Hey manager - engage, don’t pander
These days you can’t throw a rock without hitting an advice piece about how to “manage” Millennials. There are all sorts of tips about What They Like and How They Think, ad nauseum. But, here’s the thing: most of these articles – not all, but a fair number of them – flirt with the line between engaging and pandering. While it’s true that, in general, your approach to younger workers should be different than your approach with older workers, you shouldn’t be pandering to anyone. If people want to be babied and made to “feel” good rather than rewarded for doing good, then you don’t need those people … and they need a swift kick in the realities. The key is in both the motive and the approach. In pandering, you are trying to get a person to do something at the expense of their personhood. They will do it because they are being stroked, but, really, it’s demeaning for both of you. Meanwhile, if you are engaging, you are learning how to get the most out of your people, so, when they do whatever you need them to do, they are doing their best … and they are doing it for the right reasons. The key factor here is understanding, which requires a relationship. It’s not pandering to know why someone has a job and wants to keep it. Maybe they just want the paycheck, or maybe they want to be challenged and hope your gig is the right one for that … maybe they want both. Or, maybe, they are doing what they do for another, less obvious, reason. Sometimes, it simply helps to ask. But a lot of managers won’t. Either they don’t care (bad), or they fear being lied to (worse). If you think your people are only telling you what they think you want to hear, then you can bet they are only doing what they think you want them to do – and likely the bare minimum. This is not how you achieve the best for anyone. This is how you create a negative workplace and a frustrating environment for everyone. As you engage with your people, the communication should be a two-way street. You help them understand what the Big Picture is, as well as their role in it, and they help you understand how to best motivate them to help you achieve that vision. The best engagement in this exchange is
real and gradual. It doesn’t happen in PowerPoint presentations or department meetings. It’s about meeting people where they are and working on what it takes to get all of you headed in the right direction together. That takes time and effort – engagement.
Phil Shawe is an entrepreneur based in New York.