You are an accomplished business leader looking to grow your organization by hiring new people who have fresh ideas and perspectives. You have just invested a considerable amount of time and effort into recruiting, interviewing and hiring some of the best people within your profession. The new hires are all well educated and highly motivated to start working in your organization. This group of new people is the largest group of new employees you have ever hired, and you decide to have your training department develop a two-week induction program introducing them to the organization, and some maybe even to the industry.
When the two-week program ends, your training manager requests a meeting with you to discuss the new training program and the new people who have just started within the organization. You meet with your manager and when you sit down with her, you see a look of dismay on her face. You start talking about the training program and the participants, and then she finally tells you that it seems everyone just wants to climb the corporate ladder. You are thinking, it’s wonderful that they are all very ambitious. Then she tells you they want to accomplish this within a year, and have a very comfortable salary while only working 37.5-hour week! In short, they are looking for overnight success.
Even though we hear a lot about people being overworked and not compensated, in many organizations there is a growing trend for what I call overnight success. It’s not a “Gen Y” thing but it’s a “Gen D” thing.
What is “Gen D”?
Businesses and organizations now operate within a technology revolution era and face unique challenges, none of which have ever been experienced before in history. And from this technology revolution a new generation of professionals has emerged – the “Generation D” who is used to receiving instant gratification from the social media world in the way of “likes”, instant tweets etc. “Generation D” are people who are so wired into the social media, that for some it has become their real world. They are missing the valuable lessons and skills a person needs to learn in order to succeed in their professional careers, and that is that great performance, success and rewards do not happen overnight in any profession.
So how do you avoid creating a culture of overnight achievers? Try some of these suggestions to reduce the risk in your organization.
Ask about determination
During the interview, ask them to tell you about a time in their career when they had to show tenacity, perseverance and determination over a long period of time in order to achieve a goal or desirable results.
Be up-front
Tell them right from the first time you meet with them that there are no overnight successes within your company. In order to climb the corporate ladder, they will have to invest time and effort into the organization to understand the business, clients and culture.
Challenge them
When they start with your organization, give them a challenging assignment that will stretch their capabilities and demonstrate their skills. Ask their managers to coach them to provide them actionable feedback on their performance. This will give them some actual experience of what is required to succeed within your organization.
The “Gen D” employees can come from various backgrounds and be of any age. They have a love for technology, social media and the instant gratification it provides. They bring a keenness for overnight success and quick advancement within their careers, and often feel their performance is better than it actually is.
All the best in achieving your highest performance.
Paul
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net