A Vision Quest

I read with interest an article entitled Young Tories lash out at party in the Calgary Herald on May 27, 2007. It appears that the youth wing of the Alberta Conservatives have grown disgruntled with the senior Tory members, attributed to a perceived gag order by the party and a lack of vision by party leaders (stating that both Ralph Klein and Ed Stelmach lacked vision).

The general reaction of readers likely ranges from complete dismissal to identifying the youths as demanding over achievers demonstrating insufficient respect for political process and senior party members. If you drill deeper, there is a very clear message associated with the discontent displayed by the youth involved. If you are an employer or manage young employees, this will be of interest to you.

The majority of the Alberta Conservative youth wing membership hail from the Y Generation (often referred to as Millennials). Gen Y’s were born after 1978 or 1982 (both dates are used with the Gen Y segment).

Some commonly accepted characteristics of Gen Y’s include:

Community-oriented
Confident, resilient & ambitious
Enthusiastic about and adept at incorporating technology into the workplace
Entrepreneurial; achievement focused
Taught to speak up and question authority
More accepting of diversity than any generation before them
Culture of readily accessible information has contributed to demanding attitudes

For many of us, this is the first real descriptive snapshot that we have of this generation and a valuable insight into what we can expect.

As a reference point it might be helpful to compare the last three generations of workers as presented by Steven Shepard at the TELUS Senior Leadership Forum 2004:

Baby Boomer Generation

Years (1943-1964) Outlook on Life Optimistic Attitudes Towards Work Driven View of Authority Love/Hate Relationship Approach Self-sacrifice Decision Making Team-Oriented

Generation X

Years (1965-1981) Outlook on Life Skeptical Attitudes Towards Work Balanced View of Authority Unimpressed Relationship Approach Reluctant to Commit Decision Making Self-Reliant

Generation Y

Years (1982 +) Outlook on Life Realistic Attitudes Towards Work Looking for Meaning View of Authority Oblivious Relationship Approach Committed to Success Decision Making Good for All

So what are the Gen Y’s looking for from their employers? Well, here are some of the expectations that employers can anticipate from their Gen Y staff members:

Free agents … chasing the deal that best fits them
Reject uniform benefits in lieu of options targeted to individual needs
Enjoy a workplace where social interaction is available
Prefer doing work that is prestigious and regarded highly by others
Less concerned about recognition and working independently
Looking for meaning in what they do

Gen Y’s seek connection and a clear sense of purpose; demanding meaning in what they do for work. Very comfortable with questioning authority, Gen Y’s will not accept a command and control style of leadership and, when faced with an autocratic manager, they will vote with their feet.

So what to make of these young Tories? Well, we now know that they are keen to work with leaders that demonstrate a clear vision and will not hesitate to express their disappointment or contempt when this desire goes unmet. Employers with an abundance of Gen Y staffers would be well served to carve out a clear vision and actively share that message with employees. The key, of course, will be to ensure that your actions mirror your vision. Gen Y’s will have little tolerance for blatant vision disconnects.

As an aside, don’t expect to see many Gen Y’s in the polling stations as you cast your vote in the fall municipal elections. Gen Y’s need to experience a direct connection with incumbents or candidates. To this generation, this means direct access and dialogue; fancy 30 second political advertisements featuring the party leader are not the way to connect with a Gen Y.


Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality– Warren Bennis

The Perfect Storm

Some of you will be familiar with the term ‘Perfect Storm’, a common reference to the 1991 Halloween Nor’easter that consumed the East coast for several days. This storm had a significant social and economic impact. The phrase ‘Perfect Storm’ refers to the simultaneous occurrence of events which, taken individually, would be far less powerful than the result of their chance combination. Such occurrences are rare by their very nature, so that even a slight change in any one event contributing to the perfect storm would lessen its overall impact.

The ‘Perfect Storm’ looming is predicted to have a far greater economic impact than either the millennium bug or the tragedy of 9/11. Enough suspense you say, do tell…

The predicted workforce crisis seems to be focused on an anticipated talent shortage. That factor alone has many employers very concerned and scrambling to address their needs. It is far worse than that! Add to the talent shortage the following significant challenges that employers are facing:

· North America has never experienced the proportion of workers that are currently preparing for retirement

· Growth rate in our labour force has never dropped and remained so low in our history

· Our reliance on knowledge workers rather than labourers has reached an all time high

It is doubtful that most employers have prepared for the multiple effects that these trends will provide when they eventually collide. This ‘Perfect Storm’ will not discriminate - every sector will experience sudden, and in some cases significant, challenges in meeting their labour needs.

As if this were not enough to send employers into hiding, recent reports on employee engagement also demand employer’s attention. In Workforce Crisis, How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent, Ken Dychtwald defined employee engagement as passion and commitment – the willingness to expend one’s discretionary effort on the employer’s success. A number of recent surveys and studies report that more than half of the workers in the North American workforce are disengaged or highly disengaged in their current jobs. The mistake that many employers make is the assumption that if their workforce is satisfied, then they will also be engaged. Sadly, not true.

So, what are you to do as an employer and/or leader in your organization? Certainly, the crisis does require some serious thought about how prepared your organization is currently to address this ‘Perfect Storm’. Now I know, some of you are quietly taking all of this in and wondering if any of this even applies to you. I have found a quick checklist (credit going to Dr. Scott Hamilton and John Bradford of Profiles International) that will help you gauge whether this workforce crisis issue will impact you.

1. Do you anticipate a productivity issue if your organization cannot get the workers needed or if young workers are constantly turning over?
2. Are you noticing an increase in style clashes between managers, employees, or even between your senior team members?
3. Are you facing a loss of critical knowledge when those who truly understand your business, your customers, and the organization retire at once?
4. Are you facing the challenge of losing your top executives and/or performers to retirement?
5. Do you anticipate a tremendous brain drain on your institutional memory due to retirement and potential departure of super contributors?
6. Do you know what actions you can take to prevent the pilfering of your top executives and super performers by competitors and other companies who could benefit from your institutional knowledge?
7. Do you have a workforce strategy in place to meet the challenges of the impending work force crisis?

If you answered yes to any of the first five questions or no to either of the final two, then you can consider your organization vulnerable to the potentially devastating effects of the looming workforce crisis!

I encourage you to hold off on bolting the doors and boarding the windows in your organization. There are a number of things you can do to enhance your ability to survive and actually thrive in this turbulent period of challenge and change. The key will be to fully understand the complete landscape and where you currently reside. There are many important steps and no quick fixes to introducing and executing an effective workforce strategy.

You will learn and appreciate (I hope) that there is no one strategy/solution that will fit all organizations. I do boldly predict that we will come to realize that any strategy will die on the vine without effective leadership and execution. I look forward to this discussion with you and encourage your feedback and comments.

‘Leadership without the discipline of execution is incomplete and ineffective. Without the ability to execute, all other attributes of leadership become hollow.’ – Execution, The Discipline of Getting Things Done – by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan.

Welcome!!

Thank you for visiting our blog.

Lead 2 Succeed will be a forum on the current challenges and opportunities that are prevalent in our rapidly changing world. Rather than focusing solely on for-profit, Lead 2 Succeed will be geared to address leadership issues from all sectors.

You will notice a specific focus on workforce strategies. This is my passion and a very important aspect of the work that I do with my clients. It is a critical issue that every organization (whether for-profit or non-profit) is currently facing. Your competitive position will largely be determined by how successful you are in implementing and managing your workforce strategy effectively.... so stay tuned!