Managing Baby Boomers in the Workforce

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Baby Boomers in the workforce are a force to be reckoned with.  They are the single largest cohort in the history of the planet, and they have dominated culture, economics, and the workplace for the past half century in countries where the Baby Boom phenomenon exists.

Baby Boomers in the workforce are most pronounced in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada (presumably because the Second World War was six years long for these countries, but when they returned home, they did not have to rebuild their cities), followed by the United States and Western Europe.

First, we should define Baby Boomers in the Workforce:

 

Traditionalists:  1925 – 1945

Baby Boomers:  1946 – 1965

Generation X:    1966 – 1980

Millennials:         1980 – 1999

Who Cares About Baby Boomers in the Workforce?

 

  • Clashes between generations can directly affect turnover. If team members do not feel like they “fit in” or that their values are not reflected in the workplace, the there is a risk of unwanted turnover.
  • Baby Boomers in the workforce have been influenced by different life events than other generations and thus have different perspectives that can impact motivation and performance.  Understanding this better ensures the capture of discretionary effort.
  • A 2011 Robert Half survey revealed that 72% of hiring managers find it challenging to manage teams composed of members of different generations.  This is particularly challenging when younger generations are put in the position of managing Baby Boomers in the workforce.

Factors that Shaped Baby Boomers in the Workforce:

 

  • Birth of Rock n Roll.
  • Many Baby Boomers in the workforce are the former hippees of the 1960s.
  • Space exploration.  Many Baby Boomers in the workforce can remember a time before regular space travel.
  • Baby Boomers in the workforce are the most affluent generation in history.
  • Unlike previous generations, Baby Boomers in the workforce grew up in peaceful times, and most of them have never gone to war.
  • Baby Boomers in the workforce were the first to reject traditional values, after having grown up during the Civil Rights Movement, and other significant social changes.

Expectations of Baby Boomers in the Workforce:

 

  • Baby Boomers in the workforce value peer competition.
  • Boomers started the “workaholic” trend.  Where Traditionalists saw hard work as the right thing to do, Baby Boomers in the workforce see it as a way to get to the next level of success.
  • Baby Boomers in the workforce are committed to climbing the ladder of success.  They are seeking status, prestige, and money.
  • Baby Boomers in the workforce don’t like restrictive rules and regulations.

How to Lead and Motivate Baby Boomers in the Workforce:

 

  • Position, Titles and Prestige.  Baby Boomers in the workforce are achievement oriented, and respond to status represented by titles and position.
  • Provide Stability.  Baby Boomers in the workforce are mostly a loyal group, so even though many are close to retirement, longer term incentives are important to this cohort.
  • Recognize Their Experience and Contributions. Baby Boomers in the workforce have a wealth of experience that younger generations have yet to achieve.  Recognizing this allows other generations to learn from the Boomers, and also motivates Baby Boomers in the workforce.
  • Respect their knowledge and experience.  Set up formal opportunities for Baby Boomers in the Workforce to share their expertise with younger workers.
  • Personal Relationships. Deal with Boomers face to face.  Do not rely solely on email with this cohort.

Three Things that Frustrate Baby Boomers in the Workforce About Other generations:

 

  1. Generation X has no company loyalty.  They will jump ship quickly, and without regard for the organization.
  2. Generation Y has no patience.  They seem to be unwilling to “pay their dues”.
  3. Traditionalists rules and values are out of touch with modern reality.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Managing Baby Boomers in the Workforce (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

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Millennials in the Workplace: How to Lead and Motivate Generation Y

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“The Children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority, they show disrespect for adults, and love to talk rather than work or exercise. They no longer rise when adults enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter in front of company, gobble down their food at the table, and intimidate their teachers.”  – SOCRATES (469 -399 B.C.)

So perhaps generational friction in the workplace is not a new phenomena.  However, proactively managing Millennials in the workplace will reduce workplace conflict, improve productivity, and generally make your life as a leader more easy.

First, we should define the various generations currently at work:

  • Traditionalists:  1925 – 1945
  • Baby Boomers:  1946 – 1965
  • Generation X:  1966 – 1980
  • Millennials:  1980 – 1999

Who Cares About Millennials in the Workplace?

There are a variety of reasons a good leader will want to proactively manage Millennials in the workplace:

  • Clashes between generations can directly affect turnover. If team members do not feel like they fit in, or that their values are not reflected in the workplace, they are more likely to leave.  Millennials in the workplace often have specific skills that can be difficult to replace.
  • Different generations have been influenced by different life events and thus have different perspectives that can impact motivation and performance.  For example, Millennials in the workplace often have:
    • Unique ways of viewing quality.
    • Distinct and preferred ways of managing and being managed.
    • Different priorities that effect how and when they show up for work.

What has Shaped and Influenced Millennials in the Workplace?

Every generation or cohort has been affected by its life experience.  It is important to understand cultural influences when managing Millennials in the workplace:

  • The Trophy Generation. Millennials in the workplace often expect their work lives to be similar to their upbringing.  They have constantly been acknowledged and reinforced their entire lives.  They expect the same at work.
  • Millennials in the workplace can baffle other generations because they were raised with an entitlement and “rights” perspective.
  • Millennials don’t really remember a time without the internet
  • They have not known a world without microwaves, cell phones, CD’s, laptops and iPods.
  • Millennials were raised on reality television.  They believe anyone can be a star.
  • Many Millennials in the workplace were in high school during the Columbine tragedy.
  • They know never ending war, and don’t remember a time without terrorism.
  • Scandals – OJ Simpson, Monica Lewinsky

Expectations of Millennials in the Workplace

  • Lot’s of positive feedback.  Millennials in the workplace expect the same reinforcement they were brought up on.  Feedback is not optional to them.
  • Millennials in the workplace expect to win and are optimistic.
  • Millennials in the workplace expect a work/life balance.  They will work hard, but also expect to play hard as well, and will quickly leave an employer that insists on constantly interrupting their work/life balance.
  • Millennials in the workplace expect to be listened to and collaborated with.
  • Hierarchy doesn’t matter to Millennials in the workplace.  The pursuit of titles and status has far lower value than it does for other generations.
  • They expect to be able to work with the latest technology.

How to Lead and Motivate Millennials in the Workplace

Not every workplace can achieve all of the suggestion below, but serious consideration should be given to how to best manage and motivate Millennials in the workplace:

  • Make the workplace fun.  Provide an informal, digital, multi-tasking, team oriented workplace.
  • Make the workplace flexible.  Focus on the work outputs; not when, or even how it gets done.
  • Give them guidance and some structure. Millennials in the workplace are used to listening to others for advice and input.  They are used to following schedules and having routines laid out.
  • Leverage their comfort with collaboration and multi-tasking.  Give them a wide range of projects to work.  Use project teams.
  • Positive feedback is especially important to this generation. Give them on the spot recognition and public praise.
  • Give answers to all of their questions.  They expect to be well informed and they expect to be able to question you.
  • Let them know that what they do matters. They expect to make a difference “You and your coworkers can help turn this company around” can be an effective way to motivate Millennials in the workplace.

Three things that Frustrate Millennials about other Generations:

  1. Traditionalists’ hierarchy means nothing.  Often older managers cannot understand why the promise of a title and promotion fails to motivate Millennials in the workplace.  They are far more interested in being listened to, and collaboration than they are with a title.
  2. The Boomers’ resistance to technology.  Millennials in the workplace have little patience with those that cannot perform the simplest of technical functions.  Email, text messaging and social media are not optional to the Millennials; they are critical business tools.
  3. Generation X needs to lighten up.  Millennials in the workplace don’t have much patience for the doom and gloom that characterizes many Gen Xers.  They were not privy to corporate downsizing, and other challenges the Xers endured, and even if they were, they would suggest the Xers “get over it”.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Millennials in the Workplace (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

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The Trophy Generation Invades the Workplace

OK… so I know I’m supposed to treat these ones differently.  They’ve never received anything but continually positive feedback, and their Mum’s and Dad’s loved them so much, they got a cake and a parade every time they didn’t wet the bed.

Unfortunately, some one has to break the news to the more entitled of this generation that:

Life is Just Not Fair.

If you are living and working in a society of more than one, sooner or later someone who is not as smart as you, not as hardworking as you, and maybe not even as good looking as you, is going to get something that you feel entitled to.  It’s horribly unfair.

It’s called “life”.

Prince Charles got himself into trouble a few years ago because he suggested that maybe it wasn’t the best idea to tell everyone they could do or be anything they wanted to.  On the surface, it is highly offensive to have a guy that was born into fame and riches lecturing people to accept their lot in life and make the best of it.  On reflection however, he is the perfect person to say so:  he never had a choice as to his vocation or ambition.  It was pre-determined for him, and few sane people would want to trade places with him.

In reality, people of all generations should try to reach beyond their grasp.  The folly is when achieving things beyond your humble origins becomes an entitlement, rather than a bonus.  There are lots of smart people out there who have worked very hard to exceed their natural circumstances, who only do marginally better than their parents or peers did.  Those that have risen above tremendous adversity go on to get their own television networks (good for you, Oprah), or have movies of the week made about their story are the exception, not the rule.

The rest of us need to be content with what fate conspires to deliver to us for our efforts.

I have a creepy feeling about a whole generation of trophy-kids entering the workplace, when their parents and society have failed to expose them to unbridled competition or at least some understanding of the harsh reality of life.  Far too many parents would storm into the principal’s office when Susie didn’t get an “A” in chemistry.

What’s going to happen when Susie’s dad wants to storm into the boss’s office when Susie gets fired?

I’m Not a Manager. I’m a Babysitter

Well, that’s kind of harsh – even if it is true for many leaders.  How did it come to this?  How did you manage your career so you could end up mediating between two employees who are applying death-threats to each other because one used the other’s Arthur Fonzarelli commemorative coffee mug, and never washed it?

None of us stood up in the first grade and announced to the world that we wanted to be a middle manager.  Yet, there are far more middle managers than there are police officers, fire-fighters and ballerinas combined.  And here you are a generation later with the title, “Manager” which entitles you to:

  • 10% more pay than the two idiots arguing over the coffee mug
  • longer working hours
  • hypertension.

I remember being the manager of a supermarket, where I’d have to mediate such disputes as who had to check through the groceries.  Yep, that’s right – we had hired over 100 people into the job description, “cashier”, and I was constantly involved in battles over who had to check.  Weren’t we paying all of you to perform that function?

Or another employee who made a career out of torturing other people with comments such as:

  • “I think you’ve put on weight”
  • “You’ll probably be bald in another couple of years”
  • “Why do you think it is that people don’t like you”

Of course, he always phrased these in such a way that he couldn’t be taken to task for harassment, but that didn’t stop the line-up of complaints about his behaviour.

I finally developed a coping strategy for these petty complaints that made me tremendously unpopular with everyone, but I enjoyed my job much more, and had way more time on my hands.  Unless I deemed the complaint to be something that would effect the viability of the business, or lead to an unacceptable amount of risk, I would tell people, “You need to sort this out on your own, because if you try to involve me, I guarantee no one is going to like the result”.

A threat?  Probably.

A survival strategy?  Definitely.

I’ve spoken in this space before about “the burden of leadership” that some managers have thought is a bit harsh.  I won’t back away from those comments, but I will say that petty complaints and conflicts are not part of any manager’s job – it’s a baby-sitter’s job.

The Manager’s job is often a thankless one, but it doesn’t have to be trivial, unless you allow it to be so.  This aspect of the manager’s job is timeless.

 

 

Dispelling Guru Myths

Part of my job is to read the latest management books, and scan the media for important literature that could be of some use to managers.  Some stuff is certainly better written than others, but lately I’m getting downright cranky with some of the “wisdom” the alleged management gurus and pumping out to maintain their publishing revenue.  As a result, this week we’ll address some of these guru-myths.

Myth #1:  You need to treat everybody the same.

Treating everybody the same is a management slogan that gets trotted out as good leadership behaviour when exactly the opposite is true.  People are individuals and need to be treated as such.  Here’s something else the management gurus won’t tell you – sometimes, some of your people will desperately need a kick in the ass.

The reason management gurus won’t tell you this, is because they don’t know.  They don’t know, because they’ve never actually been a manager.  Yes, they may have sold enough books to own their very own Caribbean island, but many of them have never actually had direct reports.

I won’t disagree that people should be always treated with equal amounts of respect.  But respect necessarily means that a good leader will deal with a poor performing team member (sometimes via that kick in the ass, mentioned above) out of respect for the higher performing team members.

Myth #2:  Managers need to delegate everything

Another guru-myth is that every manager needs to, “delegate, delegate, delegate!” There is no doubt that effective delegation can help a leader push some teams to outstanding performance.  But there are other teams, where relentless delegation can be a catastrophic mistake.

In teams with members that are lower skilled for the tasks they are performing, the last thing you want to do is delegate.  These people need to be carefully directed and managed – some people might even call it micro-managing.  Delegating too much, too soon is probably a larger management issue than failing to delegate.

Myth #3:  Training solves all performance problems

More than once we’ve gotten a call from someone who asks us to come in and do some change management training with his people.  Our very first question is, “why do you think they need training?”

Sometimes, they do.  In other cases, people are fully capable of making the change being asked of them, they just don’t want to do so.  (See:  ass-kicking, above)

Myth #4:  People don’t resist change.  You just need to give them all the information

This myth is particularly offensive.  People DO resist change even when they know the benefits, and have all the information required.  Case in point:  the metric system.  It’s vastly superior, and far easier to understand.  Nearly 7 billion people use it every day, yet the few who still choose not to use it hang on to the old imperial system like Linus protects his blanket.

 

I could go on and on, but I’m working on a change-management training course for managers who want to better delegate to the people they want to treat all the same.

 

The Situational Leadership Model

Learn to identify your default management style and select the best management style to match the situation.

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'Situational Leadership Model' Podcast Slides

 

First Day on the Job? Check Your Zipper

The first day on a new job is a harrowing experience.  It creates impressions on all those you work with, and sets the stage for your success (or failure) with that employer.

Probably my most memorable first day on the job was literally my first day on the job – any job.  I was fifteen years old, and I got a job bagging groceries at the local supermarket.  Ron Grant was the manager on duty, and he met me at the door.  Ron was never one to smile much, but he was a good guy, and he knew his job very well.

What he didn’t do as well, was to remember people’s names.  From my first day onwards, my name was always “Brad” – the curse of having a last name that is many others’ first name.  In the months to come, I’d hear him paging Brad time after time, and then wonder why Brad (whoever that was) never answered.

Ron toured me through the whole store, stopping along the way to introduce me to everyone on staff that we met, and to point out the things I might need to know for my new career wrapping groceries.  He also doled out advice that was very useful and well intentioned, but easily could have been included in the best-seller, “Sh*t My Dad Says.”  Needless to say, I learned some new words and expressions that day, that came in very handy when I recycled them back at high school.

I learned in the months and years to come, that Ron oriented me to my new workplace completely of his own initiative.  The organization really had no process for bringing people on besides the requisite signing of the official paperwork.

At the end of this orientation, he returned me to the front of the store, where I’d spend the next several years bagging groceries.

“Any questions?” asked Ron.

“Nope… I’m ready to go.” I replied.

“Great”, he said, as I turned to get started.  “Hey Brad,”

“Yep?”

“Your fly’s open”, he said without cracking a smile.

Presumably, he’d noticed this before he’d toured me through the whole place, but had waited until now to share this news with me.  It’s been a while since I’ve been teenage boy, but I’m assuming at the time I would have had checklist of basic hygiene items – such as making sure one’s zipper was properly secured.  Apparently, first day job jitters successfully eclipsed basic personal maintenance items.

Walking around in a public place with your fly open — I suppose that’s one way to make a first impression on when starting a new job.

Meeting Survival Guide

I know it may be hard to believe (because I seem so delightful in these pages), but I can sometimes be difficult to get along with.  I get particularly cranky when I’m working with a group that loves to have meetings.  They have no idea why they have meetings, there are no outcomes, and no decisions are made, so it must be that there is some addictive quality in the coffee served at meetings.

Humourist Dave Barry once said that organizations have meetings because they are unable to masterbate.  I prefer to look at it this way: there is an inverse correlation between the number and quality of meetings in an organization, and their overall success.  In other words, I am suggesting that the fewer meetings that occur, the more successful the organization will be.

I know this is an argument I will lose in most companies, so as a service to Wily Manager readers, I’ll suggest ways to pass the time in one of your infinite number of meetings:

  • Buzzword Bingo – this is where you try to stay awake by identifying business catch phrases.  You need to be discrete, though.  You don’t want to carry in a BINGO marker, or jump out of your chair, screaming “BINGO” when the Director of IT utters the words “low-hanging fruit”.  Download the Wily Manager Buzzword Bingo card here.
  • Meeting value calculator – it’s kind of like a telethon, where you keep adding up the total amount of shareholder value that is being sucked away.  You can run the calculations privately, or put up a display board with changeable numbers that can be updated as the meeting goes on.  It’s a bit like the national debt clock in Times Square.
  • Count the Meetings. Often you may be in a room and witnessing 12 individual meetings happening in rapid succession, as each person updates the boss with information that is completely irrelevant to everyone else in the room.
  • Count the Meetings (variation). In particularly undisciplined organizations, meetings will degenerate into multiple and simultaneous conversations.  In this case there can be several separate meetings occurring at once, but they are much harder to count that the first variation of this game.
  • Spot the Participant Type: In this game, you tag each participant with the label most appropriate to them.  Here are some thought starters:
    • The Jeopardy game show contestant:  this is a person constantly asking rhetorical questions, and communicates through Socratic code:  “Do I like the idea of being in this meeting room for 8 hours?  No, I don’t”
    • Caffeine-Deprived: Spot the people in the room struggling just to maintain a minimum level of consciousness, so as not to appear asleep.  Often identified by periodic head-bobbing, however the really good ones have perfected sleeping with the eyes open, while nodding every few moments to give the illusion of awareness
    • The Rambler – A solution to this problem is like Book III of Gulliver’s Travels where an empty sheep’s bladder tied to stick is used to gently hit the Rambler in the head to keep him on track.
    • The Evangelist – everything is a matter of life or death.  If the colour of the toilet-paper is changed, it will negatively impact our very way of life.
    • The thinker – they doodle, don’t look they’re paying attention, and then once per meeting the amaze everyone with their ability to put the entire issue into context.  Be nice to them, they could be your next boss.

Finally, it seems that meetings and death are closely related.  Even before Patrick Lencioni wrote Death By Meeting, I had a dream that I had died, and arrived in purgatory, and it was a meeting that never ended.  I was desperate that someone would pray for my soul, until I realized all of them were too busy in meetings as well.  I woke up realizing a violent death wasn’t as bad as it sounded – at least after a grizzly death, someone would pray for me.

Middle Management Conflicts, and TV Sitcoms

If you’re a regular visitor to this site, you’ll know we like The Office, Seinfeld, Saturday Night Live, and 30 Rock.  With only a few other exceptions, broadcast television is an incredible waste of time, and like other recreational drugs, should be used only occasionally and sparingly.

Interestingly, life on the corporate food-chain is not unlike a poorly written sitcom.  Perhaps that is why so many of them are set in the workplace.  Both the workplace and the crappy sitcoms have protagonists, antagonists, and usually some version of the mentally unbalanced.  Bad writing and poor acting are part of both as well.  Perhaps the only significant difference is that on a sitcom, big problems can neatly be wrapped up in 22 minutes, so there’s time to sell soap and give you a preview to next week’s silliness.

I decided to do some research for this post, so I sat for an evening to watch some sitcoms to make sure I hadn’t misplaced my contempt, and to bring myself up to date on some of the blubber being offered up on TV.

Apparently prime-time comedy is getting worse.  It is also apparent that one doesn’t need an abundance of talent to write this stuff, so Wily Manager proudly presents:

Manager in the Middle

Manager in the Middle is an innovative new sitcom from the people who bring you the Wily Manager weekly podcasts.  The primary character (yet to be named, pending focus group results) is a smart, but cheeky manager constantly being offset by his sadistic immediate supervisor.

The supervisor, Cruela (played by Jane Lynch) loves to pit one manager off against another believing this “healthy” competition will better help her run her business.  Our protagonist is also matrix-managed by a kind, cautious human-resource manager who always knows the right thing to do, but is unwilling to make a decision, and is incredibly conflict-adverse.

Our hero (played by Frankie Muniz (he’s all grown up now)) has four peer managers who all report to Cruella.  Rounding out the cast is:

  • Vlad: The hard-working, smart, reliable foreigner who is easily pushed around for fear of losing his work visa (played by Fez from That 70s Show)
  • Dianne: The single mom who is just trying to make it through the day, but is in constant conflict with Cruela, as she struggles to make it to the daycare on time to pick up her two kids.  Cruela would like to fire her for not working insane hours, but unfortunately (for Cruela) the work she does is outstanding.
  • Don: The smarmy, but oddly likeable young single guy who doesn’t know near as much as he thinks he does.  He also loves to take credit for other people’s work.
  • Vera: The jaded, cynical, sharp-tongued middle aged woman who has over ten years until retirement, but can tell you how many days are left in her working career.

Join us in the first episode when Cruela asks her team to stay late to meet a useless last minute request that everyone knows will go nowhere… and hilarity ensues.

Think we could get Fox to air it after Glee?

Top 10 Manager Challenges (Part A – Managing Conflict)

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Top 10 Manager Challenges:

Here, we talk about the first five, all of which involve CONFLICT.
[What are YOUR Hot Buttons? Take the Conflict Dynamics Profile questionnaire to find out, and get a personalized development guide.]
  1. Firing people
  2. Disciplining people
  3. Showdown with the boss
  4. Being caught in the middle
  5. Peer conflicts
  6. Constant Change
  7. Baby-sitting
  8. Overload
  9. Red Tape – Needless Administration
  10. Personal fulfillment
Firing People:
  • Only the perverse enjoy this part of the job
  • Have a solid paper trail.  If you don’t have one – postpone the firing until you do*
  • Get good advice – HR or legal
  • Make the meeting short and to the point
  • Never fire someone in anger or on the spot
  • Do not put this off because it’s uncomfortable

Employee Discipline:

  • Have a process
  • Document every meeting
    • Formal or informal
    • Written or verbal
  • Make consequences clear in advance of disciplinary action
  • Have all the information at your disposal
  • Have a witness – preferably someone from HR or legal

Showdown with the Boss:

  • Insist on dealing with it in private
  • Never bad-mouth the boss
  • Consider whether s/he has a point
  • Don’t make idle threats
  • Reinforce that s/he is the boss, and you will ultimately do as they ask*
  • Choose your battles carefully
  • Move to resolution, not to perpetuate conflict

Being Caught in the Middle:

  • Tow the party line – even when you don’t agree
  • Explain the rationale as best you understand it
  • Do not blame by pointing up the hierarchy
  • Where appropriate act as a facilitator for a more favourable outcome
  • Be very clear with your people as to what is negotiable and what is not

Peer Conflicts:

  • Determine how important a peer relationship is to you, your department and your ability to be successful
  • Figure out what they need/want from you
  • Help them understand what you need/want from them, and why it is important
  • Escalate the problem only as a last resort

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