What’s in it for me? Learn the secrets to succeed as a manager in the new world of work.
The world of work is changing, with new technologies and disruptive start-ups leading to huge shifts in how we do business.
But what about the workers?
Have they changed too?
In these blinks, you’ll discover how attitudes and goals have transformed from one generation of employees to the next.
You’ll learn what millennials want out of their jobs, what the majority of American workers really think about the #MeToo movement, and how the rise of freelance working will affect your business.
Drawing on the latest research from analytics and management consultancy Gallup, these blinks will give you the confidence to recruit the right people and keep your star employees happy.
Packed with insights into the mindset of today’s workers, this is your beginner’s guide to the future of management.
In these blinks, you’ll learn how your company can tackle workplace harassment; what millennials want that baby boomers don’t; and why you need to change your recruitment process.
To get the best from this dynamic generation, you need to make changes to the way you run your workplace.
There’s no doubt that millennials are disrupting the way we work.
These bright sparks, born between 1980 and 1996, are changing how we communicate, travel, shop, and entertain ourselves.
But, in this era of massive change, there’s a problem.
The old styles of management don’t work anymore, and the approaches that suited older generations just don’t cut it.
Millennials want employers who recognize that they don’t simply come to work for a paycheck, they come to work for a purpose.
The key message here is: To get the best from this dynamic generation, you need to make changes to the way you run your workplace.
Younger workers need meaning in their jobs, and want to work for companies that make a positive impact on the world.
Whereas their baby boomer parents found meaning through family and within their communities, millennials and Generation Z find their purpose through work.
So if you want to attract and retain the best people, you need to build a workplace culture around making a difference.
Millennials also aren’t very interested in job satisfaction in the typical sense.
What they really care about is career progression.
They’re not swayed by the foosball tables and luxury coffee machines that many companies now offer as standard.
In fact, they find these perks patronizing.
What millennials want is for you to help them move up the career ladder.
They don’t care whether or not you give them a free lunch.
It may come as a surprise to learn that most millennials don’t really want you to manage them at all, they would much rather that you coach them.
Instead of an old-fashioned boss who controls and commands, younger employees want leaders who understand their strengths, and can help build on them so they get better at their jobs.
And traditional bosses aren’t all that millennials are rejecting.
As it turns out, they don’t want annual performance reviews, either.
Instead, they want much more regular feedback from their managers – which makes sense, given that millennials and Generation Z are used to instant communication through things like texts and tweets.
Just remember to focus on their strengths, not their weaknesses.
Millennials like to know what they’re doing well so that they can do more of it.
Successful organizations define their brand by defining their purpose.
What’s the point of your company?
Or, to put it another way, do you know its purpose, or why it exists?
If you’re a leader in your organization, chances are you know the answer.
But don’t assume that’s the same for everyone.
According to Gallup only just over a quarter of employees understand their firm’s purpose.
This disconnect between leaders and staff is a big problem.
Without a value-based culture that’s shared by everyone, it’s much harder to create a strong brand and deliver great experiences for your customers.
So how can you shift your company culture, and create a brand that will resonate with managers, employees, and customers alike?
The key message here is: Successful organizations define their brand by defining their purpose.
Defining a brand is something that is decided at the top of an organization, by asking how the business should be perceived – not just by customers, but by current and prospective employees too.
When someone applies to join your company, what do you want them to think about it?
Make sure the employee journey matches the impression you want to create – from onboarding to career development, right up to the time they leave.
Once you’ve defined your company brand, take a good look at your policies, and make sure they’re consistent.
Do a thorough audit: from HR to your organization’s various procedures and hierarchies.
You want everything to be an accurate reflection of your culture.
Finally, when changing your organization’s culture, don’t overlook the most valuable tool at your disposal – your managers.
At every level, a company’s managers are the deciding factor in whether cultural changes take root.
That’s because they’re the bridge between the executive leadership team, which creates the culture, and the frontline staff, who implement it on a daily basis.
To pass on these ideas about brand and purpose, encourage your managers to behave more like coaches, and less like traditional bosses.
Through coaching, your managers will inspire your staff so that they start to adopt the new culture in their daily work.
Don’t let subconscious bias become part of your hiring process.
Most leaders understand the importance of bringing talented people into their teams.
When they hire the right person for the job, that person integrates easily, develops skills quickly, and becomes a great brand ambassador for the company.
But while managers may want to bring the best people on board, that doesn't mean they’re always successful.
Like the rest of us, managers are only human and, like the rest of us, that means they can sometimes show certain levels of bias during the recruitment process.
The key message is: Don’t let subconscious bias become part of your hiring process.
The first bias to watch out for is something the authors call the glare factor.
This is when you’re overly influenced by a candidate’s physical appearance, like how she dresses or presents herself.
While surface characteristics can be blinding during the interview process, they don’t often reflect how a candidate will perform on the job.
You can also fall prey to a second bias called the experience fallacy.
This is when you use your past experiences to make faulty predictions about future situations.
For instance, if you recruited your last star employee from a particular company, you may wrongly assume that the next applicant from that company will be just as talented.
A third type of faulty thinking comes in what’s known as confirmation bias.
You form an initial impression of a candidate, and later, even after learning more about him, only remember the things which confirm your first thoughts.
So, if you believe he’s a good fit for the job because of the school he went to, then it's likely you'll continue to think that, even if later information suggests he’s not right for the role after all.
For some managers, a fourth factor comes into play: overconfidence bias.
If you believe you’re especially good at recruiting the right people, you may rely too heavily on your gut instincts, and ignore evidence that you’re picking the wrong person.
Finally, one of the biggest problems in any recruitment process is similarity bias.
This is when you choose to recruit someone simply because you think she’s a bit like you.
This sort of bias often leads to candidates being discriminated against on the basis of their sex, race, or other characteristics.
And, just like the other other biases, ultimately ends up limiting the pool of talented people that can join your company.
In recruitment, there are four key things to keep in mind.
When it comes to hiring the right person for the job, you can’t rely on gut instinct, assumptions, or even your previous experiences to get the best fit.
What you can put your faith in is a tried and tested recruitment process that reveals the abilities, personalities, and work styles of your candidates.
If creating this type of hiring process sounds daunting, don’t worry, there’s good news.
The hard work has been done for you.
Gallup has reviewed over 100 years of recruitment research from the field of business psychology, to find the methods to help you identify the best candidates.
The key message is: In recruitment, there are four key things to keep in mind.
When hiring for a position, the first things to look at are your candidates’ previous achievements and workplace experiences.
Find out as much as you can about their education and background and how they match up to the demands of the job.
The second thing you should do is evaluate your potential new recruits in relation to five distinct traits: motivation, workstyle, initiation, collaboration, and thought process.
Consider whether they are driven to achieve, whether they are organized and efficient in everything they do, and whether they are self-starters who can inspire others to take action.
Lastly, ask if they can take on new information quickly and use it to solve problems.
Now you’ve evaluated your candidates’ traits, the third thing to do is to hold multiple interviews for each one.
This is because, if you only use one interview and one interviewer, then you’re more at risk of bias.
When you hold several, each interviewer comes up with an evaluation of the candidates.
When these evaluations are combined, bias is reduced.
You end up with a much clearer picture that will help you decide if someone is right for your company.
The fourth, and last, thing to remember is that there’s more to successful hiring than reviewing CVs and holding interviews.
Often, you won’t know who the right person is until you’ve actually watched them at work.
To bring on-the-the job observations into your recruitment mix, the authors suggest using internships or projects as an alternative entry point to your firm.
Gathering feedback from supervisors and coworkers throughout the placement will soon tell you whether or not a candidate is a good long-term fit.
You can improve your communication by learning how to have the right conversations at the right time.
You’ve probably heard that the secret to a great relationship is good communication.
But when it comes to the relationship between managers and their juniors, communication can be sorely lacking.
Gallup’s research shows that only around a third of employees believe their bosses know what projects they’re working on, and nearly half report that their bosses give them feedback just a handful of times each year.
This is a problem because studies show that when employees receive regular feedback and coaching, their job performance improves.
It’s all down to what the authors call, ‘coaching conversations.
’ The key message here is: You can improve your communication by learning how to have the right conversations at the right time.
The first conversation you should have comes under the category, role orientation.
This is an initial chat for when a subordinate has just stepped into a new role, and which can help you to get a feel for his personality, strengths, and goals.
During this talk, set some specific expectations around performance, and explain what success looks like in this job.
The second conversation you should be having on a regular basis is one that the authors call the quick connect.
This is a short conversation – lasting between one and ten minutes – that you and the employee can have over email, on the phone, or even in the hallway.
A quick connect lets you touch base, casually discuss any issues, and offer praise and recognition for tasks well done.
It also reduces the risk that your employees will feel ignored – which is important because research shows that employees hate to be ignored and would rather have a negative conversation with a superior than none at all.
Aim to have a quick connect with each of your team members at least once a week.
The last tool in your communication arsenal is a type of conversation known as developmental coaching, and it’s invaluable.
A developmental coaching chat can take as little as 30 minutes, but can change the course of someone’s entire career.
This is because it gives you, as a manager, the chance to offer direction, advice, and support.
Use it to help your team members identify development or training opportunities to help them meet their wider career goals.
In the wake of the international campaign against sexual harassment and abuse, known as the #MeToo movement, it’s easy to assume that the world of work has changed for good.
You can’t accept any harassment in the workplace. No ifs, no buts, and no excuses.
But, for many women, the march toward equality in the workplace is far from over.
According to Gallup’s research, more than 40 percent of American women have experienced sexual harassment at work, and almost 70 percent of all Americans believe that sexual harassment is still a major problem in the office.
As a leader and a manager, the only way to do the right thing when it comes to reducing these disturbing statistics is to take a zero-tolerance approach.
The key message is: You can’t accept any harassment in the workplace.
No ifs, no buts, and no excuses.
The phrase “boys will be boys” shouldn’t be a part of any manager’s vocabulary.
There’s no place for harassment at work, whether in formal, or informal, settings.
Consider a scenario where a male manager is joking around with other male employees and one of them makes a misogynistic comment.
If that happens, the manager must speak up and tell the employee to stop, not laugh awkwardly or wait for the conversation to move on.
Although it might not seem like it in the moment, it's in times like this that a company’s culture is created.
If you’re going to stamp out any possibility of abuse, you also need to build certain procedures into your organization.
For instance, your business will need a reporting system so that staff can alert the management team, in confidence, to any issues they might have.
Once you’ve got a system in place, you also need a policy on how to handle these reports.
Think about the kind of cases that might be unintentional – and might provide opportunities to teach staff how to do better – versus the kind of harassment that would mean instant dismissal.
Whatever your sexual harassment policies and procedures are, perhaps the most important thing is that you have some.
The very worst thing your company can do is nothing.
As workers in the entertainment industry learned, looking the other way while offenders hide in plain sight can be disastrous.
When abuse comes to light and it’s discovered that almost everyone knew about it, everyone ends up shamed for their involvement in a toxic work culture.
A new army of gig workers is disrupting the traditional employment model.
In the wake of the Great Recession of 2008, a new type of economy has emerged, and ruffled a few feathers in the process.
Some observers hail this new economy as flexible and worker-friendly; others call it exploitative.
One thing’s for sure, the so-called gig economy is controversial.
The gig economy is made up of independent workers who aren’t in a typical contract with their employers.
This economy is also broad, encompassing everyone from contract nurses to substitute teachers, and Uber drivers to freelance graphic designers.
It’s big too – it’s made up of more than a third of working Americans.
The key message is: A new army of gig workers is disrupting the traditional employment model.
It used to be the case that employees were loyal to just one organization, sometimes for their whole lives.
In return, businesses had a responsibility to look after them, and awarded substantial pensions when staff retired.
Today, employees often work for more than one company, finding their next job – or gig – through online platforms, or temporary contracting agencies.
It’s clear that the gig economy is here to stay, but the question remains: is this style of work good for workers?
It turns out that, yes, most are happy with it.
A study by the McKinsey Global Institute found that 70 percent of gig workers prefer it, with only 30 percent saying they have no choice.
There are drawbacks though.
Gig workers report getting far less coaching and support than their peers in traditional employment.
They’re also less likely to be paid on time, or accurately, for their labor.
Still, gig workers are much more likely to say that their work fits in with their lifestyle.
How gig workers feel may depend on the type of work that they're doing.
While freelancers and those on online platforms report quite high levels of engagement and good social relationships, the opposite is true for those in the temporary, or on-call, workforce.
There’s a lot we don’t know about the effects of the gig economy on employees and businesses alike.
But, whatever the pros and cons, what is clear is that managers need to find a way to adjust, in order to help their companies thrive in this new world of employment relationships.
Final summary
The key message in these blinks: Managers wanting to future proof their companies need to offer their staff meaning and purpose at work, as well as a paycheck.
Today’s leaders must also rid their workplaces of sexual harassment, and remove bias from the hiring process.
And with the rise of freelance working, it’s time for managers to harness the benefits of the gig economy, without sacrificing employee well-being along the way.
Actionable advice: Start building great relationships now.
In the next ten years, nearly half of all US jobs are expected to be at risk of being automated.
Any human jobs left are likely to be those that need genuine interaction and social skills.
In other words, when robots are doing everything else, your customers will expect your face-to-face contact to be exemplary.
So start developing your employees’ abilities to build great relationships now, and help them get ahead of the curve.
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