Generations Blog

This past week, I had to opportunity to attend an appearance by Ted Turner, the outspoken billionaire, at my children’s school. The title above was his advice to an 8th grader who asked for some tips on business. While his answer brought down the house, I was struck more by his opening comments. Before taking questions, he spoke for about 15 minutes about the three words/beliefs he lives by — honor, courage, and humility. But rather than pontificating, he quoted Shakespeare, at length, to explain what he meant by each of these principles. While what he said appeared to go over the heads of his teenage audience, it made a considerable impression on me and, I suspect, the other adults in the room. Much of today’s society seems to ignore literature and lionize business acumen, yet here was one of richest men in the world Continue reading “Early to bed — Early to Rise. Work Like Hell and Advertise”

       Last time, I talked about Roger and one of his secrets for retaining his retail employees by teaching them about the business. Another suggestion he made during our conversation was to provide each one of them with specific feedback on how they are contributing to the store.

       “Why does Millennial feedback have to be so specific?” I asked.

       “There are a couple of reasons,” Roger replied. “First, these kids’ minds are going a hundred miles an hour — you know, texting, iPods, maybe school work, all the distractions in the environment. If I walk up to someone and simply say ‘Good job,’ they’re probably going to smile, but think, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ because they’re wondering, ‘Good job for what?’ It’s going to go in one ear and out the other. A second reason is that I’ve got them doing a lot of different things. I want to let them know that they’re making specific contributions.”

       “For example?” I asked. Continue reading “The Feedback Secret for Motivating Millennials”

This past Sunday evening, PBS Frontline broadcast a program entitled Growing Up On-line which examined the impact the Internet is having on the Millennial generation, teens in particular, as they come of age. The segment begins with a fair-handed perspective of the challenges that teachers, parents, managers and others are having because of the influence of this technology. Unfortunately, it devolves into the portrayal of several teens and their families in a couple of New Jersey suburbs that have met with disaster. Overall, the program leaves a one-sided and negative impression of how teens Continue reading “The Controversy Over the On-line Millennial Generation”

Last week, I spent some time with Roger, the manager of a successful clothing store that targets teens. As you might imagine, most of his employees are 25 and younger. He has the remarkable distinction, however, of retaining his average associate for more than two years. This, in an industry that is known for losing its employees within four to five months.

I asked him, “What is your secret?”

“I guess it’s a lot of little things,” he said. “We’re flexible with hours. We pay a decent wage. We have fun, and I try to make the work meaningful.”

“What do you mean by meaningful?” I asked. Continue reading “A Millennial Retention Secret”