In
the mid-90s I addressed an audience of parents and their kids and asked each
group to complete the following sentence: “You
have the right to…..”. The parental
group mostly completed it by adding “life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness”; the kids overwhelmingly said “remain silent”. Life is about perspectives: each group
approached the question from the lens of their own generation’s experiences. Extrapolate this concept to companies where
up to 5 generations are working side by side: supervisors often feel they don’t
understand the other generations (like Millennials) and ask for help in
managing this multi-generational dynamic more effectively. While there are
differences between them, there too are many similarities: one is the
expectation that while managers may remain silent, they will never, repeat,
never lie or shade the truth. Everyone wants straight and truthful answers to
questions: that’s part of what’s known as integrity and is one of the ways to
develop trust and respect in the workplace Never underestimate the capacity of
your employees to understand and accept the truth; give them that and they’ll rarely
disappoint you.
Robert L. Woodrum: Author
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