In my previous blog post on Obama I wrongly quoted the numbers of fans he had on Facebook. It was/is actually 13.4 million according to Don Tapscott who, back in September, correctly predicted Obama’s victory in an interview with Stefan Stern of the FT.

Anyone who doubts the power of such social networking sites and of the internet in general should think again. I sometimes hear people questioning whether Gen Y are that different from the rest of us. YES THEY ARE. They are wired differently because of the technological landscape that has always been a very comfortable home for them. They are natives to this world. Us Gen Xers and Baby Boomers are immigrants and always will be.

Sally

I love this new Facebook application. It allows users to send snail mail to relatives who don’t have a computer. What a great way of helping, and maybe even encouraging, the younger generation to keep in touch with grandparents who are not online.

Sally

According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, a non-partisan research organisation, an estimated 24 million 18 to 29  year olds voted. This was an increase of 2.2 million over 2004. The group points out that youth turnout was up to 54.5 percent, 19 percent more than in 2004. For the first time in 20 years, voters under age 30 made up a larger proportion of the electorate than those over age 65. Young people were clearly the driving force behind this election.

Young voters in the USA displayed a passionate reaction rarely seen today when it comes to politics. Only a few months ago I was having a serious conversation with colleagues in the youth engagement field about whether Generation Y were particularly apathetic when it comes to politics. It is fantastic and heartening that the American youth could certainly not be accused of being apathetic in the recent election. I hope the passion and concern for politics that Obama has created spreads to other democracies around the world when it comes to voting time.

It’s incredible too that Obama has 2.5 million fans on Facebook and, if my friends were anything to go by, lots of people put Obama-related status updates on their Facebook profiles.

I was giving a talk at the Chicago Business School in London on the day that Obama was declared President Elect. It was wonderful to see Americans in Britain who were proud to be American and to witness a huge sense of positivity and optimism. There was such a wave of euphoria that probably spread around the world on Tuesday. I hope it lasts and I hope all the passionate and committed young voters stay passionate and committed and engaged with politics long after Obama takes up his position in January.

Sally

In this moving talk by Doris Kearns Godwin she talks about Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson and what the 2008 presidential candidates can learn from them. She says that Lincoln’s greatness consisted of “the integrity of his character and moral fibre of his being”. The lessons from this talk are excellent lessons in life as well as leadership. They are themes that are often talked about when describing great leaders. In contrast, she speaks of Lyndon Johnson and his focus on work, power and individual success.

Someone once said that the one thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history. I really hope that the future US president and the global financial world learns from history and that they take a leaf out of Abraham Lincoln’s book too.

Sally

It is of course very difficult to really know what a company is really like without working in it, Reading books. articles and case studies is not enough, Nor is attendance at conferences where company representatives speak about their success and how they achieved it. I have read and heard lots of very positive stories about companies who I doubt could live up to those stories.  Corporate PR machines are alive and kicking.

Notwithstanding that, the following companies are probably justifiably admired and certainly very attractive to prospective investors, customers and employees:

• Google
• Apple
• SAS Institute
• Southwest Airlines
• Ritz-Carlton
• Virgin
• WL Gore

All of these companies appear to have innovation in their history and in their blood stream.   They don’t have to engage in the so-called ‘war for talent’, they have people queuing up to work for them.

Most of them are American. Why is that? Is it to do with the American culture, the best of which is positive,  optimistic, boundary-breaking and can-do.  It strikes me when working with American colleagues that they focus on what they can do, not what they can’t, they celebrate success and push for more and they don’t consider modesty to be a virtue.

In contrast, some would say that the worst of British culture means that people famously favour the underdog, play down success, stick with tried and tested ways of doing things and are conscious of their place in the prevailing hierarchy’.

Of course, generalisations are dangerous but there does seem to be something worth thinking about here. It is common for business leaders to ask themselves what they can learn from other companies, it is a good question. The context cannot be overlooked though - national culture is a crucially important part of that context and can undoubtedly shed some light on differences that make a difference.

Sally

I came across this very interesting talk by Clay Shirky. He raises questions about how organisations can be enablers instead of obstacles to ideas and innovation. The challenge for organisations is that, no matter how big they are, they can only employ a certain number of people - they only engage a small percentage of the total world population in helping them solve their problems.

Some organisations have done something very simple and very smart and have offered the opportunity to help them to anyone who is interested. Facebook is a good example. When they first started they did their own development. Now anyone in the world can submit their ideas and have them taken up, And Facebook doesn’t even have to pay them. Makes you think doesn’t it?

Sally

I reckon these feelings are pretty common. Here is a generation who see fewer barriers in their lives, they tend to have more confidence in themselves and what is possible and they have much broader horizons on the world because of the internet and the fact they connect so easily with people around the world. I think it is understandable if the older generation occasionally feel a little envious, jealous, resentful even.  I often hear comments like “I had to work my way up the ladder, why do they think they shouldn’t have to”, “they are far too confident - verging on the arrogant”, “they just expect things too easy”.

These views and feelings are often expressed at meetings I have with clients.  I sometimes detect a mixture of resentment and a wanting to put Gen Y in their place. Yet on the other hand there is a realisation that their talent and confidence are marvellous assets that present a huge opportunity for employers.

I think the healthy and productive attitude is to accept the negative feelings as understandable  but to move on and look at the assets that all the generations bring to the workplace. The key is for each generation understood the others more: their intentions, passions and strengths. It’s not for Gen Y to ’stay in their place’ it’s for them to challenge the status quo, come up with new ideas, question old assumptions. It’s uncomfortable for us Xers and Boomers but great leadership is about allowing and encouraging that whilst mentoring and guiding when necessary.

Note to self: remember that when next talking to amazing, accomplished and inspirational 23 year old

Sally

Our research tells us that mentoring is very important to Generation Y. They are desperate for mentors in the workplace and it is a role that they expect their managers to take on.

Why is mentoring so important to this generation? I can think of at least two possible explanations:

1. They are used to a much more hands-on relationship with their parents than previous generations had. Parents of Gen Y are much more inclined to be closely involved with all aspects of their children’s lives and decisions. This creates a need for on-tap mentoring style relationships with important older people
2. The huge amount of information available to them at anyone time via the internet means that having significant relationships with people who can guide them becomes much more important than it otherwise would.  Malcolm Gladwell’s explanation of this phenomena makes a lot of sense.

Managers were not traditionally taught the skills of mentoring.  I would argue that this has always been an important skill of a good leader. Now I would argue it is absolutely essential.

Sally

Someone said to me recently that if you are still buying CDs you must be over 40. It got me thinking. I grew up with records, then tapes and now CDs. A producer puts them together and decides which set of songs you can buy as a package. Old habits die hard and I still buy CDs.  Even though I only put the tracks that I like on my iPod I still like to have the entire CD for my collection. Crazy really.

We all have the benefits of non-standard packages now in buying music and other entertainment. Not only can we buy it how we like but we can consume it when we like. And the customisation options are endless.

This is Generation Y’s world. Yet organisations have not caught up. They are still very standardised in their approach. People policies and practices that still prevail today were designed for a very different era. An era when jobs were more well defined, customers more predictable, communications limited to telephone, face-to-face or fax, working hours were mainly contained to times when everyone else was working. 24/7 connectivity was not possible because we were not connected via the internet.

Generation Y don’t understand standard. They are used to designing their own gap year, their own MySpace, the design of their sports shoes etc etc. What about their own career, jobs and benefits packages? Companies in the main still have fixed benefits packages even within the ‘cafeteria’ system (and this is to say nothing of whether the benefits are the kinds of things that Gen Y want).

In the past job descriptions have been created by the company and given to the employee to fulfil. This is changing. Not only are people wanting to add their own interests and personality to the job they are also looking to take short term sabbaticals, spend part of their working week on pro-bono charity work, run their own start-up business, the list goes on. Highly talented people are not content to be restricted anymore. When I was in my twenties I certainly would have liked to pursue all sorts of other interests in the work sphere but I expected not to be able to do it. Nowadays people expect it, and if they do not get it they leave. Top talent will always be in demand and will always have choices. Giving more options and flexibility is one way to make sure that you attract the best. Economic downturn or not good people always have choice. And why would they buy a CD when they can create their own playlists.

Sally

I don’t find such openness to learning in organisations. Nowhere near actually. I have only come across a  few executives who are excellent learners. I will never forget the comments of a former colleague in Chicago, He was a superb salesman and at the end of a sales training programme he approached me and said something like this “i have been a student of sales for years, and I learned some new ways of thinking and acting that I am going to experiment with. This course is the real deal”.  I guess I remember it because a comment like that was so unusual.

Of course there are a whole host of reasons why this might be. But the question I am getting round to is whether Gen Y are much more open to learning. I had a conversation today with my Gen Y mentor and he was relating to me some of the tough challenges he was encountering in his job. His openness to learning was so impressive. He is a super bright guy with a responsible job but he has just been promoted and has a lot to learn. I was so impressed by how willing he was to admit he didn’t know the answer, ask for help, work lots of extra hours to read books and pick colleagues brains. He told me that most of his colleagues were the same and that there was an atmosphere of excitement about learning. We had a discussion about whether he felt Gen Y are more open to learning than other generations. He thinks that they are.

I would argue that learning is a key capability for organisations if they are to adapt quickly enough to the fast changing business environment . For those who agree with that,  Gen Y presents yet another fantastic opportunity.

Sally

Leaders are the most important asset a company has. How we train leaders and what we train them in is going to become vital in the global competitive economy. Think about what happens when poor leadership occurs – companies can be brought down. What happened at Enron was about greed, unethical behaviour and a lack of responsibility.

But leadership training is not just about avoiding bad things happening. It is about creating organisations that achieve great strides forward in their particular fields. Think of Google, Virgin, South West Airlines, SAS Institute. All of them are very successful, have their own unique cultures and are in different ways breaking the mould. And of course all of them have great leaders. They are all different but they are certainly not plodding people who care more about conformity than creativity.

I wonder how many such leaders the multi-million dollar leadership development industry produces each year. So much time and effort is quite rightly put into training our leaders. But are we doing a good enough job? And what if we are not?

In this video clip Patrick Awuah talks about the importance of educating young people to be leaders in Africa. He believes that the education of future leaders needs to encompass an exploration of ethics, learning about dealing with ambiguity, a move away from the rote learning of the past and an emphasis on thinking.

This clip raised many questions for me around what we are teaching our leaders and how successful we are being in increasing the overall leadership capability. Awuah quotes one of his students on an email he received: “I am thinking”. How many of our leaders truly think and question themselves and the world versus repeating what they have always done in ways that they have always done it. How many leaders understand that to really think about something means to examine their own values and principles as they underpin what we think, what we believe and what we do.

I would say that we are failing to even aspire to, let alone achieve, the standards of leadership excellence that Awuah refers to. My evidence for this is the amount of activity going on in companies to increase employee engagement, reduce turnover and attract talented people. Problems in all of these areas can almost always be tracked back to inadequate leadership. Great leaders create meaning, set standards, have strong values and ethics, drive for superior performance and thus create cultures where people are highly engaged and want to stay.

Excellent leaders want to be challenged, they want people that push, question the status quo and think for themselves. They understand that to compete in this fast changing world they need their people to be open minded, learning new ways and ditching what is no longer useful. The good news is that the workforce is changing: Generation Y have arrived and they are much more inclined than their older colleagues to behave in those ways.

Generation Y present a huge opportunity to organisations. Yet, too many bosses are still thinking of them as a challenge and are still expending a lot of energy getting them to conform. The old model of leadership still prevails. It looks like this and it is frustrating.

• · The boss needs to be respected for his position in the hierarchy not for his contribution
• · The more junior you are the less you are assumed to know
• · It is not the done thing to challenge senior managers
• · It is not the done thing to challenge prevailing practices such as 9 to 5 working (of course it makes sense that we still work those hours that were necessary in post-industrial factory settings!)
• · The boss’s job is more of a monitor than a mentor

Make no mistake, it is not just Gen Y who are frustrated by this style of leadership (if you can call it leadership), lots of people are. The difference is that Gen Y will are much less likely to put up with it, they will leave.

We need to step up the quality of our leadership training. We need to tackle the tough and thorny issues of values and meaning as well as the essential high performance leadership competency development. Business schools and training consultancies tend to concentrate on the latter because it is easier to do and it lends itself to boxes being seen to be ticked. But running a business is not a tick box activity. It is complex and challenging. Having spent the past year developing a leadership model and development programme that tackles the tricky bits I know it is not at all easy. But we have to try. If we don’t then we are doing a great disservice to our current and future leaders for whom skills and behavioural training will simply not be enough to thrive in this increasingly demanding business world.

Sally

Still on the democratic process, this morning a friend sent me this film made by an organisation called carrotmob. Carrotmob organises consumers to make purchases that give financial rewards to those companies who agree to make environmentally friendly choices It’s a simple idea but very powerful one.

Their approach brings a whole new meaning to consumer power. It will be interesting to see how companies respond. I would love to know what you think of the idea.

Sally

There are more and more websites springing up that give the inside story and where grads can ask specific questions about careers, selection methods, hours of work in particular sectors/companies and much more.  They make interesting reading and no doubt provide an invaluable service for young job hunters.

wikijob was started by two graduates of Manchester University. is a site used by students and graduates to network with peers, and exchange information about jobs, employers and interviews.

I love www.rollonfriday.com , not least of all for the gossip! It pro.vides news and views about the legal sector.

They are good reminders to companies to make sure their marketing matches reality. There is no hiding place!

Sally

A few years back, looking for ideas and inspiration, I visited Euan Semple who was at that time leading knowledge management for the BBC. He was doing some very inspiring and impressive work including introducing wikis and blogs. At that time use of these technologies was uncommon in business. His advice to me however was that unless you could be sure of having enough of a critical mass of people to engage with these new ways of working it was pointless. Three people in the editorial department may well be excited by this (then) newish technology but only three people in an organisation of 1000+ would do nothing to help with knowledge sharing and ‘management’. I remember leaving my meeting with Euan feeling disheartened that this exciting technology would probably stay exciting but be absolutely useless because of the difficulty in convincing people to use it.

Five or so years later I am heartened. My friend, a 26 year-old high flyer started a new job in January in a medium-sized consultancy. I saw him last week and he has already been promoted and was telling me how much difference he has been able to make already. ( I smiled at this, he is a Gen Y and making a difference if something that is very important to Gen Ys).  So I asked him to show me what he had been doing that was making such a difference. He showed me a wiki that he had designed to capture data about problems reported by customers and solutions to those problems. There was masses of content in there. "When did you introduce this?" I asked. "Two weeks ago" came the reply.  And already a huge amount of valuable data had been captured and was being used.

Let’s just have a think about this. In the space of two weeks, a new employee of less than 4 months has introduced a new system that has transformed the capture and use of valuable data. Not only that but everyone is using it and it is improving the quality of service to customers and shortening response time.   What are we to deduce from that? Well, having questioned my friend closely on this, here’s what I conclude:

1. The (Gen X and Boomer) leaders in his company are committed to promoting people on merit and supporting them to do whatever needs to be done to make a difference.
2. The interests of the customer take priority.
3. The workforce are predominantly Gen Y and therefore took no persuading to use wikis.
4. A good idea is a good idea and will be listened to irrespective of the length of service and seniority of the person who comes up with the idea.
• This company gets it. The leaders in this company clearly see Gen Y as an opportunity and not a threat. My friend had tried to introduce a wiki into his last company. He told me he gave up because he got fed-up of trying to convince his colleagues (aged 35 to 70) that it was a good idea. This talented young man eventually got fed up himself and looked for a company that would "appreciate and use his talents".

Gen Y vote with their feet. If they are not being appreciated they will leave.  Contrary to assertions that Gen Y are flighty and don’t want to stick at a job, our research shows that if they are getting what they want they will stay, and they will be loyal. My friend has every intention of staying in his company, he has had a flying start there and in a short period of time has been recognised, valued, been given the freedom to contribute and show what he can do.  Other organisations would do well to take a leaf out of this company’s book.

Sally Bibb

"Gen Y are a pain and they ought to change their ways"

This is the ‘I don’t see why we should change for them folk’. It’s the recruitment manager who has experienced much more demanding Gen Ys in the last couple of years who want to know what the company can do for them as much as what they can offer. It’s the HR manager who has a view that Gen Ys should have more realistic expectations towards work life. And it is the manager who is resentful that when they were in their 20s they knew their place and would not have dared challenge their employer.

I have noticed a certain amount of anger and resentment amongst this group. They are stuck in complaining mode and struggle to understand the underlying motivations to the behaviour let alone want to respond to it in a way that is useful to all concerned.

" Gen Y are the future opportunity and must be embraced or there will be big problems"

This attitude resides at the other end of the spectrum. It is those who feel that Gen Y are the answer  to all organisational problems and that things should change according to their view of the world.  This view is held mainly by the supremely self-confident Gen Ys who know they are talented and have a lot to offer and feel that they are the ones with all the power in the employment relationship.

"I struggle with some of Gen Ys attitudes but want to understand them and find a way that works for all of us"

The individuals and organisations who are making the most effective steps to attract and retain Gen Ys fall into this camp. They are the ones who realise that we all see the world through our own particular generational lens and that gain is to be had by understanding the others perspectives too.

Most of us do struggle with difference, whether the difference is generational, gender or whatever. The trick is for all parties to understand the others. With understanding comes the creation of possibilities. Possibilities give us choices.

A refusal to consider other possibilities of ways of working is a core barrier to positive change. For example, working time. The 9 to 5 culture only exists because in the industrial age factories had to be run on schedules that meant workers had to be at work between certain hours. There is no reason for that rigidity today, especially in the knowledge sector. The third category of mindset:  "I struggle with some of Gen Ys attitudes but want to understand them and find a way that works for all of us"  is the most productive one. If I were to give any piece of advice to companies about how to tackle the challenge of Gen Y in the workplace, my starting point would be to be clear about your mind set first. Change only happens when you really want it to.

Sally

However it is also true that Gen Y is demanding from work things that Gen X would have quite liked too but we were not bold enough to demand.

I like this blog post from Ryan Healy. He is talking about the USA but what he says is applicable elsewhere. He says that Gen Y have the opportunity to make the workplace better for all of us for these three reasons:

Y Has Better Demographics

Generation X was simply too small to force any kind of change. There are about 50 million Gen Xers in the United States compared to nearly 76 million baby boomers and 77 million Millennials. When Gen Xers graduated college, the jobs were not there. With only 50 million people to fill the positions, and plenty of boomers around to fill the middle management jobs, companies had their pick of candidates. Employers took advantage by hiring only the top candidates and paying them as little as possible.

Generation Y is 50% bigger than Generation X, and with Xers dropping out of the workforce to take care of their children, employees, not management, have the power and even a recession won’t slow down the job market. Generation Y has the same confidence, the same ambition and the same savviness as Generation X had in their twenties, but the demographics are in Gen Y’s favor. Y can ask for change and actually get it.

Y Has Better Technology

Generation X came of age when the internet was just coming into common, public use. There were great new technologies and plenty of opportunities to strike it rich in Silicon Valley, much like there are today. But the 90s were still a time of traditional media and marketing to the masses. So if you wanted to make your voice heard, you had to pay thousands for a TV commercial or somehow become a celebrity. Today, anyone with a bad job can start a blog and tell the world why work should be better. Plus, where there was no easy way to create a collective Gen X voice, the Web is now all about community. And Generation Y embraces the idea of community like no other generation.

Y Has Better Teamwork

Generation Y is the ultimate “team” generation. Despite what the media says, it’s not about us versus the rest of you. It’s about how can we all work together? How can we all be happy?

We’re not competing now and we never were competing with the Baby Boomers. We’re the entry level grunts and they’re the big shots in the corner office. We don’t threaten their jobs and they don’t make us work long hours because we don’t report to them. But Gen X hated, and still hates, the Boomers. It makes sense. The baby boomers were directly managing the Gen Xers, and because of the demographics I pointed out above, the Gen Xers had to work the long hours or risk being fired and (easily) replaced.

Ryan is right. Unfortunately, some employers are still thinking of Gen Y as a problem/risk/challenge. Wrong. Gen Y presents a fantastic opportunity for positive change in the workplace: they are great collaborators, they are prepared to challenge the status quo, they have passion and they won’t put up with some of the nonsense that people like me (I confess I did!) did when I started out.

Sally

One of the things that Shaun, my mentor, does is gives me what he calls ‘inefficiency alerts’. That is, when he watches me using my mobile phone or computer he notices when I am doing things the long way (usually the only way I know how) and shows me how to do things faster/more efficiently. Thanks to his teaching I can now post my blog entries in less than half the time. It’s great.

I came across this service in Holland where teenagers are giving mobile phone workshops to adults. It’s a good idea and something that maybe companies could take onboard. Wouldn’t it be great to have a young colleague show you how to use your Blackberry, iPod, a social networking site maybe…… It would save so much time and would be much more fun than reading a manual.

Sally

It would appear that being free from the ‘leadership’ of David Brent type characters comes into this category.

We came across a great quote last week from one of our Gen Y panellists at a conference we were presenting at.  Talking about ‘The Office’ sit-com, she commented that when she first saw the programme she really thought it was a joke… 

Sadly, now she has worked in a few organisations, she knows it is far to close to reality.

Why on earth do Gen X and the Boomers put up with such nonsense?  Thank goodness it looks like Gen Y won’t.

Simon

For many older people their local post office is not just somewhere to get their pension, their stamps and some shopping (if attached to a convenience store as many are these days). It is a place to socialise, to mingle with the local community and to find out what is going on in the local area.  It keeps people connected to one another. It also means that people don’t have to get to their nearest town to do their business with all the transportation challenges and costs that that can entail.

Communities are very important to the elderly. Indeed they are very important for people of all ages. Closing  post offices is having a detrimental effect on local communities, the support they provide and therefore the strength of the social structure of our society. It is short-sighted and there will be many negative unintended consequences in the years to come.

Government would do well to look at the ‘whole system’,  the bigger picture and get people from different disciplines collaborating effectively on these issues.

Sally Bibb

The other 4 were equally inspiring. It struck me how confident, self-assured and entrepreneurial they all were. It was interesting to hear the audiences questions which were nearly all indicative of what a struggle it is for Boomers and Xers to understand the world of Gen Y. Questions like "how come you are so confident?", "don’t you ever feel insecure?".

I for one felt pretty envious. Oh to be 26, to have already worked in 6 countries, to have been head of social policy for a think tank and decided to leave all that and become a freelance speechwriter (for some well-known and incredible people) and to be writing a book. Wow.

This was clearly a very special group of people but I am willing to bet that the  confident, fearless, or, as they put it, we "don’t see barriers" mentality is common amongst Gen Ys. The big challenge is for organisations to find a way of harnessing that instead of stifling it and driving them away.

Sally Bibb