Coaches over Bosses: Next-Gen at Work pt. 4
- Are they the ineffectual, people-pleasing Michael Scott from The Office? (“Everybody in the conference room!”)
- The cold, money-hungry, and delightfully evil Montgomery Burns from The Simpsons?
- Are they the ineffectual, people-pleasing Michael Scott from The Office? (“Everybody in the conference room!”)
- The cold, money-hungry, and delightfully evil Montgomery Burns from The Simpsons?
- Are they the charismatic, abrasive, best-closer-in-the-city type that we find in Harvey Specter from Suits?
- Perhaps they’re the unsympathetic Bill Lumbergh from the classic 90’s movie, Office Space. (“Yeah, we’re gonna need you to come in on Saturday. If you could just go ahead and do that, that’d be great.”)
- Or, maybe they’re the type of person who has somehow risen through the ranks but is now actively working against their employer, like our dear friend Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation.
Needless to say, bosses typically get a bad wrap in the media.
While real life is obviously different than TV, most of the caricatures pick up on some uncomfortable truths. The traditional boss…
…has near-universal power over employees in the workplace.
…can make unilateral decisions that affect people without consulting them.
…sees profitability and maximizing shareholder wealth as the primary sign of success.
…maintains a cool relational distance from their reports (in order to make discipline and terminations easier).
…relies heavily on rewards and punishments to motivate people and improve performance.
…got into their position not because of their superior management skills but because of their technical expertise (or because they own the joint).
These truths speak to a dominant style of leadership and authority that has existed for generations. A set of underlying assumptions as to what leadership and management need to look like in the workplace.
Shifting cultural values have altered what Millennials and Gen Z want, and expect, from their leaders, while shifting organizational forms, such as flatter hierarchies and automated workflows, have altered the basic job description of most managers.
A new picture of the manager is emerging, and this one looks less like Mr. Burns and a lot more like Ted Lasso.
The Third Shift: Coaches over Bosses
We are in the middle of a series here that examines the trends and research regarding Millennials and Gen Z in the workplace. While there are many similarities across generational lines, we cannot deny that there are some very real shifts taking place that affect how the younger generation approaches their work.
For a fuller introduction to the five shifts I’ve identified, you’ll have to read part one. Today, we’re jumping into the third shift: Coaches over Bosses.
When we think of the traditional boss, we imagine a fairly authoritarian figure.
They’re much like a military commander. They’re the ones tasked with strategy, while the average worker’s role is simply to obey (i.e. they think, you do).
A slightly warmer variation of this is the paternalistic style. This boss is less like a sergeant and more like a firm parent. They still expect obedience but they’re more likely to hand out “treats” for good behaviour and reward compliance with positive attention. You will, however, be regularly reminded of the house rules and be disciplined if you deviate from expectations. They believe they’re taking a tough-love approach, but the whole thing comes off as patronizing.
The next generation of workers, though, isn’t looking for another parent figure in their life, and they won’t respond well to a commander.
What they’re looking for is a coach.
Their goal is to aid the self-discovery and development process in another person. They exist to guide another person in achieving their goals and helping to find a way to dovetail those together with the organization’s goals.
A coach listens, empathizes, asks the right questions, provides insightful and constructive feedback, envisions and communicates the future, helps set goals, and doesn’t shy away from making a personal connection with those they’re leading.
- 72% of Millennials who had a manager help them set goals were engaged in their work, while only 29% were engaged who didn’t.
- 44% of Millennials who had regular meetings with their manager were engaged, compared to 20% who didn’t.
- 59% are engaged that can talk to their managers about non-work-related topics
- 60% of Gen Z want multiple check-ins from their manager in the week. 40% want those check-ins to be daily, or even multiple times in a day.
- 2015/16 grads working for large companies rank a supervisor who will mentor and coach as their top priority, besides interesting and challenging work.
- 59% who strongly agree that their manager holds them accountable for their performance say they plan to be with their current organization for at least the next year.*
*Research from Gallup, Accenture, and the Center for Generational Kinetics
How to make the shift
Ok, so the research is clear. But what does this look like, practically, in the workplace?
Here are a few tips and action steps you can take as you learn the lead Millennials and Gen Z:
1. Get to know your team
Some managers remain aloof because they think it makes the tough conversations easier or out of a desire to maintain work/life balance. Close, meaningful relationships at work, however, are vital.
Not only are they a key piece of finding joy at work, but they also allow you to customize your leadership for each person. You can’t discover someone’s strengths from a distance.
If you don’t know your people well, you’re missing the opportunity to motivate each of them in unique ways and help them do their best work.
2. Master the art of feedback
According to the Center for Generational Kinetics, Gen Z doesn’t just want positive reinforcement from a manager, they want constructive skills-based feedback. They want to learn and grow.
When poorly delivered, however, feedback can wreak havoc on your culture and your relationships. For instance, giving feedback on areas that have not been previously laid out as expectations can feel like you’re blindsiding someone and coming off as overly critical. Don’t tell them they’re doing something poorly that they didn’t even know they were supposed to be prioritizing.
Establishing a relationship of psychological safety here is paramount.
“When it’s safe, you can say anything” – Crucial Conversations.
Show your team that you genuinely care about them and have their best interests at heart before you have to have that difficult conversation. As author and former Google executive, Kim Scott, wrote, you have to care personally before you can challenge directly.
3. Nail the 1:1
One of the most important tools that a manager has to motivate his or her people is simply their attention. Have regularly scheduled times to meet with team members. Schedule check-ins daily or weekly and have a longer 1:1 each month.
These longer conversations are for coaching, not for discussing work tasks. Focus on your employee’s development, coach them through challenges, and allow them to set the agenda.
One of the most important tools that a manager has to motivate his or her people is simply their attention. Share on X4. Nix the annual performance review
Time to let this dinosaur go. An employee’s performance needs to be an ongoing conversation, not an annual event. This is a coaching conversation focused on their development, not a worksheet that assigns a number for grading your fellow human beings.
As author and management expert, Marcus Buckingham, has pointed out, our ability to rate others is far too subjective and overly biased. We tend to try to mould people in areas that aren’t their natural strengths and end up doing more harm than good.
Part of the problem here is that many organizations try to turn a performance conversation into a tool for determining a pay raise, hence the systematic, numbered system. These two goals need to be separated. Coach your people for performance on a regular basis, and then design a separate tool to guide your compensation strategy.
5. Process with them
One of the core characteristics of Millennials in the workplace, according to Gallup, is that they are “unconstrained.” They are pushing for change and innovation, and they question everything.
Traditional wisdom as to how things should be done will not be readily accepted. They are exposed to divergent worldviews unlike never before. For every “best practice” you have at work, they can find another company somewhere on the globe that is ignoring it and still thriving.
Give them both space and permission to rethink how and why they do what they do, and they’ll be a fantastic source of creativity and alternative perspectives. Don’t be threatened when they question something, explore it with them.
The old-school manager who says, “Bring me solutions, not problems,” is missing out on some critical leadership moments.
The old-school manager who says, “Bring me solutions, not problems,” is missing out on some critical leadership moments. Share on X6. Choose your managers carefully
It pains me that I have to say this, but the average manager selection process is still woefully inadequate.
Technical expertise is not the most important characteristic anymore. It’s still valuable, mind you, but you don’t need someone to just manage the work, you need someone to manage people. This is a different set of skills and characteristics to watch for.
When selecting and onboarding new managers, focus on areas like emotional intelligence (EQ), empathy, communication, facilitation, conflict management, and workplace culture.
Employees are 400% less likely to leave a job if they have a manager with high EQ.
An interesting finding from Gallup’ research is that Millennials want to talk with their managers, but are less comfortable approaching them than other generations. Select and promote people into management who are approachable and know how to create safety and trust on a team.
“Managers going forward are going to be less technical experts and more social-emotional experts, to help employees navigate the culture of the organization,” – Brian Kropp, chief of human resources research at Gartner.
7. Coach the coaches
Model for your managers what it means to be a coach. Communicate with them in the way you’d like them to communicate with their team. Ask them the questions you want them to ask their team. We tend to repeat things that we’ve had done for us, so ensure your managers are getting top-notch investment from their managers. The coaching culture starts at the top.
Beyond this, consider offering a paid, external coach to your managers to further enhance and diversify their experience.
8. Customize for your setting
Coaching will not, and should not, look the same in every setting. In some cases, it may even be functionally impossible. If you have a very wide span of control and oversee 30 highly autonomous teams, for instance, you simply won’t have the time to give the same level of attention compared to someone with 3 people on their staff.
Coaching style also needs to adjust to the setting. If you have highly skilled, experienced, and educated professionals on your team with a high degree of autonomy, you’ll coach them differently than the inexperienced, fresh-out-of-school employee that you just hired.
Don’t feel like you’re locked into a narrow definition of what a coach needs to look like (you don’t really need to be Ted Lasso). Find your natural coaching style and lean into it.
This shift from boss to coach involves learning new skills, certainly, but it is fundamentally a shift in philosophy. It is reimagining and redefining the relationships between managers and those they lead. It is redesigning work to focus more on people than tasks.
I believe this can help you build a better workplace for every generation.
What’s next?
We’ll continue to explore the shifts taking place at work in the next part of the series: Partners over Employees.
Not only is the role of the boss changing, but so is the role of the employee.
Let’s keep learning together.
Dan
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