Much has been written about Gen Y, AKA, Millennials, in the workforce—the difficulty hiring them, the problems managing them and the much greater problems of retaining them.

What makes them so different?

“When they get to the workplace, they have a sense of entitlement, a need for validation, difficulty in really discerning what to do because their whole lives were managed,” –Christine Hassler, Gen Y career expert and consultant.

Not only managing them, but also fighting their fights—even at the office.

There are eighty million Gen Y, but not all of them fit this description; millions of them are ‘aMillennials‘.

The funny thing (as I’ve said before) is that when you look at a list of what turns Gen Y off you’ll find the same traits that turn off 90+% of the workforce.

• Inflexibility.
• Judgmental attitudes.
• Close-mindedness.
• Unwillingness to listen to and respect Gen Y’s opinions, ideas and views.
• Intimidation.

Yuk! Nobody wants to work for someone like that; the difference is that Gen Y may less patient and quicker to leave—at least until they have a mortgage and kids to consider.

Ryan Healy, co-founder and COO of Brazen Careerist, attributes companies’ success to culture.

“The companies that are doing it well and right know that it’s really about the culture you create.”

Tony Hsieh is well known for creating a culture that both attracts and retains and it’s not just for Millennials.

Flickr image credit: debaird

Do you believe it? 2011 is three quarters over already, but you still have plenty of time to learn.

In fact, no matter how busy you are and how many demands there are for a “piece of you” you can still learn.

Doing so is often a case of modifying whom you learn from as well as your learning methods.

It’s actually pretty simple,

• recognize that you can learn from everybody, not just those who are senior to you or who agree with your opinions; and
• take advantage of everything that happens to learn at least one thing you didn’t know—no matter how minor.

Today’s carnival is a good example. Rarely do you have time to read every post, so choose posts from unfamiliar authors and/or with summaries that run counter to your current opinion.

Do this with a truly open and watch how much you learn.

Leadership

Robin Schooling presents Successful Managers Have Two-Faces posted at HR Schoolhouse. Robin challenges you to break the paradigm of your assumptions about managers vs. leaders.

Gwyn Teatro presents Caring or Care-taking?~A Fine Distinction posted at You’re Not the Boss of Me. I think Gwyn makes better than a fine distinction, it was obvious which leader I would prefer to work for.

Seth Brink presents Coach or Command, How Do You Lead Your Team Members? | Daily Art posted at Daily Art » The Blog. The choice between coach and command isn’t always clear.

Steve Roesler presents Ten Life Lessons From Business posted at All Things Workplace. Paying attention to lessons learned in business can yield well founded lessons for life.

Laura Schroeder presents Brains in a Jar posted at Compensation Cafe. One company’s unique way of recognizing employees caught Laura’s eye or should I say – brain.

Page Cole presents 5 Actions To Take After a Huge Failure – Lead Change Group posted at Lead Change Group Blog. We all blow it. Here are 5 actions you can take to make sure you respond properly to major mistakes.

Mary Jo Asmus presents Learning to Trust the Unique Ways Your Team Members Get Things Done posted at Aspire-CS. This coaching conversation is an invaluable lesson for a new manager.

Jimmy presents To Be Great Leaders! Just Be Yourself. | My Life Architects posted at My Life Architects. Authentic Leadership stems from self-awareness and how you make it work.

Guy Farmer presents How to Deal with Difficult People posted at Unconventional Training. A difficult person can be frustrating, consider Guy’s ten reminders on how to manager it better.

Jennifer V. Miller presents 5 Reasons Leaders Fear Embarrassment posted at The People Equation. Here are a few tips to help you through those embarrassing moments. I use the first and second remedies.

Sri Subramanian presents Bullies at work posted at TalentedApps. What is the key to effectively stopping bullies in the workplace?

Jon Ingham presents Collaborative Leadership in Asia posted at Management 2.0 developing social capital. Important leadership insights to help you be more collaborative in the global world.

S. Chris Edmonds presents What’s Your Leadership Philosophy? posted at Driving Results Through Culture. What you ARE defines the leader you will BE – every day.

Nick McCormick presents Leadership Commitments posted at Joe and Wanda on Management. A character in David Cottrell’s book “Monday Morning Leadership” provides a list of his leadership commitments.

Coaching

Jailan Marie presents Finding out WHO can help posted at Innovative Solutions For Positive Change. A good reminder there is always a WHO in your life to help you.

Lynn Dessert presents Networking is not a Deal Breaker for Introverts posted at Elephants at Work. Let’s get to the real issue by not accepting the excuse that you are an introvert.

Management

Rodney presents Ask the Right Questions posted at Life-fficient. These three questions will help you make your communications more effective.

Eric Pennington presents Your People Are Smarter Than You Think posted at Epic Living – Leadership Development Career Management Training Executive Life Coaching Author. In this post, you will uncover the dangers of managers underestimating the intelligence and talents of their people.

David Zinger presents Employee Engagement and the 3 Word Theme: Stop, Focus, and Finish posted at David Zinger Associates – Employee Engagement. David defines the benefits of themes and how to develop a yearly 3 word theme to enhance your own self-management.

Miki Saxon presents Ducks in a Row: Supporting Progress posted at MAPping Company Success. It ranks high on employee motivation surveys, doesn’t cost money and is within the control of every manager. So why does it elude so many?

Image credit: Great Leadership

Dear readers and friends,

My apologies for no post today, but my very own personal tech hell is still happening.

For whatever reason my blog refused to save anything last night and is being iffy today.

Hopefully things will improve next week.

Have a wonderful Sunday; I WILL return!
Miki

CEOs are an interesting species of executives.

CEOs are often lauded one quarter for their vision and leadership and derided the next quarter for the same thing.

Some suffer from severe arrogance syndrome, while others have either temporary or chronic foot-in-mouth disease.

But whether world-class geniuses or world-class asses CEOs  are rarely boring.

For those who set their career sights on the corner office, success used to be measured by the size of the company and bigger always equaled better—but in technology that’s changing.

CEOs, especially those of large, public corporations, have one especially cat-like trait—they always land on their feet even when they are fired—as happens more and more frequently these days.

As with everything there is a right way and a wrong way to fire a CEO, with Carol Bartz and Mark Hurd the poster children of the wrong way. So, here’s some good advice on how to do it the right way.

Finally, with the use of social media accelerating, the pros and cons of  CEO blogging have changed markedly from the original debates.

Have a terrific weekend!

Flickr image credit: pedroelcarvalho