I’m hearing the same lament from a lot of managers these days; the words and circumstances are different, but it boils down to the same thing—s/he has the knowledge, but doesn’t do anything.
It’s not just younger workers, but all ages.
The current term is “unengaged” and the problem is rampant.
Most managers who call don’t use that term, they complain that people just don’t care. They don’t care about doing more than the minimum; they don’t care about doing great work, instead of just adequate; they don’t care how the company is doing; the list of ‘they don’t care’ goes on and on.
They all see this as a problem with the people they hire.
They ask me where to source good candidates; how to better interview, so they can hire “people who give a damn.”
Some complain that the so-called entitled attitude of Millennials has spread to all ages.
These managers are a disparate group; they come from different industries and range from management newbies to senior executives, but they all have one thing in common.
None of them sees “not giving a damn” as a result of the way they manage, but 98% of the time it is.
So the next time someone you know (or you) complains about people not caring, suggest they ask the only person who really knows the answer—the one they will find in the mirror.
I want to share something I read last week. It was written by a young software engineer who works in a startup in San Francisco.
The post resonated with me because Jesse said exactly what I’ve been saying for years and that meant a lot; not because he agreed with me, but because he is an aMillennial who recognizes the importance of culture and how to create and retain it.
You’ve heard it before, not just from me, but from coaches, academics, even investors. Now hear it from someone who typifies the kind of employee every boss wants to hire.
The startup culture has become a thing of legend. Decades ago, startups began filling their offices with scooters, zip-lines, and ping-pong tables. Today, perks like free massages, catered lunches and “beer fridges” are common place, even expected. 1pm – 4am has become an acceptable workday. Men wearing kilts or employees with crazy piercings or neon colored hair are frequently seen in the halls of technology companies of all sizes. Even larger companies like Google, Netflix, Apple, and Zappos are renowned for their unique “startup culture”.
I’ve now worked for three different startups in as many years. I have also interviewed, have friends who work at, or met with leaders of many other startups. As such, I’ve gotten a pretty good sense for a variety of very different startup cultures. My company, Spot, with only five employees, is a tiny team. As we discuss scaling, however, I’ve started to spend a lot of time thinking about the kinds of things that differentiate a startup’s culture, how to cultivate the good and how to avoid the bad.
A startup’s culture is, to me, as important as anything a startup strives to create. Startups must be nimble and innovative in order to be successful. They have no hope of outspending or outlasting an established company and so they must outpace and outthink their larger competitors. In essence, the startups primary advantage is their culture, an environment where creative, passionate, hard working employees can thrive.
In the earliest stages, this is relatively easy. The first employees are friends of the founder or hand picked candidates. In the beginning, the founder can make it a priority to focus on culture. As the team scales, however, and the demands on the founder increase, he or she becomes further removed from the process of building and maintaining culture. At this point, the startup must be like a crystal, so imbued with the culture that as it grows it maintains the same core structures and values. The culture must become, as our advisor James Currier once explained to me, “part of the company’s DNA”.
So, what culture should a startup strive to create? What structure best establishes the culture “into the DNA”?
I believe there are four high level ideals a startup should strive for. Some of what follows might be obvious, other parts unfounded. These are my beliefs based on my anecdotal experiences, so pull out your salt.
1. A Rigorous Hiring Process
Your team is your culture, and for most startups, your team is your product, so this is by far the most important point. I firmly believe that a good employee is worth at least 15 decent employees and an infinite number of bad employees. Don’t throw bodies at a problem, get your best and brightest to work on it. Consider a three month trial period for new employees. It might be scary for some applicants, but committing to a job is a lot like a marriage: shouldn’t you try living together first? Develop a rigorous interview process and cultivate interviewing skills in your employees. When hiring, look for potential and eagerness over experience. Invest in getting your team together outside the office. Bonding experiences are invaluable. Try to build a team of people who genuinely like each other. It’s not easy, but when it works, it’s an amazing thing to be a part of.
2. Transparency
In my experience, transparency is empowering, while opacity is frustrating, confusing, and frightening. Share your information. Share your problems and you might be surprised where the best solutions come from. Share your successes to improve morale, but share your failures to make sure you learn from them. Don’t be afraid to share bad news. When you’re in charge of sharing information, you control the tone it’s shared in. If you try to bottle it up, it will leak without the proper context. Employees are apt to return the favor, sharing information up the chain if they feel it’s reciprocated. Information leaking outside the company is a serious threat, but if you can’t trust your employees, you have a bigger problem.
3. Employee Ownership
It is standard practice in startups to share equity with your employees, but there is more to ownership than just stock options. There is pride in ownership, a drive to show off, to accomplish something real. The closer your employees are to their work, the more of themselves they can see in it and the harder they will work to accomplish their goals. Listen to your employees ideas, if they’re good, put them in charge of implementing them. If they’re not good, try to convince them. Give employees high level goals and let them determine the details, they’ll be more apt to put all their heart and soul into working on their own solution. Don’t be stingy with equity. You can’t do it alone and you’re already sharing the risk. Share the reward too.
4. Flexibility
One of the benefits of working for a startup is the flexibility to work when and how you want. Startup work is mentally and physically demanding and it is easy to burn out. If you force your employees to work on your terms, you risk getting substandard work from exhausted and discouraged employees. Trust your employees to get their work done on their own terms. Also, be flexible about how your employees solve their problems and what problems your employees are solving. There are always higher level goals a company needs to accomplish, but a good employee left to play may well stumble upon something amazing. Twitter and Gmail are likely the two most famous examples but it happens all the time in varying degrees.
Speaking of Twitter, I recently had the opportunity to speak with Jack Dorsey about the culture he is trying to create at Square. He described managing a startup as an editorial role (fitting since they share offices with the San Francisco Chronicle). Much like a reporter, individual contributors should be able to pitch ideas for projects, and managers, like editors, should direct their contributors with high level suggestions. I think this is a perfect model to try to emulate. Rather than worrying about the details of the business, managers should work to maintain a consistent tone and vision in their product. Contributors should be given the flexibility to set their goals and should be given access to all the tools available to successfully accomplish their goals. In the end, it is the contributors who are on the ground, who experience the battle day to day, and who write the stories that define your product.
Building and maintaining a culture is an ongoing process. A startup is an evolving, ever changing entity and your culture will be too. Don’t expect your culture to evolve overnight or to arise from a single change. If you consider the culture, however, as you make decisions, and if you strive to create a great team with transparency, flexibility, and ownership I think you will quickly begin to reap the rewards. It’s not easy work, but nothing in a startup is, and your culture is well worth the challenge.
Longtime readers are familiar with my thoughts (rants?) on the prevalence of the entitled mentality in Millennials and its spread to other generations, including the older ones that should know better by now. (If you missed them search “entitled.”)
The best and possibly only cure for this mentality is to start your own business. You quickly realize that the world doesn’t guarantee you a desk, computer, bad coffee, and a base salary. As an entrepreneur, you don’t start with a golden egg, you go and create it. It’s hard to feel entitled when you don’t have anything.
If the entitled mindset really does change as a result of the Great Recession it might be enough to consider it a silver lining, albeit a sheer one.
I don’t have kids, but I have a great interest in education, because I will live out my life in a world run by Millennials and younger. To some extent that is a scary thought, but there are plenty of aMillennials out there, too.
Let’s take a look at the worst idea in higher education—for-profit colleges or perhaps I should say for-profit rip-offs. I first wrote about them April 1, without even noticing the irony of the date, and thought I would share a couple of up-dates today.
There is a perception that operators of for-profit education are devoid of real credibility, but unfortunately, that isn’t true. Kaplan isn’t the largest of the for-profit operators, but its high-profile owner gives it enormous credibility—it is owned by the Washington Post. And the Post is going all out to prevent any kind of regulation or accreditation. Kaplan and the Post and spent $350,000 on lobbying in the third quarter of this year and Chairman Donald Graham is personally lobbying lawmakers.
But over the last few months, Kaplan and other for-profit education companies have come under intense scrutiny from Congress, amid growing concerns that the industry leaves too many students mired in debt, and with credentials that provide little help in finding jobs.
College tuition is going up, student debt is going up and college presidents’ salaries are going up. What do you think? Are they worth their money? (The public survey is coming soon.)
Thirty presidents of private colleges each earned more than $1 million in total compensation in 2008, up from 23 the previous year, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education’s annual salary report.
Last month I told you about a trend for teachers to run schools and the difference it is making.
Test scores are up 18 percent and enrollment has spiked more than 30 percent. The model works, teachers say, because everyone from the principal to the janitor is vested in the outcome. “Everybody has a stake,” said teacher Bruce Newborn. “We all suffer and we all win.”
If you are looking for a different TV show check out School Prideon NBC. Think Extreme Makeover, Home Edition, but for US schools. The schools will make you angry, ill or cry and then lift you up and amaze you. It’s on Friday night at 8 pm Pacific time.
Finally, Bullying is on the upswing and, as everyone knows, empathy is sadly lacking in kids. Enter Roots of Empathy, an educational organization that uses babies to teach empathy to kids.
Since then, Roots has worked with more than 12,600 classes across Canada, and in recent years, the program has expanded to the Isle of Man, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and the United States, where it currently operates in Seattle. Researchers have found that the program increases kindness and acceptance of others and decreases negative aggression.
Be sure to join me Monday to learn how entrepreneurs are taking bullying in the adult world and turning it into a business, much like they did with leadership.
For the last several decades study after study have shown that kids pay more attention to the opinions of their peers than their parents.
More and more they take information and process it on their own.
Sure, their opinions are colored by the MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) of those who raised them, but not necessarily to copy them—sometimes they take the exact opposite position.
When it comes to working there is a belief that Millennials are different from all previous generations.
It’s not so much that what they want in their workplace is different from Boomers and Gen X; it’s that Millennials are more articulate in explaining it, more demanding in receiving it and faster to move if they don’t get it.
Last year I coined a new term, aMillennial, referring to someone who was chronologically of that generation, but without the entitled mentality—it’s the entitlement that irks most people.
Razor Suleman, the 35-year-old CEO and founder of I Love Rewards, notes that U.S. Department of Labor statistics say most millennials will have 10 jobs by the time they’re 38.
“HR managers turn that around and say. . . . ‘That’s what they’re like,’ ” as if the employees only planned to stay for that long, said Suleman. “They don’t sort of turn it around and say, ‘Hey, wait a second, they wanted to stay 8.9 years and I missed seven years of retention.’ “
Most people look for a job, but hope to find a home.
Think about what you want in your home—great siblings who are interested and willing to help you succeed; great parents who understand that you need to make mistakes to learn and grow, who openly share their knowledge, but don’t expect you to be a carbon copy; who offer ways to stretch yourself with challenging tasks that contribute to the family’s success; a warm, safe physical environment—fancy or not; a fair allowance.
Translated in to workplace terms that’s what all generations want; aMillennials are just more willing to leave home to find it.
“Because if I was in a job that I was paid well, I loved what I was doing, I was empowered to make decisions, I was advancing, why wouldn’t I stay at a company?” — Rob Bianchin, college senior
Several years ago I read an article discussing what Gen Y wanted in their workplace. I found it somewhat amusing since the “unique” traits they wanted from work and management weren’t very original; I found the same thing earlier this year and they are the same traits I’ve heard from candidates for better than 30 years—long before Gen Y was thought of, let alone born.
While the capable of us have taken on the roles of Gen Xers and Boomers, we’ve likely done it without a raise, or at best, a minimal one. Put simply, this infuriates us. Gen Y was given constant positive reinforcement. We had piggy banks full of allowance earned just for making our bed or cleaning our own room. The worst player on the team was awarded a “Most Improved” trophy. When the economy changes for the better, we expect to be compensated, handsomely, for our efforts. Or we’ll leave.
How’s that for a sense of entitlement?
I know comments such as this are like waving a red flag in front of a bull, so I sent the link to Jim Gordon.
Jim graduated last June and is in his first job; he draws the Sunday comic mY generation and I often bounce stuff off him to be sure I’m not wildly out in left field.
After thinking it over for a few days, here is Jim’s response.
Alright, after picking through that article, I find it easy to sympathize with the author.
It’s very difficult for me to have any semblance of trust in my employer when I, and everyone around me, is being contracted.
It’s not that turnover is high either, but instead I have this air of uncertainty every day when I walk into work – will today be my last? Every month or two, I have a new neighbor, though my position has a bit more staying power.
I find it very hard to say I “deserve” something, though.
I feel the author of the article insinuates that he/she deserves much better. While I agree that often the scale from which our pay is currently derived is, well, off to say the least, I don’t think somehow the definition of “fair play” reflects the same way on society today.
I don’t mean to sound like an underachiever, but really the way one views the economic crisis depends upon how that person was raised.
I don’t agonize over short-term losses (4-5 years), but instead plan for the long-term (10-15). Build thick skin, know what it’s like to lose, accept denial, appreciate acceptance, and move on in a self-centered direction.
Vanity is one attribute I will defend, which is seen as a flaw of Gen Y. Assuming we learn from our mistakes, we know what it is like for a market to polarize. Why? That’s ALL some of us know.
We were living the life in the 1990’s, but “not much compares to a recession like this.” That last bit was quoted from, well, everyone. People who have experienced deep recessions say this, people who haven’t—everyone goes back to the point that this is really one of the worst recessions on record.
You know what, though? I’m going to survive it and use it as a tool to build a road to where I want to be. I’m not going to expect 5-star treatment afterward.
I may find another job, but that’s because, like many who have done so before, I want to find something that adds more value to me and my life.
That means I wasn’t taught that the world is an oyster—I was taught that life is tough, and (to quote The Rolling Stones) you can’t always get what you want…
Read the final paragraph in the Talentbrew post to learn what it will take to hire Gen Y in the future.
The only cosmic justice I see here comes from knowing that it is Gen Y’s parents who will be hiring and managing the attitude they raised.
Last summer I coined a term to describe those who are chronologically, but not psychologically, Millennials; I called them aMillennials and there are more around then you might think.
Four years ago, in fact, Wesleyan balked at a proposal to install such a program.
Two students, Russell Perkins and Molly Birnbaum, who had volunteered in prisons as students, revived the idea last year when they were seniors and figured out a way to finance it.
…a privately financed experiment in higher education that takes murderers and drug dealers and other inmates with histories of serious crime and gives them an opportunity to get an elite college education inside their high-security prison, the Cheshire Correctional Institution.
The professors involved say that the classes are just as tough as on campus.
These aren’t prisoners preparing for a return to society, in fact, some of them may never return. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want to learn—120 inmates applied 19 spots.
Skipping the debate as to whether this is a good program or not, the initiative shown is a large lesson for all those who spend their time reading and studying leadership instead of doing it.
Millennials and those who study them love to position them as demanding different things from the workplace than their predecessors.
The latest is a list from LeaderTalk that describes Millennials’ Five Leadership Truths:
Truth #1 – Leadership development begins with self development; it’s about the individual; what is the first question most people want to ask a new leader?
Truth #2 – You can’t do it alone
Truth #3 – The foundation of Leadership is Credibility
Truth #4 – You either lead by example or you don’t lead at all.
Truth #5 – Being forward-looking most differentiates leaders.
Nearly two years ago Success Television listed Gen Y’s 10 main turnoffs…
Inflexibility.
Judgmental attitudes.
Close-mindedness.
Fear of and an unwillingness to use technology.
Unwillingness to listen to and respect Gen Y’s opinions, ideas and views.
Intimidation.
Being told they have to “pay their dues”.
Lack of professional and leadership development through the company.
Emphasis on traditional dress (coat or suit and tie are out).
Lack of intellectual horsepower. [By what yardstick? Miki]
Now I ask you, what on either of these lists is new? It seems to me that they are the same things that Boomers and Gen X (and previous generations) have been complaining about for years; the language changes, but the concepts aren’t new.
Sadly, I believe that the workforce will be complaining of the same types of things long after I’ve turned to dust.
Boomers and Gen X were just as much a disruptive force in the workplace-of-that-time as Millennials are today.
Granted the willingness to stick it out has shortened considerably, but even the willingness to walk if you’re not happy is based to no small degree on a healthy economy where the next job is easily available.
Add time and a few age-driven responsibilities—kids, mortgages, aging parents—to the mix and soon Millennials will be the establishment with another generation ranting about their unwillingness to change.
The demands of each generation are what forces change, both large and small, upon the workplace—always has and always will.
Here’s the Millennial solution for new grads who can’t find jobs: sue your alma mater.
That’s what Trina Thompson is doing to the tune of $72000; $2000 of which is compensation for the stress engendered by an unsuccessful three month job search; she graduated in April with a bachelor of business administration degree in information technology.
I’m not sure what planet Thompson is on, but she seems to think that her attendance record combined with a 2.7 GPA makes her a great find for any company.
Thompson finds major fault with the Monroe College Career Center…
“They’re supposed to say, ‘I got this student, her attendance is good, her GPA is all right — can you interview this person?’ They’re not doing that. They favor more toward students that got a 4.0. They help them more out with the job placement.”
Apparently it never dawned on her that it’s the companies who look for better GPAs.
And when did education come with a guarantee? Especially one that transcends all factors—economic conditions, grades, intelligence and, especially, attitude?
Apparently this business major hasn’t noticed the recession and has no understanding of the global economy.
She did show up, although learned very little based on her current actions.
Jim Gordon, who draws mY Generation for my other blog, graduated with a degree in industrial engineering and a similar GPA; he landed a three month internship and just received a full time offer.
What Jim has is a solid gold attitude, the kind that all managers want on their team; he doesn’t think he knows everything, wants to learn, assumes that attendance is a given not an accomplishment and that hard work is the name of the game—in short, he’s an aMillennial.
Thompson thinks that any new grad who doesn’t find a job should sue.
“It doesn’t make any sense: They went to school for four years, and then they come out working at McDonald’s and Payless. That’s not what they planned.”
After all, the world owes you—just ask Trina Thompson.
This follow-up to the article came Wednesday.
The Ski Channel has offered Thompson an entry level job. According to Founder/CEO Steve Bellamy, “Either Ms Thompson is a cunning out of the box thinker and we want he or she isn’t, and her position would not last long. Either way, the law suit would no longer be clogging up the courts because there are now no damages. She now has a bonifide job offer. She just needs to call us and go over the details. But it is real and valid. If she is this feisty, we’ll try her out. But if she is playing the victim card and pushing her problems onto everyone else – then her job wouldn’t likely last long.”
It will be interesting to see if Thompson accepts the position and, if she does, whether her efforts will go beyond good attendance.
Be sure to read the comments, two really stand out, “She’s not “a cunning out of the box thinker”, she’s a brat with a sense of entitlement.” And “I know the girl and don’t think it is a wise hire.”
Many said it was a great idea because it will remove the suit from an overloaded court (But what happens if every new grad that doesn’t get hired follows suit?), while others said that Ski Channel should expect a lawsuit if they do fire her.
I’ll keep you posted.
Hat tip to Andrew Gordon, who sent me this irresistible article and the follow-up.
Be sure to see what my buddy Mark Jabo has to say about Trina over at Biz Levity.
Apologies to those of you who expected the interview with KG Charles-Harris, founder of M3, today. The interview will be next week.
As most of you know I write a series on Thursday called Leadership’s Future that looks at education, parenting, kids, Millennials, etc. In the course of my reading I see a articles that would be of interest, but I can’t fit them all in, so I thought that today I’d offer up some of the good ones that I haven’t had time to feature.
Assuming you live on this planet you’re aware that there’s a recession going on, so what’s happening in the world of youth and parents?
Do you tweet? Some college professors are finding uses for Twitter in their teaching, although enhancing spelling isn’t one of them; speaking of education, some schools are delivering sex ed via cell phone.
Multiple studies by professors at a variety of universities show that having interracial roommates reduces prejudice. Not that surprising, it’s hard to hate a real individual vs. a hypothetical stereotype.
Finally, there’s a new texting champion (control your enthusiasm) who practiced by sending 14,000 texts a month. Isn’t that thrilling?
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
I’m hearing the same lament from a lot of managers these days; the words and circumstances are different, but it boils down to the same thing—s/he has the knowledge, but doesn’t do anything.
I don’t have kids, but I have a great interest in education, because I will live out my life in a world run by Millennials and younger. To some extent that is a scary thought, but there are plenty of 
Who do kids follow?
Several years ago I read an article discussing what Gen Y wanted in their workplace. I found it somewhat amusing since the “unique” 
Last summer I 
Now I ask you, what on either of these lists is new? It seems to me that they are the same things that Boomers and Gen X (and previous generations) have been complaining about for years; the language changes, but the concepts aren’t new.
That’s what Trina Thompson is doing to the tune of $72000; $2000 of which is compensation for the stress engendered by an unsuccessful three month job search; she graduated in April with a bachelor of business administration degree in information technology.
Assuming you live on this planet you’re aware that there’s a recession going on, so what’s happening in the world of youth and parents?
