This morning, I had my usual quiet time. I do a devotional thing and during my journaling, I began considering the message of giving back and then my calling. And then I started thinking about Snowboarding. You see I have been snowboarding for almost twenty years. I consider myself to be pretty good (good to a point since I dislocated my shoulder this year). I like speed and there is nothing like powder. This was the snowboarding reflection within this particular context; there was one time I snowboarded out of bounds. I do not advise this but, hey like I said I am pretty good and carving freshies is pretty awesome. As I came out of a set of trees, I hit a flat, a gulley. So as I sunk down to waist deep snow, I thought “Crap, I am in a flat”. Then I thought, “Crap, I am in a flat…out of bounds, up to my waist, no one knows where I am and I am not within any earshot whatsoever.” Does that paint a picture? What started as arrogance (you see there is some kind of reason for boundaries) had now turned into panic. My board is three under snow and I need to figure out to change this situation immediately. At one point as I was wiggling out of my board and trying to get on the snow, I did think “is this how they will find me in Spring?’ I even shouted “Hello!” I thought a similar thing another time when I realized I had swum too far out in the ocean. So how does this look in business? We all want to feel powerful, or given our job in retail management, empowered. I want to feel as though I have the power to make a decision.
Generation Y is no different than anyone else. They want to know they matter and to the extent they can act, re-act and decide on their own. They have the bandwidth. They have the knowledge, right? Well for empowerment to work and to have impact, it must have two components: knowledge and boundaries. As I found out at Winter Park Ski Resort, boundaries have a purpose. They allow people to know to what extent they may act. This is a bit of a secret for anyone managing and leading others…umm, you can give the keys to any car, but without the rules of the road, who the heck cares? Why don’t I just give you a nail gun and say “Just point and shoot and let me know what happens.”
While my intention is to illicit an exact strategy for Gen Y, this works with any generation, anyone who works for you. You cannot tell anyone to just do the right things without letting them know what “right” is and looks like (and in just about every situation imaginable). Think about it this way. Let’s say you have a team of five and you decide Taylor (random name, by the way) is someone you feel could be the next key holder. You want him to make “decisions” while you are not in the store. What do you tell him? “Please don’t burn the store down and of course, please don’t suck.” Let me share the voice inside their head if you choose that, “Seriously, don’t suck. OK boss, got that one ticked off the list, what next?”
I didn’t have to go out of bounds and be waist deep in snow, I chose that based on what I thought made the most sense at that exact time and wouldn’t cause (presumably) bad karma. No one sets out wanting to suck. What troubles and challenges us is when we are elevated to some type of decision making capacity and we don’t know how far left and right field we might be (rhetorically speaking). You see, many times we as managers give our team, in this case with a focus being on Gen Y, the keys to the store and have not let them know how that is supposed to look. We may assume, as is the case more times than not, they should know what “good” looks like. They need to know the” what, why, how and to what extent” you need things done while you are gone. These are the boundaries that then allow Taylor to apply his intuition, improvisation and what if decisions. Doesn’t make sense? OK, give no boundaries and then Taylor calls you every five minutes. Cuz’ that never happens on your day off, right? But that takes time. That takes an effort on your part to ensure they are truly a manager and leader with defined responsibilities. But this generation just doesn’t get it. Yep. They don’t get what they do not know. Gen X and Baby Boomers would have the same issues and, by the way, have had the same issues. They just didn’t have Facebook and WordPress to rely on the social media aspect of saying “whiskey tango foxtrot.”
I do not snowboard as much as I used to. It is kind of an age thing. 47 and counting (I hope). I love this new generation in the workplace. I don’t get them and yet I still trust them. I am willing to:
To give my team boundaries (duh). I am willing to share what works and what doesn’t. How something good can turn bad and how something bad can turn good. Every customer is still the customer. I just need to know that and then what works best in the most common situations.
To continually challenge my team to think, even in the seemingly smallest way. Let them think about problem solving, and not when it obviously suits me but maybe when it suits everyone else.
To ask more questions about what needs to happen to make the job better, faster, quicker, easier and more efficient…even it costs three dollars more (random dollar amount). It is not the cost (and yet it is), it is the exchange of what a worker-bee has to offer the queen-bee. They know the view; especially how their “it” differs from your view of “it”. Why not share realities?
To let them know what it costs to be in business. When I was a store manager and then saw what it costs to have an inventory and an employee, it changed how I made decisions. I am not saying let them see “your” bottom line. I am saying it is necessary to create a perspective and context for running a business at the store level. It allows your Gen Y to know the “nuts and bolts”, the “dollars and cents” of what keeps the lights on.
To let them win and lose. Celebrate the wins often and identify how the losses matter and what happens next.
My son is in Afghanistan and will be back in 11 days. He loves to snowboard and also loves what it represents. He also knows the limits that it presents, the limits that he has as well. It is those things that allow us to have a great snow day. He knows what he can and cannot do. He can…well, enough about him, do you know what you can and cannot do as manager?
Cheers