In most of our sessions with leaders or HR professionals, someone asks \u2018how can we better engage Gen Ys?\u2019 or \u2018what can we do to make sure our Millennials are more high performing?\u2019 Often our response is that a great approach is to ask versus tell.\u00a0 The goal is to have a dialogue with younger employees about how they can contribute, what motivates them and their ideas for how they can contribute to the team. But we rarely remind Gen Ys that the \u2018ask versus tell\u2019 approach is something they should also adopt. It goes both ways.<\/p>\n
In a session I delivered this week for a large not for profit organization, some of the HR leaders shared stories about how Gen Ys have surprised managers by being direct, by being vocal, or by not asking questions at all.\u00a0 In one case, a manager said their younger employees simply left early when they felt their work was done and didn\u2019t ask if they could do so.\u00a0 A recruiter said younger candidates wouldn\u2019t ask questions about the role during the interview but instead spent time telling her what she wanted from the organization.\u00a0 Yet another manager was surprised when his youngest employee simply stated there were parts of his job he just wasn\u2019t going to do because he didn\u2019t like them.<\/p>\n
In order to achieve two-way dialogue, it\u2019s imperative that both the manager and the young employee feel they can trust one another to be honest. There has to be a willingness to find common ground. However, many times Gen Ys will unwittingly frustrate, anger or annoy their managers by not demonstrating the expected level of respect in the way their manager desires. In order to avoid making missteps, we coach younger employees to understand their manager\u2019s expectations and their organization\u2019s culture to ensure they act in a way that will set them up for success.\u00a0 Asking managers, senior leaders, recruiters and colleagues how to be successful, what is expected of them and how to best contribute is a good career move.<\/p>\n