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Bruce Tulgan is internationally recognized as the leading expert on young people in the workplace. He is an advisor to business leaders and the author or coauthor of sixteen books, including the classic Managing Generation X and the best-seller It's Okay to Be the Boss. Since founding the management training firm RainmakerThinking, he has been a sought-after keynote speaker and seminar leader. Tulgan's work has been the subject of thousands of news stories, and he has written for dozens of publications, including the New York Times, USA Today, Human Resources Magazine, and the Harvard Business Review. He also holds a fourth-degree black belt in karate and is married to Debby Applegate, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

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Praise for Not Everyone Gets a Trophy

"Thanks to Bruce, a management revolution has taken place at Joe's Crab Shack. His step-by-step approach and expert insight into generation X and Y have empowered our leaders to become great managers."?Ray Blanchette, president and CEO, Joe's Crab Shack

"If anyone deserves a trophy it's Bruce Tulgan for helping us crack the code on understanding this new generation in the workforce. ?I hope he's made some room on his mantel!"?Marianne Brush, executive vice president, Massachusetts Society of CPAs"Bruce Tulgan is a leader on this subject, and he has written a superb book that is colorful, warm, research-based, and above all, useful. His clear tips provide anyone in a supervisory position with the data they need to engage, develop, and retain Generation Y employees."?Beverly Kaye, coauthor of the best-selling Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay"Bruce's research on Generation Y has had a powerful impact on our leadership team. If you want a real strategic advantage in recruiting, managing, and retaining Generation Y, read this book."Greg Lucier, chairman and CEO, Invitrogen Corporation"Professionals across all industries will find Bruce's analysis of Generation Y in the workplace spot-on. He dispels the myths and provides a fresh interpretation that makes sense to those of us who have already tried the more traditional approaches to engage, train, and retain these folks. This book is a must-have tool!"?Samantha Snyder, director, Kaufman Rossin University, Kaufman, Rossin & Co."Bruce has taught many of us the importance of communicating with our workforce in a manner where workers know what is expected of them and managers provide regular feedback on how well those expectations are being met. This book helps us accomplish this more effectively with Generation Y."?Thomas A. Cappello, medical center director, North Florida/South Georgia VA Health System

Aus dem Klappentext

Based on more than a decade of research, Not Everyone Gets a Trophy reframes Generation Y (those born between 1978 and 1990) at a time when many employers are struggling to engage, develop, and retain them. Bruce Tulgan declares that Generation Y is the most high-maintenance workforce in history, but he argues that they also have the potential to be the most high-performing workforce in history.

As he does in his seminars, Bruce presents poignant quotes from Gen Yers and those who manage them, putting the two perspectives in conversation throughout the book. Not Everyone Gets a Trophy does what no other study of Generation Y has done:

• Debunks the fourteen most common myths about Generation Y in the workplace.

• Shows managers how to tune-in to Gen Yers' "short-term and transactional" mindset.

• Argues that the key to success is not trying to make the workplace "fun." Rather, the key is strong, highly engaged leadership. He devotes an entire chapter to what he calls "in loco parentis management."

• Provides proven, step-by-step best practices for getting Gen Yers onboard and up-to-speed?giving them the context they lack, teaching them how to manage themselves and how to be managed, and turning the very best into new leaders. Not Everyone Gets a Trophy is the essential guide for winning the talent wars and managing Generation Y.

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Not Everyone Gets A Trophy

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

The Most High-Maintenance Workforce in the History of the World

They keep telling me, "Here's what you get in five years, ten years, twenty years ..." But they expect me to come back to work tomorrow. What do I get tomorrow? -Gen Yer

Not long ago, the president of a health care consulting firm told me he had just interviewed a twenty-five-year-old man for a job in his firm. The young candidate came to the interview armed with a number of ordinary questions about job duties, salary, and, benefits. When these questions were answered, he made a request: "You should know that surfing is really important to me and there might be days when the surf's really up. Would you mind if I came in a little later on those days?"

* * *

At a major food conglomerate, summer interns are usually given an assignment, such as a big data-entry project, that they can complete during the course of their summer employment. An executive there shared with me the story of one of his latest interns: "On the first day, she announced she had invented a new cereal. She had a box, complete with artwork and a bag of her cereal inside, that she called her 'prototype.' Clearly she had gone to great lengths, including the recipe and nutritional information and preparing a slide show. She wanted to know when she would be able to pitch her idea to senior executives. 'The sooner the better,' she said."

* * *

An experienced nurse-manager in a busy hospital told me she stopped a new young nurse from administering the wrong medicine by intravenous drip to a patient. The manager pulled the young nurse aside and explained emphatically how serious a mistake she almost made. "I explained that this is how patients die unnecessarily. I told her, 'You need to check the wrist bracelet, then the patient's chart, then the charge list, then the IV bag. Then you need to check them all again.'" Before she was finished, the young nurse interrupted her. "Actually, you are doing this conversation wrong," she told her boss. "You are supposed to give me some positive feedback before you criticize my work." What did the manager respond? "Okay. Nice shoes. Now, about that IV bag ..."

* * *

A group of executives in the U.S. Peace Corps reported that program administrators receive e-mails on a regular basis from parents making suggestions and requests about the living accommodations and work conditions of their children stationed on missions around the world. One of the Peace Corps executives told me, "I just got an e-mail from a parent saying the meals being provided don't meet his kid's dietary needs. Could we get this young man on a nondairy diet?" The funny thing is that generals in the U.S. Army have told me similar stories about the parents of soldiers.

* * *

Another experienced manager, this one in a retail organization, told me an even more striking story. This manager was trying to correct a young associate who had just spoken rudely to a customer. The young man turned to his boss and said, "You know what? I'm thinking about buying this place. And the way you are going, you are going to be the first one out of here!"

* * *

Managing people has never been easy. Stuck between employer and employees, managers are tasked with the tough job of negotiating their often competing needs and expectations. But as these stories illustrate, being a manager is even more difficult when a new generation enters the workforce and brings with it new attitudes and behaviors. Every day, leaders and managers in organizations of all shapes and sizes in just about every industry all over the Western world tell me stories about working with the new generation of young employees-the so-called Generation Y-that suggest this might be the most difficult generation to manage yet. Managers tell me:

"They walk in the door on day one with very high expectations."

"They don't want to pay their dues and climb the ladder."

"They walk in the door with seventeen things they want to change about the company."

"They only want to do the best tasks."

"If you don't supervise them closely, they go off in their own direction."

"It's very hard to give them negative feedback without crushing their morale."

"They walk in thinking they know more than they know."

"They think everybody is going to get a trophy in the real world, just like they did growing up."

It seems to me that the vast majority of leaders and managers think Gen Yers have an attitude problem.

But isn't this always the case when a new generation joins the workforce? Doesn't every new generation of young workers irritate the older, more experienced ones? At the early career stage of life, young people are just learning to break away from the care of others (parents, teachers, institutions) and taking steps toward self-sufficiency and responsibility. Some do it more slowly than others. As they move into the adult world with the energy and enthusiasm-and lack of experience-that is natural at that stage, they are bound to clash with more mature generations.

And yet as much as human experience-such as the rite of passage into the workforce-stays the same over time, the world doesn't. One epoch may be defined by an ice age, another by global warming. What makes each generation different are these accidents of history that shape the larger world in which human beings move through their developmental life stages. So while every generation rocks the boat when they join the adult world, they also bring with them defining characteristics that alter the rules of the game for everyone going forward.

Gen Yers' "attitude" probably is not likely to go away as they mature; their high-maintenance reputation is all too real. Still, the whole picture is more complicated. Yes, Generation Y will be more difficult to recruit, retain, motivate, and manage than any other new generation to enter the workforce. But this will also be the most high-performing workforce in history for those who know how to manage them properly.

Meet Generation Y

I've been conducting in-depth interviews with young people in the workplace steadily since 1993. That was shortly before the oldest Gen Yers-those on the cusp of Generation X-started arriving in the workplace as teenagers. Since then, we've followed Gen Yers as they have become the new young workforce and have been developing a comprehensive picture of who they are, how they became that way, and what motivates them. First, to understand the historical context of Generation Y, I'd like to take a few steps back and glance at the accidents of history that defined the generations leading up to Gen Y.

The generation born before the Baby Boom, what I call the Schwarzkopf generation, grew up mostly in the 1930s and 1940s. Their young adulthood was defined by a period of confidence and stability following the upheaval of depression and war. The Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, were defined by two distinct eras: the first was characterized mostly by the stability of 1950s and early 1960s, while the second coincided with the major social change of the 1960s. Generation X came onto the scene in the 1970s, when adults were steeped in the self-absorption of the "me decade." By the time they came of age in the 1980s and early 1990s, globalization and technology were making the world highly interconnected, rapidly changing, fiercely competitive, and information driven. Their first days at work were also the first days of downsizing-and the last days of job security. While the older workers were hanging on to their desks groaning, "Hold on! It's a workplace revolution! Please, don't downsize me," Gen Xers, in the vanguard of the free-agent mind-set and self-directed career path, shrugged: "Downsize me. Whatever."

Now there is Generation Y.

Although demographers often differ on the exact parameters of each generation, there is a general consensus that Generation X ends with the birth year 1977. Some suggest anyone born between 1978 and 2000 belongs in the Millennial Generation. Given the accelerating pace of change, I think this group is too large. I prefer to break the so-called Millennials into two cohorts: Generation Y (people born between 1978 and 1990) and, for now, Generation Z (anyone born between 1991 and 2000). The oldest among Generation Y are reaching their thirties, but this book is really about the heart of Generation Y, those born during the Reagan years, who grew up mostly in the 1990s, came of age in the 2000s, and are filling up the youth bubble in today's workforce.

Here's the short story with Generation Y. If you liked Generation X, you are going to love Generation Y. Generation Y is like Generation X on-fast-forward-with-self-esteem-on-steroids.

Gen Yers' childhood was defined mostly by the 1990s, and they are reaching their early stage of adulthood amid the profound changes of the 2000s-this era of uncertainty. One could say that the same major historical forces that shaped Generation X are also shaping Generation Y: Globalization and technology, institutions in a state of constant flux, the information tidal wave, and the growing immediacy of everything. But those forces have picked up so much velocity in just one generation that I would argue there is a profound difference in the life experience of Generation Y-a true generational shift.

Globalization and technology have been shaping change since the dawn of time. But during the life span of Generation Y, globalization and technology have undergone a qualitative change. After all, there is only one globe, and it is now totally interconnected. Gen Yers connect with their farthest-flung neighbors in real time regardless of geography through online communities of interest. But as our world shrinks (or flattens), events great and small taking place on the other side of the world (or right next door) can affect our material well-being almost overnight. World institutions-nations, states, cities, neighborhoods, families, corporations, churches, charities, and schools-remain in a state of constant flux just to survive. Authority is questioned routinely. Research is quick and easy. Anyone can get published. We try to filter through the endless tidal wave of information coming at us from an infinite number of sources all day, every day. Nothing remains cutting edge for very long. What we know today may be obsolete by tomorrow. What is beyond belief today may be conventional wisdom by tomorrow. Meanwhile, the pace of everything continues to accelerate. A year is long term, and five years is just a hallucination. Short term is the key to relevance. In a world defined by constant change, instantaneous response is the only meaningful time frame.

Gen Yers are comfortable in this highly interconnected rapidly changing web of variables. They've never known the world any other way. Uncertainty is their natural habitat. Globalization does not make Gen Yers feel small. Rather, it makes them feel worldly. Technological change does not make them feel as if they are racing to keep up. Rather, it makes them feel connected and powerful. Institutions may be in a state of constant flux, but that's no problem. Gen Yers are just passing through anyway, trying to squeeze out as much experience and as many resources as they can. Authority figures and celebrities may disintegrate for all to see. But this doesn't make Gen Yers cynical. Rather, it gives them faith in everyday heroes. The information tidal wave may inundate us all with more data in one day than anyone could possibly sort through in a lifetime. But this doesn't make Gen Yers feel overwhelmed or uninformed. Rather, it makes them would-be experts on everything. The pace of everything may be accelerating to the point where we expect immediacy in all of our doings. But this doesn't make Gen Yers feel slow. Rather, it makes them impatient. Right now is the only real time. Constant change means you can't count on anything to stay the same. But this doesn't make Gen Yers feel nostalgic. Rather, it makes them feel liberated to abandon what bores them, embrace new things wholeheartedly, and reinvent themselves constantly.

Why are Gen Yers so confident and self-possessed, even in the face of all this uncertainty? One reason is surely that they grew up in the Decade of the Child. Gen Xers were the great unsupervised generation (we made the latchkey into a metaphor). But Generation Y was the great oversupervised generation. In the short time between the childhood of Generation X and that of Generation Y, making children feel great about themselves and building up their self-esteem became the dominant theme in parenting, teaching, and counseling. Throughout their childhood, Gen Yers were told over and over, "Whatever you think, say or do, that's okay. Your feelings are true. Don't worry about how the other kids play. That's their style. You have your style. Their style is valid and your style is valid." This is what child psychologists called "positive tolerance," and it was only one small step to the damaging cultural lies that somehow "we are all winners" and "everyone gets a trophy." In fact, as children, most Gen Yers simply showed up and participated-and actually did get a trophy.

Every step of the way, Gen Yers' parents have guided, directed, supported, coached, and protected them. Gen Yers have been respected, nurtured, scheduled, measured, discussed, diagnosed, medicated, programmed, accommodated, included, awarded, and rewarded as long as they can remember. Their parents, determined to create a generation of superchildren, perhaps accelerated their childhood. On one hand, kids grow up so fast today (I often say that twelve is the new nineteen); on the other, they seem to stay tightly moored to their parents throughout their twenties. Their early precociousness, in fact, turns into a long-lasting sophomorism. Many psychologists have observed that Gen Yers act like highly precocious late adolescents well into adulthood. (I often say that thirty is the new twenty.)

The power of diversity has finally kicked over the melting pot. Generation Y is the most diverse generation in history in terms of ethnic heritage, geographical origins, ability/disability, age, language, lifestyle preference, sexual orientation, color, size, and every other way of categorizing people. But this doesn't make Gen Yers feel alienated and threatened. Rather, they take the concept of diversity to a whole new level. (I call it infinite or total diversity.) To Gen Yers, every single person, with his or her own combination of background, traits, and characteristics, is his or her own unique diversity story. Gen Yers feel little need to conform for the purpose of gaining entry to institutions. For Generation Y, difference is cool. Uniqueness is the centerpiece of identity. Customization of the self is sought after with great zest and originality, through constant experimentation. In the world of Generation Y, the menu of selfhood options is extraordinary and the range of possible combinations infinite.

How do Gen Yers continually shape and reshape their uniqueness? They want to customize anything and everything they possibly can. This goes beyond the services and products they buy. It goes very deep. Gen Yers want to customize their very minds, bodies, and spirits.

Gen Yers customize their minds by customizing their information environment on the Internet. They voraciously pursue an ever-increasing array of mind food-images, sounds, experiences, texts-in an ever increasing range of media and formats, from an ever increasing number of sources, for an ever increasing number of purposes (education, skills training, self-help, health, entertainment, news, household matters, consumer interests, life planning, death planning, spirituality, and so on). They are info junkies compulsively pouring through bits and bytes, mixing and matching the perspectives that appeal to them. Gen Yers know they have more and more information available to them, right at their fingertips, from more and more sources on every conceivable subject. In this environment, Gen Yers have always had the ability to create their own ever-changing personal montage of information, knowledge, and meaning. The ability to access and manipulate information from a wide range of sources gives every individual the opportunity to identify and create meaning with genuine use value and resonance, at least to some online community of interest they can locate or build. In a world with so much perspective, traditional thinking, knowing, and believing are impossible.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Not Everyone Gets A Trophyby Bruce Tulgan Copyright © 2009 by Bruce Tulgan. Excerpted by permission.
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