The world is brimming with leadership tips and techniques for you to consider. Some days, it seems like everyone who’s spent more than a week in a professional setting has proclaimed themselves experts on leadership. In other words, there’s plenty of information out there. The issue is figuring out how much of it is worth considering.

The leadership tips and techniques that really matter share a handful of characteristics. If you encounter guidance that measures up to these standards, it’s definitely worth taking the tips seriously.

First, you must consider the source. Look, everyone has opinions. Some people have informed decisions. Only a handful of people have expert opinions. Those are the people you really want to take seriously. While I’m learning more and more about leadership every day and am happy to share my insights, it would be wrong for you to take what I say as seriously as you would a genuine, experienced proven expert in the field. I might get there some day. Right now, you should be reading everything but paying much closer attention to the true experts.

Second, you need to distinguish theoretical constructs from practical examples. Many leadership tips and techniques are things that the speaker or author believes “should work” based on their understanding, thinking and research. That’s fascinating stuff, but it isn’t the same thing as learning about strategies that have been effectively applied to real situations. Empirical proof separates the cool, unproven ideas from the advice that matters the most.

Third, you should put a priority on evaluating recommendations that have a great deal of transferability to your specific situation. Tips about leadership gleaned from the way commanding officers handle Green Beret units in combat zones might be extremely interesting, but there’s a real question as to whether it’s really applicable to someone who’s trying to manage a small bar and grill on a country road. Again, feel free to read everything and to learn from it, but put more weight on the stuff that’s directly applicable.

It’s possible to find remarkable insights elsewhere and to learn more about leadership from other sources. However, the best possible advice is going to come from experts, will have empirical support and will be clearly transferable to your situation.

If you encounter leadership tips that live up to those three standards, it’s the kind of thing you’ll want to take seriously. They are the kind of recommendations that matter the most.

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Today I want to encourage you to keep your eye on the ball. Get back to the basics. Focus on the fundamentals. Remember what really matters. Identify the simple principles and actions that are crucial to your success at work and at home. Simplify, Focus, Execute - Jon Gordon, author of The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity at Work

If you’ve been working for any length of time in any capacity or industry, you have likely faced stressful points that make you want to scream. But as you’ve been working for any length of time, you know that a “pillow” is the only one who can take those screams, in a calm and supportive way.

What we get from these experiences is a chance to step back and reflect on what’s happening and how much we really control what’s happening. No, I’m not speaking in riddles; but I am making a point.

It’s unlikely that this is the first or last time that we will experience challenges in our workday, workplace or work life. It’s how we rise to the occasion and use those challenges, which enable us to grow and do more. You’ve heard the saying, “the best revenge is living well?” Well the best response to the challenge is “using it to make you stronger, more agile and successful.” How can you get to this point without investing a small fortune in pillows?

Take the time to look at the challenge, outside of its occurrence and when you’ve had a glass of wine, cup of tea, playtime with your children or pet. You’ll know when you’ve released the resistance and emotion attached to the challenge. Then you can apply some personal reflection to it.

Look back at the other times when you’ve experienced this kind of stress or challenge. What was happening? How did you feel through it? What did you learn from it? How are you different as a result? Let me give you a personal example to clarify how this can work.

I worked for a tough, tough manager. She was someone no one wanted to deal with. She has a very sharp mind and if you don’t keep up with her, she eats you for lunch. I finally (through lots of tears and headaches) learned to go with her flow. I learned it wasn’t going to get me anywhere otherwise. When I moved to a new job, she fully supported my promotion. Later, she asked me to come back to work for her again. Well, this is something no one had ever done! Now she was an executive and even tougher! I liked her and I KNEW her so I decided, “heck yeah I’ll work for you again.” I had many, new, challenging moments with her. But she pointed out that I was now a different person than in the past and had grown to “manage” her well. What was it?

I reflected on previous challenges with her and how I got through it; and who I was as a result. I also realized it was the meaning that I was attaching to her challenges. When I realized it had nothing to do with who I was or how talented I was, it no longer bothered me, personally. That was the growth she saw in me. It turned out to be the best manager-employee relationship I’ve had. (And yes, I would work for her, now a Vice President, again!)

So don’t discount the challenges that you face. Use them! Here are some tips to help!

Tip #1 - Nothing has meaning, save the meaning you give it. We always want the best for ourselves; however in our minds we make things worse than they really are. How? We give it a negative meaning vs. trying to create something positive instead. We do this, mostly, so that we’re not disappointed. So why not try a different approach and by giving it a positive meaning. Decide your own meaning and you’ll be more than surprised with the result! What do you have to lose since you’re thinking anyway? smile

Tip #2 - What doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger. This is a mantra for a lot of people today. But we don’t have to be this dramatic to realize that we are much stronger than we think. Using just a tiny bit of reflection, you’ll see you’ve been down this road before and it’s always worked out for you! (or you wouldn’t be reading these words…you’d be…well, you know…)

Tip #3 - Declare, this will be for my benefit! What if we just made the declaration, right here, right now, that no matter what, I will take more from this event than it could possibly take from me! This stirs your energy and gets you focused in a powerful new direction.

Using these three tips will help you return to basics when you’re in the throes of a challenge, in your career and life. But let’s not kid ourselves; you can’t do this while you’re screaming into that pillow! After, while you’re re-fluffing it!

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Restructuring is tough, usually because it’s imposed change. We are rarely in control of the process. If we decide to stay, we ride it out, and are relieved when the ride ends. As you have decided to say, this means your employer has the right to expect you are all in. By that I mean that you will keep to the rules around post restructure. These rules are:

· No harking back to the “good old days” - and no saying “that’s not my job”. It just might be now!

· No saying “that’s not how we used to do it”

· No negative comments about who got which new job and why - idle gossip is bad full stop.

· No sighing about who or what you are missing

· Be the standard bearer for the new ways and new structure

· Remember why the change has been made and promote the benefits.

· Be warm and welcoming to those who are new - they need to feel they fit

· Missing people and places is normal, but give vent to those feelings outside the office

So where’s the good news? The opportunity is in the word new. New means just that - a chance to reflect and rebuild. It means the possibility not just for the business, but also for your career. So, here are the ideas for making the restructure work for you.

Reinvent yourself - once people work with you, they have a picture of you in their mind. Unfortunately, people have a really hard time allowing for change in those around them. Think about your image. Think about the words people associate with you. Think about who you associate with. What do you want to be different? Then be the difference. It can be a simple as dressing up for a move up the career ladder. Read more and contribute more to your team meetings.

Consider who you have your coffee breaks with - do you want to be with people outside your team from time to time? If you are not much of a social butterfly, this is the time to go out with co-workers once and a while. Remember, you can change people’s expectations and beliefs about you, as long as you start with yourself first. Working with new - or mostly new people - is the ideal time.

Reinvigorate your career - this follows on from the reinvent yourself, and it is thinking about where do you want to be in the next few years. Personally, I did think about this one when I got through the restructure. I moved into a management role for the first time, and it really made me look hard at myself and my career. Get involved with projects and speak up - it will help with the reinvention of yourself, and show you to be a contributing member of the organisation.

Find out what is going on in the community around you and get involved. It may be both officially through work or as a volunteer/interested community member. Then remember to feedback what you learn. This lets people what else you are doing and to see you as a whole person.

Reinvent procedures - post restructure is not “throw the baby out with the bathwater time”, but a real chance to review how things are done. Everyone has ideas of how to improve how things are done. This is your chance to put them forward and make changes. Best of all is if you think through how your ideas will impact across the business - make a business case for it. This will also make you stand out a bit, feeding into the reinvent yourself/your career as well.

Restructures are painful because both people and things are lost - the office I worked in was close and none of the people I worked with in that office stayed, so it was like starting all over again with a team of people who did know each other and resented the organisation for the pain they were feeling. You can’t change how the people around you feel - only yourself. Use the opportunity of the new, and grow both yourself and your career. Doing this will mean when the next restructure happens, you will be in a stronger place to make decisions from.

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We all remember the Disney movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Their world was a fantasy land. Remember the dwarfs and the song they sung on their way to work? “Hi ho, Hi ho, Hi ho, its off to work we go”! O.K. come on now, be honest! How many of us are that cheerful as we fight traffic to get to the office.

Fact is, today in our western world, life is complicated. The demands of home, work, kids, pets and outside commitments constantly pull us in all directions. As employees, we come to the workplace with all types of things on our mind. And then we hear the statement; leave your personal life at home!

Employers, think about that statement for a minute. Is it possible to do that? Can an employee really check the personal stuff at the door and do their jobs with excellence. My contention is that they cannot. Study after study has shown that employees who are struggling in their personal lives are not productive employees. With the pressures of today’s economy, we must have productive employees committed to excellence to be successful. Customers have to many choices to just be mediocre.

So what is an employer to do? Is it our responsibility to deal with our employees personal problems so that they can be productive at work? Should we let a person go, when after many conversations, they just cannot seem to perform their jobs? How much “empathy” is enough? How flexible can we be? Can’t they just “grow up” and do their jobs!!! Ugh!

As employers, I am sure we have all had thoughts like those. How can we address this issue?

Let me suggest some things to think about as you wrestle with the balance between being a nice guy and running a business.

Here are a few:

1. How adept is your HR department or person at spotting issues before they get out of hand?
2. Do you even have an HR Department or HR Consultant to help you in these matters?
3. Do you promote an environment where an employee or their co-worker feels safe about asking for help?
4. Do you train your managers to recognize the signs associated with bringing personal issues to work?
5. Do you require folks to take their earned vacation, so that they have a break from the job?
6. Are people in your organization is the correct jobs? Satisfaction in their role in the company makes it easier to be productive, even when struggling with a personal issue.
7. Do you acknowledge that in the current economy, folks are struggling?
8. Do you tolerate gossip and rumors in the workplace?
9. Do you avoid dealing with one employee who is having a really hard time. and what effect does that have on all the other employees?
10. Do you ever do anything fun in your office?

One other thing that you can consider, is to bring in some outside training for employees. Teach them skills to deal with issues in their personal life. Lunch and learn session, EAP programs, substance abuse counselors, basic financial training; those are just some ideas that might help. The biggest objection to training, is that the financial cost is too high. I understand that comment, but consider the alternative. Loss of productivity, training cost of new employees, absenteeism and Workman’s compensation cost will all outpace the cost of some simple training in the long run.Employees who bring their problems to work will always be an issue in the marketplace. How you as the employer choose to deal with it will determine the damage it causes in your organization.

Dealing with the the situation in a positive manner, head on, with some appropriate training is the best solution, In My Experience.

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Every day you and I must solve problems, both large and small. And everyday we use the same process-or no process-for getting answers. Usually we stumble around in a thick fog, hoping we come up with something that works as a reward for our time, energy, and confusion. We may actually find solutions, but are they the BEST solutions? Are they the solutions that optimally serve our employees, our companies, our families, and ourselves?

Consider the last problem you needed to solve. Maybe that was yesterday, this morning, or just a few minutes ago. Whatever and whenever it was, how did you reach a conclusion? An answer? A strategy for moving forward? How did you get there, and were you satisfied? Or did you simply breathe a sigh of relief and run?

People in management and leadership positions are expected to solve problems. It’s one of the big reasons you get paid. Yet few of us really know how to proactively approach a problem to reach a viable, reasonable, superior solution. If this describes YOU, why not start the New Year on a fresh note and attack your professional and personal problems from a different perspective? A couple of years ago one of MY teachers passed a golden nugget on to ME. Now I want to pass it on to YOU. Integrate the following three critical steps that can lead YOU to better answers:

1. ASSESS

The very first thing you need to do is hold up a mirror to your face to see yourself as you really are. Not as you wish to be, not as you delude yourself to be, but who you truly are. Today. This minute. Who are you? What do you like about yourself? What do you dislike? Face the whole of you. Second, ponder how others see you. What strengths and weaknesses do they see in you? How would they describe you? Keep in mind that managers frequently don’t perceive themselves as other people perceive them.

Third, dig into your personal history. What were you like as a child? What was important to you at age 5? Age 10? 20? 25? And so on… How were you influenced by your parents or the people who raised you? What is your world view and how did you acquire it? What kinds of decisions were you making at various stages of your life? What kinds of problems were you solving? How did you make decisions and solve problems as a child? As an adolescent? As a young adult? How do you deal with them now? How did your teachers influence you? Your coaches? What lessons did you learn along the way? Figure out how you got to where you are today.

Fourth, mentally walk through the different buckets that comprise your life: physical health, mental health, the spiritual part of you, the financial, your career, relationships with family, friends, and co-workers, volunteer work, etc. Assess your energy level, your stress level, your ability to cope with change. Assess your ability to ask for help and support. Do you even know what you need and want from others? Determine what is working and not working for you. Are you going in a direction that will bring you fulfillment and peace of mind? Get in touch with all of this.

2. OWN

This step asks you to take responsibility for everything in your life. Yes, everything. While you may not have created something initially, you need to deal with it as an adult. M. Scott Peck, the late psychiatrist and famous author, declared that we have mental health to the extent that we are willing to look at the truth about ALL aspects of our lives: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Denial doesn’t serve you or the people you lead. Face it head-on. Look it square in the eye. Owning something sad or frustrating or terrible takes a lot of the power away from it. Sort of like letting the air out of a balloon…

Owning our choices and their subsequent consequences can be tough for many folks. When we make a choice that doesn’t work out well, we want to shun responsibility. We don’t want others to think it was our fault. Admit your failures, and sometimes publicly too. While nobody is perfect, learn to make better choices starting now. Know that your thoughts determine your choices. So you need to evaluate your thoughts in order to make wiser choices.

Maybe you are avoiding making certain choices. Is that true? If so, exactly what are you avoiding? Do you understand the pay-offs that you get by avoiding them? You wouldn’t be avoiding making those particular choices if you weren’t getting something out of it. Something like a false sense of security, comfort in knowing you didn’t rock the boat, financial gain, revenge, keeping the peace. But in the long run you only delay what has to be done. Own the fact that you haven’t made the choices you know you must make, and commit to making them today.

3. ACT

This step is a call to move forward. To get unstuck, even in a small way. Make that necessary decision. Challenge your management team. Motivate your staff. Revise out-dated protocols. Heal a relationship. Go to your child’s concert despite the nudge to work late for the fifth night this week. Schedule an appointment for your yearly physical exam. Call the friend whose friendship you miss. Just do it. What are you waiting for? Maybe you won’t have tomorrow. Do it now. What will be the ramifications if you don’t? Who loses?

Ignore the past. Step out of your fear. Resist the temptation to blame someone else if you make a mistake. Shed shame. Learn from old guilt. Refuse victim mode. Avoid analysis paralysis. These are stumbling blocks that prevent you from taking the action you need to take. Just jump. See what happens. Trust yourself enough to believe that you can handle the results. As a manager and leader, you are called to act. As a spouse, partner, and/or parent, you are called to act. As a member of a community, you are called to act. Playing it safe is not your purpose. Act to make a difference in the lives of others as well as your own.

In my work as an executive coach I witness a great deal of internal and external stagnation in clients. Much of that stagnation seems to come from thought patterns developed in childhood and/or adolescence. These thought patterns are often unhealthy, outdated, useless, or nonsensical. And yet my clients, functioning as executives/managers of organizations, continue to carry them on a daily basis and allow them to dictate the kinds of decisions they make. They spend a lot of time wondering why they don’t get the results they desire, the satisfaction they crave, and the joy they deserve. They don’t get what they want because they’re relying on old tools that don’t work for THEM. You have to build new tools. But first you have to know who you are at the core.

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Should you be making managers into leaders? That’s a trickier question than you might think. At face value, it seems like an obviously good idea. Things get more complicated when you look a little closer.

That’s because there is an inherent risk in trying to facilitate the transition. If you have good managers, it’s obviously tempting to try to tap their potential leadership skills. What happens if doing so starts to detract from their managerial skills and emphasis, though?

Are you better off with a distracted manager who’s trying to develop leadership skills or would you be in a superior position with a focused manager who’s not all that concerned with becoming a proactive force for leadership?

The answer to that question is going to depend on the specific circumstances of your organization, of course. It’s also going to depend on your perspective regarding the value of leadership and your personal obligation to allow people to experience their full potential.

If you believe you have a personal responsibility to help others become the “best they can be,” it makes sense to trying making managers into leaders. You can allow people to recognize hidden talents and achieve more.

However, doing that requires some smart planning. You need to prepare yourself for the changes in managerial talents and attention that may accompany the increased emphasis on leadership. You need to have the systems in place to deal with that so that your operational capacity isn’t damaged in the process of encouraging personal growth.

It’s also important to consider whether developing those leadership skills in managers is really going to contribute to the strength of your organization in the bigger picture. While the idea of team built of awesome leader-managers may seem like an all-star lineup capable of anything, we also know that leaders need followers and managers need subordinates for things to function. There is a balance issue at play.

If you’re addressing the right managers in the right way and within the right overall context, full speed ahead! If you’re gambling with operation stability or creating an overall imbalance within your staff, that’s another matter altogether. Making managers into leaders sounds attractive and it can be wonderful. But it’s not quite as easy and free of risk as we might like to think.

So, should you be making managers into leaders? Overall, it’s probably a sensible decision. However, those efforts should be accompanied by the recognition that there are limits to the endeavor and that you can’t let it trade off with the successful nuts and bolts functioning of your organization.

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Remember how Tom Sawyer convinced all those other kids to paint the fence he was supposed to paint? He made wise use of other people’s skills.

One of the secrets to success in life is making use of the fact that others can contribute to your success with their diverse interests, skills and talents.

There are things you do better than other people; these skills and talents are what you do naturally. Your joy, satisfaction, and meaning in life come as the result of opportunities to do these things. The more you focus on activities that draw on these skills and talents, the better you will perform and the more success you’ll have in life.

There are also things you’ve learned to do but that don’t make use of your natural skill set. Even though you may do them at a reasonable or even expert level, they tend to require greater effort and usually don’t bring the same rewards.

Don’t Try to do Everything, You Can’t

Out of the Human Potential movement came the idea that people can do anything they want if they just put their minds and efforts into it.

Unfortunately, this has lead to the idea that if you can do anything then you should be able to do everything. As a result, we often take on too much, frequently in areas where we don’t have natural talent or ability.

How do you like to spend your time? What brings you the most satisfaction?

Since the possibilities of how you choose to spend your time (either at work or at play) are literally endless, it’s crucial that you have some kind of filter for deciding where to put your attention.

There are People Who Like to do That? You’ve Got to be Kidding Me!

If you look around at what other people enjoy doing, you’ll probably discover that there are far more things that strike you as boring or uninteresting than there are things that grab your attention.
Spending your time in the full expression of your talents requires that you give up roles and skills that are not where your passion and talents lie - just like Tom did. This latter category includes what we call “distractions.”

Distractions are the jobs or activities (and their accompanying sets of skills) that clearly do not interest you, or that require a great deal of effort on your part to learn.

What might be drudgery to you is someone else’s ideal job. Discovering someone who loves to do the things that you don’t enjoy is an opportunity for celebration rather than disbelief.

It’s important to know what you don’t do well. This is important for a few reasons: not just so you can avoid situations in which you are called on to perform unsuitable tasks, but also so that you can find and work with others for whom your distractions are natural talents.

Take Action:

Make a list of all the various tasks you perform in a single day. Next to each item, mark “L” if you love it, “N” if you feel neutral about it and “H” if you hate it. Pick the top three items on your “hate it” list and make a plan for getting them off your plate, either by discarding the activity altogether or by passing it along to someone else.

Dance to Your Music and Let Others Dance to Theirs

Your steps will be truer and your expression more joyful when you delegate to others those things they do best while you discover and concentrate on doing what comes naturally to you.

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Some people will tell you, if you ask them, that they think leadership is deciding on a plan of action and sticking to it, no matter what. Others will tell you it means taking charge of a situation and then handing out tasks so everything gets done right and by the set deadline.

What if that’s not leadership? What if leadership is less about handing out orders and sticking by a plan whether or not it works and more about working with people to mentor them and help them find their own path. I would argue that defining a leader today is much different than it was 5 or 10 years ago. In fact, I would say that inspiration is the biggest thing you contribute to a company or even a person when you become a leader.

While leaders are made, most are born. That sounds odd, doesn’t it? Well, the truth is we can’t all be leaders and not everyone wants to be a leader.

There are many responsibilities attached to leadership. No matter what anyone else is doing, when you’re the leader, you are in charge and the results you deliver, whether they’re good or bad, are a direct reflection of your work and efforts. Honestly, most people are genuinely scared of failure. Leaders are not.

Natural born leaders know that you miss opportunities and blessings when you avoid failure. Not that failure is something to strive for because it’s not. However, people who are trying to avoid failure, typically avoid doing things or taking risks in the first place. Did you know that Thomas Edison tried 5,000 times to invent a working light bulb before he actually created one that worked?

Do you realize that what that actually means is he failed 5,000 times? That’s a lot of failure and yet he’s known, as it should be, for his inventions, his light bulb.

Think of some well-known leaders or business owners. Let’s look at Donald Trump. He’s a business owner, a billionaire and a leader. He has also failure. Repeatedly. More than once his failure has cost him everything or nearly everything.

So what makes Trump special and why does he stand out? He’s a leader who believes in, and inspires the best in his people. He pushes people to excel, to get better at whatever they’re good at. He pushes them to risk failure because he knows that that’s where the greatest successes come from.

At the end of the day, people who inspire, people who take risks, people who are willing to try, and fail; those are the ones you want to follow because they believe in themselves, they take risks, they believe in their goal and they believe in other people and their potential. True leaders, the people who will get in the trenches with you, those are the people you should follow if you want to succeed. I am one of those people.

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Establish a culture of innovation and prosperity by being “nice.” At the end of the day, successful organizations are fun places to work. Employees should feel like its fun to come to work. If Sunday night feels like dread and stress…your culture is wrongheaded.

Upscale clothier, Jack Mitchell, author of Hug your people shares why positivity is good for productivity and profits. His opinions were outlined in a recent Gallup management journal where he identifies four criteria for hiring “nice” people.

First-they have to be open, honest and have integrity.

Second-they have to be positive.

Third-they need to be competent.

Fourth-they need to have passion to listen, grow, and learn.

Being nice creates a culture where people have fun and look forward coming to work. The culture becomes one which enables employees to learn and grow…the critical energy and essence of innovation and creativity for an organization.

Engagement and getting employee input is a choice ownership and management must commit to. Intentions must be sincere and genuine. Inviting the opinions of a new hire are as liberating and encouraging as inviting opinions from tenured employees.

How can organizations and leaders be surrounded by great people if they don’t ask their input to discover greatness?

Mitchell further describes how to create a “nice” culture.

Pleaser mentality-relationships are positive and grounded in humility.

Expectations and standards, not rules-rules are cold and unbending and often destroy trust. Develop a list of outcomes you want fulfilled.

Make people feel a part of the business-have a solid inspiring vision and mission statement that celebrates the value of people

Engage people-and be clear of your intentions to sort and use their input

Be fair-fairness doesn’t mean equal. People don’t genuinely contribute equally, so their rewards may not be equal.

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Today thousands of managers are sitting at their desks both puzzled and annoyed at the three-letter-word that keeps getting thrown at them by their young workers. Baby Boomer and Traditionalist leaders describe this word as sounding, as one manager told us, “like nails on a chalkboard.” What, you might ask, is this word? And, if you’re a Generation Y-er, you might ask, “Why is it driving you crazy?”

“Why.” It seems like such a small, innocent word. However, it is actually a loaded term that has different meanings depending on which generation you belong to. In this article, we’ll spell out what “why” means to both the older, seasoned managers, and the young, new workers. And, we’ll give you the tools to overcome your distaste for “why” and embrace it to your managerial advantage.

For those of us raised before the era of “free love” or even “disco”, we were taught not to question our elders. As children we were to be seen and not heard. As school-age children we were taught to take what we were given and not complain about it. And, as adults we were supposed to do our tasks solely because they needed to be done.

We understood that we were cogs in a wheel, and if we just did our job, everything would work out fine. So, to us, the word “Why?” denotes challenging of authority, thumbing your nose at the rules, and general disruptiveness. Even in its mildest interpretation, we see at as annoying. When we tell one of our young workers, “finished documents must be printed in triplicate on blue paper,” we want them to say, “Yes, of course! Consider it done!” Not, “Why?”

However, for Generation Y workers, “why” is not a dirty word. They were raised in different times. These adults grew up in a period where parents not only focused on their children, but set them on a pedestal, told them they were unique and important, and fought for them to be not just seen, but heard as well. Generation Y children were also taught that there is learning value in everything they do - so that every job that must be done has a reason, meaning, or significance.

They were taught to look at the “big picture” and how their contribution fits in with everything around them. So instead of just being content with knowing they are a cog in the wheel, they need to know, “Why am I this cog instead of that one? Why are we turning slowly? Why, why, why?”

Overall, our research found that there are two big reasons Generation Y asks “Why?”

Reason #1: Big Picture “Why?”

Generation Y workers want to know how they, as well as their work, fit into the whole. They want to know how the tasks they do affect the department, organization, field, or world as a whole. They’ve grown up wanting their lives and work to be meaningful, and they want to see how meaningful it will actually be. Generation Y workers have little patience for tasks that are rote and, as they see it, meaningless.

So, as a manager, you need to make their work fit into the big picture. The clearer you make it, the more productive they will be. Pre-empting the “why?” question by assigning tasks AND giving the big picture up front is a trick that top managers have learned.

Darren Griffith, a top sales manager at an auto insurance agency tells it this way, “When I give my Gen-Y sales reps a task, I let them know how it affects everyone of us here. For instance, I asked two of my reps to read through about 200 surveys and pull out all the written comments. I knew they’d ask why because it is such a boring task. So I just said right away - I told them ‘we need to find out if any of our customers are unhappy with anything we’ve done in our sales process. We need to go through those surveys to get those negative comments so that later we can all sit down as a team and figure out what we need to do better.’ That was just what they needed, and they got right on with the task.”

Reason #2: Significance “Why?”

Employees from Generation Y are typically more than enthusiastic to do something when they know the reason behind why they need to do what they need to do. Their parents taught them that rules and instructions are important and good, but only if they make sense and fit the situation. They also taught them that every rule and instruction is an opportunity to learn more.

For example, if one of their parents said to them, “Bedtime is at 9:00 P.M.” and, the kid asked “Why?” - they would not typically get the response (as most of us non-Gen Y-ers would have), “Because I said so.” They would more likely get an explanation of how the parent came up with the rule and why it is important.

Further, the parent would actually have a “good” reason much of the time (from reading all of those research studies and parenting books and magazines that were so popular at the time). For example, the parent might say, “Because kids your age need at least 9 hours of sleep, and you have to get up at 6:00 A.M. - so 9 P.M. is the latest you can go to bed and get the required amount of sleep.”

That’s the reason this particular “Why?” can be more of a challenge. It forces us, as managers, to question the reasoning and significance behind what we want our workers to do and how we want them to do it. It becomes tricky when there are procedures or policies in our companies that we have absolutely no idea why they are in place and they don’t make a lot of sense to us either.

For example, it might be easy to discuss company dress codes if they make sense. Ricki Archer, the director of a tutoring company, told us, “I discuss dress code with my tutors right away. I tell them that we have a strict white collared shirt, khaki pants, and closed toe shoe policy.

I explain that the white collared shirt and khakis identify our tutors no matter what school we go into, and the closed toe shoe means that we are teachers and not students. We have to look professional and separate ourselves from the kids that we teach. Our tutors are young- but they ‘get it’. After we talk about it, they understand that they need to look like grown-ups to get the respect of the parents, teachers, and students. I’ve never had to discuss it further with any of them.”

What is more difficult is when it makes less sense. However, we did find one manager that handled the “why?” particularly well. David Kim, a department manager at a research firm, had many employees question their dress code. “We have a ‘no shorts, no sandals, no jeans, and no t-shirts’ rule at our company. And some of our new hires asked me about why that policy was in place because they all work at computers in cubicles all day and clients don’t see them. I told them that, in all honesty, I had no idea.

Realistically, we are isolated from the rest of the company physically - we are in a different building. And, it is just me, my assistant, and eighteen associates who crunch numbers and write reports all day. So, I told them that they had my blessing in trying to get the policy changed if that is what they wanted.

They could research it, draft a new policy, and get a petition and signatures - whatever they needed. And I would take a representative with me and bring it up to corporate. But they couldn’t do it during work time. I had to stress that! I haven’t heard about it in a few weeks, but I know there are a bunch of them working on it.”

Unlike the Big Picture “Why?”, the Significance “Why?” can’t always be pre-empted. This is because this type of “Why?” often takes us by surprise. Things we wouldn’t naturally question get questioned. This type of questioning, as you may notice, is not always a bad thing. In fact, employees asking, “Why?” can bring about significant change and growth and help us to look beyond where we might normally look.

In fact, where would Microsoft be without Bill Gates asking “Why?” Or where would Nike, or Apple, or Starbucks be? These companies did not just allow “Why?”, they embraced “Why?”

Summing up the Techniques

In short, Generation Y asks “Why?” for two main reasons. And, as our top managers have shown, there are two good ways to turn the “Why?” to your advantage. First and foremost, anticipate that your Generation Y employees are going to want the Big Picture.

By knowing this, you can pre-empt questions by providing details of how their work fits in with the work of other workers, the department, organization, or outside world. Make what they are doing meaningful and relevant. Creative managers have a knack for making every job important.

Second, understand that Generation Y workers want to know the Significance of what they are doing. If you can anticipate their questions, then certainly pre-empt them by providing the reason. But, because these are often unanticipated questions, give yourself time to respond or put the work back on them.

If you don’t know the answer, it is fine to say, “I don’t know, but I can find out.” It is also more than OK to give them permission to search for the answer themselves, or to try to change things (with you guiding the process, of course).

With this knowledge in hand, maybe we can reduce our annoyance at that little three-letter word. It is not there to usurp your authority. It is not there to make your life miserable. “Why?” is being thrown at you because you have curious, inquisitive, and intelligent young workers who want to learn and grow through their work with you. You may not love it, but with these tools you can turn it to your advantage.

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