Achtung dear fellow leaders! Gen Y is coming your way.
As all things in life Gen Y is basket of mixed blessings. Historically the most educated, wired and connected generation to date, a large minority of this generation have a very specific handicap: lack of hardship experience!
Put another way: there is a large group of Gen Yers who grew up with the proverbial silver spoon firmly lodged in their mouth. Doted on by over-loving parents life has been a smooth sail for them, nice homes, excellent schools, far flung vacations and branded items galore have been an unquestioned part of their existence thus far.
All this has created a sense of entitlement, choice and personal specialness which makes these members of Gen Y behave like a strawberry: beautiful to behold yet easily bruised when touched too roughly.
The problem is that you, as their manager, might be the first taste of real life they will get.
Filtering The Guys With The ‘Right Stuff’ & Getting Them To Deliver
The arrival of the Strawberry Generation in the corporate world is heralded by frustrated managers who regularly enquire at sessions:
How come we chose this person? He/she looked so good during the interview, has excellent certificates, is well spoken, intelligent… then he/she turned out to be hard to motivate, not driven and willing to leave at the first challenge!
Get Them MOVING -> Use The Commando Reverse Psychology Strategy
Have you ever watched a movie set in the world of elite commandos? There is an interesting scene in many of these movies:
Some young guy wants to join the team. He seems like a nice guy, intelligent, well spoken… yet something is missing, that special ingredient, the OOOMPH factor.
This is when the sergeant steps up. He gets really close up to the potential recruit, eyeballs him closely, nose to nose… then he slowly walks around the potential recruit and says ‘Son, why do you want to join this unit?’ says it and sniffs at the young man’s collar “Son, I smell fear in you! Are you man enough for this challenge? Hmmmm, you see son, we don’t just take anyone who happens to have a little hero dream… so what will it be. Are you ready to sign on with everything you’ve got! Follow orders, play team and when we say ‘jump’ you will shout ‘how high!’… is that clear son?! ”
Make Them WANT IT!
This classic scene plays out a simple psychological mechanism: if you hand an opportunity to a person on a silver platter chances are the person may ignore the opportunity.
Make an opportunity exclusive, hard to get, secret or scarce and something strange happens in the human psyche: our hunting instincts mixed with our fear of scarcity kick in! All of a sudden we want it! Whatever ‘it’ is…
The Strawberry Gens are superbly educated and for the most part are used to getting things served on a silver platter. Ignite their hunting instincts: it’s time you made things a little harder to reach for them…
Have Them Sell Themselves To You!
When interviewing a Strawberry Gener firmly resist the temptation of offering your job opportunity on a silver platter. Create an aura of elitist exclusivity, give them the ‘Right Stuff’ speech:
‘OK Peter, I see you have excellent certs and a good degree. Now tell me a little about yourself and your family, what car do you drive, what hobbies do you have…’
After Peter has tells you about himself it’s time to use reverse psychology:
‘Interesting Peter, so your father is a corporate lawyer and your mother an accountant. You grew up in a nice neighborhood, went on overseas holidays ever since you can remember, have had an all expenses paid education at X University, currently drive a model Y car that you did not pay for and wear a Z brand watch your parents bought you for your birthday… Now tell me Peter, why should I hire you? Why should I give you this unique opportunity that may be much better suited for a hungry young upstart who has something to fight for in life, who cannot go back to a cozy penthouse when the going gets hard… tell me please why I should give you this opportunity?’
This puts the Strawberry in the back foot! The tables have turned, instead of being welcomed with open arms and acknowledged for all his achievements ,as he is used to, Peter all of a sudden has to justify himself and truly dig in deep to sell his services and understand that his ‘goods’ may be replaceable… that what is truly wanted is commitment.
Test this strategy the next time you are interviewing potential young team members and you will have an excellent new filter to uncover the true personalities and agendas of your interviewees.
