Real Leaders Don't Boss (12 page)

We have all encountered the boss who takes the one-size-fits-all approach. That kind of disconnect and resulting disenfranchisement of employees happens all the time in today's multi-cultural, multi-racial, and multi-age workplace. That is, in part, why worker satisfaction is at an all-time low and why real leadership is so very important today. Rather than wield a cookie cutter, today's leaders must tailor their approach and style to fit the nuances of leading various generations and groups of people without compromising their ideals.

The newest members of the workforce are the Millennials, or so-called Generation Y, who present their own unique challenges. These are people born roughly between 1980 and 2000, and by 2014, they will be 58 million strong. Bosses likely call them the least respectful and most demanding generation yet. Real leaders, on the other hand, recognize that this generation brings tremendous value, skill, and insight to the workplace. Millennials require a different kind of real leadership, one that understands how to corral their energies.

Contrary to bosses' opinions, these “Gen-nexters” are passionate about their work, energetic, and committed, and they're tomorrow's leaders. They will improve American ingenuity, innovation, and competitiveness in an increasingly global marketplace. They're bright, industrious, and driven to succeed; they want to be challenged and given more regular feedback so they can improve. They're technologically savvy, cross-culturally aware, and committed to sustainability and diversity. Millennials are less trusting of corporate titans and politicians. They're also remarkably civic-minded and better equipped to be team-oriented, as a result of changes in our education system that now emphasize team-building and team activities.

The Millennials already boast some great leaders today. Mark Zuckerberg was a computer science student at Harvard
University when he co-founded Facebook in 2004. The company revolutionized social networking. Larry Page and Sergey Brin co-founded Google. Google's head of marketing in the Middle East was Egyptian Wael Ghonim, whose Tweeting about the uprising in Egypt helped act as the catalyst to the revolution that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak. These are the real leaders who dare to have the vision and passion to bring new and radical ideas and approaches to life. Bill Gates and Paul Allen had similar visions and passions when they co-founded Microsoft decades ago.

Millennials gravitate toward organizations that assign them mentors, provide more frequent performance appraisals, give praise for a job well done at the successful conclusion of a project, and offer more flex-time. Non-tradition is the future in the workplace. Employers—big and small—must learn to evolve and embrace a new generation of workers or perish. Forget policies that aren't family-friendly. Penalizing parents for taking time to be with their kids doesn't cut it with this next generation. Neither does the silent treatment in the workplace.

Millennials want to work for companies that have an edge over others. They seek more growth opportunities and speedier advancement than their predecessors did. Thus, organizations that commit the necessary resources to construct their own internal talent engine will more often be selected by this group. It is critically important that businesses motivate the young workforce by closely connecting their jobs—and company success—to career development in a fully integrated way.

Ventura County attorney Michael Bradbury suggests that when it comes to dealing with Millennials, a leader's first step should be to learn all he or she can about them.
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“The Pew Research Center produced a series of reports on the behaviors,
values, and opinions of this group
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and it is ‘must' reading for anyone who supervises or leads people these days,” he says.

Unlike the last two generations, Millennials are less trusting of corporations. This provides a golden opportunity to build loyalty toward a company and perhaps results in keeping employees for longer periods with substantial cost savings, says Bradbury:

Millennials look at loyalty as a two-way street. Leaders today must exhibit a genuine interest in their employees. In a very real sense, they must look at them more as partners than traditional employees. Once a leader understands his people and what motivates them, she or he must adapt the workplace to take maximum advantage of their new way of thinking. This doesn't mean that the business must be run like a collective, but it does mean that they can't proceed in a business-as-usual manner.
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Today's young, bright professionals can bring diverse generational points of view to decision-making in business and industry, especially in relation to change dynamics. Too few companies realize that today, too few bosses listen, and as a result companies flounder in the quickly changing global marketplace. Real leaders must look for and listen to what each different generation brings to the workplace table.

Younger generations are often poles apart from older executives in how they approach problems, how they engage in critical thinking, and how they process challenges. Real leaders recognize the differences as positive—as opposed to confrontational—and, in turn, work those different attitudes and approaches into their business and marketing strategies. Because of this, their companies can gain rapid strategic advantages over their competitors.

New generations may not know a specific business, but they understand their generation, what they want, and how they want it. When teamed with the right older mentors, these younger workers can help create a winning team for the business today and for the future.

The world of design is fraught with firms who, though successful as artists, rarely possess business acumen. However, Corbin Design, an environmental graphic design firm located in Traverse City, Michigan, has been both, and its leadership's willingness to pay attention to changing markets and marketplace dynamics has paid off. In its 35-year history, Corbin Design has successfully worked in residential and restoration architecture, interior design, and marketing communications, and now specialize in “wayfinding,” which is the art of guiding people through complex environments such as medical centers, academic campuses, and cities through signage and other architectural or visual cues. Throughout the firm's trajectory, its leaders have regularly encountered talented designers who grasped participatory roles in the development of the firm, its design process, and client base. Some of that talent succeeded, and some didn't. Corbin Design President Mark VanderKlipp began as a designer, helped build the company to its current status, and, in the process, redefined wayfinding design and put the company miles ahead of its competitors.

As the healthcare industry has transitioned from provider-centered care to patient-centered care, wayfinding has grown in importance in medical facilities. Designers and project managers provide consultative services that focus on the design of healthcare facilities and processes that are more directed toward patients and families. Often, it isn't until wayfinding is discussed as part of a new, proposed building design that it
becomes apparent that the location of various services should be changed to better serve the customer. VanderKlipp espouses the idea that “what we do best should make it easier for the next person to do what they do best.”
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In doing so, they change the culture of these organizations while improving access to care.

Today's Millennials bring different skill sets to the workplace than did previous generations. The reality is that every transformational generation brings its own skill set to the workplace and faces resistance, and when real leaders rise up, change occurs.

What are the positive traits of today's Millennials, and what effect can they have on the workplace? How can you help harness their skills? What can you as a leader do to ensure these younger employees emerge as successful leaders for tomorrow? Why, you may ask, should you bother? The passion, energy, commitment, and creativity that Millennials bring to their work, not to mention their technological savvy, will transform and improve the global marketplace. Leaders who learn how to harness these powerful skills gain an edge on their competition as a result.

Growing global marketplaces, evolving technologies, and changing workspaces are major challenges facing tomorrow's leaders. How can a real leader inspire his or her employees if those employees and staff are spread across the city, the state, the country, or even the world? A geographically dispersed workforce already is a reality for many companies, large and small, that have traded their brick-and-mortar office structures for virtual space. Real leaders, though, learn to cope with these new aspects of diversity and manage their companies to
excel, in part, by capitalizing on the latest technologies and tools available. They have learned that's essential to remaining competitive.

Leading a remote workforce takes more thought and planning from a communications standpoint. But when done right, a leader becomes more conscious of employees' needs. Out of sight, or off-site, does not mean out of mind.

The Internet age has brought with it many advantages for companies and their leaders who embrace change. The advantages range from lower business expenses to increased flexibility and freedom for employees, and, in many instances, greater creativity and productivity from those employees, too.

However, employees spread across miles and oceans away may not feel connected to or a part of a company. That is where real leaders make the difference. It is inherent in the job of a leader with a geographically diverse workforce to make the effort to meet face-to-face with those employees on a regular basis. Video-conferencing, interactive webinars, and other tools are great for interim communications. But even the most up-to-date technological links cannot replace the personal connection that comes with actual face time. Sitting down with the troops—wherever they are—also can provide a clearer picture of what is really happening in the company and the marketplace. As employee interaction becomes increasingly electronic and distant, companies and their leaders may also have to play bigger and stronger roles as social and community leaders in order to motivate, inspire, and drive the corporate culture.

Blaise Simqu travels the globe—from California to London to Singapore—to keep connected with his company's employees. He is CEO of Sage Publications, an international publisher of journals, books, and e-material for academic, educational,
and professional markets. Simqu makes sure the people in his organization—no matter where they are—are heard, involved, and trained to make his company more innovative and to move it forward.

The Hay study cited earlier points to the “flattening” of leadership roles and the increase in team projects—smaller, disparate groups all working toward a primary goal. A positive outgrowth of this team approach is that it may be easier for team members—inherently smaller groups as opposed to an entire workforce—to have actual face time, especially as workforces become more geographically dispersed.

Despite those demands of the changing workplace, the basics for sustained superior performance fundamentally remain the same. Howdy Holmes of Chelsea Milling wasn't afraid to stand up to past traditions and transform his company from a powerhouse of the past into one of the future. He did so by embracing the past in terms of value to customers and employees, the importance of his employees, and the strength of integrity and character he learned, in part, from his father.

Real leadership implies change—that is, change that moves the organization forward in strategic ways to achieve its overarching goals. Not unlike the promise a brand makes to its constituencies, effective leadership forecasts that needed change will occur and that it will improve the organization's fortunes. It is not enough, however, simply to supply a new vision or new order of things. Real leaders also must help others to grasp change, identify with it, and use it creatively, constructively, and passionately. It must be clear enough to be easily understood but ambiguous enough to stand the test of time and adapt to evolving conditions.

Real leaders must embrace the need for change and their changing roles with it. That means:

Risking what has become tradition in order to maintain company strengths.

Developing new policies that balance core traditions with rapidly evolving marketplaces.