Just ahead on Leadership Lessons for Home, Work and Life There is a huge shift in how you people think about work And whether you're an employer, supervisor or parent.

We've got to adjust our styles Tonight's critical conversation brings discussion and advice on motivating todays from four more great central ill And it all starts......

Right no (upbeat music) - Good evening, thanks so much for joining us.

I'm Army Burkett.

I recently read New York times bestselling author, James Clear's book, "Atomic Habits," and this quote stood out to me.

An expert is someone who over many years remains competent enough to keep trying and humble enough to keep learning.

Well, that's an important point for our conversation tonight.

I've been leading teams and hiring and training people for over 20 years and what has worked so well in the past.

Doesn't deliver the same results these days.

Let's meet our panelists and dig into how we can better motivate the younger workforce.

We begin with Brett OesT Advancement Officer for Peoria Academy.

Brent, what are you seeing as you are motivating a younger workforce?

- I think you have to meet people halfway.

The same motivations aren't the same for everybody.

I think it's important to think clearly and concisely and realize it's not an all encompassing one size fits all for every employee.

You have to meet people where they're at.

- Next up, let's meet to Demarcus Hamilton, Program Director for strictly Hip Hop, 90.7 FM.

Talk to us a little bit about what are you seeing.

- What I've noticed, especially over the course of the pandemic individuals of my generation, and even a little bit above and a little bit under, we still want to contribute.

We still want to live a quality of life and have quality of careers, but we're not chasing money as much as we're chasing freedom now.

And so that's where you see record numbers of people leaving their employers over 2020 and 2021, because they had a lot of time to sit back and think, you know, obviously bills have to be paid.

Obviously we want to be professional in some capacity, but we also want to be able to pour back into ourselves.

I think a lot of people in my generation have felt like we've just given and given and given not noticing that that's what's going on because the previous generation did the same thing, our parents, our grandparents, but now we found ourselves in the middle of the pandemic, sitting on the couch with time and spare realizing that we're empty.

And so now we're figuring out how can we do something that's still pours into our own cups.

And also again, we're chasing, you know, it is not just chasing money.

We're also chasing freedom.

- Next up, Bobby Tayler is the owner of Mid Illinois Companies, Bobby.

- I agree.

What we're finding out is it's not about the money.

It's more about the quality time with your family.

So we're our union contractors.

So we use different unions and work with different unions.

And what we're finding out is it's not about the money.

It's about the quality of the time that they can spend with their family.

They're not wanting to travel as much.

They're not wanting to chase that dollar.

They're more interested in spending time with their family.

So we have to tend to that need and nurture it and build that relationship with, I feel that a lot of our younger generation is looking for that relationship, not the money.

- Next up, Deborah Roethler is Vice President of Administration for Advanced Medical Transport.

Deborah, talk to us a little bit.

What are you seeing when working with the younger workforce?

- I think especially in my area of business, which is caregiving, purpose is really important and it's purpose with honesty, really transparent about what we are there to do and why it's important.

And when you can make that connection from a really genuine, authentic place, it is a very compelling reason to come into work every day.

And that's something we work at very hard at AMT.

- Great, Demarcus I'm gonna go back to you.

You put yourself in that category of the younger workforce earlier, when you introduced yourself, help us better understand those of us who have been leading for decades.

We knew what always work and we know it's not working now.

You talked about people having purpose, but actually having some free time and flexibility.

What else can you help us understand your age group and how to better read?

- Well, it's a lot, you know, it's kind of difficult because one thing that is different about my generation versus, you know, the older generation is that, you know and, you know, we had parents and grandparents and just relatives.

Tell us all the time, you know, when I was your age, I'd already, you know, that generation had the privilege of being 22 years old with a whole house, whole mortgage family.

And they were able to support people where we graduated like myself.

We graduated at a time where the economy was broken.

So we had to find our way.

So a lot of us aren't even getting to the point where we are super self-sufficient until late twenties, early thirties, because everything that we understood education to take us everything that we understood about the world and everything like that, all that shifted between 2007 and kind of like 2010, 2011.

So that's a long time.

And so we just have to figure out how we can be.

I think one thing that it would help is for the generation Xers and the baby boomers.

I think they look at us as like, we're not at the position to be able to take on certain responsibilities because that generation held onto things for so long.

And so I think one thing that they can help that can help them understand how we work is that we're ready.

We may not have that historical context that that generation has, but we are ready.

I think that's one example now, hope I answered that already.

- You were great.

Do you mind telling how old you are?

- I'm 35?

- Okay, so we're trying to put in context what the.

- [Demarcus] Yeah.

- What the generational differences are.

We're gonna come back to you, Brent, and talk about, have you seen potentially more conflict because it of not understanding the younger workforce?

- For sure I don't remember the stack completely, but we have what, like five different generations of workforce.

Anytime you get more voices in, you're gonna have a little more room for competition.

You're gonna have a little bit more room for misunderstanding, kind of following up off, off of his point.

I'm a gen Xer I'm right in between the baby boomers.

- Me too.

- Yeah.

And it it's funny.

For the longest time, that was my goal or that was what I was told my goal was.

Was you get a good job and you raise your family.

But then after a while that work life balance does come in between.

And to me, that generational gap, especially being a gen Xer, that's an in between, I think for us, for me, especially.

- I want you to add on something real quick that I forgot about another thing that I think is around our age group.

I think you've seen the decentralization of approach to all type of work in the last five or so years.

I was talking to somebody about this the other day.

And even what I just mentioned previously, with regard to people wanting their freedom, to be able to go where they want to.

And he mentioned meeting people where they're at.

And one of the things that it's incumbent upon employers to do is understand where we are at and where we're at currently is wanting that freedom.

So with that being said, we are not contributing.

And my mom said this the other day, like you guys have the generation that sits at a job for 20 years and, or 20, 30 years, and do that due diligence and get out, no, because that generation stayed even when they didn't wanna stay.

I think that's the difference, not only in the workforce, but even to bring in sports, people talk about LeBron because he didn't just sit at a team just because you were drafted here.

He was supposed to stay here.

He's like, no, I kind of wanna go do this.

I wanna do that.

And we're gonna do what we want to do.

So we're not waiting on permission to do certain things anymore.

And so where some of these institutions kind of stood in, like we're giving you an opportunity, which they are still opportunities, but it's not that we don't look at jobs in employers and institutions of employment as end all be all anymore.

Like previous generations did.

So we're gonna follow where we wanna follow.

Hopefully it works.

Sometimes we make mistakes, but I think that's the difference in this generation.

We're not just gonna plug in somewhere and counting this to stay there for 20, 30 years.

Even when we feel like it's doing this a disservice.

- Right, I think it's about an adaptation.

We're looking at a generation that's coming in, that's multi-taskers, you know, you can't just give them a task and wait for them to get it done.

In their minds they've already got it done and looking for the next task.

So it's us adapting to them and them adapting to us and our way of thinking.

So it's a moving target.

And I think as we bring this, this younger generation in, we really have to go in with open eyes and trying to, to get in their minds and what they're thinking as they are with us.

So it's a moving target that we're trying to harness and it's tough.

- [Deborah] I really agree with Bobby.

I think we talk about the great resignation, but I think what's about to happen corporately is the great re imagination which I heard recently.

And I can't tell you, I think it builds exactly on what you're communicating right now.

It's a while for corporate years to intake information.

I think we can imagine the kinds of layers of conversation that happen even just for our parents to understand ourselves, us, let alone a corporate entity.

But now that that message is starting to land.

I think there's almost strictures that we're willing to, you know, unburden ourselves with to try new things.

And the challenge that a lot of organizations are having today.

And I know that that we're investigating is how do we create that more flexible life that still delivers on the commitments of our organization that still leaves leaders confident, that they're progressing, that they're succeeding and still instills in workers that they're progressing and succeeding.

It is harder to lead someone virtually at home and help help them understand that they're doing good job when they maybe can't see your face either through a mask or has clearly over, over a TV screen.

So what are those experiments you're willing to do?

COVID has really pushed us forward with some of that experimentation and it's, I think opened up some eyes around it's okay.

New is okay.

New actually can be great and very beautiful.

And so I think there is something that is happening, whether we like it or not about re imagining the way we work.

And I think that the companies that are really going to move ahead more quickly are the companies that intentionally embrace that experimentation and intentionally embrace trying things with that transparency to the workforce that not everything is gonna work when we try it either.

- [Army Burkett] I've got eight tips from Glassdoor for employees that could help.

I'll give you four now and then we'll hear from our panelists before sharing the last group.

Number one, remote working, career progression.

Many people recommend creating more smaller advancement opportunities, hold regular performance discussions, at least quarterly and motivate with time off.

Okay friends, so do any of those resonate with you?

- Definitely COVID obviously has brought those challenges on, but that's been that great way to imagine.

What if, you know, we can do this.

It's not just the time off, time off is great.

It's it's not about having good insurance and a high paying job anymore.

You gotta have that flexibility because in this world we live in right now, we're all tasked with the same thing.

We're juggling our personal, our personal lives with our work lives.

Those of us that have kids, obviously, if you're in a school setting and that dictates a lot of what you do and what you can do, and having that ability to still work remote work from home, that's critical, especially for the parent, because this is an unknown area and we all want to keep their keep kids safe, but we gotta have the ability to still live our life to the fullest as we can.

And we can do that remotely and virtually now.

- I wanna talk about career progression, and I'm gonna ask you this question Demarcus.

As the self-identified younger workforce, do you see people wanting to get that promotion?

And even if regular hierarchical companies may only have four steps to the top, so to speak, putting in eight steps so that people can feel that they're being promoted and maybe the raises would be smaller, but by having that transition and seeing more of a career ladder, is that important to your age group?

- I think that is important to those that subscribe to that type of career path.

So not everybody there's a huge wave of would be entrepreneurs at the, at this moment.

But you also, and I'm reading this book and I can't remember the title, I'm sorry, but they talk about the difference between entrepreneur and intrapreneur, meaning that you got people that kind of create their environment and structure outside of the traditional institution.

And then you got those that find their own business within said institution.

So for the people, for the entrepreneurs, I think that is important because they can feel that progress.

'Cause again, we're not the generation that's gonna just, you know, we want to keep moving forward and if we can't move forward here, we're gonna find out where we can move forward.

So for those individuals, I would say it's important and not only just the advancement, but also helping people see themselves within the institution that they are in and being able to maybe figure how to cater to what their tasks are.

And for example, real quick, sometimes things are just oversaw as like this department does this.

And so that's what they do.

This department does this within that department, there's different tasks.

And instead of just having all eight, do the same thing, there's probably four that really are passionate about passionate about doing a certain task.

And the other four don't want to, I was in a situation before where we're all in this group and we all have to do this, but two things need to be done.

All of us are doing both things where there was a split between some folks really have no problem doing this all day and would hate to do that.

And this group would love to do this all day would hate to do that.

Well, instead of just overlooking it, like just a department, this is what you guys do and just throwing these tasks.

Why don't we get more individualized as far as how we delegate these tasks.

And I think you find a lot more progression and productivity in that capacity.

- Bobby, let's talk about performance reviews.

in the old days you got one a year, your boss may pull something out that he did nine months ago wrong.

And bring it up to you.

Now they're talking about the importance of having regular conversations with your supervisor.

Is that an easy adjustment or is it difficult?

- Well, I think it can be both ways.

I mean, we don't do performance reviews.

Is it important?

Yes, I think when you talk to your employees, it's important to identify what they've done.

Point out the good things, point out the bad things, but it's gratification that I think is really important and keeping an open mind and talking with the individuals.

When you're asking, if they're having a good day really mean, are you having a good day?

So they can open up to you if there's problems going on in the workplace or at home?

I think they really wanna open up.

They wanna have somebody to talk to and you want to be that person that can help navigate through any of their issues, any of their problems, whether it's at work or at home.

I think when we talk about performance reviews, my opinion, maybe a little overrated, but I think it's really sitting down and talking to that individual and really get really getting to know them and open up whether it's issues in the office or I think that's extremely important.

- Deborah, let's talk about motivating with time off was one of the suggestions that were there, but you still have responsibilities of what needs to be done.

Are you able to find the way to get the job done and still give some, some time off?

- So sometimes that's really the unfortunate truth in this day and age with the reduced availability of employees we have in my area, and in the area of healthcare, a mission that has to take priority.

Because is part of why, as I mentioned, purpose is so critical to connect with.

We won't talk about purpose, it's not just to attract an employee.

It's also to help employees self-select into the commitment that our employment entails.

Working on an ambulance is not for the faint of heart.

These are everyday heroes in our town and that doesn't, that doesn't happen casually.

That happens with commitment.

- [Army Burkett] Well here's four more suggestions to help motivate younger employees from Glassdoor.

First, we've gotta encourage a sense of teamwork, create social connections, encourage innovation and experimentation, allow them to showcase their creativity.

And it helps them to be more engaged.

You've gotta motivate with recognition and appreciation.

Also you've gotta value the psychological state.

They want to heard and that their opinion matters.

Now let's talk about that desire to want to be heard Bobby.

- Yes, absolutely.

When they have a voice and they want you to hear their voice.

So when they have new concepts and ideas, I think they need to be recognized to talk about it, pull in a team and see what's gonna work.

I think we all have creative ideas and thoughts, and I think to shun them is a negative.

We wanna be positive, stay positive, share those thoughts and ideas and pull them together and try to make them work.

If they work great at don't, then we look to the next.

So, absolutely, I think communication is key with your team.

Always communicate and coordinate and work together.

I think that's extremely important.

- Brent, let's talk about motivating through the ability to have recognition and appreciation.

What are some of the things that you've used to recognize and appreciate your employees?.

- I'll piggyback real quick.

You have to be genuine and sincere.

I agree a 100% with what Bobby said, but when you approach your employee's lives, people do want to be heard, but I think you have to make sure you're being genuine and sincere.

That's something that I try to do and kind of getting to your question at hand, it's kind of interesting that the days of $5 gift cards, somewhere, those have kind of flown out the window.

Again, that's not a need of everybody.

Some people want that ownership.

They want the responsibility, not everybody, but a lot of people do.

They need those small stepping stones that give them that gratification.

And in regards to battling time off or remote work, I think creating ownership is a great way to help offset the lack of we'll say workforce or productivity in the workforce when you're trying to accommodate with time off, I think that's an easy way to help build and empower an employee.

- Demarcus, I wanna talk to you about innovation, experimentation, creativity.

How do you see that working to help motivate this younger workforce?

- So real quick, I'm sorry.

Just do the same thing that Brent did, but to piggyback on what both of them said, it's important to be heard because, and like back in the day it was the employer saying, I'm doing you a favor by allowing you to work here, but now it's the employee looking at, I'm doing you a favor by showing up at the same time.

And I think we're treating even interviews, job interviews different from not, you're just interviewing me.

This is a business meeting.

We're gonna see if we both like each other, because even with the days off and the different incentives, everything is decentralized.

So if I'm working for say a university in the state of Illinois, I know what type of incentives or what's going on with people that are working in higher education all the way in Seattle now.

And so now I'm comparing and contrasting with that because I know what's going on over there.

So I know if it's better on the other side.

And if I need to change teams like LeBron, then I might just, you know, just change teams because it's still a favor for the employee to show up because nowadays, if they feel like this is not, if people in our generation feel like they're not being fulfilled, they'll quit.

Even without another job.

Now that silly coming from the generation X and baby booms, like why would you do something like that?

Yes, but at the same time, the employer still needs to go find somebody else to work that job.

So it's a one, two punch.

It's something that has to be figured as a complex and nuance issue.

But I'm sorry, with the innovation.

- Innovation, creativity, do you see that playing an important part in motivating the younger workforce, giving opportunities for social interaction?

- Well, yeah, because we're talking about the freedom of expression and being able to allow that expression to not only be freeing of the individual, that's allowed to express how they feel, but it also creates the environment in which we're working in and everything is about creativity.

I mean, even when you look at social media, we don't look at it like this.

And it took me forever to look at like this, but that's content, right?

And so people are creating content even just by posting a picture of us on social media, you created a piece of content and that's consumed by billions of people every day.

And so even people that never consider themselves a creative are exactly that if you have an Instagram account and you are like, oh, I'm not creative, but you're on there posting something every day.

You're creating content every day.

And so everybody now I think is identifying the fact that they wanna be a part of that.

And that being reflective in the workforce, I think would be advantageous for both sides.

- Deborah, I wanna let you have kind of a last word on that from an innovative standpoint within your organization, it seems like in healthcare, it might be a little more challenging to be innovative 'cause you have real people that need cared for.

- Yes and actually it is that that openness to continuous improvement and clinical awareness.

So when we look to innovate, we're looking to the best standards of care.

And then also what's realistic within the confines of what an ambulance can carry.

What is trainable?

What is repeatable in a strong, as a strong habit.

And that's how you build innovation.

Now you talked about feedback earlier when you're in the healthcare area, it's more like continuous improvement, a continuous connection, a continuous understanding.

And that's really, I think where the person and the idea can come together and really create that innovative moment.

For us, one of our best successes in the last few years has been our cardiac arrest success rates.

You were 50% more likely to go home neurologically intact after a cardiac event, if you do it in Peoria.

So something to consider.

(laughing) You thinking about that.

- Okay, not that we get to choose where we have our heart checked but.

- [Deborah] If you had to, this would be a pretty good place to get that care.

- Before we run outta time.

I only give each of you a chance.

What have I not given you a chance to share that you want people to realize in your interactions with this younger workforce and Bobby I'm gonna begin with?

- Yeah, I think our greatest asset are our employees.

And I think giving them that opportunity to showcase their talent skills, no matter what it is.

I think you need to show value in that as well.

And I think there's a lot of opportunity out there and a lot is happening fast with advance technology.

And in our industry it's changing a hundred miles an hour.

We are just trying to keep up with it.

- Right final thought.

- I think you have to really consider that everybody, everybody called me an optimist or whatever, but everybody has genuine intentions and good intentions.

That's my personal feeling.

And I think we're in a great position with all the diversity in the workforce from race, age, baby boomers, gen Xers, to really take advantage of this learning opportunity between all the different generations.

So I think we're in a tremendous, tremendous space to move forward from this point.

- Demaarcus.

- [Demarcus] I think I wanna agree with him when he said that the assets are the greatest asset is the employee because nothing works without them.

And I think as employers, employers need to understand that because you know, if you lose assets and you lose net worth, you lose, you know, it's some of your net worth.

And sometimes you can make the critical mistake of not allowing somebody to be heard, not looking at them at them as an asset.

Then they trade teams and now they're outperforming and over performing and over delivering for somebody else.

- I'm so sorry that, that doesn't, we are out of time.

I learned some new strategies and I hope you did too.

Our success on the job and in life depends on our ability to successfully lead all ages.

Thanks so much to our panelists for their time and advice.

You won't wanna miss next week's show.

As we dig into the issue of what are the leadership decisions that deliver the best our lives, return on investment.

I Hope to see you then, Thanks for joining us.

And Goodnight my friends.

(upbeat music)