Grateful To Be Here Or Already Moving On?

I recently read the post "Seven Signs You're Wasting Your Talent" by Liz Ryan and participated in a discussion on Proformative.com about a young new manager feeling uncertain about how to supervise older employees and it got me thinking about some of my own experiences as a first-time manager, how I have seen talent been wasted and diversity in general.

Although a very small sample size I have made some observations about the people I hired during my time in the job. They were all young, equally divided between men and women, all very ambitious and they definitely all had/have potential. However I also found that the women were all grateful to have been given the opportunity, they worked hard and produced/produce great results. The men, on the other hand, I felt like were only thinking about how this job would lead them to the next big thing. They appeared disengaged (some even fell asleep during meetings), not willing to put in the work it would require to deliver results and logically their results were also lackluster. Again I should say it is a very small sample size, but you have to wonder if this is a general trend.

As I wrote in my "If I Were 22" post titled "Stop Thinking About The Future - Focus On Right Now" I too have fallen victim to this trend. I have to actively push myself to deliver results right now in order not to let my future aspirations drag down my current performance.

This is not about whether you should hire men or women, but rather about how you manage their expectations. If you know that young men are already thinking about moving on the first day in their new job, you have to have frank conversations with them about how this professional relationship can become a win-win situation rather than win-lose or in worst case lose-lose if you have to terminate them. On the other hand, you might need to play an active role in the careers of the young women you hire by giving them a push along the way so they can continue to develop and reach their full potential. Otherwise, they might lose out on great opportunities and you will be the only winner.

As managers we have a unique responsibility for our employees whether young or old, men or women to develop them and help them reach their full potential, however, every individual or group comes with certain traits we need to be mindful of when we interact with them. Otherwise, both the people in our teams and the results will suffer and we will have failed one of our most important duties as managers.

I would love to hear your views on this. Do you recognize my observations or is there no trend at all? For more posts about personal branding and networking, you can continue to read below.

7 Steps To Improve Your Personal Brand

Why I Just Removed 10% Of My Network

Personal Branding Is Like Building A Business

How To Master Your Personal Brand

Anders Liu-Lindberg is the Senior Finance Business Partner for Maersk Line North Europe and is working with the transformation of Finance and business on a daily basis. I have participated in several transformation processes amongst others helping Maersk Drilling to go Beyond Budgeting and transformed a finance team from Bean-counters to Business Partners. I would love the chance to collaborate with you on your own transformation processes to help you stay out of disruption. If you are looking for more advice on how to get the most of LinkedIn I also has a few tips to share as well as if you want help in your job search. Don’t be shy! Let’s get in touch and start helping each other.