Motivation
How do you motivate generation X to make a decision?
We can motivated with rewards, bonus, stock options, future promotions and other kind of benefits. It is important to make sure to they work Monday to Friday and 40 hours at week.
Encourage them and tell them all they need to know about the career they are choosing and what they can do with that decision.
leading by example is the best way to get their attention
Bridgett, All of these things contribute to what the Gen X likes, so that is great. What kind of feedback to you get from your Gen Xer's about how this is going?
Dr. Jean Norris
Our school does outside events, we give back to the community. We feed the hungry and give free haircuts for kids going back to school. Three weeks ago we donated toys to children suffering from cancer in the Joedemizzio hospital. This helps generation X to help attain self efficacy and be part of community and at the same time make connections for their future careers.
As a GenX-er myself, I can't help but reflect on how I am motivated--I was used to fending for myself growing up, hence today and everyday, I am most inclined to achieve efficacy through creativty and innovative ideas. Having felt despondent as a child with boomer-parents, who weren't available to raise me, I learned to be self-motivated and quickly embraced the ideology of working hard to earn/gain something for myself. Today, I continue to work with much rigor, but I also don't hesitate to reward myself :-). I am very conscious about following authority and their rules; however, I most appreciate the room and flexibility to make things happen,while being governed by my moral principles as I work.
K.C.,
Very interesting! Thank you for sharing! Just to clarify, you are stating the way to motivate Gen-Xer's is by consistent and (almost) instant feedback, recognition, and challenge? Do I have that correct?
Dr. Jean Norris
I love that question and recently did some research since I had a class mainly consisting of these type of students. I would love to share!
WHAT DOES MOTIVATE?
Value The Individual and Nurture Relationships. Although there doesn't seem to be one description of Generation X, most will agree that a defining characteristic is that they don't like to be characterized (as I'm doing in this article!). They don't want to be treated as a single entity, but want to be looked at as individuals. In addition, this is the first wave of latchkey kids to hit the work force. They are homesick for the home they never had (due to both parents working). Their focus on relationships over achievement is what leads Boomers to complain about their laziness. Isn't this strong sense of community and personal relationships in the workplace just what we need?
Challenging Work. This generation has sometimes been called the MTV Generation because of their short attention span. Xers want new challenges and the opportunity to build new skills. Training is one of the best motivators. They have a tremendous capacity to process lots of information and concentrate on multiple tasks.
They don't want to spend a lot of time talking about things or having meetings. They want to get in, do the work, and move on to the next thing. If you're looking for someone to deliver a report every week, you don't want an Xer. I recently brought up the subject of understanding twentysomethings during a coaching workshop. Immediately a manager complained, with a lot of emotion, that kids today don't want to work and will only stay for a week or so and then leave. Well, the job was very repetitive and offered little challenge. No wonder!
Freedom to Manage Time and Work. Xers don't want over-your-shoulder, in-your-face managers who constantly check what they're doing. Perhaps as a result of their latchkey childhood, these young workers are not used to being closely supervised and are remarkably good at working on their own.
Feedback and Recognition. On the other hand, members of Generation X seem to crave time with their bosses and can never get enough feedback on their performance. They may be searching for what was missing when they were growing up. Because of their short attention span, recognition and rewards must arrive quickly. Employee of the month doesn't do anything for them.
