Latest / The GrowthPro Edge / Leading the Next Generation | The GrowthPro Edge

Transcript

Leading the Next Generation | The GrowthPro Edge · The GrowthPro Edge

• 0:00
  Denise Killian: Welcome to The GrowthPro Edge.
• 0:02
  We're here to help scale your business, build stronger teams,
• 0:06
  and sharpen your leadership skills.
• 0:11
  Hello, and welcome to The GrowthPro Edge.
• 0:13
  I'm Denise Killian, your host with the GrowthPro Group.
• 0:18
  Well, it's mid-May, and right now thousands of young leaders are
• 0:23
  graduating and ready to enter the workforce literally as we're speaking.
• 0:29
  So today we're talking about what you as a leader in your industry
• 0:33
  need to know about these new folks entering the workforce, and how you
• 0:38
  can be a stronger leader for them.
• 0:41
  We'll be speaking with Genevieve Sullivan, our own young leader guru, to find out.
• 0:47
  So let's get started.
• 0:50
  Genevieve Sullivan, I'm so excited to have this conversation with
• 0:54
  you today and for our audience.
• 0:57
  You always have such wonderful things to say about your work with
• 1:00
  young leaders, so I couldn't think of anyone better for this topic.
• 1:04
  So welcome, Genevieve.
• 1:06
  Hi, excited to be here.
• 1:08
  Always excited to talk about, um, uh, this age range.
• 1:13
  Uh, it's something that I've, I've worked a lot of years in, and it's
• 1:17
  always really great to be able to kinda talk about what's going on, uh, with
• 1:21
  our current youth, uh, in the world.
• 1:25
  So explain to me, uh, to the audience, I know why I consider you my young
• 1:30
  people guru and young leader guru, but explain to the audience why you are.
• 1:35
  Sure.
• 1:35
  Um, so I, in a previous, uh, career in life, I actually, um, I have
• 1:40
  a master's in higher education and worked in higher education.
• 1:44
  And so the way, um, for those of you who, who may or may not know, it's
• 1:48
  essentially like getting a master's degree in early childhood development,
• 1:52
  but for people ages 18 to 25.
• 1:54
  So specifically in that, like, end of high school, like, into your first job, into,
• 2:01
  uh, your college education, if that's what people are doing, but that age range.
• 2:06
  And there's a lot of, um, things developmently, developmentally that
• 2:09
  happen during that time, uh, that actually are very similar to what you
• 2:13
  see in early childhood development.
• 2:15
  But really, uh, studied that, um, uh, worked in higher education.
• 2:19
  And then before coming and working for the GrowthPro Group, um, I worked
• 2:25
  for the YMCA, uh, in training and development, and that's also a very
• 2:30
  similar age structure when you're talking about, uh, people working with youth.
• 2:34
  So you see a lot of staff members that are 16 to 25 years old, a
• 2:40
  lot of people in their first jobs.
• 2:43
  Um, so I, I tend to have a little bit of an expertise, um, not only
• 2:47
  from the experience, but also, like, the educational knowledge of
• 2:50
  what's going on in, uh, in people during that phase of their life.
• 2:53
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 2:54
  So you have worked with young leaders throughout your career, and, uh, with
• 3:02
  us at the GrowthPro Group, you also do a lot of our development programs
• 3:07
  for leadership development, uh, which, which has become something of a need.
• 3:12
  I know that that's something that the genesis of our leadership program for
• 3:17
  young and mid-level managers and leaders really sprang from a need that we were
• 3:22
  seeing from people we were working with.
• 3:25
  Mm-hmm.
• 3:26
  Yeah, and really seeing, I think, that the need even increased, or we saw the
• 3:30
  increase of the need during sort of the COVID pandemic and then the hiring
• 3:35
  rollercoaster that came after that.
• 3:38
  So you had a lot of people in our roles maybe with a lot of
• 3:41
  institutional knowledge leave, retire early, leave for something else.
• 3:46
  Um, there were lots of people that left to go home and, and be
• 3:50
  caregivers for their children, right?
• 3:51
  There were any number of things that happened during that.
• 3:54
  And then we saw an ex- uh, pretty extreme, uh, lack of people to hire, right?
• 4:00
  Twen- in 2021 and 2022, we were hiring a lot of people.
• 4:04
  I called it, like, our warm body problem, where we were just, like,
• 4:07
  hiring a lot of people to fill the spaces because everyone came back out,
• 4:13
  everyone wanted to come and, and needed, needed childcare in the case of the
• 4:17
  work that I was doing, but also for our family entertainment centers, right?
• 4:20
  We saw a, a boom, um, in people coming back out, but
• 4:23
  then we didn't have the staff.
• 4:25
  And so with the loss of that, plus, right, all of these new staff
• 4:29
  that are coming in, and on top of that you had a generational shift.
• 4:32
  So you were going from the young millennials into the older Gen Z.
• 4:36
  So it was just this culmination of a lot of things that were happening.
• 4:40
  And so when I looked at it, and this was across both areas that I worked in, right?
• 4:44
  So working in nonprofit, childcare, or going into family entertainment, there was
• 4:48
  this real need and, and you're hearing, like, managers and owners and people
• 4:53
  saying like, "I don't..." the staff, I just want them to be accountable, or
• 4:57
  I just want them to take initiative.
• 4:58
  I just want, I just want.
• 5:00
  Why aren't they doing those things?
• 5:02
  And you could see, what I could see and what we, we realized and why we
• 5:05
  developed our leadership pro- program is it, it's training and education.
• 5:11
  There was... We were all so busy and all kind of bogged down that there's a lot of
• 5:16
  things that we, um, were missing in terms of going back to the basics and really
• 5:21
  understanding that, uh, not only do, that these are, are, they're our first jobs.
• 5:28
  These are their first jobs and there's a lot of education that
• 5:31
  happens naturally in that, but a lot that has to be intentional.
• 5:34
  Mm-hmm.
• 5:35
  And so, um, a lot of the work that we do is just really trying to fill that
• 5:39
  gap or, or trying to fill that gap where you're like, "Hey, hey, owners
• 5:43
  and managers, like you have to remember that we have to learn these things,
• 5:47
  that these are like actual skills."
• 5:49
  Like taking initiative is a skill you have to learn.
• 5:51
  It's not a natural ability.
• 5:53
  Um, and that especially again, not to... In COVID, right, you had teens
• 6:01
  who were moving through this or even college-educated students who
• 6:04
  were not seeing the normal things.
• 6:07
  They weren't going out, um, and doing normal teenage and college-aged things.
• 6:12
  They weren't having to manage their time in the same way
• 6:14
  because everything was virtual.
• 6:17
  And so you didn't have to like get up and get dressed or not get dressed to go to
• 6:21
  your like 10:00 AM college class, right?
• 6:25
  Like you and I, Denise, both had to figure that out when we were
• 6:28
  sophomores in college, right?
• 6:29
  Like- Mm ... or figure out what your schedule was and it's, it's even
• 6:33
  a lot of the same transitions that people seen in working from home,
• 6:37
  but imagine doing that and so you're not building up some of these skills
• 6:40
  that maybe were naturally occurring, um, during high school or college.
• 6:45
  So again, it was a culminating of a lot of these things, but there was just such
• 6:50
  this trend of I don't understand why this current generation isn't doing X, Y, or Z.
• 6:57
  I don't know why they don't know this, and the answer is
• 7:01
  because we have to teach them.
• 7:04
  Somebody had to teach you too at one point.
• 7:06
  Surprise, everybody.
• 7:06
  Yeah.
• 7:06
  Surprise, everyone who's listening to this.
• 7:08
  We have to teach people things.
• 7:10
  Uh, so let's get started talking about, you know, college graduation is upon us.
• 7:16
  Yeah.
• 7:16
  Companies, uh, from, from every industry are going to be welcoming
• 7:23
  these brand new college graduates into their fold here in the next month.
• 7:28
  So I thought this was the perfect time to have this conversation.
• 7:31
  Yeah.
• 7:31
  And I wanna start with what motivates this generation of young leaders that may
• 7:40
  be different than what motivated the Gen Xers, the boomers, the older millennials.
• 7:45
  What is the motivation?
• 7:47
  Is it pay?
• 7:48
  Is it culture?
• 7:49
  Is it benefits?
• 7:50
  Is it... What is it?
• 7:51
  Um, that's a great question.
• 7:54
  And what I think is important to remember too, that, like, most
• 7:57
  of the same motivators are the same as they were for us, right?
• 8:01
  Uh, when we graduated from school or when we started out on our career
• 8:05
  path after high school, right?
• 8:07
  Whether it was high school or college.
• 8:09
  And so, uh, remembering, uh... The first thing I always like to tell people,
• 8:14
  too, is just, like, remember... Like, try to actually remember what it was
• 8:16
  like getting your first job and kind of, like, dip into that empathy a little bit
• 8:21
  because it's not as different generation to generation as we like to think it is.
• 8:25
  We love to just be like, "Ugh, kids these days. Kids these days, they,
• 8:31
  they only want to work two hours and get paid a million dollars and not do
• 8:36
  anything." And that may be true, right?
• 8:39
  Not saying that that's not the experience that, that we're having.
• 8:42
  But what people want from work is a paycheck that makes sense
• 8:48
  for the work that they're doing, and what they need from work,
• 8:53
  uh, especially their first job...
• 8:55
  Your first job is really to learn how to have a job.
• 8:57
  I used to give this advice to my college advisees a lot, and remembering that,
• 9:04
  like, there's a lot of pressure that comes, uh, with graduating and starting
• 9:10
  your, your adult life that I think as, you know, as we are in our adult lives
• 9:16
  or the longer we're in it, again, we kind of forget what that was like.
• 9:20
  So what they say they want may be different than what
• 9:23
  they need in their first role.
• 9:25
  So I might be s- like, I do want great culture.
• 9:28
  Absolutely, and we talk about that, right?
• 9:30
  We should... You should be finding jobs and finding people for jobs that
• 9:34
  align with your core values, right?
• 9:36
  Because it's not going to be good for retention either way if you
• 9:40
  don't align with the vision and the mission and the core values of
• 9:45
  the place that you're working with.
• 9:46
  Um, and sometimes we have to take jobs where we don't align, and then we end
• 9:50
  up churning out of those pretty quickly.
• 9:53
  So I think they do want that alignment, but that's very easy
• 9:57
  to, um, to incorporate into your interview process, right?
• 10:02
  To talk about your core values and to make that connection with it.
• 10:06
  Um, the other thing that I think people really want is they wanna see
• 10:10
  their value and how they contribute to the work that you're doing, right?
• 10:15
  And that is through recognition.
• 10:17
  Um, what we have, what we've seen a little bit too is that- It's, it's asking people
• 10:23
  what, how they want to be recognized.
• 10:24
  So like I'm a big fan of like money and time, right?
• 10:28
  Hey, I either want time off or a raise, right?
• 10:31
  Like, I think that that speaks volumes.
• 10:33
  Like, a pizza party is great.
• 10:35
  That's only gonna work every once in a while for me, right?
• 10:38
  Like, how do I show my actual... How do I know that I'm valuable to this,
• 10:44
  the work that I'm doing is valuable to the company, and that it like kind
• 10:48
  of fulfills that, that need to want to do something that I'm good at, right?
• 10:53
  So, um, they definitely are looking for that too, but again, if we align
• 10:58
  our interview process, right, you can find the people that are going
• 11:01
  to connect really well with you.
• 11:04
  Um, and, and so when we talk about this gener- I don't think that
• 11:07
  that's very different than it was, again, numbers of generations ago.
• 11:11
  But also remembering that like these new grads, and, and if you're a new
• 11:16
  grad watching this, again, your first job is to learn how to have a job.
• 11:21
  So when we graduate from high school or college, there's something called
• 11:24
  the cliff dip, and if you, if you think about it in this way, um, and we'll
• 11:30
  even do it from high school, right?
• 11:31
  You've spent four years at this institution growing,
• 11:35
  learning the geography, right?
• 11:38
  Learning where everything is.
• 11:39
  You know who all the people are that you have to talk to to do anything, right?
• 11:44
  When we graduate from these programs, we're at the peak of whatever our
• 11:48
  existence is in that community.
• 11:50
  I have a lot of friends.
• 11:51
  I know where I'm sitting.
• 11:53
  I know what I'm eating for lunch.
• 11:54
  I know what my after-school activities are.
• 11:57
  Like, I know what's going on this weekend, right?
• 12:00
  Like, you build up, and then you graduate, and it all goes away because
• 12:04
  you're entering a new community.
• 12:06
  That might be work.
• 12:07
  That might be college for some people, right, if we're talking...
• 12:10
  And then the same thing happens when we graduate from college
• 12:12
  and enter the workforce there.
• 12:15
  And so it's this big dip that happens with youth, but that happens with all of us.
• 12:19
  I see you nodding your head, Denise.
• 12:21
  You're like, "Yep, this happened," right?
• 12:22
  We're all like, "Oh." This happens when we move jobs too- Yeah
• 12:26
  later on.
• 12:26
  Yeah.
• 12:26
  Like, this is, this is something that happens time and time again in
• 12:30
  our lives, and so remembering that like there's so much more anxiety.
• 12:34
  They don't even know, right?
• 12:36
  So when we... There's so much more anxiety.
• 12:38
  I don't even... I don't know who my friends are here.
• 12:41
  I don't know what my community looks like.
• 12:42
  I don't know what my regular schedule looks like.
• 12:44
  You are rebuilding everything when you start that proc- like when you
• 12:49
  graduate and start that process over.
• 12:52
  And we get better at it as we get older, right?
• 12:53
  The more jobs we have, we get this sense, but this is the
• 12:56
  first time this is happening.
• 12:58
  So when you hire in this new grad, you're like, "Why are they s- they're
• 13:04
  so great, but they're so nervous.
• 13:06
  They're so great, but I can't get them to focus in on what I need them.
• 13:10
  They're so great, but I don't understand why they don't Uh, love
• 13:15
  this job as much as I love this job and, like, owning the center, right?
• 13:18
  Like, or why they're as passionate.
• 13:20
  It's because they're also going through this, this whole rebuilding
• 13:23
  of community, um, in their work life and in their social lives, too, right?
• 13:29
  This, these can mean moves to different cities, right?
• 13:31
  You can see all of that.
• 13:32
  So it's, it's, it's a cliff dip.
• 13:34
  You're, you're basically jumping... You're, you're starting from scratch.
• 13:38
  And so when they're talking about this need of belonging, of aligning, right?
• 13:45
  When we're talking about, "I want to feel value," it's because
• 13:50
  I'm rebuilding this community.
• 13:52
  I'm rebuilding my identity in this first job that I have and what life
• 13:58
  looks like as, a lot of times we phrase it as, like, as an adult,
• 14:02
  but even though we might be 25 years old when this is happening, right?
• 14:07
  So it's, it's understanding, like, there's just a lot going on with
• 14:12
  people internally when they're, they are coming into this first job.
• 14:16
  So I don't know if that answers any question.
• 14:18
  I think it gives a lot of information.
• 14:20
  But when we're looking at hiring, like, this is what's going on
• 14:23
  internally, uh, with these new graduates that we're hiring in.
• 14:27
  And I think, you know, when we hire them in and, and, and
• 14:31
  if they have to move, right?
• 14:33
  I've moved so many times in, through- Yeah
• 14:35
  my previous career.
• 14:36
  Uh, uh, and it wa- it was, it just became a blip and not, like, not a big-
• 14:41
  Absolutely ... I knew the process, I knew what was gonna happen, all of the things.
• 14:44
  Um, but you know, it was still, even though I did it a dozen times through
• 14:49
  a 30-year career, uh, I... You know, the first part was really tough, right?
• 14:56
  'Cause you're like, "I don't even know where the grocery
• 14:58
  store is, much less," right?
• 15:00
  And so you forget that, though.
• 15:02
  You forget that.
• 15:03
  So having that awareness I think is really important, but I also think that,
• 15:08
  um, it's important for companies that are bringing on these fresh graduates
• 15:16
  to start their careers, uh, I think it's also important to recognize that the
• 15:21
  expectation of leadership has changed.
• 15:24
  Mm-hmm.
• 15:24
  And, uh, I wanna really kind of ask about what is the, the, the
• 15:30
  Zoomers that are coming in hard and fast into our workforce, what is
• 15:37
  their expectation of leadership?
• 15:41
  Of their own leadership or the people leading them?
• 15:43
  The people leading them.
• 15:44
  Oh my gosh.
• 15:45
  Do you know what?
• 15:45
  I think overall, again, we're looking at, like, that
• 15:49
  community, the feeling of value.
• 15:52
  Um, there are a lot... What I do find interesting about, like, understanding
• 15:59
  this generation too is, like, there's still a lot of discovery going on of
• 16:02
  stuff that, like, has already existed, but then, like, Gen Z discovers it.
• 16:06
  And again, this happens with every generation, right?
• 16:08
  Whether it be like- music or trends or stuff like this.
• 16:12
  And so- 90s slip dresses, girl Right, right.
• 16:15
  There's always- That are all the rage now that we wore back in the day, right?
• 16:19
  Yeah, and so there is this need for, like, wanting to discover stuff,
• 16:23
  but then also being understood at their, how they learn in particular.
• 16:28
  And so I think for leaders probably the adjustment, and again, an
• 16:32
  adjustment we all have to make, not everyone thinks like us.
• 16:35
  Not everybody processes stuff.
• 16:37
  And if you're an owner, if you're very passionate about the work that you do,
• 16:41
  so much so that you purchased a family entertainment center to run, or you,
• 16:45
  right, are high up in whatever, like, not everyone's gonna be as passionate as
• 16:51
  you or think like you about the process.
• 16:53
  So it's what are the skills...
• 16:55
  It, it's, it's making sure that you understand what skill am I actually
• 16:59
  trying to teach them, and then finding a way to get them to hear
• 17:03
  it in their best learning style.
• 17:05
  So that might be, like, I'm, I'm a visual learner or an auditory learner, or you
• 17:12
  might have to repeat things several times in several different ways, or asking
• 17:15
  them, like, "Hey, how do I best learn?"
• 17:18
  Getting to know your staff member at that level can be really helpful and,
• 17:21
  and a little bit more efficient, right?
• 17:23
  If you, um, get to understand how they process stuff, then it's going to be
• 17:27
  easier for you to be able to get them up to the skill level that they are.
• 17:32
  And then also, and again, Gen Z's gonna want the same thing that
• 17:37
  Millennials did, that Gen X did.
• 17:39
  You wanna give them the space to do it themselves in their way, they,
• 17:43
  that there's not always, just your way is not always the only way to do it.
• 17:48
  Um, it oftentimes isn't the only way to do it.
• 17:51
  Just because you like something done in a certain way doesn't mean that it
• 17:54
  can't be done better or at least as efficiently as, as somebody else's idea.
• 18:00
  And so what can I give to them to really allow them t- the ownership of that?
• 18:05
  Because they're gonna be happier if they can figure out a system
• 18:07
  that works for them personally.
• 18:09
  Um, so let's say they're in charge of, like, inventory.
• 18:12
  Obviously there's a lot of, like, important things that are
• 18:16
  connected to inventory, right?
• 18:17
  Money.
• 18:18
  Like, whether or not we have enough stuff I'm thinking about.
• 18:21
  But, you know, we've had new staff members come in and revolutionize
• 18:27
  inventory systems with technology, with us- utilizing AI that maybe
• 18:32
  owners are a little bit nervous about or don't know how, but how do I say
• 18:35
  yes to someone developing something and really owning it, even if it's
• 18:40
  not exactly how I would do it?
• 18:42
  The difference between mentorship and management.
• 18:47
  Mm-hmm.
• 18:47
  Because they're very different, and I think that especially when you're just
• 18:52
  starting out, finding a good mentor is really important, and I, I wanna discuss
• 18:58
  what is the different characteristics between a mentor and a manager.
• 19:03
  Um, you know, when I think about, when I look at m-
• 19:06
  management is management, right?
• 19:08
  You are making sure that staff members have goals and objectives, and they
• 19:13
  have the resources that they need to hit those goals and objectives, and
• 19:17
  if they don't, that they're being held accountable for it, right?
• 19:20
  And so a lot of people, it is important, as a supervisor, you could
• 19:24
  be both a mentor and manager, but you need to make sure that you are
• 19:28
  doing that management piece, right?
• 19:30
  There are, um, when we all apply for jobs, there's a list of, like,
• 19:34
  things that we're required to do.
• 19:36
  How are we making sure that that's happening?
• 19:38
  And if it isn't happening, what does accountability look like, and what do
• 19:42
  resources, especially resources, right?
• 19:44
  A lot of times it's like, "Hey, how do I... If you're not here
• 19:47
  on time, what's happening?"
• 19:49
  Right?
• 19:50
  Maybe I need to switch your shift because you're dropping off your
• 19:54
  younger sibling at school every day, and that's what's making you late, right?
• 19:57
  Or maybe there has been, like, a, um, transportation situation
• 20:01
  that has changed, right?
• 20:02
  So, like, what's the, what's the management to make sure that we're
• 20:04
  getting what we need out of our staff?
• 20:07
  Mentorship is really important, but being a leader and a manager does
• 20:11
  not automatically make you a mentor.
• 20:13
  Mentorship is such a personal, um, y- it's such a personal
• 20:18
  relationship that is built.
• 20:20
  And so oftentimes you might be a mentor to somebody that you are not managing, or
• 20:25
  you might find a mentor, um, that isn't.
• 20:28
  But what I would say for our younger viewers, right, who are
• 20:32
  in, who are looking for mentorship is, again, finding someone who
• 20:35
  aligns with what your values are.
• 20:39
  And I would even say in mentorship, I always looked for mentors that,
• 20:42
  like, who's in a job that I want?
• 20:45
  Not necessarily... And maybe sometimes that was a supervisor.
• 20:48
  Like, who has a job that I want?
• 20:50
  And then let's talk to them, how did they get there, right?
• 20:53
  How can I ask them for help and support?
• 20:56
  Um, and oftentimes- That helps if that's not your supervisor, right?
• 21:01
  Mentorship can develop there, but oftentimes you need that third person
• 21:04
  who's like, "I'm like, hey, I'm having a problem with my manager.
• 21:07
  How should I approach this?" It's almost like you'll hear people talking about
• 21:11
  their own personal board of directors that you can develop for yourself.
• 21:14
  Like, who are you going to for advice?
• 21:17
  Who do you trust for advice?
• 21:18
  And I think that can be, that can be family that can be provide mentorship.
• 21:22
  But being your supervisor doesn't automatically make someone
• 21:26
  your mentor, and it doesn't make you a mentor to someone.
• 21:29
  It really has to be like a mutual choice for that.
• 21:32
  A lot of times we have mentor programs that we assign a lot of mentors, and
• 21:35
  that's great, but that, those don't always work out as long-term mentorship because,
• 21:40
  again, you have to... That has to work, um, in terms of that individual choice.
• 21:45
  However, as a leader, I would say be open to that mentorship
• 21:49
  when it's coming, right?
• 21:49
  Like, when people are asking you bigger questions, take the
• 21:52
  time to answer them, right?
• 21:54
  If someone's asking you how you got into your job or asking you
• 21:57
  advice, give them good advice.
• 22:00
  And mentorship also what can be difficult, uh, especially if you're a supervisor,
• 22:04
  mentorship should look like you advising them away from working from you if that's
• 22:09
  the right decision for them, right?
• 22:11
  Like, maybe they've topped out where they are and they need
• 22:14
  to move on to something bigger.
• 22:16
  Maybe this isn't the right role for them, and I wanna mentor them into
• 22:19
  going back to school for additional, like, certification or education, or I
• 22:23
  wanna mentor them this way or that way.
• 22:25
  So I do think that they can come in conflict sometimes because if I'm
• 22:28
  managing, right, from an operations standpoint, I wanna keep these people,
• 22:34
  right, on time, on target, doing what we need to do, and mentorship can really
• 22:39
  come in and mess that up for you if your idea is, um, hey, this, maybe this
• 22:44
  person, maybe it is time for them to move on because it's gonna be what's best for
• 22:48
  them, even if it's not best for me and needing to find someone to replace them.
• 22:54
  Uh, so yeah, no, absolutely, and I think that's a, that's a key
• 22:57
  thing, that just because you're a supervisor, you're not their mentor.
• 23:01
  And quite often you shouldn't be, right?
• 23:05
  Because that mentorship is really about helping to develop a person, not
• 23:11
  necessarily... Which might sometimes, as you were just pointing out, might be the
• 23:16
  antithesis of what your responsibility is as a manage- as their manager.
• 23:20
  Yeah.
• 23:20
  Yeah.
• 23:21
  It can make a big difference.
• 23:22
  Or the idea, the approach I like to take is like- Not that everyone's
• 23:26
  choosing me to be their mentor, but h- if I was their mentor, what
• 23:29
  advice would I be giving them?
• 23:31
  Mm-hmm.
• 23:31
  Right?
• 23:32
  In certain circum- and some advice is, "I need you to be to work on
• 23:34
  time." That's mentorship advice.
• 23:37
  Yes.
• 23:37
  If you're not at work on time, people aren't gonna wanna hire
• 23:39
  you, so that is mentorship advice.
• 23:42
  But a mentor isn't always in a position to, like, write you up, right?
• 23:46
  Like, if I have to terminate somebody, and sometimes that, sometimes
• 23:49
  that continues to develop, that mentorship can develop even after,
• 23:53
  right, you are supervising somebody.
• 23:55
  But kind of building that up, I think it's okay to think through, like,
• 23:58
  "Hey, if I were... If this was a friend of mine or a younger sibling
• 24:02
  or a niece or nephew asking me, what advice would I be giving them?" 'Cause
• 24:07
  that's always going to benefit you as the supervisor and them, but at the
• 24:12
  end of the day, um, the mentorship relationship should be one where someone
• 24:16
  feels, uh, open and honest coming to ask you for your advice on stuff.
• 24:21
  And if you're the supervisor, sometimes you're the person they need advice on, so.
• 24:26
  Right.
• 24:26
  Right.
• 24:27
  That's right.
• 24:27
  Not always gonna work out.
• 24:29
  That's right.
• 24:30
  Um, okay.
• 24:31
  Uh, for our last question, and, uh, again, we are coming up on the end
• 24:35
  of our time, uh, I wanna ask, what advice would you give to the companies
• 24:42
  out there that are bringing on these young leaders and fresh grads?
• 24:48
  What advice would you give them on what makes this younger generation
• 24:53
  stay in a job for retention?
• 24:58
  That's a great question, 'cause I think we're still really early on in figuring
• 25:02
  some of that out, although we're moving into, like, our younger Gen Z. Um, I think
• 25:09
  for our owners, I think the best advice is, like, look at the individual and try
• 25:14
  to stop labeling them as a generation.
• 25:18
  Um, right?
• 25:20
  Each individual is going to have reasons that they stay or don't stay, and,
• 25:25
  and a lot of those have not changed.
• 25:27
  Am I valued?
• 25:28
  Am I doing work that is appreciated?
• 25:32
  Am I doing work that I'm good and skilled at and trained at,
• 25:35
  so that I can accomplish it?
• 25:37
  And that I do think that, um, it's really kind of taking a look and seeing,
• 25:43
  right, if we're not retaining a lot of people, what do our interview practice...
• 25:46
  Like, how are we selecting, um, our staff members to help better align that?
• 25:53
  Uh, and I think they're looking for everything that we are, and I think as
• 25:57
  Gen Z gets older, as we, as we see them get married and have children of their
• 26:02
  own, which is already happening, I think, depending on, like, what, on the older end
• 26:07
  of it, you do see some stability that ends up coming down, 'cause it's people who
• 26:11
  have to be in one place, have jobs, right?
• 26:16
  Pay rent, uh, pay, right, start paying bills of those sorts.
• 26:20
  And so I think it's really focusing in on how am I in- how am I valuing
• 26:26
  the individual, and what are the individual needs of, of the staff
• 26:29
  that I have, and can I meet them?
• 26:31
  And if I can't, then maybe they're not the right staff for us, and we just need
• 26:34
  to find the, the people who, who align.
• 26:38
  Right.
• 26:38
  Fantastic.
• 26:39
  Uh, Genevieve, I appreciate your insights so much.
• 26:42
  There's a lot of good things here, uh, for our, our managers out there
• 26:47
  and, and companies and corporations that are hiring new folks.
• 26:51
  And, uh, I hope that this helps them, uh, because it is something
• 26:55
  that it's that time of year.
• 26:57
  New blood is coming into the workforce, and it's always a
• 27:01
  good time to sort of reset.
• 27:03
  I think as a manager, as a supervisor, as an owner, as, as a, as a leader
• 27:07
  in a corporation, it's a good time to reset your expectations and
• 27:12
  to make some observations of what you could shift for the new people
• 27:16
  that you're welcoming in, right?
• 27:19
  Absolutely.
• 27:19
  Happy to, happy to talk always.
• 27:22
  All right.
• 27:22
  Well, thank you, Genevieve.
• 27:23
  I appreciate it.
• 27:25
  Thanks, Denise.
• 27:27
  Well, we hope that today's conversation gave you the practical
• 27:30
  tools that you need to sharpen your edge and accelerate your growth.
• 27:36
  And if you're ready to grow your team, your business, or
• 27:39
  yourself, you can contact us at thegrowthprogroup.com and set up a free
• 27:45
  growth call with one of our coaches.
• 27:47
  And once again, a special thanks to our sponsors, Party Center Software,
• 27:51
  Embed, A&A Global, Betson, Semnox, Shaffer Distributing, and Roller,
• 27:57
  for all that they do to help us to bring you The GrowthPro Edge.
• 28:01
  And until next time, I'm Denise Killian with The GrowthPro Group.
• 28:05
  Keep learning, keep growing, and keep striving for the extraordinary.