No employee ever said they loved their job because the manager is amazing at time efficiency. Mentorship is unique; it is something that cannot be given by leaders to employees. Mentorship must be earned from employees to leaders. People will decide if you are a mentor to them and invite you in as a voluntary act. To earn this trust, mentors must
act as advocates and be seen as leaders who can connect people to their dreams. Like any good story, the hero (the employee) works to overcome an obstacle, then a mentor (the manager) appears in the storyline to offer wisdom, compassion or guidance to resolution. When I asked people, “why do you work here,” they would say things like, “I stay here because of Susie. For 15 years, I worked for her and she was instrumental in my life.” Can people say that about you?
What are the characteristics of a great leader that inspired people to love their work? There are five areas that I found incredibly important that help employees connect with supervisors and compa- nies. They are The Five C’s: Confidence – Confident people instill confidence in
others. There is something that makes people feel empow- ered when they work for confident managers. Credibility – Managers that have some influence in their industry is something that employees admire. Competence – It is important that an employee sees a manager/mentor as a practitioner of the work, not just a theorist. They want to see that they are capable of doing the work that is being required, or at least have working knowledge on it.
Candor – Honesty and openness creates trust which establishes strong working relationships. The ability to make deposits and withdrawals into a worker is made possible through frank expression. Be clear, set standards, and manage expectations. Care – Genuine concern is very easy to recognize, as is the flipside. The moment we stop caring, we break employee-employer relationship trust.
What is your best advice for companies to navigate generational complexities as generations collide at the workplace? In flight school, pilots learn that every airplane has an operational manual. All the data for that plane is in that manual. Yet, a good pilot knows that there is no substitute for getting in and flying the airplane. When managing generations at work, there are expert resources that suggest, ‘five things to attract millennials,’ and lists ski passes for everyone, game rooms, free lunch, and things like this. Yet, there is no magic formula to mil- lennials. There are motivated ones and lazy ones, just like any other generation in the workforce. In my research of over 10,000 people interviewed, the moment we look at people as a generation, instead of as individuals, we lose the ability to apply The Five C’s. While each generation has their tendencies, which might define certain benefits they might enjoy over others, there is no one size fits all approach. Mentorship transcends all generations. The world is changing, and it may change our perspective. But basic human values remain – the need to be heard, understood, respected, and grow with purpose and pride. Unfortunately for companies, the “manage the indi- vidual” style seems like too much effort; this approach takes time. But so does interviewing, hiring, onboarding,
54 // May-June 2021
Automotive Recycling
iStockphoto.com/Alberto Masnovo
NEXT GENERATION
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