About two years ago, HR professionals, seemingly en masse, started reporting about the unique attitudes and behaviors of their newest hires. I began to hear increasing numbers of stories about new young professionals engaging in all sorts of behaviors: wearing questionable attire into the office . . . and not caring when someone suggested they were inappropriately dressed, scheduling work assignments around opportunities to connect with their friends and families, and ignoring the existence of any sort of hierarchy in their respective workplaces. I also began to hear lots of stories about parents who phoned HR any time their child did not receive the performance evaluation or merit pay raise the parent thought their child was due.  

 

This generation of young workers, born in 1982 or later, brings a whole new array of characteristics to the workplace. They are cooperative team-players, questioners of authority, and multi-taskers, who are simultaneously smart, optimistic, and confident to the nth degree.

 

While many refer to this generation as the Millennials, I prefer to call them the T-Ball Generation.  In their formative years, rather than playing old-fashioned baseball with its “three strikes and you’re out” rules, the generation walking into today’s workplace grew up playing the game of T-Ball. In case you’re not familiar with T-Ball, it’s a game in which a ball is placed upon a tee.  A child is allowed to approach the tee and swing . . . and swing . . . and swing . . . and swing until he or she actually connects. Note: There are no outs in T-Ball.  It is a game that communicates to each and every player, “You cannot fail.”

 

Additionally, at the end of many T-Ball seasons, lots of parents joined together and decided it would simply be unfair to name one child as the “most valuable player.” Instead, every player received a prize, even if their only accomplishment was simply showing up.

 

This generation that grew up playing T-Ball is now entering your workplace. For you to retain its very best, you must encourage every manager and supervisor to give feedback…and lots of it.

 

This is one recommendation that many of your managers and supervisors, especially your Baby Boomer bosses, are likely to have a difficult time swallowing. Their challenges are directly related to the economic circumstances that existed when most Baby Boomers entered the workforce.  Remember, the vast majority of your Boomer bosses began their own careers in times of economic turmoil. Between 1968 and 1983, our country experienced simultaneous periods of intense inflation and recession.  In fact, at the beginning of 1982 inflation lingered at just under 12% and by the end of that year the U.S unemployment rate stood at just under 11%.

 

Your organization’s Baby Boomer bosses will openly tell you that when they began work, they kept their mouths shut and their heads low. They felt lucky just to secure a job in the first place and never complained amount the amount of work or the numbers of hours they were called upon to clock. They “dressed for success.” And if anyone recognized their efforts, they expressed their appreciation.  (By the way, back then, the appropriate response to “thank you” was “you’re welcome,” not the “no problem” you’ll hear from today’s T-Ball Generation.)

 

Having had these experiences, many of your Baby Boomer bosses expect your organization’s newest hires to act in the exact same manner. Today’s T-Ball Generation, however, enters a very different workplace. Now, despite rumblings about an economic downturn, leading organizations are constantly engaged in a war for talent. Each and every one of my clients is in a battle to attract and retain the best and brightest of this new generation of workers. And the T-Ball Generation will openly tell management—if they only listen—that providing lots of feedback is one of the important ways to keep them.

 

Your Baby Boomer bosses learned how to manage by observing their own supervisors a generation ago.  Today, tell those managers that they must forget everything they once learned experientially.  Instead, tell your Baby Boomer managers and supervisors they must transform themselves from bosses into successful coaches. 

 

Your organization’s managers and supervisors will be pleased to learn that providing feedback does not mean they must “candy coat” all of the conversations they have with your newest hires.  It does, however, mean that they should develop the skills of today’s most successful coaches.

 

What would those skills entail? A body of research has been collected that pretty clearly delineates how an individual coach can help transform a good player into a “super performer.” It turns out that the difference between a Saturday morning golf course duffer and Tiger Woods has very little to do with innate talent. Rather, the Tiger Woods of the world (and by the way, the research looks at expert performers in a variety of areas including golf, chess, ice-skating, and even medical care) have coaches who consistently engage in three activities. The coaches:

 Additionally, these coaches constantly help their protégés to set personal stretch goals.

Encouraging your managers and supervisors to undertake these activities may yield major benefits for your organization in years to come.

 

While your managers and supervisors focus on providing feedback, Recruiting and HR should spend the next few weeks focusing on creating environments that will resonate with the T-Ball Generation. These environments will likely include:

Work areas that foster collaboration. Remember, from their very earliest stages in life, the T-Ball Generation has been encouraged to work closely with one another. Whenever possible, give your new recruits projects that can be attacked as a team, and create areas within your office where your newest hires can work together.

Give them all the newest technology that you can. The T-Ball Generation grew up with computers in their homes and carried laptops to class. As they enter the workforce, they expect employers to place all of the newest, latest, and greatest electronic gadgets at their disposal. Even if they are only summer visitors, provide them with BlackBerrys. Do, however, also be prepared to provide guidance as to appropriate usage of these electronic devices. Nothing disturbs managers and supervisors more than the junior member of a team thumbing away on a BlackBerry throughout a senior member’s meeting. (In their defense, many members of the T-Ball Generation tell me they thumb away non-stop because their managers and supervisors have instructed them that they should be accessible 24/7.)

Promote your work environment as a green one. It turns out that protection of the environment and natural resources is critically important to the T-Ball Generation. If you don’t have recycling programs already in place, institute them now. Place recycling bins in all conference rooms. Find ways to minimize the use of disposable plastics. Encourage behaviors that promote energy conservation.

Shorten your training programs. As someone who frequently presents to the T-Ball Generation, of one thing I am absolutely certain: They want training programs that move, and I mean, move fast. Sitting the T-Ball Generation down in front of a panel of “talking heads” will not prove successful. Instead, shorten the length of your training programs and make sure they move at lightning speed.  

Co-op the T-Ball Generation’s “helicopter parents.” One of the real defining characteristics of the T-Ball Generation is the close relationships so many of the young adults maintain with their parents. Long after they graduate from college and graduate school, the T-Ball Generation stays in touch with their parents, asking for both parental advice and insights. Instead of shaking your head over the inability of these parents to cut the cord, consider co-opting them. Sell your organization to those parents. Invite them to a special parent orientation or a designated social event. By closing the deal with the parents, you will likely close the deal with the child, too.