Below is a great little video that a friend pointed me to. It’s less than 2 minutes long, so be sure to watch it through to the end (with your speakers on) … it will be worth it! I’ll give you some more background on it when you’re done.
Pretty cool, huh? This video was the second-place winner in a U@50 Challenge contest run by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) in 2007/2008. The goal of the U@50 Challenge was to encourage inter-generational dialogue and to give young people a chance to speak their minds while also giving AARP insight into their views. I think you’ll agree that this video certainly accomplished it goal. If you’re a “veteran” leader in an organization, then at minimum, this clip is an uplifting and refreshing voice from the perspective of a generation that often causes grief to supervisors and managers. But for me, this video did much more. What it really gave me was a dramatic illustration of what can happen if we simply change our perspective. Don’t know if you caught it, but at about the 0:48 mark, just before the words start rolling backwards, the narrator says “And all this will be true, unless we choose to reverse it”.
What does that mean for us in the bigger picture in our roles as leaders? Do you ever find yourself in a negative situation – poor work performance by an employee, deteriorating relationship with the boss or a co-worker, or worsening financial results – that just seems to spiral downwards? If so, what are you doing, what actions are you choosing to take, to reverse the direction? I would love to hear your thoughts and find out more about what you’re doing to accomplish this.
6 Comments
Thank you so much for sharing this.
You’re welcome Christine. It’s a pretty cool video, isn’t it?
This is wonderful.
Can I have a copy to share with my employees and the American Legion Post 127. I think it needs to be shared so that people get the idea that it does matter.
Glad you enjoyed the video Charlotte, I did too. This video is publicly available on YouTube, all I did was embed it directly from there into my blog (for ease in reading). To watch it in YouTube, just right-click your mouse over the video above, and then select the “Watch on YouTube” option. Once there, you can send a link to anyone you want, or you can link them directly to my blog.
I feel we sell this generation short on their abilities. They are used to instant everything but they also are looking for aproveal and direction. When they receive it and preform the job well they embrace every complement and encouragement whole heartily. They are will to improve if we stay possitive and pass it on to them.
I agree Carol. Despite the fact that this Millennial generation perplexes and, in many cases, frustrates Boomers and Gen-X’ers in the workplace, these young people also bring incredible benefits to the workplace but only IF you can figure out how to capitalize on their strengths. If you can tap into what makes each individual tick, these young people are remarkably loyal and committed, and they will make our organizations competitive and lucrative, and take businesses to the next level of success. In fact, I believe so much in the potential of this generation that I have identified six specific strategies that managers and supervisors can use to attract the cream of the Millennial generation, and to keep and lead them successfully.