SX Gen Y

This is a guest post written by Melissa Breau. She is an emerging freelancer and is chronicling her career journey on her blog. Connect with Melissa on Twitter: @MelissaBreau

Often Gen-Y is looked down upon for being the “now” generation; for our desire to skip the whole ladder-climbing-thing; for our love of informality and our desire to be recognized for our achievements.

In truth, the assets to be had in working with gen-y are much greater than the detriments. Here are three steps managers can follow to encourage gen-y employees and leverage them for their full potential.

1) For starters, let us be passionate about what we are doing. We want to believe in the company we work for and in its work. If we feel passionately about “our project” we will work overtime, miss sleep, skip eating – we will work on tight deadlines and still turn out high quality work. We understand how to research topics online through both traditional and untraditional methods; we will pull out all the stops for something we believe in and are allowed to be passionate about.

2) Explain why, not just what. Our passion drives us to want to take the next step on a project. If you allow us to believe in our work and our company, we will constantly be on the look out for new opportunities. However, unless you explain your rationale and decision making processes, we will be unable to filter these things so that we can bring the most appropriate proposals to your attention. Take the time to discuss what the company needs, and we will search for a solution. We like finding answers. If you give us the information to evaluate opportunities, we will proactively work to improve the company.

3) Ask us for our opinions. As several video-posters have mentioned, we want to collaborate. Acknowledge that we have valuable opinions, not by constantly praising our achievements, but by considering our ideas. We understand that you know more about the way things have worked than we do. We want to understand everything that you know. But we also want to teach you everything we know – about leveraging new tools, about finding untraditional opportunities, and about promoting the company and brand socially.
Managers who follow these three steps will see their gen-y employees become top producers. They will win those employees loyalties and that will directly impact the company’s bottom line in unexpected but positive ways.

Connect With Melissa Breau:
Blog: www.jargonwriter.wordpress.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MelissaBreau