The Become a Blogging Maniac Course is coming again the first week of April.

To learn more, visit us online at Become A Blogging Maniac.com.

Great blog post and a very funny cartoon on Read, Write, Web from earlier this week.

I have had several leaders complain about their younger employees hanging out on Facebook everyday.  A few thoughts to consider here:

1.  Are they on Facebook, because you have not offered them a challenging task to complete?  Maybe your younger employees are completing tasks much more quickly than your more senior employees and are bored and looking for something to do.  So…hey…I’ll just get on Facebook until I am given something else to do.

2. How can you leverage this opportunity?  As an example, you could actually ask your millennials to use Facebook as a way to connect to potential clients or look for great future employees.

But…this blog says it all.  If you are trying to block Facebook, good luck!

As a parent of a Gen Y young man, and as an advocate for Generation Y, I highly encourage everyone to read this editorial in the Wall Street Journal from this past week:

Society Will Pay a Big Price for All of our “Lost Boys”

“A politically correct society and “helicopter” parents have stripped opportunities for all of life’s potential failures out of the lives of young boys. Only the athletes truly compete, and young boys need competition. They reach college age so fearful of any type of failure that their only answer is to sit in the back of the room and adopt the “cool pose” we are so familiar with from high school.”

This one statement in the editorial is a big wake up call for all parents:

This editorial followed an article by Richard Whitmire “The Lost Boys”

I have said this so much, but if you are a parent, and if you are hovering over your child (aka…if you are a “helicopter parent”,) I highly encourage you to read both the editorial and the article.

I had the honor of speaking recently to the Downtown Little Rock Partnership on the topic of Leading at the Speed of Y:  How to Recruit, Lead and Retain the Millennial Careerist.

I have been meaning to post this article (is a bit late due to my being in the bed with the flu this past week.)  At any rate, this group was just a joy to work with and within one hour, Mark Carter had this article online via ArkansasBusiness.com:

Embrace Millennials:  Expert Tells LR Group

Many thanks to  Sharon Priest, Becky Falkowski and the entire Downtown Little Rock Partnership team for a great visit.  You can read more about how great I was treated here.

Vanessa Van Petten and team have designed a super cool App for the iPhone:  iCurfew.

Check out the app today!

Congratulations to my son Jack Fields (right), who just earned his first top 5 finish in an intercollegiate tournament…the weather was cold, rainy and windy, but all turned out well. Congrats Jack!  54 holes of golf in cold, wind and rain is not fun (I know…I walked it, so I can’t imagine trying to play golf in it!)

Check out Jack in the GolfStat photo gallery.

You can watch a short video of his birdie on Sunday on the 14th hole at The Ridges in Jonesborough, TN:

Every seven years, designer Stefan Sagmeister closes his New York studio for a yearlong sabbatical to rejuvenate and refresh their creative outlook. He explains the often overlooked value of time off and shows the innovative projects inspired by his time in Bali.

Great video with really amazing statistics about the spread of social media. Watch this:

TJ Wihera has a great post from yesterday on Brazen Careerist:  Manage Gen Ys Like You’re Marketing to Them.

I tell leaders every day…if you can get Gen Y to buy from you, then you know how to manage and lead them.  AND…if you are having success retaining Gen Y as employees and attracting them onto your team, turn around and use those same skills in your marketing.

If you look at the work compiled by Mr. Youth and their  Consumer 2.0 report…those same marketing principles can be used to manage and lead Gen Y.   As an example:  Bite Size Communication Dominates…great example.  During training, Gen Ys will be the first to tell you that they don’t really enjoy sitting in a long hours of training with a trainer lecturing from the front of the room.  They enjoy experiences, shadowing and tiny bits and snacks of information.

So, read TJ’s post, check out Mr. Youth and start applying these marketing principles to your management approach with your younger employees.

Jeannette Paladino sent me this announcement about this upcoming webinar.  Sounds interesting.

This eye-opening webinar explains why companies are losing billions in turnover to the Millennial Generation and is costing corporations around the globe unnecessary, preventable turnover costs. It will also provide a proven approach for creating a corporate culture that attracts and keeps Generation Y. Specific topics to be covered include:

• What’s unique about Millennials?
• Why the Millennials cause such a shake-up in workplaces
• The Top Ten Attributes of a Cool Company — what GEN Yers look for (Surprise; it’s not always a big salary)
• Do-able (not daunting) steps any organization can take to zap the gap so different generations on the job are communicating and turning conflicts into cooperation

Dr. Jan Ferri-Reed, President of KEYGroup and co-author of Keeping the Millennials: Why Companies Are Losing Billions In Turnover To This Generation And What To Do About It will facilitate this informative webinar.

Register Here