Recently, I was wandering around the produce section at my local Walmart Superstore. An African American male, about 50 years old, was talking to a couple of the young men working for him. They clearly had a lot of produce to put out and it looked like they might be busy for a while. I couldn't hear his instructions, but at the end I heard him say: Thank you, guys. I really appreciate you.
It took me by surprise. I think I had a few stereotypes going for one thing. Men of that age seem to use the, "Do it because I said so" management technique or "You get a paycheck. Why should I have to tell you that you do a good job?" I have battled those types of managers in my workshops on feedback and coaching. I get push-back to my suggestion that you should give positive feedback to ensure a repeat performance. This suggestion has often met with the response that it seems too hokey or it's pampering the employee. I finally had a stroke of brilliance after being so agitated with this common response, that fashioned a comeback: Well, if that's your reasoning, then why don't you dock their pay when they aren't doing it right and ask them to figure out on their own what they did wrong?
With four generations in one workplace today, we see the parenting style of these generations influencing the response to all authority figures, including management. For instance, Baby Boomers are known for extreme loyalty and team (family) is everything. They like collaboration and group work and will work until the job is done whether there is monetary reward or not (workaholism being the extreme outcome to this type of worker).
The Gen X'ers were raised without a lot of parental oversight. Therefore, they like to work alone. They also don't want management weighing in on their performance as it's seen as judgmental or micro-managing. Authority only really interfered in their childhoods when they had done something wrong (latchkey kids created by two working parents and higher divorce rates).
Finally, the Millennials: they had parents who not only said that they were the most important thing in their lives, but the ONLY thing in their lives. They received lots of attention and lots of praise. Therefore, they expect similar responses from their management.
You don't have to like modifying your management style to accommodate your employees' generation...but this approach does happens to work, should that be of interest. If you are saying to yourself as you read this that this advice is nonsense or only coddles those without a good work ethic, that's really YOUR generational filter talking. We all have one. We tend to think the people born before us are techno-phobes and the people born after us are moving too fast and have bad work ethic. But OUR generation has struck just the right balance.
Uh huh.
I don't know if my produce manager had any formal training or he was just following his instincts. Either way, I was impressed by his kindness and his sincerity and I bet his employees remember him long after they stop working there. What else is there to accepting a management job in the end? Isn't the goal to make those people better employees than they were when you found them? The rest of the job is usually riddled with complications and people problems and customer service escalations. The only "gold" is leaving a little of your value system with someone who is coming up the ranks. If your value system is "Speak Not Unless Someone Screws Up," then I guess your legacy is going to be one of cover-ups and deleted emails and anxiety when you are present. Why? Because perfection isn't possible. The expectation of perfection always creates a culture of deception. Humans simply can't maintain such an unrealistic standard.
Here's my advice. Tell someone, "Thank you, John...I appreciate you..." tomorrow at work. I dare ya. But I bet you will get at least a smile if you do.
See Stephanie's site Work Stress Solutions for more information like this.
