Upcoming Events

Leadership Breakfasts

  Fighting the Good Fight
April 5, 2007, 7:30-9:00 a.m.
Discover the secret weapon for managing conflict. Instructor Mary Frances Schurtz-Leon.

21st Century Challenges
May 10, 2007, 7:30-9:00 a.m.
Identify winning strategies in the new landscape of global competitive advantage. Instructor Will Marshall.

Assessment Center for
Professional Development
Coming this Fall
Explore a new way to assess your skills and to prepare for career advancement opportunities. Identify and measure the skills required to lead and execute organizational responsibilities effectively.
Special offer for HR generalists.

Project Management for
the Construction Industry
Coming this Fall
Master the skills for consistent and accurate performance on construction projects. Designed for individuals at all levels in the construction industry who require project management skills to be highly effective in their work.

Morris Massey, a Marketing professor at the University of Colorado , studied value systems in the early 80s. He said most of people's core values are established by age ten and whatever was happening in the world at that time had a profound influence on the way people viewed life. He separated his findings into decades. Today's studies focus on broader spans.

Names and dates vary, but generally speaking, the oldest generation in the workforce is the Traditionalists (Veteran or Silent Generation) born 1945 or earlier and representing 6.5% of the workforce. The next and largest group is the Baby Boomers (1946-1964) representing 41.5% of the workforce and holding many key positions in companies. Generation X (1965-1977) follows at 29.5% and Generation Y (Millennials or Nexters 1978-1990) now represents 22.5% of the workforce.*

Acquiring and retaining the best talent gives organizations their competitive advantage. To do this we need to understand and respect people’s needs, wants, contributions, work styles, leadership preferences, and core values. We also need to be flexible leaders, open to change, and better listeners and coaches. Every generation has its gifts:

• Traditionalists: Loyal, respectful, civic-minded, patriotic, rational,
  people you can count on: they have a wealth of knowledge to share
• Baby Boomers: Hard, dedicated workers, they will go the extra mile, team players, results-driven, still feel they can change the world for the better
• Gen X: Self-reliant, technologically savvy, entrepreneurial, quick and continual learners, embrace diversity
• Gen Y: High expectations and high self-esteem, patriotic, multi-cultural acceptance a given, rulers of the Internet

Utilizing strengths:

• Traditionalists: Utilize opportunities for institutional knowledge transfer before they leave; make better ones mentors
• Boomers: Help them be open to different styles and preferences of younger reports and understand there are different ways to achieve the same or better results
• Gen X: Keep them engaged, challenged, and learning new skills; give them input and regular feedback and credit them for their achievements
• Gen Y: Assign them structured projects with lots of feedback; give them the right tools and training to excel, utilize their research skills

From a study completed by the Society for Human Resource Management, this is what works when these generations make up your work environment:

• Collaborative Decision Making
• Training supervisors in intergenerational management
• Multiple communication methods and channels
• Respecting all workers as valuable contributors; appreciating and utilizing the strengths of each generation
• Recognize and accommodate employee differences
• Create options and choices
• Use an open, flexible management style
• Encourage and reward competence and initiative
• Make retention everyone’s priority and responsibility

What does not work is:

• Separating generations
• Ignoring conflict
• Avoiding work/life balance issues
• Resisting new ideas
• Not respecting where each generation
is coming from

Our customers come from all four generations. A multi-generational workforce with different perspectives, skill sets, and approaches can contribute the best results for today’s companies.

* Estimated U.S.A. civilian noninstitutional workforce (150 million) by generation -
end of year 2006 Rainmaker Thinking, Inc.

Resources for Generational Studies:

• Bruce Tulgan, President and Founder of Rainmaker Thinking. Inc.
  Winning the Talent Wars, Managing Generation X, H.O.T. Management
• Claire Raines, Twentysomething: Managing and Motivating Today’s Workforce, Beyond Generation X, Crisp Publications, 1997
• Novations Training Solutions’ video, Generations in the Workplace
• Morris Massey, What You Are Is What You Were When and other videos - Training ABC
• Cam Marston, Motivating the “What’s in it for Me?” Workforce, 2005
• SHRM Intergenerational Research - 2004