Corporate Culture Change: Are You Bold Enough to Lead Gen Y’s?

Though we may have desires or bold goals, for whatever reason, most of us don’t think we can achieve something beyond what we’re qualified to achieve. Why, I ask, do we let reality interfere with our dreams?

Simon Sinek

I was recently asked to do a customer service skills training program for a group of college students with learning disabilities to help them prepare for co-op programs that their school was offering.  When I was asked, I had to think about whether to commit.   Why?  Well, I wasn’t certain I was qualified.  First of all, I normally do corporate training programs for corporate clients.  And secondly, while I’ve led programs at colleges – my workshop participants have already typically been in the corporate world for a few years.  However, I decided to push myself and try something new.

So, this past Monday, I showed up to lead a program for a wonderful group of 17 students who at the end of my 2-hour program had me thinking about how we sometimes just pigeonhole Generation Y employees instead of trying to establish a corporate culture that can provide them with opportunities to grow and at the same time meet our own corporate goals.  Then I came across a video in which motivational speaker, Simon Sinek, talks about how we’ve raised a generation on dopamine.  He talks about how Gen Y’s want to do good, but have been so conditioned by technology and speed in that they have trouble concentrating on doing one thing well since they are addicted to “every bing, buzz, beep or flash” of their telephone.  They’ve been isolated through this dopamine addiction.  This isolation is what has been causing issues for them within society and in how they perform in the business world.  He challenges those who are leading this generation in the corporate arena to be bold and create new models building teams and achieving collective goals.  The video is only six minutes and might help you understand more clearly the humanity of the Gen Y employee.  So, give it a watch!