SHORT STORIES

All of these stories point to the needs of Gen Z and Millennials. We can help you create an environment and practices reducing the likelihood that these stories are part of your experience.

Story 1 - Competitive Job Market

It can happen anywhere where there is a phone. I was sitting in the doctor’s office and the woman next to me was on the phone recruiting someone for a technology position. She spoke quickly and passionately about the opportunity and why it is so much better than this person’s current position (they obviously had worked together). At one point she enumerated all 10 of the people that had come over to her current company, leaving the previous company that her recruit still worked for.

This is an example of how competitive jobs are today and the pattern of changing jobs can reflect mass exits because of relationships and friendship and the plethora of opportunities (particularly in technology, media, retail, and professional services). It illustrates how leaders need to know what their employees are thinking and feeling about their roles, their peers, their leadership, their organization, and your brand. Once you have this information, you are in a position to do something about it.

Story 2 - Lack of Leadership Awareness

My friend who loves her job as an ESL instructor, astonished me at lunch one day telling me that she might quit. Surprised I asked her what was going on? I am thinking to myself, maybe she hates the evening hours? Maybe the night time driving was getting to her?

Oh no, she said, it is just my boss. I know I get great reviews from the students and my classes move on to the next level so I know I am doing a great job, but I never quite feel my boss is on my side. She holds back and texts all weekend, kind of frantically, I just don’t want to play the game so I don’t respond until Monday. When I see her, you know how you can sense someone is not 100% with you? Well, that is how I feel.

Notice that the first thought my friend had was to quit when she was struggling with whether or not her boss fully approved, liked, supported her? That is how powerful the approval of a leader can be in the eyes of an employee. So, when you interact with your employees be aware that they are acutely tuned into your reaction to them. And if you like/appreciate their performance, let them know with a genuine smile, words, and actions because they are often more sensitive to you and your actions than you can imagine.

Story 3 - Brand Reputation

I witnessed a Gen Z preparing for an interview for her second internship. She had her clothes picked out, planned the route and time she would leave, and I was giving her some pointers on interviewing. Her face was glowing as she anticipated this job. As I coached her she periodically looked down at her computer and showed me the website. Perfect. It had everything that she desired. A short time later she looked down at her computer, and she suddenly gasped, looked up, and explained that she had gone to another website (Glass Door) where she read consistent complaints about “bait and switch” for this particular role. She looked up, shut her computer, and announced that she was canceling the interview.

Your brand is so important. Generation Z (and Millennials) are great researchers. They check things out. They talk to people. They want and value the opinions of others. So, if a website professes one thing, and the company has another agenda, the secret won’t be kept long. Truth comes out.

Story 4 - Exclusion

When I worked in a large organization, I was always struck by how at lunchtime, the same groups of people went to lunch together. This included managers who had teams, selecting the same members of their team for lunch. So, day after day the same people walked to the cafeteria together.

I usually ate at my desk, so I was able to see the scenario play out and I always wondered how those people on the team that was left behind, felt? What went through their minds? Were they ever going to have an opportunity to go? Or did it tell them they better find a group for lunch? Or did they model the manager’s behavior, and develop their own clique for lunch?

I wonder how many opportunities to share work ideas, experiences, issues, were lost because of this pattern of behavior. I have also seen it with top executives who at social events cluster together chatting among themselves. I ask, what are we all so afraid of? Why is it so hard to leave our safety zones to learn more about someone else? Maybe we need special instruction on how to get to know people?

Story 5 - Parental Leave

A woman in her early 30s, recently married, was being pulled in two directions by two companies, one she was working for and the other she had previously worked for. They knew her talents. She was smart, well credentialled, delightful to work with, and a hard and dedicated worker. They offered her plenty of money. Her decision was based on something that is fairly obvious – 30s, newly married – she was interested in parental leave. One company offered generous leave, and the other didn’t offer anything exceptional. Guess who won?

This vignette reflects a wave of talented women and men who have their eye on something, that until recently, received little attention. Just a few years ago, it was just a fact that maternity leave didn’t factor in significantly to benefits in corporate America. But now, with this new generation of Millennials and Gen Z who can see the obvious benefits and necessity, of parental leave, these benefits have taken on a new importance and are quickly becoming a competitive advantage in the search for excellent talent.

Story 6 - Pay Attention to Your Employees

I recently had a conversation with a successful technical leader who was so worn out and tired that he was planning his next job. He said to me, “you know, it is like a marriage when you are someone’s right-hand person and you do whatever asked, all the while feeling more and more abused and used. I am exhausted and tired of working so hard with so little appreciation.”

How often do leaders expect and forget to extend appreciation or just don’t have the bandwidth to even think of appreciation, leaving their most valued and trusted employees depleted, questioning, and resentful? So, it is no surprise when these valuable resources up and leaves, although it can be a shock to the leader.

Story 7 - Kill the Spirit

Story 7 - Kill the Spirit

I was having dinner with the father of a Gen Z, named Lisa. She just started her first job with a health care company. She was excited, energized, and ready to start her career.

The first 3 weeks on the job she sat in a small windowless conference room, alone, taking on-line training. Every day she felt a little worse, less engaged until finally, she had trouble getting up in the morning. How long do you think she stayed?

Some companies dampen spirits without even realizing what they have done. When Gen Z or Millennials start jobs, they are impressionable, usually have high expectations, and require attention, inclusion, and substantive work.

Story 8 - Brand Reputation

A major institution had a prolific internship program, seeking highly qualified and educated students for their part-time and full-time internships.  With an enviable pipeline into many talented students and recent graduates, the pipeline was strong.

The job was pretty boring, focused on administrative work, under-utilizing intern talents and education. Besides, no one took the time to get the interns engaged in substantive work. They didn’t have much of a chance to showcase their talents or learn something new and relevant to their majors and careers. The message to the interns was:  “we know what is best for you, we have been here a long time, don’t rock the boat, and don’t step out of your swim lane”

At the end of the internship, many of the interns were invited back for full-time positions or for another internship. But usually very few accepted the second offer.  It didn’t really matter because the next year a new flood of applications would show up, ready to go through the hiring process.

The pipeline lasted a long time because of the connection with major universities. But slowly word got out via social media that these internships didn’t give you much. Quite rapidly the quality and quantity of the candidates dropped. The hierarchy barely noticed but the people who handled the interns were acutely aware.

Story 9 - Think About What Your Words Mean.

I collect stories about managers and leaders. Here is one that really caught my attention. A Gen Z-er right out of school, working for a boutique financial firm, decided he would ask for a raise after two years of hard work and positive feedback. So he went up to his manager and gave a summary of why he thought he should receive a raise. And the manager automatically said, do you have a job offer? The Gen Z-er look perplexed and asked, “should I?” At that point the manager moved on. So my young friend decided to find out if he could get a job offer, thinking this is how you can get a raise. He ended up with a fabulous offer from a major financial firm which he took. At the end of this story, he shook his head and said, “now I am afraid all my friends will want to leave this place and come work with me at my new job.”

Lesson: Managers and leaders can’t give off the cuff, thoughtless responses. They must think through their answers and realize the old knee-jerk reactions don’t work in today’s work environments. They need to take care of their people and view them as cherished resources.

Story 10….High Expectations can energize disappointment…

A young female engineer told me about this fabulous onboarding experience that she had where the CEO spent time explaining the business goals and welcoming the incoming new hires to the company. She was really impressed and had high expectations for the job. As the weeks and months passed, she never saw or heard from the CEO again. She steadily lost interest in the job due to mediocre managers that didn’t take much of an interest in her achievements and in developing her capabilities. After a year, she left the company.

Story 11……Gen Z is in a leadership position, running operations for scientists over 65…

A young female leader - a VP - reached out to me asking for some coaching. She was the key person in a scientific office and felt that she wasn’t heard or respected for her position. The key was how to get them to pay attention to her, but not come on too strongly. It is a small organization, mostly remote, and she was in lockstep with the CEO on how to run the organization.

Some of the men, never addressed her but always directed their comments to the CEO, when she was the source of information that they were seeking. I recommended that she assert herself and say, “ I would love to answer that question.”

A backoffice administrator who had been the founder’s right-hand person - occasionally got offensive and shut down listing to the VPs suggestions. Here is a suggestion - when someone cuts you off, respond with, “I would like to finish my thought.’

My coachee was very intentional in asking questions of the group to reach buy-in, but she was concerned that the group saw her as uncertain as to what path to take or what she was doing. So I suggested that she open the meeting with “I have some important questions that I would like you to answer for me so I can make the right decision”. In this way, she gained control of the meeting.