Art Petty on Management

Art Petty on Management Has Changed and Moved

I don't like to do things small or simple, so in what I sincerely hope is the absolute last time I put myself and you through this, I have moved and changed the name of my blog. 

You will now find me at www.artpetty.com and the new name of the blog is Management Excellence.

As I'm writing this and realizing that most people that have moved blogs have basically had to start over from zero to build traffic, this seems like taking two steps in the wrong direction.  However, sometimes you have to step back to grow, and I've got some compelling reasons for making the move, including:

• Integrating my former corporate web site and my blog under one content management system.

• Creating a simpler url (artpetty.com...12 characters versus the almost 40 for this site).

• Gaining the tools and the control through a hosted blog so that I can easily add planned podcasts, webcasts, forums and other tools that I will roll out this year.

• Aligning my blog's name: Management Excellence with my personal mission to promote high performance, great leadership and the pursuit of excellence in business.  

All of the posts and hopefully, all of the comments have been moved to the new site, so 14 months,  160 plus essays and a tremendous number of thoughtful comments on best practices in leadership and strategy, project management, product management and marketing and sales, all remain part of the library. 

For those of you that subscribe via your favorite Reader or happen across this post via Search, please take the opportunity to visit the new Management Excellence site and click on the site's feed.  And don't forget to check out some of the new tools, including the live polls, free down-loadable tools and links and references to many other great resources.

Thanks so much for reading and referencing Art Petty on Management, and I hope to earn your confidence many times over in my new home at the Management Excellence blog!

In Hopeful Praise of the Millennials

To read the articles “The Trophy Kids Go to Work” (WSJ, 10/21) and especially to view programs like “Here Come the Millennials” (60 Minutes), you would be justified if the thought of what life will be like managing and working with this unique generation caused you to roll your eyes and reach for the aspirin bottle.

However, I suggest that you think twice before you prematurely write off the 80 million people born between 1980 and 1995.  While most of these individuals have grown up with us as “Helicopter Parents” hovering over nearly every activity of their lives from play-dates through college-enrollment and even job interviews.  I’ve seen glimpses of the future and I am encouraged about the potential for this generation. 

Much of the content around the Millennial generation focuses on their slightly sheltered upbringing, the emphasis on encouragement that we have provided in the form of constant praise and awarding trophies for just showing up and the widely reported unrealistic expectations that they have about life in the real world of work. 

In particular, the 60 Minutes piece (great fun to watch, although watch out if you are showing it to a group of Millennials) goes out of its way to hype the different and potentially selfish expectations that members of this new professional generation bring to the work environment.  Things like interesting work, flexible work hours, the freedom to be comfortable, the freedom to remain connected to the technology that they’ve grown up with, are all identified as issues.  Additionally, the group has expectations for rapid advancement and the ability to gain access immediately to those residing in the rarefied air of executive suites.  Hmmm.  So far, I’m not offended, and in fact, quite the contrary, I like the confidence and clarity of purpose that seems to be inherent in this generation.

The very wrong perspective on Millennials is that they are as a group, lazy.  Far from it, but they are restless and demanding.  Don’t ask them to pursue purposeless work, don’t expect great things if the job demands have them killing time, don’t minimize how important it is for them to be connected and to receive feedback, and most of all, don’t underestimate them.

This is the most technologically advanced generation of individuals in the history of the planet.  They’ve grown up using technology to multi-task, to reach large number of people in a hurry and they seem to have a different frame of reference on time than prior generations.  Communication is instantaneous, feedback is constant, brand is everything, fads are born, mature and decline in real-time and this group keeps moving, learning and creating. Sounds a lot like the business environment that we find ourselves struggling to understand. 

They may not know what they want to do for the next 30 years (an incomprehensible amount of time to think about work), but they do know that they are smart and adaptable and they are clear on what they don’t want to do: waste time like many of their parents fighting a losing battle with loyalty-free corporations.  There is little interest in “paying their dues” and frankly after having watched their parents over-pay their dues to be rewarded with life in a world that looks frighteningly similar to the Dilbert comic strip, who can blame them for wanting something different.

Whether I’m engaging with the older Millennials in my MBA classes or watching my own sons and their friends grow up, I can think of countless examples that make me excited about the impact that these people will have on our world.  The MBA students are wicked-smart and frighteningly worldly for their youthfulness.   The creativity and good character that I perceive in the older teens that I come in contact with are both exciting and reassuring.

My son on his own volition is traveling a great distance this weekend to spend a few minutes at the memorial service for a high school coach who passed unexpectedly.  He’s doing this because he knows that this is a simple token of respect and thanks.  It turns out that this coach’s former players are coming from around the country to spend a minute to say thanks to one from our generation that took the time to see the potential in them.  You wouldn’t recognize this loyalty and sense of responsibility from the content in the popular press about this generation.  It’s there, but it requires our own creativity as managers, leaders and parents to figure out how to tap into it.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

I’ll opt for the dissenting view on the Millennials.  Where others see management headaches, I see fire, creativity, passion, skill and maybe the capacity to face a world that looks very much the worse for our efforts.   Maybe, just maybe, this group will earn the label of The Next Greatest Generation.  Perhaps like the coach referenced above, you can still make a difference by helping this generation realize its potential. 

Overall, I’m encouraged and hopeful.

Leader: What's Your Strategy for Managing Your 30 and 40-Somethings?

After too many conversations to count with talented individuals in their late thirties or early forties that are asking, "Is this it?" about their professional lives, I am compelled to offer some advice for their leaders.  I'll start with: "Wake Up and Pay Attention!"

Professionals in this age range are at a critical juncture in their careers.  They are experienced, hard working and confident in how to contribute.  They've made and learned from many of the mistakes of youth and they've begun to develop something so critical for organizational success: wisdom based on experience.  They've also generally decided what motivates them, what they like in a leader, the type of work that they are best at, and that life is too short to spend time in the wrong place or working for the wrong person. 

The common theme that I am hearing in my discussions with these talented and motivated professionals is frustration over the inability of their superiors to leverage their skills and experience.  It's not a whining theme...it's an "I am capable and experienced and want to be treated as such and contribute more" lament.  It is very different from the whining that many people engage in about the person that they work for. 

Comments include (paraphrased):

Instead of the challenges that we talked about when I interviewed, I jumped in to fill a gap in operations and now I can't get out of this mundane role.

The charisma of the CEO during the interview process is gone now that I'm an employee.  His general response to every idea or suggestion is anger.

They didn't need someone with my experience, they needed a college graduate or someone fresh out of the service that wouldn't know any better about constantly having orders barked at them. 

There's no reward in this work.

I've been doing the same basic things for 20 years...it's boring and I can't take it any more.

They need to decide if they are going to use me or they will lose me.

My life is racing past me but my career is stuck in futile mode.

I kept offering to help on the big issues and I was told I was overstepping my boundaries so I gave up.

And so on.

The Leader's Suggestion List for Managing 30 and 40-Somethings:

• Recognize and leverage the growing need of people in this age range to contribute at an increasing level.  Figure out how to do this and watch the accomplishment list grow.

• Design positions and assignments that are challenging and provide these professionals the latitude they need to succeed.

• I've noticed that after 15 years of working, many professionals develop a hunger for learning.  Feed this hunger through professional development and even better, feed the hunger and leverage the experience by asking these professionals to teach in the organization.

• Work on your self-awareness and emotional intelligence.  Frankly, you shouldn't treat anyone by typically responding with anger as was cited above, and especially don't treat experienced professionals like that and expect to keep them. 

• Provide opportunities for mid-career professionals to mentor younger employees.

• A few months after hiring an experienced professional, sit down and genuinely seek their input and perspectives on issues and improvements.  Let them take ownership of some of their ideas and drive the improvements.

• Use judo on the situation and let the individuals set their own stretch goals. 

• Tune in to an individual's mid-life career objectives and work together to develop a program that supports achievement of those objectives.

• Match mid-career professionals with both early-career and nearing retirement employees to collaborate on problem solving and project development.  The mixing of the generations is beneficial for all parties involved.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

As a leader, you cannot afford to allow the best, brightest and most-experienced employees to feel detached and unmotivated.  I suspect that more often than not, you as the leader have a hand in creating this problem, and you definitely can help solve it.  It's time to sit down, talk and most importantly, listen to what your thirty and forty-somethings have to say.  These are the leaders in your immediate future.  Don't come up short just when these talented professionals are ready to pay off.