» B Y JACK MUSKAT, PhD

Time for a paradigm shift!

It was not too long ago that Millenials were the target of jokes and outrage. Like boorish guests at a Royal Gala, they were criticized for

their dress, manners, attitude and values. They were lampooned for their workplace political naiveté, their overestimation of their abilities, their short attention spans, their craving for positive feedback, and their pursuit of work/life balance. You could hear the jeers and snickers from the Boomers, while the Gen Xers were oblivious to it all, caught between the generations, still paying down their student loans. The Millenials had arrived like aliens from a bad movie, itching to take over the world from the Boomers, but lacking awareness and nuance. Above all, they lacked power.

Coaching Millenials in 2015

MANAGING AND COACHING

Now, five years later, the war between the generations is over. They won and we lost. Now we are working for them if we are lucky enough to be working at all. What happened? The Millenials got older and smarter and the Boomers just got older. To be sure, there are still some Millenials bouncing around from job to job, looking for “meaning” and

“relevance”. But equally, there are also cadres of Boomers lumbering from one layoff to the next, muttering about how employers prefer youth to experience. Maybe so, they are just not interested in your experience.

Welcome to the Brave New Workplace of 2015, comprised of smart Millenials, seasoned Gen Xers, and wise Boomers, all working side by side, interacting in a complex web of reporting relationships that is constantly shifting and changing. Everyone is accountable, yet no one seems to be in charge.

It has been a good 20 years since the World Wide Web came into being and forever transformed our way of thinking, acting, feeling and being. We live in a culture of openness and transparency, where online linkages, free and unlimited information and social communities, have changed the rules of engagement for business success. The

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traditional, hierarchical, bureaucratic organization, modeled on the military, is struggling to attract customers as well as employees. Businesses that are organized around the power of social networks, peer endorsements, flawless execution, and customer value are the winners. Everybody else is a loser.

The current controversy over Uber, the app that connects you with a driver in minutes, is just the latest in a long list of disruptive technologies that notably include Amazon, iTunes, Linux, eBay, Facebook, and Netflix. The iPhone camera killed Nikon and Canon, YouTube destroyed network television, and newspapers and books have become relics. Indigo has transformed itself into a well-lit gift shop. When was the last time you bought a CD or DVD? It is all about downloading from the Cloud. Witness the exit of venerable Canadian retailers like Sears, Blockbuster, Smart Set, Jacob, Mexx and Sony. The recent failure of Target in Canada reminds us that the future for other merchandisers is equally challenging.

Employees now face the structural risk of permanent layoff in industries, like mining, automotive and energy, where robotics and automation have reduced worker requirements. Moreover, the new economy is able to scale revenue with a ridiculously low head count. In 2014, Facebook paid $19B for WhatsApp, a mobile messaging company with barely 50 employees.

Something dramatic, transformative and enduring has happened to the nature of work.

Work is no longer divided by person, task or level, and controlled by layers of management that add no value or are self-perpetuating. Rather, work is more likely to be project-based and team-resourced with shifting levels of responsibility, authority and accountability. I may be leading a team today, or part of another tomorrow.

Virtual teams have emerged as the preferred way to organize work in a global economy with scarce talent and resources. Comprised of near strangers scattered around the world, with various cultural and linguistic backgrounds who have never met face-to-face, they are expected to coordinate effort to achieve agreed upon goals. How are virtual teams expected to make decisions and resolve conflicts? How is work coordinated and reviewed? To whom do these teams report to and who is accountable for results?

The role of managerial and executive women in the workplace continues to be a thorny issue. On the one hand, on the most relevant metrics for career success — salary, progression, responsibility — women are equal to or surpass men at the same level in many industries, such as professional services and government, yet are still underrepresented in key corridors of power and influence at the most senior levels of the organization.

In light of these significant changes in how we work and how we relate to each other at work, how well has coaching adapted to meeting the needs of the new workplace? Who does the coaching, who gets coached, how does coaching get done, and how do we measure results?

The role of coachingThe old coaching paradigm assumes that managers and executives work along traditional lines, with clear reporting relationships and well-defined functional responsibilities. Coaching goals are then focused on developing “soft skills”, typically around communication, decision-making, conflict resolution and performance management. Personality testing and 360° feedback surveys are the tools of choice in getting the process started. But how do you do 360 multi-rater assessments when your team is project-based and unseen? Or where your role changes depending on task? Or how does knowing your Myers-Briggs preference type help you deal with a reluctant employee 6,000 miles away who doesn’t even report to you and has never met you?

Instead, we must develop a new approach for Millenials, one that is focused more on directly developing the skills needed to succeed in the future and less on measuring the gaps of the past. This approach needs to be nimble and responsive to the challenges and demands of a shifting and dynamic workplace, where success and failure can turn on a dime, and where everyone must work harder, faster, and with little feedback or direction.

Given this dynamic, we need to focus on developing four interrelated areas:

1 Influencing skillsIronically, it was the gutting of middle management that has led to the demise of the old style “command and control” leadership. There is simply no one around to enforce the rules. Instead we are seeing more “inspire and suggest” leadership, where employees collaborate with each other and their leaders to get things down. Millenials are so responsive to this approach, yet many lack the tools to influence others effectively. They need direct coaching in how to communicate, influence, listen and reward. They need to learn how to follow up and meet mutually agreed upon commitments. They need to know how to motivate and inspire. These are well-established skills that can be learned.

2 Negotiating tacticsThe only way to get others to do things is to learn how to serve their interests while serving your own. Since you can’t control them, you need to quickly figure out how to make your case, listen to theirs, and arrive at a mutually acceptable and sustainable solution. It is no use getting an agreement that no one will actually fulfill.

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of positions, and the careful guidance to a successful resolution. This is ultimately the source of competitive advantage. Millenials need to learn how to constructively express disagreement, how to deal with pseudo-compliance, and how to call out passive-aggressive behaviour.

As coaches, we no longer have the luxury of time, of carefully crafting developmental plans, with SMART goals, and periodic meetings over months. Rather, we must jump feet first into the Millenials’ work world, where we act like medics in the field, ready with our toolkit to staunch wounds, inoculate against disaster, and provide hope and guidance.

3 Understanding powerWe have moved from formal or “positional power” to

“personal power” to get things done through people. Millenials need to learn their sources of power and how to use these effectively. This continues to be a challenge for women, who do not always know how to use their power, and who often lack appropriate mentors to help them develop confidence and competence. Men also need to learn more subtle approaches to broaden their effectiveness.

4 Conflict dynamicsWe must move from avoiding to embracing conflict. The most successful companies promote free expression, the airing of differences, the fierce defense

E X P E R T

Jack Muskat, Ph.D., is a Toronto-based organizational psychologist, writer and lecturer with over 25 years consulting and business experience with individuals and organizations. He advises senior executives and managers around selection and developmental planning. Dr. Muskat is an acknowledged expert on issues relating to organizational culture and leadership, succession planning and strategic management. He is currently director of psychology at the Simcoe Place Health Clinic, a multidisciplinary health practice in downtown Toronto. He also teaches courses on leadership and negotiations at the Schulich School of Business.

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