I just read an article in Forbes that we all need to read:  Talent Search.  If you don’t choose to read this…good luck with the future of your company.

I have been harping on this for two years, and now, suddenly people are getting worried.

I keep hearing Baby Boomers moan, complain and quite frankly…just whine about Gen Y.  I am sick of it.  If you are whining, then you are not a leader…if you are a leader, you will look at this situation and say “Okay…we have 70 million super sharp young men and women coming into the workforce, and we are going to get them ready for early leadership positions”…instead of sitting around saying “They are so entitled, they are so into their own thing, they are always on Facebook, blah, blah.”  If you are saying this, then maybe you are the one who is entitled…as I always say “If you spot it…you got it!”

So, here’s the deal…one last time…let me see if I can make it simple.

1. Our Baby Boomer population is aging out of the workforce.  This includes over 70 million people.  We are already experiencing a talent and leadership deficit, and in about 5 years, the leadership well is going to be pretty darn dry.

2. Our Generation X population is small…about 40 million, and not all of these men and women want to be in leadership positions.

3. Our Generation Y population includes over 70 million men and women, and many of these young adults are being thrown into managerial and leadership positions literally overnight (I had one Gen Y tell me recently that she showed up at work one morning, and her boss said…”We let X person go yesterday…you are now in charge”…and of course, she freaked out.  She is great at her skill set but admitted that she has NO people management or leadership skills!)

So…here is what you need to do (trust me on this!…These approaches are working for companies like Deloitte, Intuit and Google, and you can do these steps without a huge investment of money…yes, they will take time, but the investment of time will be worth it for your company).

1. Start a strong leadership development program for ALL of your new hires.  Stop this nonsense of saying “Why would we invest in the leadership development of this young audience who job hops constantly.  They are probably job hopping because you don’t give a damn about their development.  Hey…if they do leave you, maybe they will come back in a couple of years when they get tired of their next company treating them like they have no value.

2. Start a strong internal coaching and mentoring program. The best approach here is to bring in an external coach or coaching company to help you set this up.  From here, start a “matching process” like http://Match.com provides to match new hires with seasoned mentors who match up…they like each other enough to get joined at the hip.

3. Upgrade your company. Go through your building with 3 Generation Y careerists, and ask them what you should update/upgrade.  Are you sticking people in cubicles?  Is your technology outdated?  Does your office look like your stuck in the 60s?  With a few upgrades here and there, you can make your environment more appealing to a younger audience.

4. Upgrade your own communication skill set. I completely understand the resistance to Facebook, Twitter and texting.  But…as leaders, you have to get over this.  You have to be willing to use the technology that our twenty-somethings are using to connect with them.  While yes…I agree…that Gen Y can use some training in face to face and telephone interactions, this is not going to happen by your unwillingness to use the technology they use.

5. Get your Gen Ys involved…have THEM coach you. I am a big fan of reverse mentoring.  Generation Y loves coaching and they love TO COACH OTHERS.   It is your job as a leader to find out what transferable skills they are bringing into your company and them ask them to help you out.  This one step alone can make your Gen Ys feel as if they are valued.

6. Sit down and knock out a leadership branding program. Everyone wants a great public branding program, but what does your leadership brand look like?  Are you still working off a plan that says “We are committed to integrity, honesty and building trust?”  Okay…that’s great, but let’s look at the future.  Integrity is going to be a MUST, but there are some other cultural ways of being that are going to get your Gen Ys to stick around including diversity, openness to new thinking, innovation, community service, online networking and quick decision making.    Ask your Gen Ys what they value, and then weave those values into your leadership brand.  If your younger employees know that you are dedicated to honoring what they value, they will feel more committed to your organization.

7. Drop the notion of experience=great leadership. This is so old school.  We have some political leaders in our country right now who are in their early 20s, even in their teens.  Generation Y can be quickly trained into a leadership position, because many have been in leadership positions since they were 10 and 11 years old.   During the Millennial Leaders research project, I met Austin Lee, who was 14 and who was serving in a leadership position in St. Cloud, MN and Ben Casnocha, who at age 17 was the CEO of his own company.  This generation is not a generation that is green or born in a barn…they have been out there working their way into leadership positions.  So…just drop this old belief that says “Well…you must have 20 years of experience to be a leader”…that is just not true…it MAY be true in some cases, so challenge your assumptions on that one.  Treat each young person that walks in your door as a potential leader, and see how they shift and how you shift.

8. Implement a strong rotational development program.  Intuit and other companies are using this approach.  With a strong RDP, your young leaders will touch every job in your company over a period of 12-18 months.  This is the best way to get your younger leaders ready for a leadership position in your company…by exposing them to every department and every aspect of your company and then coaching them on how to manage or lead in that division of your company.

9. Stop calling Gen Y names and start respecting them for the great people they are. Just drop the name calling…Oh…and by the way…I keep hearing that “Oh…Gen Ys are just distracted.  They multi-task all the time, and this is not a good thing!”  Well…guess what?  The majority of people multi-task their way through life.  I have worked with over 1000 leaders in the last 10 years, and I cannot recall a leader I have worked with (and these people are over the age of 40) who does not multi-task.  Our world is demanding multi-tasking.  With Gen Y, they know HOW to multi-task in a way that is much more efficient than the rest of us.  I have watched Gen Ys multi-task, and they amaze me…at how they can multi-task and spit out a great quality product in the end.  They know how to tap into their networks during a project to pull it all together.  I have watched them open a document, pop open their chat window and get answers to questions through their friends and colleagues and voila!  Instantly…great product pops out.

10. Make work fun, experiential and flexible. I don’t understand why work can’t be fun.  I don’t understand why we have to clock in at 9 and clock out at 5.  I don’t understand why training using a ppt presentation and a boring lecture is the only road to training (it is NOT working with this generation…what works is putting Gen Y into true learning experiences!).  Look at the way you operate.  How can you make your environment more fun, more experiential and more flexible?  Get out of your old paradigm and shift…and you need to shift today!

Okay…I think I have made my case!  I am going to keep writing these posts with the intention of getting through to just one leader…just one person who is actually ready to take on the above.

I had one of my typical conversations over the week-end with a senior leader who was complaining about Gen Y’s need for instant gratification…that they just don’t care and don’t “get it” about having a strong work ethic and delayed gratification.

My response: “That is not their fault.  If you look at the way we raised our kids using the technology they are now comfortable with, it only makes sense that they want things immediately.  They want things fast…they want it now, and they can teach us a thing or two about life.   AND…they can be coached and trained to understand when delayed gratification is in order and when to really dive in and work.”  (And of course, we need to know when to go home and quit working so that our families know that we love them!)

Not sure I got my point across.

So, maybe this video will help.  This was sent to me by Nicolle Shanti…thank-you Nicolle for sending this along.  My view is that Generation Y is not lost and helpless…maybe we (Baby Boomers) are the ones who are lost.

I was going to spend the day writing about the 10 dumbest things said about Generation Y in 2009, but there is one that deserves attention…So, in my opinion, the dumbest thing said about Generation Y in 2009 is this:

“Generation Y is the dumbest generation we have seen in the history of mankind.”

Whoever came up with this notion are the people who deserves the dumb award of 2009.

One of the funniest things I read on this topic was some study which showed that in 2006 (okay…it’s 3 years old) revealed that two thirds of high school seniors couldn’t explain an old photo of a sign over a theater door reading the words “COLORED ENTRANCE”.   Isn’t this ironic?  People from the Baby Boomer generation who publicly displayed acts of discrimination by demanding colored entrances to theaters, forcing black people to sit in the back of the bus or drink from a different water fountain are calling Generation Y dumb, because they don’t know the meaning of COLORED ENTRANCE!  Thank God, here in 2009, that this Generation does not know the meaning of these words.

I am sure that many of you are out there today saying “Gen Y is dumb…they need to know the meaning of these signs and of World Wars I and II and the history of Sputnik, blah, blah…they sit and text and live on Facebook all day and use words like ‘chill, word and dank’ and they all have ADD, because they are all multi-tasking maniacs.  They don’t know who Chopin is, and they never knew that Pete Rose played baseball”.

Okay…I get it.  But why are we all so hung up on people knowing about trivia from history?  I completely understand knowing history, but here’s the deal…Gen Y knows how to go to their information sources and quickly learn more than I bet most of us know about Pete Rose, Chopin or the Cold War.  They know how to tap into a network of thousands of people to get answers more quickly and they don’t waste time laboring over useless details that have no meaning.  They can filter out what they need to be successful in the moment so that they can move on and spend time with friends and family.  Are we really here on earth to know each detail of each event in history?  Not so sure that’s why we’re here (but you history majors can just go ahead and throw some rocks at me!)

There are also a few things that we all need to know about Gen Y:

1. 20 of the most celebrated entrepreneurs of 2009 are under the age of 30

2. Generation Y can quickly explain anything related to new media including web 2.0, convergence, wiki, microblogging, crowdsourcing, RSS and social bookmarking while many people are still using text burdened ppt slides that put people to sleep.  Take a look at these icons….do you know what these are?  If not, you’re behind the times!  Gen Y can tell you what each of these are and another 100 or so social networking icons, and they are not just for playing around!  They are being used for business, education and recruitment.

And…on a side note, I led two presentations this past year when I asked an audience of Baby Boomers how many of them were blogging, and the audience said “What is a blog?”

3. Does Gen Y multi-task?  You bet they can!  Because they have to.  Yes…I know about all the studies that say that multi-tasking is horrible and causes problems and is inefficient, and causes the ability to learn to go down, but did you also know that multi-tasking can be great in the working world?  Gen Y is proficient at neatly compartmentalizing the multitude of “stuff” in their brains and is able to pluck out easily what they need in the moment.  Older generations hold onto about 10 things at one time, so they seem to be constantly at war in their brains…arguing not only with the world but with their own beliefs and thoughts.

I could go on and on, but at the end of the day, this belief is only one perspective…it is not THE truth…it is someone’s view or belief, and we all have beliefs and opinions.  My opinion is that this statement about Gen Y being the dumbest Generation in history is just dumb.  My perspective is this…Generation Y is one of the brightest, most capable, intellectually stimulated generations we have seen in history.  Over the last three years, I feel as if I have become “smarter” (or dumber as many of you would say) because of knowing so many young leaders.  I also have 3 Gen Y kids who have taught me a great deal about life, spirituality, cultures other than my own, about the world and about how they plan on helping our world be a better place.

Our world needs to change in 2010…and for starters, I believe that our education system has to get up with the times.  Writing on a chalkboard and lecturing to a group of tech savvy learners is no longer working…so what you thought was important 20 years ago may not be that relevant today.  It’s time to start shifting, and I want to apologize to Generation Y for all of the adults who are calling you dumb, lazy and entitled and for handing you so many problems to deal with in the future.  And…I want to thank you for your innovative spirit and for actually speaking up for what you want and what you feel our world needs to do to be a better place to live.

And to Baby Boomers, Traditionalists and Gen X…thank-you for your wisdom…now it’s time to share, mentor and coach instead of calling Gen Y dumb, lazy and narcissistic.  If that is how you view them, they did not get there alone.  They got there with a great deal of help from the rest of us!

Wishing you all the best in 2010.

Bea

Jeannette Paladino was kind enough to ask me to write this blog post today for Write Speak Sell.

The excerpt is below, and you can read the full post here.

At the end of the day, your company will either sink or swim based on how well you communicate.

I am sure you have heard this 1,000 times…”Great communication is necessary for great leadership” or “We must communicate better if we want to be successful” ,womp, womp, womp. The topic of communication has been beaten to death, so we have become numb to its importance. We go about our day not returning phone calls to customers, sending out curt, hurtful e-mails, turning a deaf ear to our employees and just basically shutting people out or cutting them off at the knees.

In this day and age, I have a prediction…and I am not a futurist. I believe that those companies who will succeed in the future will be those companies who learn to not only communicate better with their customers but who take the time to actually learn how to communicate across generational and cultural barriers. I believe those companies and businesses who choose to ignore this important aspect of communication will perish. In order to be successful with this process, you do have to take the time to learn about each generation in our workforce… their values, key motivating factors and how they best like to communicate so that you can begin to knock down the walls which are so strongly holding up the divide.

So, here is a run down of the six generations who are alive and well in our world and interacting with our businesses as consumers, investors and advocates.

Read the full post here.

I will start this post by saying that I am totally in love with the new show Glee.  Just don’t ask me to do anything on Wednesday evening if it involves staying out past 9:00 Eastern, because at 8:59, I am sitting in front of my television, waiting on the edge of my seat, tuned into FOX,  to learn how the plot will thicken and what songs will be performed for the week.

When I saw the ads last spring, I thought “Oh brother…this is going to be so corny.”  Boy…was I both right and wrong.  The show is just downright quirky…with a cast of characters so interesting and complex,  a creator just simply cannot “make up”…they are characters from real life as we know it today.

If you have not yet watched the show, Glee is an offbeat look at the caste system that is more often than not carved out in high schools all over the world and the problems which come with being both high school students, teachers, coaches and of course…the principal.  The unique thing about the show is that it revolves around the high school glee club, so each week, viewers get to be delighted with some of THE best musical and dance talent I have seen on television or on broadway in a long time (American Idol...maybe you should be looking at some of these kids…eh…they’ve already made it!)  And…I have to say as a Baby Boomer, the selection of songs crosses all generations…there is literally something for everyone!  I love it when a song by Journey or Queen makes it onto the show.

Now then, I have not performed any formal research on this topic today, but I am hearing from college age kids and 20-somethings from all over the country that they are just in love with the show.  It is gathering a following of eager watchers (both young and old) and has landed in the top 10 television rankings in its first two months of the season on TV.com.  The show was pre-empted for a few weeks by the world series (which really upset me…I am not the biggest baseball fan, and they kicked my favorite show off for 3 weeks,)  so I will be eager to see how the show lands in the Nielsen ratings come May, 2010.

But…let me give you a bit of insight.  If you want to know how to reach a 20-something audience…if you want to know how to market to them, attract them as consumers and really get inside their minds, you have to watch this show, and here’s why:

1.  The diversity in the cast of characters. Look at this photo to the right.  I do believe we have a very nice diversity of backgrounds in this cast of characters.

You can get the full rundown on the cast of characters through the Glee Wiki, but let me just give you a few of the highlights of the cast:

Rachel Berry: Rachel was a surrogate baby, and she has two dads.  They picked a surrogate based on intelligence and beauty. They gave Rachel everything she needed to become the star she is destined to be in the near future.

Finn Hudson: Finn is captain of the football team and WAS a closeted singer until Glee Club coach Will Schuester recruited him to join the club.

Mercedes Jones:  Mercedes is an African American diva who loves her weave and can’t stand it when anyone else is in the spotlight.

Puck: Puck is the “bad boy” in the club…plays football, cleans pools and underneath that bad boy image is a pretty soft heart and a spirit to succeed (at any and all costs!)  Puck is also Jewish.

Tina Cohen-Chang: Tina is a shy Asian American Goth who is wrestling with a few self esteem issues.

Kurt Hummel: Kurt is a young gay man with a soprano voice.  He recently came out to his dad (who has had a big hunch that Kurt was gay as early as age 3…but Kurt just recently had the big conversation with Dad over the last few weeks.)

Artie Abrams: Artie is paralyzed from the waist down and is living in a wheelchair (the things the directors have done to work his wheelchair into dance routines is sheer brilliance!)  Artie’s handicap does not stop him from letting his electric guitar rip (will blow you away!)

Quinn Fabray: Quinn is a cheerleader, the president of the celibacy club and is against anything that goes against the morals and the Bible.  Finn is her boyfriend, but she is carrying the child of someone other than Finn (but he does not know that the baby was fathered by someone else.)

As we all know, Gen Ys are very open and accepting of a diversity of people (as a matter of fact, life is pretty boring when things are homogeneous.)  So, this cast of characters does indeed represent the millennial generation, makes them feel at home and spices things up.  We have a little bit of everything, and the show has not shied away from topics such as teen pregnancy, homosexuality or prejudices against race or the handicapped.

2. A bit quirky…AND a great deal of irreverence. To the right, we have the folks in charge.  Principal Figgins (who is a bit clueless at times but can bring down the hammer when needed,) Sue Sylvester (cheerleader coach) and Will  Schuester (Glee Club coach.)  If you think the whispers in the ear are romantic intimacies…think again…Sue and Will are constantly plotting on how to get the other one back,  threatening, fighting and being called into the principal’s office for bad behavior.   I sometimes wonder who is more mature…the faculty or the kids.  But isn’t that true in life as well?

The things that come out of Sue Sylvester’s mouth are just downright irreverent, but you find yourself laughing out loud every week (kudos to the writers on this one character!)  At the end of the day, most Gen Ys will tell you that they are attracted to the quirky, offbeat and sometimes irreverent approaches…remember, Gen ys have seen it all, so nothing shocks them!  So, the shock value penetrates the same old, same old that they hear every day.

3.  Pure talent and entertainment. Gen Ys have been exposed to SO much great talent in their lifetime.  They can watch just about anyone perform on You Tube, so they have an ingrained need for constant stimulation, love to be entertained and the entertainment needs to be really great.  The Glee cast is just about the most talented group I have seen in a very long time, and the Gen Ys I am talking with are impressed.  If you go to the Glee wikipedia site, you can read the professional backgrounds of the cast, and it is one impressive group of people.   Here is just one video from the premiere of the show this past spring…their performance of Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey.

So…as I have now stated…if you want to know how to strike a chord with Generation Y, sit down this Wednesday evening and watch Glee:  Fox at 9:00 Eastern/8:00 Central.

Norma Dompier sent along an interesting read yesterday from CNET News:  Generation Y:  We’re just not that into Twitter.

Thanks Norma!