The Next Generation (X) of Managers, Get Ready!

Michael Muetzel

Opportunity World Magazine

Get ready!  Gen Xers are no longer the aloof, hourly workers at the drive-thru window, but quickly moving into management positions and shaking up traditional management structures everywhere. 

Statistics clearly reflect that Generation X Managers and Employees are changing employers and updating resumes annually searching for a new fulfillment.  Frustrated senior management teams are uttering phrases under their breath about the new generation of workers. 

The perception from many senior managers is that Gen Xers expect or feel entitled to responsible positions, without “paying their dues.” Traditional roles of apprenticeship in many corporations have disappeared while successful companies are riding a new wave of human capital management.  The answers for smaller companies as well as multi-national corporations are not as complicated, or as expensive as you may have thought.

Lack of Trust is not insubordination...

Just lack of Trust

Generation X employees and managers grew up in a much different world than their counterpart “Boomer” managers.  Not better, not worse just different.  If we take a closer look, I think you begin to understand why…

This Generation X, (or employees ranging from their early 20s to late 30s), were the first generation raised to come home from school to an empty household.  They got off the bus, unlocked the door, prepared their own snacks, and started on their chores or homework.  Entering a dark, locked household alone would have scared many of us Boomers to death when we were twelve years old.

Close to 40% of all Generation Xers were touched by divorce and almost as many were uprooted or disrupted due to a family member being laid off due to an LBO or merger.

Their world was different.  Their parents or relatives, seen through the eyes of a child as heroes, were regularly victims of corporate downsizing.  Boomers expected to uproot households for the opportunity to advance their careers, yet the perceptions of their children were not as optimistic. 

Even their sports idols left town annually for something referred to as “free agency.” And when they watched the nightly news they saw politicians and evangelists challenged by nationally renowned reporters who questioned motives and actions as a way of life.  It is no wonder they lack a “trust” in corporate America, and government.

Good News on Gen X

Although they grew up with a jaundice perspective of authority and what you and I might call traditional institutions, there is good news as well.  Gen Xers are extremely independent and multi task oriented.  Congratulations, Boomers raised them to be that way, and we did a good job.

Generation X members are lightening fast learners, technically proficient (2-4 new software titles per year), process information in sound bytes, and may be the most entrepreneurial generation ever.  And they function well in teams; after all they have been placed in teams in school ranging back to early teams in Day Care.  But the teams must have a clear, precise vision and purpose, and above all else truth.

Solutions, Employee Equity 

OK, so they have a lack of trust in corporate management but they do trust their peer group, and are searching for honesty and truth in management.

The successful managers of the future will bring Gen Xers into the process, and give them equity (ownership) in the ideas as well as the implementation.  Employee Equity is the involvement in the development of the process, rather than just the responsibility for the implementation.  

We are not making Gen Xers the new CEO’s, just getting them involved in the process.  Managers are still managers but increased open communication is more imperative than ever before.  Gen Xers will interpret a lack of open communication as more negative traditional rhetoric that further removes them from the truth or the mission of the organization.  This is probably a deviation from your management training.

Vehicles

Where does it say in the traditional management handbook that employees may not participate in the development of programs?  Beginning from the first day these shifts in management paradigms are neither complicated nor expensive.

Rather than traditional orientation programs conducted by the traditional HR Team, successful companies are implementing employee equity.  One example may be to have teams from different departments prepare brief five-minute presentations on their department’s goals, accomplishments and milestones.  The presentations should be honest and presented by different Gen X employees, not senior managers, to Gen X employees. The responsibility for the presentation rotates monthly to get as many people involved as possible. This creates a teambuilding activity for the presentation, and addresses the Gen Xers trust in their peer group.

Employee exchange programs are also successful tools in the retention of Gen X Managers.  Even a half-day working beside a comparable manager in a different department provides a greater honest insight to what is going on in the total organization.  But the benefit occurs when the Gen X employee returns to their own department and gives a formal report back to their departmental peers.  They report on the activities they observed, the common issues, and the common denominators between the two departments.  Now they have “equity” in the communication as well as the responsibility for reporting/training on their observations.  And the cost to the organization is negligible.

Now that you understand the concept of “employee equity,” I would encourage you to take it to the next level.  All of us recognize the critical nature of customer relations for both existing as well as new customers.  In many traditional corporate cultures the policies are written or at the very least enforced my senior level managers who frankly, do not even communicate with many customers on a daily basis.

You might try placing the employees in teams to develop their own unique manual on dealing with customers.  Have each team contribute three case studies, then list potential solutions.  Then bring the teams together to discuss the suggestions.  Have the studies printed and distributed for training tools.  Before you go to the printer, have each participant sign the last page of the new “Customer Relations Manual”, now we have employee equity.  And in most cases a much better training tool.

I can assure you that if you are willing to give your Gen X Managers and Employees true “equity” in the process of growth for your organization you will reap rewards well beyond your expectations.

Michael Muetzel, Consultant/Speaker

President, Mx Marketing, Management Solutions