Today I have the distinct honor of speaking to the NAIFA, a group of independent insurance and financial advisors, at their quarterly awards luncheon about building trust in a multigenerational world. The post below is a reprint of one created for the Des Moines Register on the topic of multigenerational diversity. Enjoy!
"The older generation thought nothing of getting up at five every morning- and the younger generation doesn't think much of it either!" - John J. Welsch
When coaching leaders and managers, one of the most common concerns I hear from them is how to manage and motivate other generations. Miscommunication and misperception abound. This can lead to loss of productivity. What is a manager to do?
For the first time in history, there are four generations in the American workplace. If you understand the differences between the four generations, then you can set realistic performance expectations for each. Ignoring the differences will only cause frustration for both you and the people you manage.
"Traditionalists"range in age from 62-85. They value hard work, respect, sacrifice in the work place. For them, duty comes before fun.
"Baby Boomers" range in age from 43-61. At work they value personal fulfillment, efficiency, working for a cause.
"Gen X'ers", age 27-42, value self-reliance, but usually need highly structured environments and direction to succeed. Our youngest generation,
"Gen Y", is made up of those under 26 years old. They are extremely entrepreneurial, technologically savvy, and always asking "what's next?"
The key to motivating people is to understand what is important to them, and then tap into those values to help them perform better in the workplace. Many of the new managers that I work with need some help with this success principle.
If employees feel understood and appreciated for who they are and what they believe, they will go well above expectations to perform. You will have a very happy, productive work team. Go ahead, give it a try.
Mr. Lynn Hicks, Executive Director for the Des Moines Register Business section, recently asked me to be a guest blogger for his paper. What an honor! After a little trial run, I am up and running.
In my dynamic world as a leadership coach and consultant, I often use the analogy of a sports team to help my clients understand their undoubtedly critical role as a leader of an organization.There are many similarities.
Look, we are all here to fulfill our mission in life.There is a winning formula to leaving a positive legacy of lasting leadership, whether you are the Coach of the Drake Bulldogs or CEO of Nationwide Insurance. The leader’s job is to set the tone; share the vision; and recruit and develop the talent to make it all happen.
Setting the tone is creating an environment where teamwork is actually happening and it is not just” lip service”.It is setting an expectation that everyone on the team or in the organization will operate from.It is expecting and modeling interdependency instead of the egotistical “Hey. Look at me!” mentality.In watching the Missouri Valley Conference Champion Drake Bulldogs this season, I believe that one of Coach Keno Davis’ biggest contributions in creating a championship team was modeling for and insisting upon humility from his players.When members of a team all feel that their contribution is just as important as the next guy’s, team work can’t help but to flourish in that environment.
Whether you are the coach of a champion sports team, or the Assistant Vice President of a business division, like the captain of a ship, a leader needs to be able to look to the horizon and imagine the possibilities for the group he or she has the privilege to lead.That vision becomes the driving force for every decision that is made and every step that is taken by the team.As we have seen with the Bulldog’s Coach Davis, the vision is clearly and consistently communicated to the team with confidence, humility and compassion.
Creating a lasting legacy of leadership also means finding and selecting the right talent for the job. It means continually giving that selected talent opportunities to develop and grow.In the book “Good to Great”, author James Collins talks about the importance of “getting the right people on the bus.”A good sports coach or business leader wants to recruit champions- people committed to the vision. They want people who eat, sleep and breathe the vision…People who will live the vision. I ask my coaching clients to take the bus analogy one step farther and to be sure that the “right people”- the champions on their team-are not only on the bus, but are sitting in the right seats on the bus.I suggest that they determine a team member’s natural abilities and place them in a position where their talents will make the most impact.If you have someone who is great at coalescing people around a goal, don’t stick them in an office crunching numbers all day; instead make them the captain of your team so they can use their abilities.Develop their leadership skills.
Who knows, as we saw with Coach Davis taking over his father’s legacy,when you are ready to retire the leaders you recruited and helped to develop just might follow in your footsteps someday.
Leaving a positive impact in the world begins with personal transformation. Right action, right speech, and right intention every minute of every day. This is the modern-day "transparency" that the media touts. Being who you say you are and doing what you say you will do- when "words and deeds are in accord".
When we are out of integrity, our words and deeds don't match. We are incongruent. And, on an energetic level, people can tell. Have you ever met someone at a cocktail party and left with the feeling that something wasn't just quite right? I call it failing my "skin-crawl test". These are people who we can sense have something to hide. Their words and deeds don't match up quite right.
But when you operate with transparency, with integrity, in alignment, people intuitively sense it. They will want to be near you. They will want to support you. Doors will begin opening. Personal transformation happens. And it feels incredible.
Make up your mind that just for today your words and deeds will be in accord and you will be in integrity. Then do it again tomorrow. And the next day, and the next day.
What do you have to lose? Nothing but bad karma.
Wisdom for Wednesdays
Professional and personal lives can be so hectic and hurried. It is tough to know with certainty what to do and when to do it; How to solve a problem and get the results that you really crave.
To that end, WfW was born. This is my own little contribution to the world with bits and pieces of wisdom that I have collected, given and received over the years.
I hope that this series will nourish both your head and your heart; and also get your brain firing on all cylinders to Lead well, Live well, and Do well.
WfW:
"Pleasure can be supported by an illusion; but happiness rests upon truth." -Sebastien- Roch Nicholas De Chamfort (1741-1794) France
The old adage is so true... you never know who you will run into. I remind my clients of this all of the time. It is important to live your brand every single day.
The scene was a bustling suburban bistro where I was meeting a client for lunch. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a tall gentleman walking over to our table. A huge smile formed on my face as I recognized the stranger, Oh my gosh, it was J.D. J,D. was a C-level that I worked for about 12 years ago. He was nearing retirement age at the time and was a great mentor to me as I was an aspiring executive. Since I left the organization we tried to stay in contact. We exchanged the perfunctory holiday card each year, but I had not seen him in a long time.
We exchanged pleasantries at the table and he mentioned that his new office was just next door (he hadn't retired but had moved to a new part-time -but- really- full -time job that he loved). He invited me to stop by and visit when I finished lunch.
At the office, sweet memories of working for J.D. surfaced. Those were some of my happiest career years. He was (and still is) a master at building social capital in his organizations. I always felt fortunate to have learned from the best. His easy, no-nonsense, warm and honest way of dealing with people gained him tremendous respect with all of his employees. I was delighted to be in his presence again.
We spent about an hour reminiscing and sharing "Back in the day..." stories. J.D. said that he had been following my business career and was reading my blog <grin>. He said that he always knew that I was talented and he really enjoyed watching my business soar during these past few years. From God's lips to my ears, I was not only flattered but honored.
And then he did something so totally unexpected, I was blown away. He asked me if I wanted to work for him on a part-time basis. To have his organization as an anchor client. Wow! Was this a little slice of heaven or what? Isn't this something that you see only in the movies? We hastily worked out some details. He gave me some things to read. He introduced me to one of his Directors and my "on-boarding" began.
The moral of this story is "live your brand everyday." You never know who you will run into where and when you do, you want to be ready!
Professional and personal lives can be so hectic and hurried. It is tough to know with certainty what to do and when to do it; How to solve a problem and get the results that you really crave.
To that end, WfW was born. This is my own little contribution to the world with bits and pieces of wisdom that I have collected, given and received over the years.
I hope that this series will nourish both your head and your heart; and also get your brain firing on all cylinders to Lead well, Live well, and Do well.
WfW:
"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him, his own." -Benjamin Disraeli (1818-1881)
Whose life can you make a difference in today?
Wisdom for Wednesdays
Professional and personal lives can be so hectic and hurried. It is tough to know with certainty what to do and when to do it; How to solve a problem and get the results that you really crave.
To that end, WfW was born. This is my own little contribution to the world with bits and pieces of wisdom that I have collected, given and received over the years.
I hope that this series will nourish both your head and your heart; and also get your brain firing on all cylinders to Lead well, Live well, and Do well.
WfW: In a previous post, Do It Now!, I spoke of the power of doing things that are priorities. It is imperative in our busy lives and culture that we make the time and space to determine what needs to get done and then to do it. Mark Twain reminds us of that too.
"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into samll manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one." -Mark Twain
So, I am in Florida on a retreat this week. The sun is welcomingly warm. I am spending time looking at my own path to self-actualization, spiritual development and exploring my beliefs. As leaders I think it is important to identify our beliefs and how they impact our actions. Wow! What a week it has been!
Have you ever spent time getting the junk out of your closet? That's what this feels like...clearing out the junk that I have spent an entire lifetime accumulating between my ears.
I am calling this process "Mindstorming". It is a lot like "Brainstorming" in that I am listing the beliefs that I am becoming aware of. It is also similar to "Mindmapping" because I am trying to trace how I came to believe what I believe. Where did these beliefs come from? How did I accumulate them? Is one belief connected to another?
The resulting process has been a Mindstorm- the junk in my closet has been all stirred up, just like a bunch of desert dirt devils, as I sift and sort my beliefs. And, boy, is it ever dusty in here!
I want to stand up, be counted and give a testimonial shout out to a few blogging friends of mine. Here's to Mike Sansone, Sandy Renshaw, and everyone on the I-List. Let me tell you how they have changed my business life.
Two years ago I met Mike Sansone at an entrepreneurs' gathering. There we were, like-minded souls, sharing start-up stories and wine. We had a nice visit but I couldn't get my head wrapped around how blogging could be a serious business tool. (Wasn't that what those cube rat Gen Xers do when they wanted to look busy but not be working?) I liked him well enough and respected his opinion, but I just could not "see" the power of using social media to grow my speaking and coaching business.
Fast forward several months and I was introduced to Sandy. She patiently pitched me on the creation of a blogging website for my business. I knew that I needed a different website as I had just undergone a rebranding to enhance the business. But the sites that I saw just did not make sense to me for my business model. Again, I just didn't "get" what she was saying to me.
Ah, that sweet synchronicity! Sitting at my hair designer's studio one day, I picked up a copy of Wired magazine and read with interest about how CEOs were using blogs as a tool to build client and stakeholder relationships. Eureka!!! That was the key that I was searching for to make sense of this blogging phenomenon. I started to see the light of the blogosphere shining brightly in front of my eyes. If the big guys in the C-suite could blog and get results, then, I declared, so could I!
Immediately, I called Sandy and we discussed the parameters of my new website. Then I ran into Mike and we discussed how to make a blog entry come to life. Then I began attending his Central Iowa Bloggers meetings. The bloggers in Central Iowa have now become my family. I trust them. I love them. They give me hints and tips to make my messages clearer; more effective. They give me hope that I, too, can be a Master Blogger someday.
But, the greatest thing about the ROI that I have gotten from investing the time and energy into the new and improved way that I do business (and it has been a time commitment!) is that just this week I have booked two speaking engagements and have been asked to serve on an Advisory Board as a direct result of my use of social media. That's right... who knew...by building relationships, building trust and consistency with others in my blogging community, I have gained business.
To Mike Sansone- thanks for having faith in me that I would one day "see the light". To Sandy Renshaw- thank you for your patience as we developed a website that I love. To Timothy Johnson, Art Dinkin, Angela Maiers, Chris Punke and all of my friends on the I-List: I couldn't have come this far without your help and support. A heartfelt thanks for your guidance and wisdom.
If you are thinking about starting a blog, I have one question to ask: What are you waiting for? If I can do this, so can you! And there are lots of supportive people out there to help.
Today I have the distinct honor of speaking to the NAIFA, a group of independent insurance and financial advisors, at their quarterly awards luncheon about building trust in a multigenerational world. The post below is a reprint of one created for the Des Moines Register on the topic of multigenerational diversity. Enjoy!
Chuang Tzu 
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