Millennial Motivator

The main idea of this transcription is about understanding and leveraging motivation when coaching millennials. It emphasizes the importance of not assuming what motivates them and instead taking the time to understand their goals and aspirations. The transcription includes a story about an executive who labeled a millennial employee and was frustrated with his behavior. Through a coaching opportunity, the executive realized that the employee had aspirations for promotion and used that as a leverage point to address his lateness and help him work towards his goals. Understanding someone's motivation can lead to more productive conversations and coaching outcomes. One of the most fundamental areas of coaching millennials where, for lack of a better description, leaders and the millennial can get themselves in trouble is the assumption of motivation. We have a concept that we always love to teach, and that is don't try to motivate until you first understand what motivates. Here's why. When you understand what motivates, it's in direct alignment of their wift, what's in it for them. Now, you certainly have expectations of what you need from the job. Remember you have the opportunity to tie that together. Let me share with you a very quick story to talk about motivation. I had an executive years ago call me and was really frustrated, and she kept talking about this young guy as a millennial. I remember saying to her, I said, would you mind if I just shared a concept with you? She said, sure. I said, but you can't respond for 10 seconds, is that cool? She started laughing, and I knew her well, and she said, sure. I said, you do know millennials are not a disease, right? She's ready to respond. I said, you said 10 seconds. After 10 seconds, I got her to think about it. She said, is that how I'm coming off? I said, you kept talking about millennials and how this generation drives you nuts. You haven't mentioned Scott's name much. She said, oh, my gosh. I'm labeling him. I said, it doesn't mean you're wrong, but you get where I'm going, and she said, yeah. I said, what is your frustration? She said, well, he wants to be promoted, and he's not ready. By the way, he is always, always late for work. I said, great. You have a wonderful coaching opportunity, yet your frustration's clouding how you can go about doing that. She said, well, what do you mean? I said, well, first of all, isn't it great he has aspirations? How many people do we know who just, I just want to come in and do my job and go home? She said, yeah, yeah, good point. Yeah, you're right. I said, now, let me play back a conversation piece. You sit down with Scott and say, Scott, one of the things you want to do is you want to get promoted to a team supervisor, which was the job she was alluding to. I think about you getting that job, and I think about you being in a position to go work for Bob, who's the head of that department. What's your understanding of how he manages? Scott, the young person, couldn't answer. He said, well, I don't know. She said, well, let me share something with you. He absolutely demands timeliness. Now, he's going to call me, and he's going to ask about that. What would you like me to say so you and I are honestly on the same page? And she said, he instantly got this wave of awareness over his head. And he said, yeah, yeah, I know. I'm kind of late. And she said, look, one thought that we should consider is what if we were on time all the time? And then in the next 90 days, you go for that next team supervisor position or the next six months, and then we have positioned you to get that job in a much better framework because I can say, Bob, he's on time all the time. He said, yeah, that's a good idea. She never once said, you're not ready. So you understand where somebody wants to go. Again, it becomes that leverage point to have really fruitful conversations.