Meagan Johnson - Generational Speaker
Solve Your Challenges and Bridge the Gap between Generations at Your Multigenerational Workforce
Millennials vs Gen X… so what’s up with the Millenials and why everyone makes fun of them? What is the difference and how can millennials positively tap into their power? It is what we’re discussing today…
This episode starts off with 7 minutes of Simon Sinek – fantastic observations about the millennials. Starting at about 17 minutes into the podcast, I will discuss the generational gap in the workplace with Liv.
Let’s get to it…
How to Give Corrective Feedback to a Baby Boomer, when you are the Millenial Boss? Yes, a much younger person trying to lecture to an experienced one?
I’m talking to my dad, professional speaker Larry Johnson. He is a co-author of the best-selling an absolutely fabulous book ‘Absolute Honesty’.
Recently I had a Millennial audience member ask me about how to best give an honest feedback to somebody she was managing. Somebody much older. Old enough to be her dad. She felt a little awkward giving the corrective feedback.
I thought I’d asked my dad, who is also a baby boomer and a co-author of the best-selling book ‘Generations Inc’.
“How best should this millennial give honest feedback to this person she’s managing?” And I think we’re safe to assume that it’s a corrective feedback. It’s not a compliment but rather that she wants the person to change their behavior.
I think it kind of depends on where the other person perceives this younger person’s area of expertise.
In other words, the baby boomer may question what right does this person have to tell me how I should do anything? I know as a baby boomer, I really appreciate the younger person who coaches me on how to better use my software, how to use my computer, or how to use social media.
We get into some tricky territory when the younger manager is going to coach me about something I think I know everything about.
It’s very important that you preface whatever you’re going to say to this person with some acknowledgment of her experience.
Say: “I know you’ve got a lot of experience in this area of dealing with customers who are upset. However, I’m concerned. When you said to the customer ‘don’t worry your pretty little head’, it could have been considered offensive.”
The Millennial that’s giving the feedback needs to voice that it is not appropriate. It could almost be interpreted as sexual harassment. It could be considered offensive.
I would say in that case that you pose it in terms of how it might be experienced by the customer or even by the Millennials.
Describe the effect of what he’s doing okay and maybe make a suggestion on how he might approach it differently.
Recently a reporter asked me about the Generation X management style – what type of managers are Gen Xers?
I thought to myself: “Gen Xers as managers? What? No way! We’re too young to be managers! We can’t be managers! We’re still too new. We’re too young or we’re just getting our feet wet. You can’t put us in charge now?”
Gen Xers are managers. In fact, we’re in our working prime. In a survey, they found that over half of executives believe Gen Xers are the most engaged generation. We have a unique Generation X Management Style!
So what type of managers do we make?
Well, I think Gen Xers are in a really good position because they are open to change.
Especially when it comes to technology. We began using technology in school before we entered the workplace. Many baby boomers began using technology in the workplace after their careers were already established.
But Gen Xers? We started using technology before we began our careers. When Millennials approach us to try a new technology, we’re open to it.
I think about my own business in the past, when it came to running credit cards.
I would write down the credit card number while I was traveling. Then took the written credit card number back to my assistant. My millennial assistant would then enter it into the little box we were given by the bank and processed the credit cards. She approached me about this thing called ‘Square’ at the time. It reinvented the way that I handled credit cards. Many of you know and use square today.
Despite our unique Generation X management style, here’s where we might stumble.
We were ‘latchkey kids’. Came home from school and we had a list of chores on the kitchen counter. It was up to us to decide when we wanted to do the chores and how we did those chores. We just had to get them done before management, ‘aka mom and dad’, returned home.
As managers, sometimes we think we want to manage people the way we wanted to be managed.
When I first began my career, I wanted a manager who would listen to my input and then let me do my thing. You know? Give me what I need. Then tell me what you want to be done. Give me the tools and training to do it and then just leave me alone.
However, with this new super engaged millennial generation that many of us are working with today as Gen X managers, we may need to step out of our comfort zone and engage with the Millennials with a little bit more frequency.
We may feel this as ‘hand-holding’, but I don’t perceive it that way. I perceive it as engaging the younger generation. Also, that engagement helps to transfer that knowledge between Gen Xers and Millennials. That is our Generation X Management Style!
I look forward to seeing you next week when we talk about the ever-changing generations in the workforce in the marketplace today.
Mentoring Millennials should be a part of every organization, especially if you want to retain your millennial employees!
Here is why:
According to Deloitte study, 64% of millennials plan to see their current job in their ‘rearview mirror’ by the year 2020.
What does that mean? It means that in less than two years 64% of millennials plan on leaving their current job.
The average millennial stays in their job less than three years. However, that same Deloitte study discovered that Millennials who are at their current job or organization for longer than five years are two times more likely to have a mentor.
According to Price Waterhouse Cooper, 98% of millennials feel that working with strong mentors is very important.
I recently interviewed a millennial and he said to me that a mentor-mentee relationship is extremely important. He shared, however, that many mentors feel that being a mentor means telling them how they did something. He said: ”A mentor to me means challenging me to think differently!”
There really are 3 stages of the mentor-mentee relationship:
The coach is really there to help the millennial get their feet wet. Maybe they are new to the organization or new to the position. A coach is a great way to teach the Millennial about the corporate culture or maybe work on a soft skill.
I know that when I was in my 20’s and I had my first job out of college, I would’ve loved to have a coach to help me with writing skills. So, coaches are a terrific way to help the Millennial ease into the corporate culture of the new organization.
2. The 2nd stage is a Mentorship Relationship: The mentor relationship is based more on the relationship itself.
In fact, Millennials may have many mentors.
There is something called micro-mentoring and those are groups that connect via social media. There’s also reverse mentoring. A reverse mentor is when the millennial mentors a more senior person, typically about something technology related.
Reverse mentoring is a great way to open the door between millennial and someone who’s been around the organization for a long time. Most importantly, the mentor in the mentor-mentee relationship holds the mentee accountable for meeting their goals.
3. The 3rd stage is the Sponsorship: This is intriguing because this takes the mentor-mentee relationship up a level.
This is truly a one-on-one relationship. It is a higher level of mentoring and the sponsor typically has a high status with the company. The sponsor’s responsibility or goal is to help that millennial reach their next level. To get that promotion or that raise. That sponsor also acts as an advocate for the Millennial within the organization. He/she helps the millennial identify skills and talents they need to develop to find that new promotion or raise.
Mentoring millennials is not an easy task – however, it can be a rewarding one for both parties involved.
A baby boomer I recently interviewed said to me:
“It is our responsibility to mentor the young people in our lives, however mentoring is not just about handing them a book. It’s also about telling them what they have done right.”
So there you have it – the Mentoring Millennials segment.
I look forward to seeing you next week when we further dig into this topic about the multi-generations in the workplace.
Understanding Generations is not always an easy task!
I was honored to be a keynote speaker for the facility management fusion conference in Chicago. While I was attending the conference, I was fortunate enough to see another speaker. Her name is Alexis Thompson and you can find her on her Facebook page titled ‘Trybal Performance’. She speaks about leadership and she said something that struck a chord with me. She said that to be a good leader we often have to let go of control. To allow others to grow around us.
How does letting go of control to let the others grow around us? How does that tie in with the generations?
I thought that it really does apply. We often have to let go of the way we’ve done things in the past to allow the multiple generations around us to flourish.
Every generation is marked by what I call ‘points of no turning back’. The way we do business. How we communicate. The way we facilitate our day-to-day lives. Sometimes it changes so drastically that the way we were operating previously becomes almost obsolete.
There was a time when we thought a typewriter was high-tech. I mean if we have tools like these we could get our jobs done in no time whatsoever. Things changed and our expectations of how to do our jobs have changed.
Hence the importance of understanding generations. We had to let go of control of the old ways of doing things to embrace the new.
I was at a shopping mall directory that shows you an outline of the mall. A list of all the stores. Typically, there’s a red star that says ‘You Are Here’.
There was a three-year-old little boy.
He was standing in front of the directory. Took her little fingers and placed it on the side of the digital directory. He was moving her little finger across the side, tried to manipulate and change the images. When the sign didn’t move, he looked at his mother and said ’It’s broke and it bores me!’
Our expectations have changed because technology has changed. That little boy’s expectations have changed too. He has a different expectation of what customer service should be like. What the marketers should do to connect and communicate with him.
For all those vendors, customers service personnel and marketers – for them to be successful with him, they’re going to have to let go of control of doing things the old way and to embrace the new.
Understanding Generations does apply at our workplaces, as well as in our day to day lives.
That little boy, just like the multiple generations you encounter on a daily basis, has a different expectation. An expectation of what you’re going to do to connect and communicate successfully with him.
I encourage you to think about ways to let go of control of the old ways of doing things to let the new generations flourish around you.
I look forward to seeing you next week when we further discuss what we can do to communicate effectively across generational lines.