Questions for Covey: Generational Synergy
June 02, 2008
By Steven Covey
This month's questions were submitted by Shirley Ledgerwood, manager, WSECU Training Department; Peter Marchesini, CLO, inVentive Health, Inc.; and Loubna Noureddin, director and coach, Miami Children's Hospital.
SL: Can you discuss training roles regarding the issue of four generations in the workplace? Our credit union training department has received requests for help from our branch and department managers. They are looking for training resources that will help them maintain effective and harmonious working relationships on their multigenerational teams. What should we be providing?
SC: Two things: First, focus on universal and timeless principles. When you consider the five generations of workers—Old Timers, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y, and the Millennials—all will recognize the timeless character of principles to be modeled and also institutionalized into structures, systems, and processes. These include such principles as fairness, kindness and respect, development and use of talent, integrity, service, etc.
Second, involve the generations—together or separately—in the issues or concerns people have and work out the solutions together. Synergy means the whole is greater than the sum of the parts and is the heart and soul of effective communication. Otherwise, you end up with compromise, where 1 plus 1 equals 1.5, instead of 3 or 10 or 100. Synergistic communication also requires personal security, because it puts people at risk. People feel vulnerable, not knowing the direction the creative energy is taking. But when people are principle centered, their security comes from within, not from without. That is why I emphasize the first three habits (Be Proactive, Begin With the End in Mind, Put First Things First) as being foundational to the next three (Think Win/Win; Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood; Synergize).
PM: If you could give a newly promoted leader only one piece of advice as he or she is embarking on a career in leadership, what would it be?
SC: I would emphasize the supreme importance of example, both in terms of character and competence, because those are the basic elements of trustworthiness, which is the foundation of trust. Inspiring trust is the foundation of all other imperatives of leadership, such as clarifying purpose and values; aligning structure, systems, and processes; and unleashing talent. I particularly would focus on integrity, which basically means your life is integrated around principles. We all live three lives: a public life, a private life, and a secret life. Integrity means all three lives are based on principles, so you have a clear conscience, which is the foundation of both confidence and courage.
LN: Leadership development is a strategic initiative, and the challenge for most organizations is to foster a culture of mentoring. In your opinion, how can education/training departments accomplish this?
SC: Mentoring means more than just good example. It means developing a caring, respectful relationship with others so they become increasingly capable and independent of you. When people are independent, they have the power to choose to become interdependent and synergistic. Until they are emotionally and intellectually independent, they will see interdependency and synergistic communication as a scary form of dependency.
So while the foundation is example, the next step is mentoring, which involves teaching principles and appropriate practices congruent with those principles in a way that people feel you genuinely care about them and about their futures, their careers, their whole life. Mentoring organizations are amazingly more effective than when there is an absence of such relationship and interdependency.
To submit "Questions for Covey," e-mail three to five questions to edit@trainingmag.com.
Stephen R. Covey is co-founder of FranklinCovey and author of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and "The 8th Habit."
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