A Tip from The Manager’s Answer Book: Mentoring and Millennials

Remember when we thought that mentors had to be older people with many years of experience? Well, those days are over. A better definition of a mentor is “anyone who has knowledge you don’t have.” This new take on mentoring is playing out in organizations today as Millennials mentor Baby Boomers in how to get the most out of technology as often as Boomers mentor Millennials in how to survive office politics!

If this pandemic has shown us anything, it’s that we can learn a lot from the Millennials.  We’ve a younger colleague who had worked to get her organization up and running on Microsoft Teams—well before the pandemic hit. Her efforts were resisted at first, but lauded when the rest of the management team realized that the transition to working from home was seamless. The new normal that we’re facing isn’t necessarily hard, it’s just different, and we’ve got to adjust to the differences.  This is where the Millennials can help. They can show us how to use new tools and upgrade our technology and skills if we’re willing to listen and expand our point of view. 

Mentoring is the classic win/win situation. The mentee gains knowledge they didn’t have, and the mentor has the satisfaction that comes from doing something to benefit another. Those who are challenged by the new technology will come to realize that it’s taking business to the next level and it’s Millennials who are driving that path forward. Take them seriously and learn from them.

Manager’s Tip: If you want more ideas on mentoring, The Manager’s Answer Book answers this question: “I’ve had wonderful people during my career who served as mentors and helped me get to the management level. I’d like to start a formal mentoring program and have the support of senior management to do so. Can you give me some ideas on how to get started?”

“Answer: Good for you to want to ‘pay it forward’ and encourage mentoring in your organization. Mentoring is an excellent tool to develop staff that doesn’t cost much (or any) money but it can pay huge dividends for the individual and your organization, including your ability to hire talent employees. Smart job applicants ask if they might have a mentor to help them be productive if they join your organization. Other benefits of mentoring programs include the development of cross-organizational connections as people mentor employees from other departments and build channels of communication—often between people who might not have otherwise worked together.”

For more information on designing a formal mentoring program or selecting a mentor go to page 138 of The Manager’s Answer Book, a proud 2020 Winner of the Next Generation Indie Book Award. It’s available from Amazon -- https://tinyurl.com/y8umaqpz - Barnes & Noble or your local independent bookstore.  

Lifelong Learning – An Evergreen Concept - A Tip from The Manager’s Answer Book

“Lifelong learning is fundamental to building strong communities, companies, and economies.” This is a quote from a Harvard Business Review article published in its May-June 2018 issue entitled Why Lifelong Learning Matters More than Ever. In 2018, we could not have foreseen the circumstances under which we’d be managing in just two short years.

The article discusses how life long learning can go a long way toward helping us solve the skills shortage. There are more and more learning possibilities available to our employees, and during the pandemic we currently find ourselves in, everyone is having to get up to speed on technology and doing things virtually. That includes learning. People have been using their time in isolation to brush up on numerous learning opportunities. We’re all learning how to be more effective in virtual meetings. With webinars becoming more frequent events, there’s an opportunity to learn how to be an efficient presenter and an active participant.  

Manager’s Tip:  Life-long learning is a critical issue which we discuss in The Manager’s Answer Book:

Question: “I want to encourage my employees to continue to learn and grow. What can I do to help them see the importance of continuous learning?”

Answer: “Share what you’re learning with your staff. You can do this in a staff meeting by taking a few minutes to share a book, article, or other resource you’ve found to be helpful. If your employees seem receptive, it is a great idea to ask everyone to read a particular article or watch a specific video and then discuss it when you next meet. This is an easy way to get your employees interested in expanding their knowledge or skill base.”

There are so many ways to learn using available technologies, including:

• Webcasts
• Podcasts
• YouTube
• Online articles
• Audio books
• TED Talks

For more on this subject, see page 99 of The Manager’s Answer Book, available from Amazon -- https://tinyurl.com/y8umaqpz - Barnes & Noble or your local independent bookstore.

Finally, a shoutout to Next Generation Indie Book Awards. The Manager’s Answer Book is a proud 2020 Winner in their Career Book category.  The staff did an excellent job of conducting a virtual awards ceremony last month on Facebook Live. A learning opportunity for them.

American Ingenuity

The theme for this year’s National Book Festival is American Ingenuity. Sponsored by the Library of Congress and held in Washington, DC, the Festival was originally held outdoors on the National Mall. In 2014 it moved to the Washington Convention Center. Among the reasons for that move was protection from both heat and rain for festival goers. Barbara and I can relate to that reason. One year, we stood in line on an oppressively hot, humid day to meet David McCullough. Despite the weather, the experience was superb. 

It should be no surprise that the 2020 Festival will make another move to a virtual format necessitated by the COVID-19 crisis. Ironically, the theme of American Ingenuity now takes on a whole new meaning. As reported by the Washington Post on May 28, 2020, American Ingenuity is “a quality that will be required to effectively reimagine the event in a new virtual format.” A silver lining growing out of this pandemic is that the Festival can now reach a wider, global audience and “demonstrate how authors and their stories help to connect and illuminate the world.” Mark the dates—this year’s Festival will be held the weekend of September 25-27.

Ingenuity and creativity can grow out of crisis. The world of books and book publishing, where Barbara and I spend a great deal of time, is no exception.

BookBaby is a firm that helps authors partner with professionals to ease the process of self-publishing. We met their president, Steven Spatz, at a Writer’s Digest Conference and have been following the company ever since. They offer a wide array of services to authors and turn out quality products, all the things we were looking for in a publishing partner. Now, as we get closer to self-publishing our next book, we are more excited about working with them. Here’s why.

BookBaby and its sister company, Disc Makers, which serves independent musicians much the same way BookBaby serves independent authors, joined the battle against the COVID-19 virus.  Recognizing the urgent need for protective face shields, manufacturing engineers and operations pros came up with a prototype within two days. Supplies were ordered, specs were finalized, and workstations were set up on a Monday. Manufacturing started the next day. Employees from both companies—folks who work behind the scenes in production, packaging, and administration roles—became part of the effort and joined the production process. Instead of worrying about surviving and saving jobs, at the height of production, the companies began to worry if they had enough staff to fill the demand for the face shields. As Tony van Veen, CEO of Disc Makers said in a video, “it’s the first time in our 74-year history that we are literally saving lives with the products we make.” Talk about American Ingenuity.  

Speaking of BookBaby, Barbara and I will be working with them to get our next book, They Did What? Unbelievable Tales from the Workplace, self-published. We’ve introduced you to Maryanne, the main character, with some stories over the past months. The book is coming out later this year. We’ll keep you updated on our progress.

Find Your Own Way

Frank Sinatra sang about doing it “My Way.” Finding your own way to do things is important—

important for setting strategy for your organization or setting strategy for your career.  That doesn’t mean you can’t learn lessons from others.  When I first started consulting, someone told me, “Listen to other people’s ideas, try things out, but keep in mind that what works for someone else, may not work for you.  If it doesn’t, alter it or try something different.”

I read something interesting recently in a blog by Steven Spatz, President of BookBaby. He wrote, “Now, you can find all sorts of advice and read the success stories of independent and traditionally published authors. Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, or we’d all be using it and congratulating each other on our mutual good fortune. My advice? Any time you hear a success story, study it, parse it, and pick the elements of the story that resonate and seem applicable to your life and aspirations as an author. Your path won’t look exactly like anyone else’s, but you can take good ideas from a lot of different sources and create your own.”  Sounds an awful lot like the advice I received about consulting.  Bottom line is that we all have to find our own way to success.

In The Manager’s Answer Book we have a section on Creating Your Personal Brand. On page 113 we talk about the importance of being a courageous manager. A courageous manager is comfortable speaking up, especially if they think a mistake is about to be made or the organization may be heading in the wrong direction. They confront situations they think can be improved, and they present alternative options. They advocate for new ideas.  That doesn’t mean they dismiss an option that’s being presented. Rather they approach it in the way that Steven Spatz advises: they study and parse it, take good ideas and use them to shape a path for the organization. 

The same strategy can be applied to managing your career. Talk to other people who’ve been successful managers in your organization, and others, find out what they’ve done. Seek their advice, but don’t assume you have to do everything they did. Their circumstances may have been much different. Study it. Parse it. Pick the elements of their success story that may apply to your journey.

Speaking of finding your own way, Barbara and I are finding ours in the publishing world. We will be self-publishing our next book, They Did What? Unbelievable Tales from the Workplace. We’ve introduced you to Maryanne, the main character, with some stories over the past months. The book is coming out later this year, and we are working with BookBaby to get it printed and distributed. We’ll let you know how things progress.