Today I saw a great story about two aMillennials who showed their leadership by taking the initiative and convincing their university to provide comparable classes at a prison.

Four years ago, in fact, Wesleyan balked at a proposal to install such a program.

Two students, Russell Perkins and Molly Birnbaum, who had volunteered in prisons as students, revived the idea last year when they were seniors and figured out a way to finance it.

…a privately financed experiment in higher education that takes murderers and drug dealers and other inmates with histories of serious crime and gives them an opportunity to get an elite college education inside their high-security prison, the Cheshire Correctional Institution.

The professors involved say that the classes are just as tough as on campus.

These aren’t prisoners preparing for a return to society, in fact, some of them may never return. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want to learn—120 inmates applied 19 spots.

Skipping the debate as to whether this is a good program or not, the initiative shown is a large lesson for all those who spend their time reading and studying leadership instead of doing it.

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Post from: Leadership Turn

Before I had time to respond to the first one, the next two had arrived.

Hey Miki, I just want your opinion on this…

I had just finished a large project that had been assigned to me by my boss’s boss.  I had completed it last week, doubled up on my work, went over it with my boss, and gotten it approved to bring in front of HIS boss.  So we do, she liked it, end of that story.  This report was to be presented to some important people within the company during a meeting that was on Monday.  That same day I got this request from my boss to make printouts of some pages – actually, 6 custom printouts.  Basically this was to be about 6 copies of a 10-12 page packet.  He to add headers to my project spreadsheet (which was 8 worksheets) and get those printed out for the big meeting.  I said “Alright, I can do that” and began my task. He was setting me up for failure.

10-15 minutes later he comes rushing up to my desk asking for the printouts.  I wasn’t finished because I had to make a custom header for 8 worksheets, print out about 60 pages of about 4 different files (while other people were printing), and then customize the packets for each of the individuals in the meeting.  This didn’t sit well with him and he made some snarky comment like “How long does it take to print out some sheets? Jeeze.” Fast-forward to today and he hasn’t spoken to me unless I speak to him first (which was once and it was a simple question).

The kicker is he has a printer on his desk, the files are online, and everyone has a laptop.

So I feel I was set up for disaster.  I am the lowest paid in the department, the most tech-savvy, and a pretty well-rounded employee…except for the fact that I just got out of college and need more

Direction than your average employee, it feels like I am on the verge of getting fired… or sorry, I mean “rolled off” – I forgot contractors can’t get “fired.”

Miki

He recently (about 30 minutes ago) sent me an email stating: “Please take a look at this and make an action item log (excel) ….I want you to help me ensure that all of these items get completed.  Bring this to the 3:30 meeting as well (if you can have it by then)”

This is a list of about 8 items… does this come across as condescending to you?  I really don’t have any other tasks at the moment and I asked him for more stuff to do.  I finished it in 10 minutes… if that.

Is this a reasonable assumption or am I being melodramatic?

Well I have a meeting with him at 3:30 today to talk about some documents I have edited – it is an hour meeting.  I am hoping he will bring something up then.  At this point I am in “freak out” mode.

After reading these three, my response was, Freaking out will only upset your digestion:) Treat this like any class you took with a tough teacher. Listen carefully and try not to interpret as you do. Doing that will make you miss stuff. And don’t freak if he doesn’t bring anything up. We can talk on your way home.

Hey Miki – I talked with my boss and he has just been INCREDIBLY busy – maybe I am over-analyzing.  I may give you a call tomorrow – I think I should just sleep things off.

Brian’s realization that it was his boss’ schedule as opposed to his (Brian’s) work that was at the bottom of what happened is the first step to intelligent adulthood—a state at which many folks never arrive.

No matter your age or position, the unanswered email, the unreturned phone call, the forgotten whatever often have nothing to do with you, but everything to do with what is happening in the other person’s life.

So before you freak out or get down on a person take the time to find out what’s going on in their world; most of the time you’ll want to cut them some slack.

More on this tomorrow at Ducks In A Row.

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Post from: Leadership Turn

One of the current hypocrisy poster boys is Senator John Ensign, who really drove home what is acceptable and not acceptable in the prevailing attitudes of those who claim the moral high ground.

The Senator, who roundly condemned then-President Clinton’s sexual peccadillo and subsequent lying to a grand jury, said, “I haven’t done anything legally wrong.” (My emphasis.)

Which mean that if Clinton had admitted screwing around with Monica Lewinsky it would have made it a “distraction” (Ensign’s term for what he did.) as opposed to the felony created by lying.

Ensign is prominent member of the Promise Keepers leadership, which lists seven basic tenets, the third being, “A Promise Keeper is committed to practicing spiritual, moral, ethical and sexual purity” and the fourth, “A Promise Keeper is committed to building strong marriages and families through love, protection and Biblical values.”

Ensign violated both and compounded the violations by having his parents pay off his mistress.

These don’t count, since Promise Keepers isn’t a legal entity and, obviously, lying to your followers and constituency isn’t illegal—just unethical and immoral.

What kids will absorb is that there are no real repercussions; Ensign still holds his Congressional seat, will probably win reelection, hasn’t changed his role in Promise Keepers, and is still cheered when he gives a speech. And if reporters dare to raise additional questions, his response is “I’ve said everything I was going to say about that.”

We may ring our hands and lament the lack of accountability of society in general and the Millennials in particular, but we don’t have to look very far to find the cause.

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Post from: Leadership Turn

The latest is a list from LeaderTalk that describes Millennials’ Five Leadership Truths:

Truth #1 – Leadership development begins with self development; it’s about the individual; what is the first question most people want to ask a new leader?

Truth #2 – You can’t do it alone

Truth #3 – The foundation of Leadership is Credibility

Truth #4 – You either lead by example or you don’t lead at all.

Truth #5 – Being forward-looking most differentiates leaders.

Nearly two years ago Success Television listed Gen Y’s 10 main turnoffs…

1. Inflexibility.
2. Judgmental attitudes.
3. Close-mindedness.
4. Fear of and an unwillingness to use technology.
5. Unwillingness to listen to and respect Gen Y’s opinions, ideas and views.
6. Intimidation.
7. Being told they have to “pay their dues”.
8. Lack of professional and leadership development through the company.
9. Emphasis on traditional dress (coat or suit and tie are out).
10. Lack of intellectual horsepower. [By what yardstick? Miki]

Now I ask you, what on either of these lists is new? It seems to me that they are the same things that Boomers and Gen X (and previous generations) have been complaining about for years; the language changes, but the concepts aren’t new.

Sadly, I believe that the workforce will be complaining of the same types of things long after I’ve turned to dust.

Boomers and Gen X were just as much a disruptive force in the workplace-of-that-time as Millennials are today.

Granted the willingness to stick it out has shortened considerably, but even the willingness to walk if you’re not happy is based to no small degree on a healthy economy where the next job is easily available.

Add time and a few age-driven responsibilities—kids, mortgages, aging parents—to the mix and soon Millennials will be the establishment with another generation ranting about their unwillingness to change.

The demands of each generation are what forces change, both large and small, upon the workplace—always has and always will.

Hat tip to The Leadership Hub for pointing the LeaderTalk post.

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That’s what Trina Thompson is doing to the tune of $72000; $2000 of which is compensation for the stress engendered by an unsuccessful three month job search; she graduated in April with a bachelor of business administration degree in information technology.

I’m not sure what planet Thompson is on, but she seems to think that her attendance record combined with a 2.7 GPA makes her a great find for any company.

Thompson finds major fault with the Monroe College Career Center…

“They’re supposed to say, ‘I got this student, her attendance is good, her GPA is all right — can you interview this person?’ They’re not doing that. They favor more toward students that got a 4.0. They help them more out with the job placement.”

Apparently it never dawned on her that it’s the companies who look for better GPAs.

And when did education come with a guarantee? Especially one that transcends all factors—economic conditions, grades, intelligence and, especially, attitude?

Apparently this business major hasn’t noticed the recession and has no understanding of the global economy.

She did show up, although learned very little based on her current actions.

Jim Gordon, who draws mY Generation for my other blog, graduated with a degree in industrial engineering and a similar GPA; he landed a three month internship and just received a full time offer.

What Jim has is a solid gold attitude, the kind that all managers want on their team; he doesn’t think he knows everything, wants to learn, assumes that attendance is a given not an accomplishment and that hard work is the name of the game—in short, he’s an aMillennial.

Thompson thinks that any new grad who doesn’t find a job should sue.

“It doesn’t make any sense: They went to school for four years, and then they come out working at McDonald’s and Payless. That’s not what they planned.”

After all, the world owes you—just ask Trina Thompson.

This follow-up to the article came Wednesday.

The Ski Channel has offered Thompson an entry level job. According to Founder/CEO Steve Bellamy, “Either Ms Thompson is a cunning out of the box thinker and we want he or she isn’t, and her position would not last long.  Either way, the law suit would no longer be clogging up the courts because there are now no damages.  She now has a bonifide job offer.  She just needs to call us and go over the details.  But it is real and valid.  If she is this feisty, we’ll try her out.  But if she is playing the victim card and pushing her problems onto everyone else – then her job wouldn’t likely last long.”

It will be interesting to see if Thompson accepts the position and, if she does, whether her efforts will go beyond good attendance.

Be sure to read the comments, two really stand out, “She’s not “a cunning out of the box thinker”, she’s a brat with a sense of entitlement.” And “I know the girl and don’t think it is a wise hire.”

Many said it was a great idea because it will remove the suit from an overloaded court (But what happens if every new grad that doesn’t get hired follows suit?), while others said that Ski Channel should expect a lawsuit if they do fire her.

I’ll keep you posted.

Hat tip to Andrew Gordon, who sent me this irresistible article and the follow-up.

Be sure to see what my buddy Mark Jabo has to say about Trina over at Biz Levity.

Apologies to those of you who expected the interview with KG Charles-Harris, founder of M3, today. The interview will be next week.

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Assuming you live on this planet you’re aware that there’s a recession going on, so what’s happening in the world of youth and parents?

Business Week had a great article on Growing Up In A Recession, while the NY Times says that parents finally are figuring out that whatever doesn’t have to be new and are opting for hand-me-downs and cutting off their trust-fund babies. Good grief, they might have to make it on their own!

Do you tweet? Some college professors are finding uses for Twitter in their teaching, although enhancing spelling isn’t one of them; speaking of education, some schools are delivering sex ed via cell phone.

How fair or valuable are anonymous teacher rating sites, such as Rate My Professors or Professor Performance, some teachers don’t aren’t concerned, but others may not be so sanguine.

Multiple studies by professors at a variety of universities show that having interracial roommates reduces prejudice. Not that surprising, it’s hard to hate a real individual vs. a hypothetical stereotype.

Finally, there’s a new texting champion (control your enthusiasm) who practiced by sending 14,000 texts a month. Isn’t that thrilling?

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As with any large group, negative attitudes and actions often get more attention and press than positive ones and I’m no exception.

Leadership’s Future is often about Millennials—their sense of entitlement, expectations, impatience, and the parental intervention that fuels it.

My Millennial friends kid me that I’m ignoring a large number of their demographic, although even they don’t claim that it’s anywhere near a majority.

But they do have a point, so I’m offering up a new term to designate those who are chronologically, but not psychologically, Millennials.

aMillennial, because placing an ‘a’ in front of a word nullifies its meaning (see a-6).

I ran into a great example of the positive at AARP’s u@50 contest.

It wasn’t the first place winner that blew me away, but the second.

Her words are an inspiration for us all and a good lesson to remember that people change as life changes.

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But that was then and this is now.

Andrew Gordon sent me a link to a Washington Post article discussing how thirty-something is the new twenty-something (the comments are well worth reading, too).

In other words, people are “coming of age” far later in life than ever before.

Maybe this isn’t surprising, since people aren’t aging the way they did.

In books and films from the forties and before, even into the fifties, people in their fifties and sixties were described or portrayed as elderly, while those in their seventies and up were considered ancient—tell that to a Boomer if you want to die young.

But is it really necessary to delay growing up just because people are staying young longer?

Does staying young really require immaturity?

Has ‘adult’ become a dirty word synonymous with out-of-date, out-of-touch, unable to grow and change?

If so, we are in deep doo-doo.

Obviously, there are millions of responsible twenty and thirty-year-olds who are building careers and relationships and families.

But there are millions more who are still living at home; hanging out and who have no real concept of responsibility.

Then there are those who look great on the surface, but thwart them, throw a few obstacles their way, or scratch them with a real conversation and the immaturity oozes out.

If this keeps up the 2025 remake of “The 40 Year Old Virgin” will be “The 50Year Old Virgin” or maybe 55.

40 years ago Spock made being smart sexy.

How can we make maturity sexy?

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Post from: Leadership Turn

A good place to start is by encouraging your people to question the fundamentals (QF) of the company.

QF is one of the best ways to overcome the “…but we’ve always done it that way” school of thought and foes a long way to overturning “not invented here” syndrome; both are major stumbling blocks to innovation, productivity, retention and a host of other positives moves.

QF also goes a long way to attracting Millennials and other creative types, because there are no sacred cows—everything is open to improvement and change.

However, making an announcement isn’t going to do it.

Start by identifying your company’s fundamentals, not so much the official ones (although they can also be problematic) as the unwritten/unspoken ones your employees deal with every day.

It’s easy to find them, just ask—but ask knowing that you may not like the answers. (One client found that, contrary to its stated policy, their people believed that quality wasn’t as important as shoving the product out the door.)

Depending on your current culture the identification process can be anything from a public brainstorming session with a whiteboard to some kind of “suggestion box” that’s truly anonymous.

You may be very surprised at some of the perceptions that turn up.

Once you start on a list of fundamentals you want to open them up to debate—the more passionate the better—using a combination of technology (forum, wiki, etc.) and in person discussions. The object being to decide whether to modify/jettison/keep each one, as well as what to add.

Unless your MAP dictates a company that functions in Dilbertland, this is an ongoing, proactive management task to encourage employees to question, rethink, revamp or even dump the company’s fundamentals.

Even when QF is deeply embedded in your culture you can’t assume your people will keep doing it and new people coming from other cultures will need assurance that QF is indeed part of your company’s DNA.

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Post from: Leadership Turn

Two articles caught my eye this week, both on a very positive note.

Education

The first is an overview discussing what Arne Duncan, the new education secretary, did in Chicago and wants to do nationally. It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot more than we’ve seen in years. Not only that, but the price tag per school isn’t that outrageous considering what I’ve seen previously and he doesn’t seem to expect states to pull the funding out of thin air as NCLB did.

It won’t be a silver bullet (what is), but maybe we’re finally moving (glacially) in a positive direction.

Parenting

The second article is even more encouraging, since it looks at parents—who are at the heart of this mess.

Like most other things, parenting styles change—call it parenting-by-fad.

But I see this new fad as a move in the right direction. It’s about letting kids play, doing less and (maybe) realizing that your kids are not the center of the universe or even your primary purpose in life.

How’s that for revolutionary?

Can you imagine? Instead of having every minute of every week packed with scheduled functions, parents would expend some of that energy making sure that their kids used the free time to run around, play using their imaginations, read, think and dream, as opposed to texting, keyboarding or watching TV.

They could use some of the extra time and energy that went into keeping their offspring on schedule to staying involved with their spouse and some more on feeding their own soul.

They might even have enough energy to learn to say ‘no’ and stop indulging their kids to the point of entitlement.

Sounds like a trip to Fantasy Island, but who knows, it might be part of the recession’s silver lining.

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