The Guru Nation Blog

The challenge for most leaders in managing generational workforces is actually in comprehending the expectations of each of the four generations currently in the workforce. Tammy Erickson, when she wrote Workforce Crisis, did stunning research to identify not only the value system of each generation but also how those values play out in the workplace. Inside a Fortune 500 company, managing generational workforces means understanding and responding to Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y as distinct groups. Leadership and motivation around each group cannot look the same.

For the purposes on understanding how we manage generational workforces, let’s “dig down” into the values and expectations of one group as an example. Looking at the portrait of the mid-career worker, we see a segment of people born between 1951 and 1970, most of the Boomer generation and the older part of Gen X. These mid-career players see big picture, are sparked to do something meaningful in their lives, and will work to embrace the hope and vision of their organization. They are self-reliant, ambitious, competitive, expecting clear rules of performance measurement. On whole, this group breaks rules, experiments on many levels, demands participative management, and values horizontal vs. hierarchical organizations.

When it comes to managing generational workforces, the organization can be addressing the management challenge of this generational group by instituting fresh training and development, creating mentoring and knowledge sharing programs, advocating job-swaps inside the company, offering sabbaticals, and providing career-change options. The challenge for organizations is to recognize the talents of each generational co-hort and respond in a newly imagined way. Ms. Erickson can help.

Tamara Erickson -
“Generations Together - The Next Challenge”

Martha Pease
Founding Partner, OZZ
Creds: Apple, Pizza Hut, Lifetime, L’Oreal, McCann Erickson, BBD&O
Topic: Branding

Brand power is a business strategy, and presents a creative opportunity for a company. In the case of Pizza Hut, an iconic brand in the marketplace, the creative team and corporate leadership saw a keen opportunity to reposition the brand and made brand power its mandate. Pease and team took on the conversion looking at three legs of the stool: competition, consumers, and culture. In order to move the brand to a more successful place, the brand power team had to blend art and science.

Successful repositioning of a brand requires extreme discipline. Handled effectively, with proper vision, the brand power that results can be stronger than at inception. What emerges is not just growth for the brand, but also expansion for the company. Pease claims that great instinct plays a vital role, instinct she used to create brand power for companies such as Apple, Elizabeth Arden, and Lifetime. One of the requirements in the process is to expand the innovation. That means consideration of new approaches regarding pricing, stores, and advertising. A successful promotion, like the Pizza Hut campaign of “$5 Bucks, 5 Bucks” created brand power just by hitting a nerve. The key to strong brand power is flexibility in reaching for “great” on every level.

Listen to our interview with Martha Pease:

No matter your gender and leadership style, speaking publicly to your customers, teams, or Board of Directors requires a mastery of presentation skills.
Women and men alike want to impress. Leaders want to make their mark.
It all happens by starting with the actual sound of your voice.
Direct from the voice-over artists, coaches, and stage directors inside our network, here are the 4 no-fail tips you can use to enhance your leadership image regardless of your gender.

Tip #1:
Talk from the middle of your body.
Too many people talk from their throat or their neck.
Put your hand on your neck to see how much vibration you feel.
Your voice should be coming from your entire body cavity and chest, not stuck in your throat or neck. A richer and fuller voice helps improve your delivery and your presence.

Tip#2:
Moderate the volume knob.
A confident voice is not too loud or too soft.
Set up a mock audience and try to speak at different tones to see how you are heard. Your image is more refined and powerful when your voice is not overpowering.

Tip#3:
Say “no” to up-talking!
Some people believe they can present well if they up-talk at the end of their sentences and some don’t know they do it.
When you up-talk, you actually sound like you’re asking a question and need approval.  Worse yet, you send a message that you’re not secure and confident about your image. Practice talking without bringing your voice to an “up-note” and you’ll see how your image changes.

Tip#4:
Use less salt and pepper.
We all use salt and pepper to give us time to think. It’s the “uh” or “ummm” or “right” that we toss into our language.
Presentations are stronger without it.
Less salt and pepper shows you have rehearsed, know your material, and feel confident with the direction of your presentation.
The more you can drop the salt and pepper, the better an image you present.

With so many generations in workforce, the cry is for more education and continued learning. Whether a Gen Y or a Baby Boomer, men and women at every generational level want to be fed by programs that expand their thinking and their ability to increase their performance.

We now have four generations in the workforce, and companies should pay heed!

According to Tammy Erickson, co-author of Workforce Crisis, companies are offering too few learning opportunities. If the generations in today’s workforce can’t receive proper training and expanded learning, then the employer will pay the price in lost capability, performance, and engagement.

In Workforce Crisis, Ms. Erickson advises that companies can become “Learning Organizations” for all the generations in the workforce. A learning organization is one that is talented at creating, acquiring, transferring and interpreting knowledge. Then, with intention, the company has to modify its behavior to reflect that new knowledge. To do this effectively, an organization has to promote and reward skill development and respect differences between individuals.

It doesn’t stop there!

A strong learning organization feeds its generations in the workforce by encouraging risk taking and asking for timely feedback. Knowledge is openly shared.To meet the needs of the generations in the workforce, here are basic questions to ask in order to begin the process:

What does the organization need to learn more about?
What do we need to know more about our customers?
How can we use what we learn to improve performance?
What must we decide faster?
How can we revise our business processes and re-orient our technology infrastructure?

How will your brand profit? It will profit by letting people know who and what your brand actually is. Too many people assume that the brand profit happens without definition or strategic planning, but that’s simply not the case. For real brand profit, one has to determine “what you are one of” and take the steps to reinforce that message.

Oprah is a fine example. Oprah is a presenter. She loves to discover people, things and experiences. Then, she does a show and tell in order to tell the world what she loves about the things or people she has discovered. Oprah engages in “show and tell” on a grand scale.

Why can her brand profit? Because ”what she is one of” is an advocate of living life to the fullest…. And the people, things and experiences she presents are all teachers and tools that she shares with her audiences to empower them to live their best lives…
That’s Oprah – and she’s been remarkably consistent in staying on brand, however…

The Huffington Post reported several weeks ago that O’s newsstand average was down 16.4 percent, and her daily talk show had dropped in ratings after her public political rallying for President-elect Barack Obama - an activity that Oprah has since curtailed publicly.

So it’s easy for even a master to go off brand.

According to Rosemary Davies-Janes, President of Miboso and a branding expert at The Guru Nation, there are 4 distinct aspects to staying on brand if you want brand profit. And the key to all of them is consistency. For real brand profit, there are 4 channels to watch:

Channel 1: Your core brand expertise
Your core brand expertise tells people “who you are” – For an example, let’s look at Richard Branson. His core brand expertise - who he is - is an innovative, daring risk taker who thinks way out of the conventional box and has a track record of brand profit far more often than he fails.

Channel 2: Your brand focus
Your brand focus is “what you are one of” To stay with Richard Branson, what he is “one of” is a business turnaround specialist.  He is more than that, as we’ve already discovered in his brand expertise, but the focus of Richard Branson’s personal brand - “what he is one of” is a business turnaround specialist. He takes existing businesses, gives them new life, and reinforces their brand profit.

Channel 3: Your brand messages
Your brand messages tell people who you are and what you are one of without actually spelling out your brand expertise or brand focus. Your brand messages are succinct, memorable and engaging. We used one already by describing Richard Branson as someone who gives new life to existing businesses. See how this draws you in and engages you?

Channel 4: Your brand character
Your brand character is where your values and personality show up. Once again, Richard Branson is a fabulous example. His brand character is about being outrageous, over the top, fun and colorful. Because his personal brand is rooted in his natural values and preferences, it’s easy for him to be consistent in his brand character. The consistency is the underpinning to his brand profit.

So how does being consistent across these 4 channels keep you on brand and support you brand profit?

When you add channel 1 - your brand focus - to channel 2 - your core brand expertise - you get an answer to the questions who are you and what are you one of.  Richard Branson is a business turnaround specialist, an innovative, daring risk taker who thinks way out of the conventional box and has a track record of succeeding far more than he fails. Then you bring in channel 3’s brand messages – Mr. Branson gives new life to existing businesses - and finally add some brand character - his outrageousness and ability to take things over the top – and you have a set of dots that connect perfectly. Connecting the consistency dots is the key to brand profit, but it’s a brand profit aspect that too few follow. With the “connect the dots” theory, you can change your brand profit to one that exceeds expectation.