Here is a powerful and pertinent sentence taken from a book that is enthralling in terms of its pragmatic approach: One of the right attitudes to take with generations Y and the others is: ‘DEMTRUST’
The outstanding feature of one generation is that it will be different from the previous one. Because if nothing changed between the generations, we’d still be in the Stone Age.
Motivational drivers may be different, but deep-seated aspirations – the things that really make people evolve and take action – are always related to personal or financial issues. For example:
- Personal issues: working differently, working more quickly, wanting to be understood, respecting work-life balance, learning more things, being acknowledged, working better with others.
- Financial issues: winning promotion, being given a raise, getting a bonus, changing company.
First and foremost we need to identify each person’s deep-down aspirations and then fine-tune what motivates them.
Understanding or managing generations Y and Z… Note to Manager: try it out and give it a go!
Take the people in your team. You do your best to identify their aspirations and personal or financial issues… or both.
Then you base yourself on the 5 levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:
- Improve the quality of working life,
- Eliminate uncertainty,
- Reinforce team spirit,
- Show signs of acknowledgment,
- Aim high.
You try to find practical actions to boost the motivation of these employees. So you look for motivational factors on at least 1 of the 5 points. Whatever the generation, one of these points will always be required to motivate the employee.
What does generation Y say?
- It assimilates work less with happiness,
- It wants a certain level of attention,
- It is more critical about the concept of information within the company and the quality of its managers,
- It keeps an eye on career change,
- It sees things at a more short-term distance.
Even if we’re not part of Gen Y, we can still identify with one of these points, can’t we?
Yes, the way of saying things may be different. The goal here is not to say that there is no difference with previous generations, but simply to be aware that generation Y is totally in step with its time.
“The new generation is dreadful! I’d so much like to be part of it” – Oscar Wilde
One of the right attitudes to take with generations Y and the others is what we call: ‘DEMTRUST’!
‘DEMTRUST’ is a contraction of DEMand and TRUST.
Demand, because when managers lower their (normally required) standards for particular members of staff, SIMPLY to retain them – or just to keep the peace, it tends to trigger a vicious cycle, making employees less motivated because less is required of them.
So they say to themselves that they have less to learn and begin to think that their boss is not as competent as they are. At best, they’ll keep an eye on their job. On average, they’ll want a big raise in pay or a new position. And at worst, they’ll go looking for a new company… that will teach them something different!
Confidence, because by default, when a manager no longer has confidence, he or she falls back into the bad habits that other managers have been blamed for in the past. Important to remember: confidence does not exclude control. If you want to get more than one employee, then trust him! Trust for Gen Y is all about autonomy and they love it because it gives direction to what they do in an organisation while being interdependent.
“Trust is the invisible cement that helps make a team win” – B. Wilkinson