Target Corporation must focus on developing trust with their consumers after their major data breach. Check out Dave’s interview with Roshini Rajkumar on WCCO radio on 1-19-2014.
Author: dhorsager
Collaboration-Conducive Work Environments | Building Trust with Gen Y Series
Situate them in workspaces conducive to collaboration. (5 of 9 in series)
Millennials are also known as “generation we” because of their strong social mindset. Despite growing up in the most individualistic nation in history, American millennials think and act quite socially. They know that better results and meaning come through collaboration. They’re used to the flat connected world and used to working with people from varying cultures. Gen Y knows that strategizing and executing with 3 or 8 or 21 varying perspectives leads to high caliber and balanced results. Consider setting up your office in a way that’s more conducive to collaboration and get increased productivity by letting millennials work and compete on teams.
Understanding Shipping | Trust in Global Business
In this fascinating speech by Rose George, she gives some statistics and stories that connect all of us to the unkown world of shipping. The public’s unfamiliarty (which experts call “Sea Blindness”) with this vast world, many trust issues exist.
http://www.ted.com/talks/rose_george_inside_the_secret_shipping_industry.html
Here are some highlights:
- 90% of world trade is through shipping
- It has quadrupled in size since 1970
- Harvard Business recently named some Somali Piracy as a top business model – more on high piracy waters.
- 544 seafarers are being held hostage off the Somali coast by pirates
- 15 of the largest ships carbon emissions = all of that from the world’s cars
- There are 100,000 ships at sea
- Little known Maersk has an annual revenue of $60.2 bn – on par to Microsoft
- Container ships sail around 20 people vs. Navy ships commonly have 1,000+
- Incredibly multi-cultural crews with ability to fly most nation’s flag
Manage without Hovering | Building Trust with Gen Y Series
Avoid managing like a helicopter boss. (4 of 9 in series)
Gen Y’s distaste for institutions makes them a different experience to manage. Their objectives for meaningfulness and fulfillment make them best-off to manage with a coaching tilt. They find fulfillment and meaning in their own personal development, and managers can function as catalysts in the process. They need their managers to give deadlines and hold them accountable to deliverables, but they respond best to managers who come alongside of them, remove barriers, and give constant feedback. Millennials want this type of customized constant feedback from their leaders because it’s what they’re used to. They were told they were special as kids and received trophies even for 9th and 10th place, they’re accustomed to Amazon and Pandora learning and catering to their interests, and they like it when their text messages and Facebook statuses receive instantaneous responses. They desire their leaders to give customized honest coaching that helps them develop personally and get better professional results. Stay away from fear tactics, hovering over shoulders, and invading space. Find customized positive methods to assure results, and you’ll gain sustainable shared success.
Give More Vision and Less Step-by-Step | Building Trust with Gen Y Series
Assign work and give lots of vision, and less exact step-by-step procedures. (3 of 9 in series)
Gen Y gets become less engaged when given a roadmaps with exact steps. They have a penchant for problem solving and want challenges to face. Millennials are the first generation to grow up with the internet. They’ve spent their entire lives learning and trying multiple methods for accomplishing end goals. Scouring YouTube how-to videos, About.com explanations, experts’ websites, Yahoo! conversation boards, etc. are standard protocol for figuring out how to do something. Their minds are like databases of ideas, and they want to apply them through trial and error. If their leaders teach top suggested methods, give them responsibility, and trust them to deliver results on deadlines, they are likely to innovate more efficient methods and get high quality results.
Explain the “Why” | Building Trust with Gen Y Series
Explain the “why” when delegating projects. (2 of 9 in series)
Gen Y works best when leaders clearly explain how their work helps to expand the greater mission and purpose. They are the most educated generation in world history, so they’re conditioned to asking and understanding “why this” and “why that”. Influenced by their parents, who were impacted by the Hippie movement’s backlash against top-down dictation, Gen Y isn’t used to command and control styles of leadership. They are skeptical and used to being sold to. When their leaders dig into “why”, they buy-in passionately. They want to feel the value and importance for their actions. And, they want to understand how systems work so they can work efficiently and improve them. Dig to “why” with millennials, and you’ll gain more buy-in, improved systems, and better results.
Focus on Meaningfulness | Building Trust with Gen Y Series
By 2025, approximately 75% of the world’s workforce will consist of millennials (Gen Y), according to a study from the BPW Foundation. Companies that survive past 2025 will be those that develop the trust of the millennial workforce, while maintaining trust with previous generations. Companies that disregard the mind-frame and work-style of Gen Y will scare away top talent and consumer dollars.
In 9-blog series over the next few weeks, we will share 9 Gen Y trust-builders & insights into the milennial mind. Here’s the first one.
Redesign aspects of your organization in a way that focus on meaningfulness. (1 of 9 in series)
Millennials yearn for meaning. Without living through a draft or another major hardship, Gen Y desires more than stability and achievement. They want to work in organizations that are genuine to a meaningful mission. They don’t want to merely provide products and services. Rather, they want to use them as tools to help develop people and society. In addition to a meaningful mission, they want their organization to have a strong environmental, social, and corporate governance strategy (ESG), be known as a leader in corporate responsibility, and give back generously and purposefully to their communities. If your company doesn’t focus on meaningfulness and give freedom to create new avenues to make a difference, millennials will run the other direction – to your competitor companies. But, by paying attention to the value of meaningfulness, your company will develop trust and retain top young talent.
Trust in Aviation | Trust in Business
Growing up on a farm in north-central Minnesota, my family put a lot of trust in agricultural aircraft. We relied on a crop duster to spray fertilizer and pesticide and keep our kidney beans healthy and growing. Now, as a speaker and consultant, my company relies on the aviation industry to fly me back and forth across the country to keep our promises. Many weeks, I’m in an airplane every day, and it’s easy to take for granted all of the moving parts that make it happen.
Like any business activity or relationship, the aviation industry is built on trust. But, there are few industries where the value of trust is so taken for granted when things are going well and so magnified when danger is felt. We drive up to our local hub, as a plane shoots over our roof at 200 miles per hour, type our most important personal information into a machine, hand our bags over to someone we’ve never met, routinely pass our belongings through security where we hope all passengers potential weapons are confiscated, find the gate that was printed on our ticket, sit down on our flotation device, blast off into the sky in a metal cylinder, float through lightning storms, and hurl back at the ground. Our business travel or vacation trip sounds absurd when stated like this.
We take it all for granted when everything goes smoothly, thanks to the laws of physics and trust. But, the minute our stomachs rise and fall during turbulence, we remember how much trust we have in our pilots, the airplane’s safety designs, air traffic control’s technology to communicate from the ground, and a thousand other components. Perhaps the greatest proof is the 30% demand reduction after the 9/11 attacks. Consumers responded to the breach of trust with fear and decided to drive or stay home as alternatives to their next trip.
Any industry, business, or person will experience a shock period after a major breach of trust, but it was dramatic to aviation because of the magnitude of trust’s importance for success. The industry relies heavily on steadying their consumer’s emotions, and it goes great lengths to make that happen. Just think of one repercussion of 9/11 to understand – heightened security. Aviation had to respond to the breach of trust by increasing security personnel, procedures, and technology, and now more hassle is spread out to the entire industry, including us, as passengers. Air transit is the pinnacle of the industry, but it sits on an extensive foundation of moving parts and trust relationships. Many, like me, rely on them to run their businesses, and we all entrust the stability of our economy to them.
Nelson Mandela: Sacrifice for the Greater Picture | Trust Tip Tuesday
“Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.”
Nelson Mandela sacrificed 27 years of his life in prison for the people of South Africa. Mandela was committed, loyal and passionate about his mission. Nothing could replace his burning desire to see an anti-apartheid South Africa disbanded.
He sacrificed his life for a cause that would make an impact beyond himself. As the world mourns his death, it is also an opportunity to celebrate a life well lived and learn from a man who exemplified commitment and compassion.
What are you doing here and now that is having a lasting, positive impact in your family, business and community?
Leadership and Foresight from the Greatest Leader I Know | Trusted Leadership
What a treat to enjoy Thanksgiving at the farm with family! Pond hockey, broom ball, games, pecan and pumpkin pie (I much prefer pie over cake any day), fellowship, gratefulness, and even some time cutting wood for the stove. It is so good to work together and play together. Most of my five siblings and the seventeen grandchildren were able to gather and stay at the farm (all but my sister’s family, who live in Kenya and teach at a university there). Dad is 84 years old now and Mom is close behind. They are an example of intentional leadership.
On Saturday, Dad invited all of the farm families that rent land from him over to the house for food, fellowship and a “program”. The “program” was intentional. He built our well over a thousand acre farm from nothing, buying his first 80 acres while in college just after serving in the Korean War. Why did he bring together family and renters and have a “program”? To introduce his kids to the renters, to encourage open communication, to transfer leadership, and to provide a peaceful thoughtful process for when he is not around anymore. Dad is still in great health, but he is wise. His wisdom to give a clear plan for succession planning will take a whole lot of stress out or our future. Each of the kids have clear responsibilities and roles. It was significant that in front of everyone he gave leadership to his fifth child, the brother just older than me to be the point person for farm operations. While we know Dad loves all of us, Loren is the best person for that job. This public declaration of who the farm point person is gave clarity and empowered Loren to take that role even though he is not the oldest child, which may be a more traditional approach for that responsibility.
Two leadership lessons: First, think ahead and act ahead. Secondly, while it is true that empowerment occurs when a person is given the resources needed for a given task, it is equally important to empower leaders by publicly giving them the leadership role necessary to take on responsibility and have others quickly follow. This is a form of “Transfer Trust” – Since people trust you as leader, and you trust a given person to lead, when you publicly give the leadership role, others will more quickly follow that individual so that you are no longer needed in that role.
