Donald Trump’s TV show “The Apprentice” is back for another season with a twist that revolves around professionals who have been affected by the economy. Each contestant has lost his or her job and is searching for a new one. When contestants win a project on the show, they receive the opportunity to learn from the best in leadership with a leader from one of the show’s corporate sponsors.
Apprenticeship is a system of training the next generation of workers. Traditionally, “prentices,” also called protégés, enhance their careers from apprenticeships with training conducted on the job by working for an employer who helps them learn a trade or skill.
To put the idea of apprenticeship into perspective for today, consider that the 78 million Millennials, also known as the Net Gen and Generation Y, are nearly as large a group as the baby boomers. This new generation includes those born between 1980 and 1991.
What Do Millennials Want
The book The Millennials by Dr. Thom Rainer and his son Jess Rainer, details certain factors based on a massive research project led by LifeWay Research, involving 12,000 Millennials. The study concluded four major leadership focuses for “What Millennials want in leaders”:
·Mentoring. Millennials want to be led and taught in the workplace. They want to learn from their “heroes.”
·Gentle spirit. They are turned off by loud and divisive leaders.
·Transparency. Millennials want to follow “real” or authentic leaders.
·Integrity. They want leaders with standards and who aren’t concerned more about their own personal gain than serving others.
Applying the Idea of Apprenticeship
Given these findings, organizations need to examine how their own leaders are leading and training managers, supervisors and team leaders to become relevant in the new workplace. Because Millennials want to learn from others, it makes sense to think in terms of apprenticeship in the workplace.
Today’s leaders must be able to operate in an informal learning environment that positions them as mentors and coaches. They need exceptional communication skills, and they should be trained by good leaders in order for others to follow.
Millennials have a “can-do” attitude about tasks and work habits. They look for feedback about how they are doing, and they expect it frequently. They look for structure from older supervisors and team leaders, and they want these leaders to elicit and respect their ideas, as well.
Leaders can help Millennials become more engaged by providing development opportunities; members of this generation want to know where their careers are going and how to move up. They expect to be challenged, and they look for continual challenges on projects and opportunities for networking.
In the absence of the above, Millennials — who are adept on instant messaging, e-mail, text and social media — will network themselves into new opportunities outside their current organizations.
Helping All Employees Learn From the Boss
Research reveals that most employees, Millennial or not, look for common things from work. First, respect is a fundamental right for all employees. An important element of respect is recognition and feedback so workers know how they are doing. They want to be members engaged in the organization. They also want to learn new skills, develop their potential and grow in their careers. They want to be empowered and have influence on decisions.
And, they want good leadership. They want to learn from the boss.
The following tips can help employees learn from your organization’s leaders:
·Listen to their ideas and opinions.
·Delegate challenging tasks that help them become a part of change.
·Encourage networking on projects and teams.
·Discover what really motivates them and elicit their ideas.
·Coach them on-the-job and give them exposure across the organization.
·Provide frequent and meaningful feedback.
As an example, the Conference Board, a global, independent business membership and research association working in the public interest, requires leaders to provide two written evaluations per year and strongly encourages managers to deliver informal feedback at least monthly. Researchers indicate that this type of frequent feedback helps Millennials become engaged in their jobs and improves employee retention.
Training Leaders to Adapt
Most organizations’ supervisors, managers and team leaders will likely need more training to adapt to an apprentice-style workplace. Look for programs such as Vital Learning’s Leadership Series™, which offers targeted, flexible programs that enable organizations to put leaders in action quickly. Vital Learning’s flexible programs are available in online and traditional seminar formats to allow organizations to blend learning quickly with their existing approaches.
Recommended titles include the following:
·Essential Skills of Communicating™
·Essential Skills of Leadership™
·Delegating™
·Developing Performance Goals and Standards™
·Providing Performance Feedback™
·Coaching Job Skills™
·Motivating Employees™
http://www.chartcourse.com/VL-onlinecourses.html
Thought for the Day
“By providing Millennials with meaningful and growing experiences, respecting their contribution, utilizing mentoring, giving feedback and staying flexible, leaders can retain Millennials as followers who will develop into future leaders.”
— David Burkus, Millennial and adjunct professor of business at several universities, executive coach, and a student in the doctor of strategic leadership program at Regent University
Individual behavior styles and preferences have a direct impact on our interpersonal relationships at home and at the workplace. People differ from each other in fundamental ways including their values, behaviors, talents, temperaments, wants and beliefs.
Our DISC certification training programs and workshops empower individuals and unleash team performance. DISC is a model of human behavior that helps people understand “why they do what they do.” The dimensions of Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance make up the model and interact with other personality factors to describe human behavior.
The Benefits of Attending our DISC Certification Training Program
Upon successful completion of the training, you may teach the DISC personality model in your organization or use it in other applications outside of your business. We will also provide you an online assessment account to deliver and use our assessments.
“Work is either fun or drudgery. It depends on your attitude. I like fun.” —Colleen C. Barrett President Emerita of Southwest Airlines.
Can you put in eight to 10 hours at work every day and still have fun? Many experts say, yes. In fact, more and more agree that a workplace filled with laughter increases productivity and profits and reduces turnover. With numerous studies showing that anywhere between 55 and 60 percent of employees would seek other jobs when the economy improves, now is the time to turn that frown upside down.
The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reported that children laugh an average of 400 times per day, but the average adult over the age 35 only laughs 15 times per day.
A study from researchers at Loma Linda University found that “laughing lowers blood pressure, reduces stress hormones and increases muscle flexion. Laughter also triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers, and produces a general sense of well-being,” the Business Journal reported.
So, what does this mean for the workplace? Studies show businesses that engage and motivate their workforce are more productive and have higher retention rates. Many employees have left a better-paying job for one that pays less. A positive work environment rates as one of the top reasons in study after study as a top reason that employees are dedicated to their work and why they stay.
With that in mind, it is important to break up the normal routine and do something different — and inspire and motivate your employees to laugh.
Again from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business J
ournal: “’Taking’ 15 minutes a day to work on laughing is not a loss of time; it’s a productivity booster. Laughing helps people clear the cobwebs from the brain and helps the creativity juices flow. Great companies and leaders share these believes and leverage the positive power of laughing and healthy humor in their teams.”
A once-a-year trip to the mountains, birthday celebrations, or something silly like having a “crazy hat day,” can go a long way to make a big difference. Small, informal and fun celebrations are many times more effective than a once-a-year formal event.
Here are a few more ways to motivate workers with simple but powerful motivational ideas and tips used by different organizations to energize their workforce:
• Dedicate one day a week to serve high tea and discuss corporate values and other important issues;
• Send associates crayons and blank paper to render their view of the company;
• Send bimonthly newsletters to employees that features new employees, “Guess that Baby” contests and other puzzles and contests through which winners can receive prizes;
• Randomly suspend work for a few minutes to play Nerf basketball. Shooting a basket wins a candy or soft drink;
• Hold a joke contest;
• Establish productivity contests that require the manager to personally wash the car of each employee who surpasses the goals; or
• Hold a bake-off contest.
These are inexpensive, creative ways to motivate workers and have fun. Forward-thinking businesses will budget a small amount for these kinds of activities that can pay off in the long run.
Greg Smith
