Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Mitch Simon 0:10
Welcome to another episode of team anywhere where CEOs, leaders and experts are building teams, companies, organizations, and amazing cultures
Ginny Bianco-Mathis 0:22
share how to lead from anywhere in the world. I’m your co host on the East Coast chicken Bianca Mathis,
Mitch Simon 0:28
and I’m your co host on the West Coast, Mitch Simon. And we invite you to join us to Team anywhere.
Do you wonder whether you are really connecting with and supporting millennials in your company? In today’s episode, we interview Warren Wright, one of the nation’s leading experts on researching generations, Warren shares how coaching and feedback have become crucial for your success as a manager and a team member in today’s virtual and hybrid world. Hello, and welcome to another episode of team anywhere we have Ginny Mathis on the east coast and i Mitch Simon on the west coast. And today we’re excited to have Warren write one of the nation’s leading experts on researching generations. He is founder and CEO at second wave learning and author of the book, second wave millennials tapping the potential of America’s youth. Welcome, Warren. And let’s get started with our first question. How did you survive last year?
Warren Wright 1:31
Yeah, it’s been a it’s been a year, hasn’t it? You know, it’s been almost a year. And if someone told me exactly a year ago, that my entire company would be doing business on a video conferencing platform called zoom, I never would have believed them. And I had no expectation that that was one of the things I think that I learned is that zoom is my best friend. You know, I just, you know, we within within about six weeks, our entire company just transformed into this platform. And now we’re doing workshops, training, consulting, all virtually 100%. And it’s really been fascinating. I mean, I guess one of the things I’ve learned about I think I’ve learned about this this past year is that the Coronavirus has put a huge magnifying glass and all the issues and problems that organizations have. And so you know, I’m I’m in the generations business. So I’m in the business of helping folks understand how generations could communicate better. And that issue has actually gotten worse. Since since this whole, since kind of this whole thing happened for a number of different reasons that I could get into so but but now, you know, I’m getting along, I’m surviving. I don’t I don’t leave that, you know, like where I’m sitting right now. And you just never leave. I’m just here all the time. And I’ll get my car, I don’t do anything. Well, you gotta realize me, the kids are out of the house. Right. So like they’re grown. You know, I’m of the generation that has grown kids. And so my generation, for the most part is kind of has a little more space and room than some of the younger folks that are Yeah,
Ginny Bianco-Mathis 3:24
for sure. For sure. Well, you brought up obviously generations, and share with us why thinking in terms of generations is of great value to an organization. We’ve certainly heard about, you know, millennials and Gen X and Gen, Y and Z. Why do we need to pay attention to this?
Warren Wright 3:48
Yeah, why generations? Well, that’s kind of why I wrote my book was to really answer that question. And to dig into that topic. It when I, a couple years ago, I partnered with a guy named Neil Howe and Neil Howe and Bill Strauss would have wrote a book called generations in 1991. And that’s where they came up with the name millennials. So Neil and I had started a business together several years ago now I guess, and and he was in the generations business. And of course, my backgrounds at the Gallup organization. I was managing partner and of that consulting firm, and we did polling and research and consulting and so forth. And I said, Neil, what you know, you’re the You are the generations guy, you wrote the book on generations, why don’t we actually find out why generations are important. So we did a series of I put my Gallup hat on, and we did a series of surveys. One of the questions really, that that we asked the answers to it really astounded us. The question was in the workplace does generational differences get in the way of creating better relationships and productivity and so forth. And 75% of the folks says yes, generations, generational differences do matter, and do get in the way of being productive in the workplace. Then another question we asked was, when you describe how you see the world and how you view things, you know, what is it about you that actually makes the person that you are, and we put race and we put, you know, what part of the country we’re from and what you know, all generations actually came up first. So people are defining themselves by their generation. So, so if you’re, if you’re the CEO of a company, and there’s something out there that is affecting, broadly speaking, three out of every four people working in your organization, then that’s something you should pay attention to. And so, so we really zeroed in on creating discovery around what you know, like, Okay, well, let’s get into this thing and figure out what’s what’s going on. So that that’s kind of the journey that we, that we took, and it’s and it’s fascinating to this day, people just don’t they just don’t understand that topic of generations and why it’s important, what the differences are, and so forth. But we know that it is because research is showing that.
Ginny Bianco-Mathis 6:20
Yeah, or they don’t want to
Warren Wright 6:25
want to do anything. Yeah, I mean, he is like I learn something new.
Ginny Bianco-Mathis 6:33
So that brings us to the next level of this with leaders and managers now having a another layer put on to this, which is remote, and zoom. How does that start? all coming together or not?
Warren Wright 6:52
Yeah, and as I suggest, mostly not actually, you know. So again, our business is to improve generational Communications at work, and we’re finding that miscommunication between generations is has actually accelerated in the work from home environment. So why why is that happening? Well, to answer that question, we have to really understand the nature of work from home dynamics and where each generation is in their stage of life. So for example, I don’t know I don’t know what generation you guys are. But like, if you’re an older ex, or like me or a boomer, chances are that you were in a stage of life where, you know, maybe the kids are out of the house, maybe you got a little more room, you know, you might have bought a house, you know, 20 years ago that loyals can’t afford to buy houses now. So things you know, things are, and research shows this that the boomers are doing okay. And overages are doing okay. younger actors who have kids between the ages of like, you know, two years old and eight, nine years old, are really having trouble and really struggling right now. And they actually research is showing that they want to come back to work faster than anyone else, like get me out of the house, right? For millennials and Gen Z, it’s different. And this is the generation that actually has the most difficulties in communicating with other generations since the pandemic. And you would think that wouldn’t be the case. Because it’s like, well, no, Millennials are tech. They’re tech savvy, like well, why wouldn’t they? You know, but actually actually saw a piece of research. 50% of millennials say they’re having difficulty communicating with colleagues of other generations that compares to 30% for boomers and Xers. So let’s think about the millennials world. I’m just thinking about my son, right? Maybe maybe you’re a millennial, and you live in an apartment, and you might have a roommate. And he might not be an optimal situation from working from home, there’s a lot of distractions, you know, maybe you don’t live in such a nice place, then maybe there’s like sirens going off all the time, then maybe, you know, I mean, think about a millennial think about someone under 30. And their situation, it’s just gonna be really, really different. And so I think there’s a broad not non recognition among managers and leaders that this is going on that people’s lives are really different in working from home, and it really impacts and affects, you know, their their levels of productivity. I would say, Okay, so that’s, that’s what each generation is kind of going through, right. In terms of intergenerational communication. The number one reason, actually that millennials are so dissatisfied, is the same reason they were dissatisfied before the pandemic. And that is that they don’t feel like they’re getting enough feedback. Yes. Okay. So it’s kind of the same old story except the gen the Gen Xers and and the boomers are even less equipped to provide feedback because they’re not as familiar with this new environment. And so that just goes down, down, down, down, down. And what you’re having is is a good deal. And I’m not suggesting like every millennials, like miserable out there, but, but but the trends do show that this is a generation that’s having more difficulty with this transition and into a work from home environment. Warren,
Ginny Bianco-Mathis 10:26
what would you recommend lead on? So you might be asking the same question.
Mitch Simon 10:30
Yeah, no, I that’s basically it. You know, it’s, the issue is, as you’re pointing out, Lauren, before the pandemic, it was bad, right. But at least Warren, if you worked for me, I would see you in the office every day. And I would give you, I would give you Okay, or crummy feedback. But now, Warren, I don’t even see you anymore. So why would you expect for me to give you any feedback? I don’t know what you’re doing. So why not?
Warren Wright 10:57
Yeah, you know, honestly, we’re really understanding the value of MBO management by walking around or MBA management by walking around. There actually was a great value in that, believe it or not, and so, you know, you literally you’re physically around people, and just just a quick nod and a smile and a pat on the back. And acknowledgement, when when young people are starting to work, they look for cues, they look for clues of how they’re doing. This is a generation that you got to realize this is a snap chat generation that is so used to feedback so fast, right? They send a shout out, they get something back immediately, right? I am it’s not even you’re not even texting anymore. You’re ironing, right? And so, so here they are, they’re alone in their house, they’re given a project. I mean, you know, their manner thinks, oh, they’re probably doing fine, you know? Well, they’re not. And, and so it’s important to actually do to increase your level. And one of the things we that we talked about in our book in my book is sent this really simple, just the frequency at which you provide feedback doesn’t even matter, that feedback doesn’t even matter. I mean, yes, it has to be good feedback. But like, make sure you’re like touching base with them on a frequent basis, because their timeframe is very different from your timeframe. They think about time in a really different way. They’re, they’re like feedback, feedback, feedback. The other thing is when they were in school, which is really kind of different from our experience, you know, we were kind of like, you know, why we were like, you know, wild children, right? This is a very, by the time millennials came around, there was a lot of attention on the child, okay, there was a lot of focus, and there was a lot of like, these, these special things will be, you know, they will achieve, and there was huge kind of social change that happened in the 90s that actually, everybody, you know, policies and and the way kids were raised, and schools treated kids differently than they used to be, right, we were free range children, we were used to whatever, right, whatever it was, the thing that I use a lot being an ex are, Millennials aren’t that way they were there, they grew up and were raised with an understanding that they were that they were special, that that, you know, they meant something that they were there to do a purpose, and that they’re ready for feedback, please give me feedback and ongoing basis, and then they get the work after college, and their boss has just no idea. They just have no clue that that is a dynamic that actually exists within that generation. So we would say, yeah, feedback, Yes, you do. But you do need to yes, you do need to niche, you know, you. So you have to, so you need to do is you need to rethink your job as a manager. If you know you need to do feedback, and you’re not you can’t do it by managing walking around. How do you do it? Well, you know, what are the ways you do it? So there’s a lot of good tools out there that that actually help with that. So and by the way, this is not like the tools that are out there are not like the answer, you still have to actually do the things that you need to do to be a leader. And by the way, I think millennials have a little bit higher standards and expectations of you, as a boss than other generations have, you know, Xers i didn’t i didn’t i didn’t really think much of my bosses and that was okay.
Mitch Simon 14:31
Was it much there?
Warren Wright 14:33
Yeah, I had two jobs. One was like to do my job the other was just like to satisfy my boss and I never like they never like there’s like a Venn never Venn diagram on that. Yeah, with millennials there, they look at the three figures as like your, you know, their first three fingers, their parents and they got along with them actually very well as opposed to our generation. And so there’s an expectation that there’s a kind of a kind of a co creation going on in the things that are That we were used to just going off on our own just doing our own thing. But I would say I’d say the things that the young people are looking for technology wise, I got I got, if you’re ready, I got five things, I got five things if you’re ready. So the first one is, is is slack. And and that is, now that’s going to be, you know, your companies get to decide on an enterprise scale, if they want to use slack or not. And a lot of folks don’t use slack because they say it’s not secure. So government agencies won’t use them and so forth. But it is a very, very simple way to organize topics by groups to carry on chat conversations to, it’s kind of like, it’s kind of like project management, software meets Facebook, or Snapchat, you know, to actually throw new emojis back and forth and stuff like that. So if your company can’t do Slack, you know, even Microsoft Teams, has a lot of those capabilities. And actually, I found a lot of young people are really happy with Microsoft Teams. Again, that would be more on the on the enterprise wide companies to decide if they want to use that. The other up and coming one is called flock, FL o ck. And that is the very good on Team chat software. So if you’re on a small team, and you just want that team to be chatting back and forth, you don’t want to get into all the other stuff that that that does that. Keep in mind, it’s you know, for young people, millennials and Gen Z, like, communication is more about it’s Yes, it’s about in person, and it’s about, you know, seeing you on the video, but it’s also about chat, they’re okay with chat, like chats, okay, like, Well, you know, if you could do that, and you could do it frequently, that’s a good thing. The fourth one is called Trello, tr, e LL. O. And that’s kind of a list making software. So it’s really, like, if you have like, like, here are the three priorities I need to do today, you know, and you post it up. And so your boss could see it, and then your boss could comment on it, and so forth. That’s a collaborative lot of these are collaborative software’s which really fit with the younger generation. And the last one is an easy one, just Google Docs, like if all else fails,
Unknown Speaker 17:09
yeah, this is cool. Because
Warren Wright 17:12
Because you can share documents, and you can send notes, and you can kind of, you know, you can kind of do all that stuff. So so those are the some of the things I think that that that that folks find to be helpful. I think the challenge, though, is a lot of the older generations really have a hard time. You know, like, literally, like, how much time Can I spend on flock, you know, my wife uses. She uses slack. And she uses it now. Her millennial employees have been using it for months. And she’s finally getting around. But all the conversation is happening on slack. It’s not happening on email, nothing is happening on email these days with Gen Z. Right? It’s it’s all just on on this collaborative software. So if you’re a company and you’re not actually, you know, looking at collaborative software, then you really need to start doing it because most of your employees are using it. Whether you’re endorsing it or not, you know, there’s a lot of free versions of these things that are kind of floating out there. So
Ginny Bianco-Mathis 18:18
and then and then just like your wife, they have to learn it, and they have to learn it well.
Warren Wright 18:24
And oh, yeah, you have to be a master of it. You know, and that takes while it takes a time it takes a while.
Ginny Bianco-Mathis 18:29
Yeah, it really does. Now
Mitch Simon 18:34
because we you know, we spend a lot of time on the intergenerational between, let’s say, the boomers and Gen X with the millennials. Are you seeing any issues among millennials? I do coach a lot of companies where management and employees, they’re all millennial Are you seeing out, you know, outside of the huge issue, which is, yeah, they’re, you know, living on top of their roommates, you know, with sirens going on, in terms of in terms of working together, as millennials? Are you seeing any issues there?
Warren Wright 19:08
Yeah, it’s so interesting. I do work with some Silicon Valley companies that fit into that category. There’s literally every single person that works that company and there’s 80 people are between the ages of 21 and 34. Right, including the CEO is 29. Yeah, yeah. But I have a funny story I was talking to I was I was actually talking to a senior a senior person in the organization who’s 28 years old. And he was describing the issues he was having with what he called his kid, the kids in the organization, the 22 year old 22 year old, yes. These kids, you know. So there’s a couple things. One thing to realize is, you know, generations really is a thing, even within generations and so there tends to be a And this is very universal. All the research suggests this older generations look negatively. On younger generations, they never live up to expectations, even if there’s an eight year period, between, right even if it’s kind of the same generation, but you got some older ones and some younger ones, right? You’re always going to be like, well, these younger people don’t feel that way. It’s really interesting that you would think that all generations don’t like each other. I actually, actually younger generations do look kind of look up to older generations, older generations don’t think much of the younger generations, to a large extent, generations is a sociological construct. That is that that’s kind of broad in nature, right? So. So you may feel like, you behave like a millennial, even though you’re 22. And you’re a Gen Z, right? So there’s kind of a lot of that going on. But I think in environments, where there’s where there are millennials, I do find that there is a certain kind of quarter spree and a efficiency to having common generation all working on one thing. You know, this company is just, I mean, they just they get stuff done in wet in ways that I’ve never seen things get done before, because they’re introducing new technology, that older generations just wouldn’t be able to figure out. And it is a Silicon Valley company, but still. Yeah, there’s still there’s still actually advantages, I think, in many ways to having like generations work to go learn.
Ginny Bianco-Mathis 21:27
I’d like to thank you for the five different technical tools. What do you advise, then leaders and managers use and do? interpersonally? Especially, like here on a zoom? All right, I have people all over the country or the world. What are things that I need to be doing? I mean, they want more feedback. Okay, so what do I do?
Warren Wright 22:02
Yeah. So I’m glad you asked that, because i think i think i think it’s important to, and this, this could be kind of tough love, kind of advice for some leaders out there. But you need to rethink the way you lead. And the way you need to rethink about it is the way that the CEO Microsoft is doing it. Such an Adela, Satya Nadella came to Microsoft, I don’t know, six, seven years ago, whenever they were doing okay. I don’t know if you’ve seen the market valuation of Microsoft. But it’s it’s like a zillion dollars. This, this, this CEO has taken this company into an entirely different place. And you know what his little secret is that they wrote up in Harvard Business Review. He’s actually taken off his boss hat and put on a coach hat. He is chief coach of the organization. So so I know some people are like, crawling in their skin like I have to be a coach to these young people, my lord. The reality is, is that having a coaching mindset, with this younger generation, and actually all generations to tell you the truth, because that’s one little secret about millennials is that everything you should be doing for them, you should be doing it for everyone else to Millennials are just holding you to a higher standard, because they’re raised to a higher standard to the great achieving generation. Right. So what does a coach do? So what so how do you, you know, what does that mean? What does a coach do? Well, if you think about, you know, back in the day I have, so I, so my first job, I’ll just give you an example. So my first job was graduated from college, I worked at a radio station. And it was selling advertising time. And I’ve never done that in my life. I didn’t know anything about it. I just graduated for four years liberal arts school, and I just got this job, right. So my boss on the first on the second day, because the first day no one paid any attention. No one even knew I was there. Right? On the second day, my boss cut, I come to my boss, and I say, it’s like training, like, can we? Is there anything we could? Like, I just don’t really understand what I need to do. And he looks at me like exasperated, and he hands me Yellow Pages. And it goes, this is what you do. These are yellow pages. Start with z and go to a because everybody else is starting with a and going to Z. And you need to call every single person in this yellow page and get an appointment with them. And they need to go in and you need to sell my advertising time. That’s your job. That’s what you do. I’m like, Okay, that was it. That was my training. That was 100% all I got through, right. So if you gave a phone book like that, a yellow pages to a millennial today. Gen Z may be like, I don’t understand. What do you mean? I don’t get it. Like, right. Now, I’m not saying that to degrade and I don’t want to. I think it’s important not to get into the whole, like, Oh, they need so much hand holding and all that. I mean, everybody I mean, the reality is I could have used better training back then. Right? My manager was not a good manager, right? And so and so when you’re in the coaching mindset, you are into the understanding that you understand, like, how does Warren think? What does he need in order to perform his job? Let me design something for him and what Sutton Nadella does, he does management by walking around and I think he walks down virtually, you know, virtually in his team thing. But he asks questions. What are you working on? You know, tell me what excites you about working on it, and what’s getting your way, by the way, and a coach, actually, their job is to remove obstacles for you. So you could do your performance better. So what’s getting in your way of getting your agenda done? So I have I have so so my little trick that I tell people that’s really easy to remember, if you want to be a great coaching manager, do this. Get a meeting set up once a week for 10 minutes? That’s it? 10 minutes, right? And there’s three questions in that meeting. First question is what you do last week, tell me about your week, would you accomplish what you do how to go bla bla bla bla bla bla? Second question is, what do you got planned for this week? What’s on your agenda? Third question is, how can I help you?
That’s it. Right. Now, obviously, there it’s and maybe more than 10 minutes? And that’s totally okay. Right. But they’re going to be they’re going to be thinking about well, how do I need your help? Well, I, you know, I need to get to the next level, like, I don’t know how to guide, you know, and there’s, by the way, there’s a guy I’m working with, I’m having trouble doing, you know, but unless you establish a dialogue and openness, I mean, it gets one of the things about millennials is they would rather co create, I was used to just having someone tell me what to do. And I did it right. That was our generation. Over, that is over, you have to co create, if you’re a leader, you have to co create with your people. And that’s part of what being a coach is. And you know, I don’t care if it’s in person or online, you could do it both ways. I mean, you don’t need, you know, you don’t have to be there in person to do that. The only reason that it works when you’re there in person to do that is they see you and it reminds them that they have an employee whose name is Shawn. Like, oh, yeah, that shot? Oh, yeah, I haven’t talked to him in a while. Let me go see, Shawn, right. So I think that’s another thing to think about is that you got to be more deliberate and more organized as a manager. So you have to, you know, if you have 810 people reporting to you, and you’re not around them every day, you got to have a system set up, where it could be a person a day, like your dates, Friday, we’re touching base or whatever, yes, your day is Monday. But make sure there’s a system set up so that you could actually get around to spending time with them at quality time with them asking questions and doing the things that they need to do.
Mitch Simon 28:16
When it’s worn out about co create. This is a great,
Ginny Bianco-Mathis 28:20
I know, I’ve got so many points.
Mitch Simon 28:22
One of the things I love. So Warren, I had heard what Millennials are is the canary in the coal mine for leadership, that that everything that that millennials have been saying has been just like, Look, we need to make a change. And so for that, you know, we thank them wanted to ask you, I’m on the cocreation in so I’m a Gen X. And we will learn to do things on our own. And, you know, and just to suffer through it. Yes, we did with millennials. They It seems to me that they naturally want to co create, they naturally they you know, when they went to school, it was a lot more group work. And I’m wondering, do you have any tips on how to support millennials or words to millennials to to keep those connections or to make those connections? Because for most of the millennials, as we know, from the from the research, many of these Millennials are on their own. Whereas for those of us who are older, were married or have kids at home. And what happens is, you know, they’re being by themselves, they’re, you know, stuck doing their own jobs. And yet, there there are some that are actually finding ways to make sure that their projects, you know, connect with other people. I’m just wondering what, what recommendations you would have for millennials on asking for help or looking for ways to co create, I think on one of our radio shows, I think it was Susie jabs, who basically said, what we’re doing now is we’re giving jobs to to people and we’re not getting to one person anymore.
Warren Wright 30:01
Yeah, yeah. Well, it’s interesting. You mentioned that it is a client I’ve worked with a couple years ago in Chicago that they hire young people in batches. They actually write I write about this my book. So they will not make a hire until they have like, five openings. And what they do is they hire a cohort, that hire a team of young people. And it is amazing how they’re thriving, knowing that they have somebody that they could collaborate with. And this is particularly, you know, problematic, right? With work from home environment, because you’re right, man, if they don’t have someone around them. And this is a very, I mean, I will I’ll give you an example of so one, one kind of cartoon icon to think about from millennials, if you think about this icon, you could think about kind of how millennials think Barney the Dinosaur, I don’t know if you’re familiar with that. My kids grew up with that. Barney told a message to work together to collaborate, right, we had Oscar the Grouch and a garbage can, that’s almost you know, we got to survive, right. So there is there is an expectation that there is a that we could do this together, that there is a community, and we will co create. So that’s their orientation, right? That’s our North Star. And, and it is challenging, you know, it’s, it’s super challenging when they’re when they’re at home alone. And that’s what I am another company I work with, it’s, it’s actually all millennials, it’s a super small company, then, this is incredible. They actually keep their zoom on all day, all of them all day. So even if they’re not talking with each other, just to be together. So there, but there are ways and and these these tools that I mentioned, you know, the Trello and slack and these things, I mean, there there are those connection opportunities and those kind of chat opportunities. But it does help to kind of institutionalize, and recognize and institutionalize this notion that millennials do need to connect. And so whether it’s from a hiring standpoint, a recruiting standpoint, a hiring standpoint, a managing standpoint, team project standpoint, I always used to just going out and getting what I needed and bringing it back. And you know, I just work with people when I had to, but that was fine. That’s just not going to be as productive. I think, I think for millennials, you know, the other thing is to think about is, and this is particularly case with Gen Z actually 25 and under the amount of anxiety that is present in this younger generation is, is off the charts, I think something like clinically 46% are experiencing extreme anxiety. 46% Mm hmm. Part of that. So there’s a number of things contributed that number one is kind of the existential dread of bad leadership, climate change, you know, this, that they all and you talk to them, I’ve done focus groups, it’s, they all feel like they’re weighted down this stuff, gun control, you know, all that stuff. But the other stuff that is just is now There, now, they’re home alone. And they’re, they’re, they’re, they’re used to being around people. And you know, you know, when you’re young, you want to be around people, I mean, now they’re dying to get out and bars and see each other, you know, and so and that, that work could be the solution for that. But any way you could actually do events, or contests or games or fun stuff. This one millennial come to work in Silicon Valley, they just do all these weird games all the time. I’m like what, you know, and they get on the, you know, they literally do the video games, you know, they have tournaments, they do tournaments, video games, Mitch, but wait, but I want to put but one thing is really important to say that this as you’re talking about, like the millennials feel isolated, if you really want to know what they want, and what they need, you know, what you do? You ask them conversation,
Ginny Bianco-Mathis 34:15
and you create a structures for those conversations. Which brings me to my question, is there so technically savvy, excuse me. And when you sit with them, you discover what they probably, and they can’t even verbalize it because that’s part of the problem. They do have certain problems with verbally communicating. Right? And because I don’t have to, you’ve seen the Simon Sinek kind of talking about it. They don’t have to break up with you. They just hit you know, they just hit it on their phone and you’re gone. Right? Yeah. So learning How to have those conversations, which now are even more important, because I’m from afar, I’m on a zoom. That’s where I find some of the workshops and the consulting need to happen is, is are you? Do you spend time with that in your workshops with leaders?
Warren Wright 35:24
Yeah, I mean, verbal communication is a big issue, particularly with the young with Gen Z, and not as much now with millennials, I’ve found and my clients have found that they talk a lot, when you engage them in conversation that is kind of interesting and useful, and actually has a purpose. This is a generation that is really into purpose, oh, my God, I mean, and that it got that from the boomers a little bit, right, it kind of carried over. But they want to know that what you’re talking about is meaningful and real and authentic and makes a difference, and they want to know that you actually care about them as individuals, and then the floodgates open. I mean, you actually get you get, like, I’ve noticed that like, with my kids, I have two boys and they’re very nonverbal. You know, but when I’m talking about something that’s that, that that they’re passionate about. They just like just wants to go on and on. So it’s kind of psychology of the generation in a way, you know, kind of understanding that I think,
Ginny Bianco-Mathis 36:28
yes. And asking powerful questions. Because then yeah, I love those powerful questions. Thank you. stupid question. Yeah.
Warren Wright 36:38
And and again, but it’s not like it’s you still need if you’re an old degenerate, you still need to know how to chat? And if you really do need to know how to do that, because you got to meet them where they are, right? That’s a whole whole theory, like meeting and where they are. Well, marketers do that, right. That’s why like, snapchats done so well. It’s because they’re like doing everything on it, because that’s where they are. Right. Right. So so you do want to kind of meet them where they are on their own platforms.
Ginny Bianco-Mathis 37:03
This is fascinating. You, let’s look towards what recommendations do you have for leaders? As we go into this next year, as we’re looking at the environment, and generations, what are your tips?
Warren Wright 37:24
I think it’s important for leaders. And if they haven’t recognized us by now that I think they’re in trouble that we’re we’re in a time of profound change. And when you are at a time of profound change, you need to change with that, with that. So the things you were doing in the past are not going to work in the future. And the things that are going to work in the future, you could get a clue for what those things are by looking at the values of the younger generation, and what’s important to them. Give you a perfect example. And there’s a there’s a book. So you can’t see me getting up and looking for this book. But it’s called. It’s actually called, it’s the manager and this is it’s done with my former boss, Jim clip Clifton, the CEO of Gallup. And in it, he talks about kind of where things are going and examples he gives is we are going from a paycheck economy to a purpose economy. And this is what Millennials are thinking of, right? I mean, check to purpose, we’re going from just work being work, and work being work life, you know, millennials and young people join organizations because they want to actually do something meaningful to society. And it’s not just a job for me, it was just like, I just gotta make money for them. Yeah, I need to make money, but it’s like I want you know, so so. So employers, I think leaders need to recognize that because by the way, everything that the millennials and Gen Z values is the future. That is where the future is going. Everything will kind of land on hat, right? It’s, you know, it’s it’s not about you know, what is the other thing I can’t think of the other thing in here on this, but just drawing a blank on it, but but in any event, I think it’s feedback. I think it’s rethinking how, how you actually manage. One thing that actually boomers introduced a long time ago, that has kind of has some staying power is this whole notion of kind of mindfulness and understanding self awareness, consciousness, ei, all that stuff, right? Younger generations are into that. And a, they like that they resonate with that they understand this notion of authenticity, that your inner self and your outer self need to be connected. I think they don’t like to work in organizations that just you know, want you to, you know, produce widgets. They like to work in organizations that actually have something meaningful assignment. Sinek talks about this all the time. If you’re not attaching purpose to your organization, you’re not going to attract any young people, if you can’t figure out how to do that, and position that that’s going to be really challenging, I think. So this notion of purpose, I think is and integrating work into life are real important considerations. Yeah. That’s leaders in the future.
Ginny Bianco-Mathis 40:27
Well, that is just wonderful. Thank you so much. I think we had the 20 more questions that we could go on. And we may call you back.
Warren Wright 40:39
By the way, so yeah. You want answers, which is probably too many, you know,
Ginny Bianco-Mathis 40:44
you know, thank you so much, Mitch.
Mitch Simon 40:46
Thank you so much, Warren. It’s been an absolute pleasure. There’s so many applicable things that you really share in this podcast. So it’s been a pleasure to have in the podcast. And so we thank you, we think All right, guys, and thanks for listening to another episode of team anywhere. And please share this out with your friends and we’ll see you next time.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
