By David Wolfe
I think that this future workforce really craves solid leadership.
They want to be managed early in their career. They want to have to live up to a high standard. So mentorship and leadership are critically important. Mentorship and leadership can be two separate things. A worker should have a mentor, which I recommend, someone they look up to and want to emulate. Leadership can come from that same person, but the leadership piece is more about somebody who will hold the team accountable and cast a vision for the team member. Maybe that person is their direct report, a supervisor who sets the clear expectations and then holds them accountable.
I think some of this has been lost over the past ten years. It’s become kind of uncool to hold people accountable in the “everyone gets a trophy” era. But I’ve found that people on your team thrive on that accountability. It helps them stay focused. The number-one thing that this generation of workers is looking for is to do something that they can excel at. To guide them, you must be very clear on your expectations and show them what winning looks like. Yet, according to a Gallup poll, 49 percent of all employees across all organizations do not know exactly what is expected of them. So, if you asked about half of your workforce what their key metrics are, they wouldn’t know. How can they know what winning looks like in that scenario? They can’t. So, step one is holding them accountable by setting some clear expectations. These can be called Key Result Areas (KRAs) or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). They include metrics and numbers, and it’s usually just two or three numbers, that can tell them whether they’re winning or not.
For a Nurse Practitioner, it could be a KPI of seeing a minimum of fifteen patients per day over the course of a month, and an expectation of patient satisfaction scores to be above a certain percentage and setting up a certain number of follow-up appointments. There are three different metrics that they can see on paper, and if they hit those three numbers, then they know they’re winning.
Often it takes a good leader to hold them accountable. We’ve found that following up with metrics weekly is the best way to do it. Waiting every month lets too much time go by, and they can get sidetracked. Give them constant feedback on what they’re doing well, what they need to improve on, and what metrics they are hitting. They also appreciate blunt and direct feedback, versus vague comments or beating around the bush. They thrive on knowing how they are doing. They’re asking, what can I do better? I have found with my team that constant, clear feedback is important.
So is training. Across all organizations and industries, roughly 70 percent of every organization’s dollar is spent on payroll, but only about 1 percent is spent on training. This future workforce craves training. You may find younger workers who are truly A-players, but a lot of them are young and may be a B-player who can improve greatly with proper training and coaching. That doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of money on seminars and consultants. If you boost your training budget from 1 percent to 3 percent, that can make a big difference.
But the most cost-effective way to train someone is to just give them your time. Somebody has to be there to hold them accountable and teach them and mentor them. Even if it’s just fifteen minutes a week, or if it’s fifteen minutes every two weeks, it’s better than nothing. If you’re not in the position to mentor them personally, match another mentor with the person, maybe a senior Nurse Practitioner who’s been with the company for twenty years to mentor your new NP who’s only been on the job for two years. The mentor should be somebody that this person wants to become. They can ask questions—hey, I’m struggling with this. What should I do? How should I handle this? What did you do at this point in your career?
This workforce also wants you to get out of their way. Give them the autonomy and flexibility to make decisions, make mistakes, and execute. Coach them through the mistakes and be sure to praise them when they hit their numbers. I think one of the best management tips is to catch somebody doing really great things. Praise them in front of a lot people. Acknowledge their good work, because they want to become an expert in their field.
A lot of people don’t want to do all this. But there’s a big payoff to it. Theodore Roosevelt has a famous quote: “No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” I think this workforce has to see that you care for them as a person, perhaps more than you care about the results. You hold them accountable and you’re clear with them, but with any type of leadership or coaching or mentoring there has to be care for the individual above what they can do for you. Because if they sniff out that you really care only about what they can do for you, their level of engagement goes way down. But if they can sense that their boss or direct report really cares about them as a person and about what’s going on in their life, they’re way, way more likely to do a great job and stay in the position.
Three Questions to Ask
In a leadership role, the leader should ask these three questions:
- What went well this past week?
- What went wrong in the past week?
- How can I help you?
Those three questions will sift out where the team member needs help from a mentor or more training.
References
Marco Nink, “Many Employees Don’t Know What’s Expected of Them at Work,” Gallup, October 13, 2015, https://news. gallup.com/businessjournal/186164/employees-don-know- expected-work.aspx.