Strategies For Leading Generation Y

Here is an article I found on Ken Blanchards twitter.  The article itself was written by Sarah Caverhill & Marta Brooks.  Here is a link to the full article:
http://www.diversity-executive.com/article.php?in=916

Before I get into the article itself here are some facts and characteristics of Generation Y.
-Although their are no official dates mostly this is a group that have birth date ranging from the mid 1970's to the year 2000
-That they have an increased use and familiarity with communications, media, and digital technologies.   Especially with instant communication (IMS, TEXTS, ETC)
-Also called Trophy Kids,Which is a term that reflects the trend in competitive sports, as well as many other aspects of life, where "no one loses" and everyone gets a "Thanks for Participating" trophy and symbolizing a perceived sense of entitlement
-Multitasking and not focusing (IE Driving, while talking on the cell phone, and drinking a soda)
-Personalities are mostly strong-willed, passionate, and optimistic
-The average Gen Y changes jobs an average of 29 times and the average time in one job is 1.1 years.

Now here are the 3 strategies for Leading Gen Y.
1. Align Gen Y employees’ goals with company goals.

• Many older workers assume Gen Y has a weak work ethic, but this generilzation is not always true
• Gen Y understands technoly and they know that technology is running all the time(so they can work on it, whenever it fits.)
• Gen Y does not work the way their managers work, they have different ways of doing things.
•  Most Gen Y professionals want to give their jobs their best efforts. But they have to see how their work fits with their own goals.

As a leader you should be aligning goals that helps them fit work to their personal development. Managers must paint vivid pictures of how the desired results will help them. If the boss does that, Gen Y will work relentlessly to achieve set goals.

2. Tap into Gen Y’s gifts.

• Gen Y hates it when their managers under appreciate their gifts. 
• Without appreciation and praise, they become unchallenged and bored, and their productivity will suffer accordingly. 
•  they call in sick, come in late or find unauthorized ways to entertain themselves on the job.

To cure this problem, managers need to talk with them to uncover their strengths, capabilities and ideas. These conversations can ignite interest, inspire passion and help the manager figure out how to tap into their gifts. Further, using their ideas compliments the Gen Y professional. They feel appreciated, and everyone wins.


3. Enhance leadership practices. 

• Gen Y employees will not put up with poor leadership. Instead, they will stand up to it. 
• This means they can expose costly leadership practices and they will demand correction. 
• Frustrations with poor leadership may end up on the Internet. These new grapevines can cause serious problems for companies, making it risky business to allow poor leadership — such as micromanaging, withholding praise, yelling and sabotaging employee efforts — to go unchecked.

Companies must uncover poor management practices, then fix them and create an environment that supports better practices. This does not mean conducting some sort of managerial witch hunt. Most managers try hard to manage well. When they fail, they often don’t know what they did wrong. Leadership development can help correct the problem. Also, managers are understandably reluctant to let newer people perform critical tasks unsupervised. And Gen Y employees may be too green to accurately self-assess their skill sets. Good managers help Gen Yers get the direction they need without micromanaging.