There is one thing I spend all my time getting in to managers heads and it's why some people find it hard to be a good leaders in general and particularly of Millennials,
I have observer a huge gap in 30-50 year olds that where brought up in a time when businesses moved from making a product and working to build the team. To simply making profits, something got lost in 20/30 years and that thing is Empathy!!
So what does empathy look like? Well here is the lack of empathy this is normal in my travels in the business world for example in the sales office. A manager walks someone into there office and says
"Your numbers are down for the 3rd quarter in a row, you have to pick your numbers up, otherwise I cant tell what the future for you is going to look like."
How inspired do you think that person is going to be to come into work the next day?
Here is what empathy looks like.
"Your numbers are down for the 3rd quarter in a row, are you okay I'm worried about you whats going on?" we all have performance issues, maybe there kid is sick, maybe they are having problems in there relationship. maybe one of there parents are dieing. We dont know whats going on in there lifes and of course ,it will effect there performance in work.
Empath is being concerned about the human being and not just there output.
We have for some reson changed our work world over the last 30 years and we are suffering the side effects of business theories left over from the 80s and 90s and these theories are bad for people and they are bad for business.
What we need to do is create an environment where people feel safe and comfortable enough to raise there hand and say
"I don't know what I'm doing, you have given me a job and i haven't been trained to do it"
"I need help"
"I made a mistake"
"I'm worried"
"I'm scared"
"I screwed something up"
All of these things nobody will every admit from within a company just in case there is 'another firing round' and so we keep it to ourselves, and how can a company every do well if nobody is every prepared to put there hand up and say I made a mistake, I need help or they don't know what they are doing?
So what we have literally created cultures where everybody wakes up and goes to work every single day and lies, hides and fakes. And we are asking our youngest generation to work and succeed, to build their confidence, to find themselves and overcome there addiction to technology and build strong relationships at work, we ask them to do this! Look at the environments we have created!
We keep saying you're the future leaders, well we are the leaders now!! We're in control, what are we doing? this is what empathy means if there is an entire generation failing maybe it's not them, maybe it's us!
The only common factor in all my failed relationships is... me. Yano same thing.
It's not a generation, it's not them. They are not difficult or hard to understand, they're human beings like the rest of us trying to find there way, trying to work in a place where they feel like someone cares about the as a human being!
By the way that's what we all want, so it isnt even generational!
If you have empathy and show it to your people, you can command nations!