Having such a variety of team members to lead can post a wide array of problems. How do you communicate to so many different audiences? How do you tailor your message differently? What about holding people accountable? If your 21 year old cart attendant calls out because he is "sick", yet you hear rumors about a party last night, do you write him up for attendance? What about if your 35 year old single mom cashier calls out because her son is sick, do you write her up too? Do you have to maintain consistency across the board or can you make exceptions?
What about motivating yout team? We learned about the various ways that employees are motivated in the workplace based on their generations. Check out this generational differences chart to learn alot of interesting facts about the attributes of different generations.
1 comment:
I am a gen X'er who works with many millenials,I completely understand your comments. In addition to having a different motivators, the different generations also have their own style of communication.
I don't like to stereotype others, but there are vast differences in our values and the millenials have characteristics that I have a hard time appreciating. They are a confident and ambitious generation, but they also have a tendency to have unrealistic expectations and can have somewhat of an 'entitlement' attitude when it comes to their careers.
I, like many others in my generation, believe that success is earned. You can have a college degree from a highly acclaimed school, but that did not necessarily guarantee successful careers. We entered the working world expecting to be groomed into corporate material.
Linda Gravett, co-author of 'Bridging the Generation Gap: How to Get Radio Babies, Boomers, Gen Xers, And Gen Yers to Work Together And Achieve More', states that "Gen Yers lack a sense of tradition and have a very different work ethic".
Lately, I've noticed that our employer actively recruits at many business and engineering colleges - hoping to stir the interest of almost any candidate. In addition to the recruiting, they are really extending the offers to include more than just a competitive salary. They are even throwing in sign-on bonuses, relocation costs, and other perks. What is most frustrating to me and other gen Xers is how easy they make it for these millenials. They don't have to prove themselves in an interview like we did.
On the contrary, one can say that the recent college graduate is interviewing the company that is doing the hiring and whoever makes them the best offer with the best perks, wins the prize! Grooming is no longer part of the process.
What type of a message is this sending them? Well it is obvious that the side effects are an overinflated ego. They come in to the organization believing that the company has to live up to THEIR expectations.
Afterall, they are young, ambitious, confident, self-motivated, fearless, competent, well educated, and know exactly what they want.
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