, psychologists, counselors, social workers, and a bunch of others told that they were special . . . NOT!!! (Sorry. Sometimes we get carried away, but you get the point.) But managers don’t want to be surrogate parents for their young contributors, nor do they have the time. So here you have the gap between those who want young people to think for themselves and young people who have less than the requisite experience do so. Hmmmm…
Want to solve this problem and save lots of time?
We’ll show you how. We’re all too busy these days. There’s lots on the plate and more waiting to be served. So the last thing you need is one more request for feedback or anxious twenty-somethings checking in to make sure they’re doing a good job. Now, more than ever, time is money. We’ve packed this session with step-by-step tactics for finding that balance between providing the support necessary to foster productivity and keeping the distractions to a minimum. Gather your team and listen in. Take time after the webinar to implement immediately. We’ll give you words and phrases you need to communicate clearly while maintaining professionalism and a positive work environment.
Your webinar leader, Bob Wendover, has been there. He gets it!
For the past 20 years, Bob has been studying the effects of this evolution. He has been one of the foremost commentators on the impact of Millennials in the workplace. He’s written books, articles, case studies and curriculums on how employers can manage the largest generation in US history. But most important . . . he has practical ideas for dealing with these disconnects and making Millennials productive in any environment from the get-go! He has spent hundreds of hours interviewing managers about what works. He’s worked with Millennials in a variety of settings. Heck, he’s even got two of them at home. (Can you say “Text them to come to dinner!?”) What he brings to this webinar are insights that will make your life as a manager easier and more productive.
Here’s what we’ll cover . . .
· How to establish boundaries from the first day on how you provide feedback.
· How to nurture your young hires’ confidence in their own critical thinking.
· How to teach emerging professionals a five-step process for self-evaluation before coming to you.
· How to set parameters and provide a balance between feedback and self-assessment.
· How to encourage a simple system for providing observation from veteran peers that will reduce your time providing feedback.
· How to praise in a way that encourages them to build their own self-efficacy.
· How to measure the results of your efforts to increase productivity.
Enroll in this webinar and get past this frustration . . .
We will make this session as practical as possible. That means there’s got to be time for you to process what you’re learning with those around you. We’re scheduling this webinar for sixty minutes, but Bob will be on the line for as long as it takes to answer all the questions and address all the issues you have. Like you, we’ve been through too many sessions where there’s lots of information, but no real learning. We’ll make sure you leave this webinar with practical strategies for resolving the feedback demands and foster self-reliance at the same time.
Here’s what you get . . .
· Access to the live webinar – 60 minutes worth of meaningful learning and ideas you can put to work within minutes of leaving the session.
· Access to the recording – Adults don’t learn everything the first time around. This is your opportunity to review the material again and again, especially when you really have time to process it.
· A supplement full of information and resources to help you augment your learning, along with case studies to use with staff and a worksheet for evaluating your efforts at providing Millennial feedback.
How much? Just $79
Where else can you get a content-packed session like this for less than $80. Sure, you can sign up for something free, but you generally get what you pay for. Besides, if you put even one of these ideas to work, you and your team will save hours a week adding to the bottom line and reducing your stress. On top of that, you get access to the session recording so you can pick up the finer points on the second or third time around.
Reserve your space today!
Remember that you can have as many people in the room as you wish on your end. Make it a lunch-n-learn. Schedule a staff training around it. Build it into a management meeting. Or just listen in yourself while you’re getting other work done. The truth is most people wait until the last minute to sign up for webinars, but you don’t want to lose out on this one-of-a-kind, tactics-packed session. So click the button below to register.
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