Leadership for Intelligence Professionals   

Leading Gen Y and Gen Y as Leaders

What Leaders Should Know About Gen Y

Ken Blanchard and Marc Muchnick ¡°¡­did a major study together of what does this interesting Y generation¡ªthe young people of today¡ªwant from leaders¡­.¡± They found:

Number one, they want integrity¡­these young people will walk if they see people ¡°say one thing and do another.¡±  The second thing they want is a partnership relationship.  They hate superior/subordinate¡­.they want to be treated as partners¡­.at least a psychological partnership where they can bring their brains to work and make decisions¡­.Then, finally, they want affirmation.  They not only want to be caught doing things right, but they want to be affirmed for who they are.  They want to be known as a person, not as a number. 

Professor Gary Hamel has cautions for Leaders on how this new generation will fit into the workforce and what kind of followers they will be.  Indeed, he believes organizations and Leaders will be forced to take new approaches.

The experience of growing up online will profoundly shape the workplace expectations of ¡°Generation F¡± ¨C the Facebook Generation. At a minimum, they¡¯ll expect the social environment of work to reflect the social context of the Web,¡­

If your company [Agency] hopes to attract the most creative and energetic members of Gen F, it will need to understand these Internet-derived expectations, and then reinvent its management practices accordingly.

With that in mind, I compiled a list of 12 work-relevant characteristics of online life. These are the post-bureaucratic realities that tomorrow¡¯s employees will use as yardsticks in determining whether your company  [Agency] is ¡°with it¡± or ¡°past it.¡± In assembling this short list, I haven¡¯t tried to catalog every salient feature of the Web¡¯s social milieu, only those that are most at odds with the legacy practices found in large companies [organizations].

1. All ideas compete on an equal footing. ¡°...Ideas gain traction based on their perceived merits, rather than on the political power of their sponsors.¡±

2. Contribution counts for more than credentials.

3. Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed. ¡°¡­authority trickles up, not down.¡±

4. Leaders serve rather than preside. ¡°Credible arguments, demonstrated expertise and selfless behavior are the only levers for getting things done through other people.¡±

5. Tasks are chosen, not assigned. ¡°¡­people choose to work on the things that interest them. Everyone is an independent contractor, and everyone scratches their own itch.¡±

6. Groups are self-defining and self-organizing. ¡°. Just as no one can assign you a boring task, no can force you to work with dim-witted colleagues.¡±

7. Resources get attracted, not allocated. ¡°¡­individuals get to decide, moment by moment, how to spend the precious currency of their time and attention.¡±

8. Power comes from sharing information, not hoarding it.

9. Opinions compound and decisions are peer-reviewed.

10. Users [employees] can veto most policy decisions.  ¡°¡­The only way to keep users [followers] loyal is to give them a substantial say in key decisions. You may have built the community, but the [workforce] users really own it.¡±  

11. Intrinsic rewards matter most.

12. Hackers (¡°rabble-rousers¡±, ¡°activists¡±) are heroes.

British security advisor Kevin O¡¯Brien has written that the influx of young recruits with strong cyber skills and thinking habits shaped online poses a generational test and a leadership challenge for intelligence agencies. He says that provided they integrate well with older colleagues, the new "digital generation" of 20-something collectors and analysts will sharpen western knowledge of militant groups who act increasingly online. But, the way the generation reasons and processes information could likely highlight "serious generational differences and disparities between senior managers' and analysts' cognitive outlooks."

Morley Winograd and Michael Hais say that: "Surveys show people born from 1982 to 2000 are the most civic-minded since the generation of the 1930s and 1940s¡­.a generation of activist doers.¡±

Don Tapscott has recently overseen a study of 8000 members of Gen Y from 12 countries.  He describes them as the ¡°Net Geners¡± who have ¡°Grown Up Digital¡±.   He ¡°¡­identifies eight norms that define Net Geners,  which he believes everyone should take on board. 

Net Geners value freedom and choice in everything they do.

They love to customize and personalise.

They scrutinise everything.

They demand integrity and openness, including when¡­deciding where to work.

They want entertainment and play in their work and education¡­.

They love to collaborate.

They expect everything to happen fast.

And they expect constant innovation.

These patterns have important implications for the workplace¡­.Two out of three Net Geners feel that ¡°working and having fun can and should be the same thing¡±.  That does not mean that they want to play games all day, but they want the work itself to be enjoyable.  They also expect collaboration, constant feedback and rapid career advancement based on merit.

While it has been generally assumed that this is a ¡°Net Generation¡±, some see the  generation not as tech-savvy as is assumed.

Michael Welch, who pioneered the use of new media in his cultural anthropology classes at Kansas State University, is also skeptical, saying that many of his incoming students have only a superficial familiarity with the digital tools that they use regularly, especially when it comes to the tools¡¯ social and political potential.  Only a small fraction of the students may count as true digital natives, in other words.  The rest are no better or worse at using technology than the rest of the population.

Indeed,

Writing in the British Journal of Educational Technology in 2008, a group of academics led by Sue Bennett of the University of Wollongong set out to debunk the whole idea of digital natives¡­.because sweeping generalizations ¡°fail to recognize cognitive differences in young people of different ages, and variation within age groups¡±.  The young do not really have different kinds of brains that require new approaches to school and work, in short.

Gen Y as Potential Leaders

Some people are concerned about the personality traits of the new generation which will inhibit their ability in the workplace as Leaders.

¡­as Jean Twenge  and W. Keith Campbell point out in their excellent book ¡°the Narcissism Epidemic¡±¡­we¡¯ve built up the confidence of our kids, but in the process, we¡¯ve created a generation of hot-house flowers puffed up with a disproportionate sense of self-worth (the definition of narcissism) and with out the resiliency skills they need¡­.

Indeed, when Twenge addressed students at Southern Connecticut State University¡­their generations narcissism was taken as a given by her audience....When they¡¯re faced with the straight-out question---do you agree with this research, that you guys are the most narcissistic generation ever---there are uniform head nods and knowing grins at each other.  At the end of the day, ¡° I love me and I don¡¯t think that¡¯s wrong.¡± Says ¡­a 21-year-old senior¡­a self-professed narcissist. ¡°I don¡¯t think its a problem having most people love themselves. I love me.¡±

But as Twenge goes on to illustrate, all that narcissism is a problem that can range from the discourteous¡­to the disasterous¡­.[creating] abusive work environments.

¡­Treating the whole world as if it works for you doesn¡¯t suggest you¡¯re special, it means you¡¯re an ass.  As an antidote for a skyrocketing self-worth, Twenge recommends humility, evaluating yourself more accurately, mindfulness and putting others first.  Such values may seem quaint, maybe even self-defeating, to those of us who think were special, but trust me: it gets easier with practice.

According to Paul Greenberg, the Pulizter Prizewinning editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette this has been reflected in their behavior as students.

¡­appeal, growl, grovel, or whatever it takes to raise a student¡¯s letter grade¡­{are} the students themselves.

Naturally enough, a team of academics has written a paper about this sad trend. (¡°Self-Entitled College Students: Contributions of Personality, Parenting and Motivational Factors¡± )  The syndrome now has an name (Academic Entitlement) and an abbreviation (AE) just like Attention Deficity/Hyperactivity Disorder.

¡­the saddest aspect of these kids¡¯ condition is that they¡¯re unaware of it.  They actually think they¡¯re pretty darn good, and deserve those good grades.  More to be pitied than scorned, they may have no idea of what real accomplishment is, or the intrinsic satisfaction of doing something well.

¡­But why should they be any different?  Raised in an age when self-esteem is all, they¡¯ve been told how great they are from K to 12 and may graduate without the faintest idea of what greatness is, or demands.

To quote a deluded young senior at the University of Maryland: ¡°I think putting in a lot of effort should merit a high grade. What else is there than the effort that you put in?¡±

Well for starters there is talent, insight, intention, humility, tolerance, and openness to criticism and a determination to learn from it.  There is an appreciation for what is noble and contempt for what is base.  And the love of knowledge for its own sake, not the rewards it might bring,¡­well, you get the point.  Unless, of course, you think you are entitled.

Sara Konrath of the University of Michigan¡¯s Institute for Social Research found that one of the ¡°core traits¡± necessary for successful Leadership may be weaker in the new generation.  She

¡­looked at 72 studies that gauged empathy (Caring) among 14,000 college students in the past 20 years.  She found that empathy has been declining©¤especially since 2000.

The research shows that college students today show 40% less empathy versus students in the 1980s and 1990s.  the students are less likely to agree with statements such as¡­.¡±I sometimes try to understand my friends [followers] better by imagining how things look from their perspective.¡±.

Another trait that may be in short supply is even the desire to be a Leader.  Stanford University business professor Jeffrey Pfeffer finds that

¡°¡­ambition has become unfashionable in the younger segment of the workforce.¡±  Whereas motivated young professionals used to slug it out for covet promotions

Summing Up

The Economist sums up both sides of the story for Leaders.

Their defenders say they are motivated, versatile workers who are just what companies need in these difficult times.  To others, however, these members of ¡°Generation Y¡±¡ªthose born in the 1980s and 1990s, otherwise known as Millennials or the Net Generation¡ªare spoiled narcissistic lay-abouts who cannot spell and waste too much time on instant messaging and Facebook.  Ah, reply the Net Geners, but all that messing around online proves that we are computer-literate multi-taskers who are adept users of online collaborative tools and natural team players.  And, while you are on the subject of me, I need a month¡¯s sabbatical to recalibrate my personal goals.

This culture clash as been going on in many organizations and has lately seeped into management books.  The Net Geners have grown up with computers; they are brimming with self-confidence, and they have been encouraged to challenge received wisdom, to find their own solutions to problems and to treat work as a route to personal fulfillment rather than merely a way of putting food on the table.  Not all this of this makes them easy to manage.  Bosses complain that after a childhood of being coddled and praised, Net Geners demand far more frequent feedback and an over precise set of objectives on the path to promotion.

¡­compromise will be necessary on both sides.  Net Geners will certainly have to temper some of their expectations and take the world as it is, not as they would like tit to be.  But their older bosses should also be prepared to make concessions.

Sources

Advice for Leaders about Gen Y

-Ken Blanchard in Masters of Success.

-Gary Hamel ¡°The Facebook Generation vs. the Fortune 500¡± written 17 September 2010 on www.ManagementExchange.com in preparation for in an exclusive webinar ¡°Managing Millennials: The 'Employees First, Customers Second' Experiment.¡±  for Management Exchange.com registered members on Oct. 4, 2010.

-Kevin O'Brien in a 2008 article for London's International Centre for the Study of "Intelligence Notes" based on "Reuters/30July2009".

-Morley Winograd and Michael Hais in Millennial Makeover: My Space, You Tube & the Future of American Politics quoted by Andrea Stone in USAToday 14 April 2009.

-Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, Wikinomics.

-¡°The Net Generation, unplugged¡± in the Economist Technology Quarterly, March 6, 2010 discussing John Palfry and Urs Glasser Born Digital and Marc Prensky Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.

GenY as Potential Leaders

-Raina Kelly with Sarah Kliff, ¡°Generation Me¡±, in Newsweek April 27, 2009.

-Paul Greenberg ¡°A Plague of Entitlement: College Campuses are Rife With the Syndrome¡± in the Wilmington News-Journal, April 6, 2009.

-Stephanie Steinberg ¡°A Change of Heart for College Students¡± citing study by Sara Konrath in USAToday June 8, 2010.

-McKay Coppins ¡°Not Enough Chiefs¡± quoting from Jeffrey Pfeffer Power: Why Some People Have It-and Others Don¡¯t. in Newsweek October 25, 2010.

Summing Up

-¡°Managing the Facebookers¡± in The Economist January 3, 2009.