Are You Leading a Team or a Platoon?

Younger workers often pull ‘tours of duty’ with employers. Here’s how to engage, motivate, and develop top talent for the long haul.

I was recently watching a video clip in which some Gen Z workers talked about careers. One quote really stood out to me:

???????????We don’t work in companies a long time. We do tours of duty.

The youngest segment of the workforce today operates much like lifetime solopreneurs. They’re intent on gaining what they need from a current job to move on to the next goal. It’s a realistic, sometimes even enviable mindset, but it does present certain challenges for business owners and senior executives:

• How do you fully engage talent while they’re with the organization (even if employees’ eyes sometimes gaze off toward greener pastures)?
• How can you increase the likelihood that your investment in training, development, and progressive experience for your top talent delivers returns to the business (not just a competitor or future employer)?

The rising numeric dominance of Millennials in the workforce and the emergence of the Gen Z ethos means adapting to changing employee expectations about work culture and management styles. The traditional top-down, quasi-militaristic leadership approach only drives the ‘tour of duty’ attitude. Fortunately, much good can come from embracing a new mode for a new era.

It’s Not All Bad News!

For a time, Millennials were getting endless static from Baby Boomer predecessors eager to ridicule their avocado toast and supposedly entitled attitudes. And it would have been easy to follow suit with Gen Z had more reliable research not intervened.

The reality is that the differences between generations aren’t always what we’ve been told. For example:

• Pew Research found Millennials to have slightly longer tenures with companies than Gen X at the same age, although another study found that they will job hop when offered little autonomy.
• Millennials rate cultural fit, values alignment, recognition, and opportunity as high priorities and often say they are willing to give up pay for gains in these areas. Zoomers also look to culture and opportunity, although they show up as more stability-focused in surveys than Millennials.
• Gen Z brings a strong work ethic and appreciates to-the-point and in-person communication, management feedback and mentoring, and human connection.
• There is an increasing interest in health, well-being, and balance among members of both of these generations.

Steering clear of generational oversimplification, it’s fair to say that companies can benefit from a growing pool of workers who are hungry for knowledge and opportunity, open to input and guidance, and interested in contributing to a mission-driven organization, when they find the culture and professional development they are seeking.

Down With ‘Presenteeism’

I’ll come right out and say it—younger workers have really homed in on what’s important. Many have seen through ‘presenteeism,’ that common habit among my generation of showing up early and staying late to demonstrate our dedication. I certainly fell prey to the myth that working longer was always better. In one stretch, I went nine years without taking a single vacation because I thought 70+ hour workweeks were the only path to success.

How wrong I was! Today’s employees are much wiser. They’re more likely to clock off at 40 hours, sometimes less, but they also put in maximum effort while on the job. You know, less time discussing Sopranos around the water cooler or sitting in long meetings like we did.

Look at some more research and you find that their clear designation of ‘work time’ vs. ‘play time’…well, it works. For instance:

• Humans can only focus for about 90 minutes before needing a break. What’s more, experts say we should assume an upper limit of three or four hours per day for high-output, creative, and thoughtful tasks. You can’t get to 70 hours that way.
• A high-profile, four-year study of 2,500 Icelandic government employees found that cutting a 4-hour workweek to 35 or 36 hours resulted in the same or greater productivity. In one department, employees processed 6.5% more invoices when working shorter hours.
• Brits found out that BT Telecom workers were 13% more productive when happier. The happier employees weren’t working more hours, they just worked better.

Prove it to yourself with Google—you’ll find tons of evidence to support the idea of working smarter not harder, one of the central tenets of Vistage.

Becoming the Leaders Our Employees Need

The talent companies want is out there and ready to contribute. Now the onus is on us as leaders to engage this cohort of motivated workers, individuals who take care of themselves so they can bring their best to the job and then go home happy.

Employment is a two-way street and we need to consider what today’s employees want and need so that they identify with the company as more than a quick stop on their career trajectory. That will mean different things in different businesses but here are some ideas:

• Attend to professional development and coaching. Executives must pass on skills, insights, and institutional knowledge to younger workers. Becoming a trusted, collaborative mentor may be a change for some leaders accustomed to a top-down, giving-orders style but it’s worth the effort.
• Communicate expectations, let employees figure out how best to meet them, and judge performance based on results. Employees today want to be given responsibility and prove themselves, so we usually don’t need to clock-watch. Yes, this may be a leap of faith at first but do you really value workers for the time they spend at their stations or for the results they deliver?
• Create ‘a company worth quitting for.’ It’s all about a supportive, welcoming, inclusive culture; a values-based mission; and a leadership style that inspires employees. In other words, what would it take for almost any potential new hire you’d target to eagerly give their two weeks’ notice elsewhere just to work with and learn from you?

Shifting organizational culture to favor outcomes over time spent isn’t just for your team—it’s for you, too. Vistage excels in helping CEOs, key executives, and emerging and advancing managers maximize efficiency and spend most of their time doing those things only they can do. You could say that Vistage-seasoned leaders were trailblazers in balancing work and life and reaping the productivity and innovation advantages of this approach.

No matter where you are on this journey—even if you’re still working crazy hours and flirting with burnout—it’s never too late for a change. Vistage is an organization of lifelong learners. What better lesson than how to live more fully and successfully? A peer advisory group can help you do just that.

Want more info about Vistage groups in the Pittsburgh area? You can contact me here.