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Its studies show that [word deleted] workers are looking for flexible jobs that have “a climate of respect, work-life fit, supervisor support and learning opportunities.”

Would reading this sentence lead you to expect yet another story about the work expectations of Millennials?

If so, you would be wrong.

The sentence comes from a Wharton article called The Silver Tsunami that discusses the value older workers bring to employers.

Now consider these ten points on how to manage from a recent BNET post

1. Don’t be the boss. At least, don’t appear to be
2. Don’t be dismissive, help them learn new skills.
3. Use their experience.
4. Understand differences in lifestyle.
5. Validate them.
6. Know what motivates them.
7. Talk to your employees.
8. Don’t’ be intimidated by them.
9. Introduce a mentorship program…
10. If [word deleted] employees do step out of line, reel them…

Sounds a lot like advice on managing Gen Y, doesn’t it?

But it’s not; it’s advice on how to manage when employees are older than the manager.

Do you see where I’m going here?

Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials.

They are all people; people with similar desires and foibles, although usually expressed in different terms.

And they all want similar things from their managers: respect, challenge, opportunities to grow, work/life balance—the same things you probably want from your boss.

And it’s your job to provide them to everyone.

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Carol Bartz was hailed as a savior both inside and out when she took the reins as CEO at Yahoo.

But that was then and this is now.

Martin Berko, who writes a pithy syndicated financial advice column, describes her this way,

Big Mamma is a brutish CEO who is not liked by Wall Street. She has no experience in running an Internet information provider or generating advertising revenues and is about as subtle as a train wreck. She’s confrontational with analysts, the media and key employees.

Make that most (all?) employees.

December 14 Yahoo announced a 4% layoff and started sending pink slips to 600 people.

Yahoo management chose to do this the week before Christmas.

I say ‘chose’ because when I called the half dozen Yahoo managers I know and asked when the layoff was decided they all said they had known in October.

The folks I talked with aren’t executives, but mid-level line managers.

Granted, there is no good time or easy way to lay people off, but there are better and worse ways to handle it if one becomes necessary and ten days before Christmas doesn’t qualify.

Layoffs, like deaths, are a shock even if you know it’s coming, not to mention the intrinsic “but me” factor.

If the layoffs had been done in October people would have had some time to get over the shock, prepare and batten down the spending hatches before the holiday season started.

Then there is the long-term damage to Yahoo.

Yahoo says it is still hiring in other areas, but it’s desirability as a place to work just sank even lower.

Even if Berko is correct and Yahoo is acquired and/or Bartz is replaced the memory of “the week before Christmas layoff” will remain.

Sure, people will accept offers because of the economy, but they are unlikely so see the company as a long-term career path.

The term “taxi job” refers to stopgap employment while looking for a permanent opportunity.

The timing of this layoff will certainly raise Yahoo’s positioning in the taxi lineup.

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See all mY generation posts here.

Several of the links yesterday related to intelligence, smarts and wisdom, so I thought that would be a good topic today, too.

Einstein is considered a genius, but it seems that he had a different view, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

According to Ralph Waldo Emerson being intelligent or smart isn’t everything, “Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.”

Alan Alda adds a dimension to that with his observation regarding being smart, “Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart.”

Voltaire said,”Common sense is not so common;” actually, I think it’s rarer than intelligence.

Some people equate intelligence to education and believe that filling one’s mind with book learning is a valid goal, but I tend to align with Plutarch words, “The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.”

Perhaps it’s the fire that leads E. B. White to believe that “Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.”

Throughout history there has been much debate and varying opinions regarding intelligence in the different races, but John Fowles thinking seems to offer the final word, “There are only two races on this planet – the intelligent and the stupid.”

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I’m not Santa, but I do have a mixed bag of gifts for you today.

First off is an update on your brain. If you are looking for ways to juice creative thinking on your team try making them laugh before the brainstorming session.

In a just completed study, researchers at Northwestern University found that people were more likely to solve word puzzles with sudden insight when they were amused, having just seen a short comedy routine.

How cool is that?

Speaking of brains and innovation, what do you think it would take to turn around a 153 year old icon of intellectualism in what is supposed to be a dying industry? That’s exactly what you’ll learn in the story about the revival of The Atlantic.

Getting there took a cultural transfusion, a dose of counterintuition and a lot of digital advertising revenue.

“We imagined ourselves as a venture-capital-backed start-up in Silicon Valley whose mission was to attack and disrupt The Atlantic…”

Here’s one more bit of brain stimulation, especially if you love the written word. Have you ever wondered how often a certain word or phrase was used in writing? Google’s new data base can tell you. And just think what that answer tells you abut the culture of the times.

The digital storehouse, which comprises words and short phrases as well as a year-by-year count of how often they appear,… It consists of the 500 billion words contained in books published between 1500 and 2008 in English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese and Russian.

Today wouldn’t be complete without one feel-good story and what better in these days of growing religious intolerance than a story showing that it doesn’t have to be that way.

…here is a story to keep your spirits high — a story of cooperation between Jews and Christians, between people named Seinfeld and Samberg and people named Morgan and Lohan. A story of celebrities putting ethnic differences aside to raise money for charity.

By making fun of — or is that gently teasing? — Jews.

If you love Jeopardy and American ingenuity here’s something to fall in love with next Valentine’s Day; be sure to put it on your calendar, so you don’t forget.

I.B.M. and the producers of “Jeopardy” will announce on Tuesday that the computer, “Watson,” will face the two most successful players in “Jeopardy” history, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, in three episodes that will be broadcast Feb. 14-16, 2011.

Last, and maybe least, is a story that draws parallels between your everyday life and zombies.

It’s not that zombies are changing to fit the world’s condition; it’s that the condition of the world seems more like a zombie offensive. … Zombies are just so easy to kill. … A lot of modern life is exactly like slaughtering zombies.

Enjoy!

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What do you do when you graduate and can’t find a job?

What do you do when you’re laid off and can’t find a job?

What do you do when you hate the jobs you find?

DIY, better known as start your own business.

Whether building, rebuilding or remodeling a career, more and more people are opting to create their own.

Some do it out of necessity, as has been done in the name of ‘consultant’ in past recessions, but many are going for something larger.

They are doing it because they have a vision and are willing to back that vision with the 80 hour weeks and steep learning curve that it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.

They are coming together online and in person to learn from each other and often to help each other.

What happens when the statistics predicting that most businesses fail within five years are proven accurate? Or when the economy improves and business ramps up hiring?

Will these entrepreneurs give a collective sigh of relief and happily march off to toil for someone else?

Some will, but personally I think corporate America is in for a very rude awakening.

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If you truly want to know how good a positional leader is in the business world you ask the people she manages. Productivity and even retention don’t tell the whole story, because there can be informal leaders in the group who offset her ineptness and errors.

Essentially, teachers are in the same type of positional leadership roles, but you don’t see anyone asking their students to evaluate their skill.

No, that would be way too simple—until now.

Surveying students is part of a $45 million Gates Foundation funded study of teacher effectiveness.

Teachers whose students described them as skillful at maintaining classroom order, at focusing their instruction and at helping their charges learn from their mistakes are often the same teachers whose students learn the most in the course of a year, as measured by gains on standardized test scores, according to a progress report on the research.

Even the descriptions and actions cited are similar to what people seek in their manager.

According to Harvard researcher Dr. Ronald Ferguson, “Kids know effective teaching when they experience it,” just as employees know when they have good managers.

Micro management, that killer of initiative, productivity and morale, has it’s counterpart in teaching, too, in the form of rote drilling.

One notable early finding, Ms. [Vicki] Phillips said, is that teachers who incessantly drill their students to prepare for standardized tests tend to have lower value-added learning gains than those who simply work their way methodically through the key concepts of literacy and mathematics.
“Teaching to the test makes your students do worse on the tests,” Ms. Phillips said. “It turns out all that ‘drill and kill’ isn’t helpful.”

The big question I have is when will schools and business recognize that motivational efforts are the same, relatively speaking, across ages and environments, just as are the actions that demotivate?

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There is much talk of corporate culture these days, but you don’t often hear about corporate traditions, yet traditions are a part of culture.

The primary definition of ‘tradition’ is “the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, esp. by word of mouth or by practice,” which is pretty much the definition of culture.

But whereas culture looms large in people’s minds, traditions are more bite-sized—a special lunch, holiday treats, secret Santas—and lend themselves to more general input.

December is a month of traditions and I have questions about yours.

Who sets traditions for your team, department or company?

Are they generated spontaneously by the people or do they stem from the bosses at each level? Do they have current meaning or did they originate in the distant past? Are they set in stone, with little or no relevance to current employees or do people embrace, participate and enjoy them?

The best traditions are those that come from people at all levels and stay flexible, so they can grow and change as the people, culture, company and world grow and change.

This year take the initiative and start a tradition in your organization, a tradition that benefits/encourages/transcends and, most of all, brightens the future.

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