Riding the elephant and winning with Gen Y women leaders

Seven tips – for riding the elephant and winning with Gen Y women leaders

I have noticed in the past five years of my business that a portion of my customers are preparing to retire or have already retired. Career or business development is something they can smile about, while telling me that they are “on to other things like travel and developing their gardens.”  Since starting Terrill Welch - A Woman Behind Women, my clients have most often been my peers and my mentors. Now for the first time, this is changing. For my business to remain viable it is time to shift gears – because the “kids” are no longer kids. They are knocking down the doors of opportunity and they are setting their intentions for career and business and LIVING.

These women have more on-line jazz and savvy than anyone going before them. They give social networking a new meaning, with Facebook and Myspace becoming a second living room and home town all at the same time. If we want to have them on our team, leading our organizations or purchasing our services we need to learn about who they are, how they live, what they value, and we must above all give due respect to their decision-making power.  

Why are they different from previous generations? Well, I think it is because women born between 1977 and 1989 have slipped through childhood, teen-hood and into adulthood through an interwoven and cross-stitched fabric of experiences without encountering a universal and singular rite of passage. They are more likely to have gone to technical school, college or university, but in a long and maze-like adventure.  At the same time they may just now be considering moving into their own homes (and out of yours) – their path to adulthood is one they will deny ever happened!  The distinction between childhood and maturity has blurred! They will tell us that they have always been self-directed agents because that is what we have taught them! Frankly, I believe that they may have grown up in spite of their best efforts to remain kids, and they now believe that their present character is not new but how they have always been. So there is no use dwelling on our surprise at their confidence in negotiation, ability to ferret out a good or better deal, and their tenacity in keeping their “it’s all about me” electronic post-it, blinking on our screen before we have even had a chance to offer them a career, business or purchasing opportunity.

What is the “given” elephant in the room? If you are 40 years old or older, you are old!  You lack technological coordination and know how. You will not likely leave your job or retire in time for them to take over and get on with what really needs to happen.  You will not likely die soon enough to grant them timely access to your wealth --- wealth which, by the way, in the process of its earning, you have destroyed the environment and left them to try and clean up the mess! What is your answer to allegations that name the elephant? “You are probably right… and I was thinking about what you said the other day about ____  and I think I might have something that could be useful to you (it could be a lead on a cool job, referral to a new business client or a great place to buy local organic grape juice).”  

If you can acknowledge the elephant and construct a response that will have both of you astride the proverbial critter, THEN you will both be in for one heck of a ride! Here are seven tips for riding the elephant and winning with Gen Y women leaders:

One: Get up close and personal – Gen Y women ask their friends first and most often about where the coolest places are to look for work, buy the best and cheapest food, or get hot tips about career advancement and anything else they want to know. Oh… and their closest friends are likely to include as many men as they do women. You need to be “personally” engaged with them to be on their referral list. Yes, make eye contact, take the time to smile and look up the number for some other business that might have what they need when you don’t. While you are doing all this they will likely be talking on their cell phone but they will notice and they will come back to that really cool friendly place that helped them out.

Two: Make sure there is room for friends – these women like to work, play and socialize in groups. Remember they have been doing it since day care. Always offer a group rate and never expect that they will do anything on their own including everything from having a massage, buying a hand bag to going on vacation. Everything is always more fun with friends!

Three: Have a contest and lots of free stuff – Yes winning the jelly beans for the first person to complete the math quiz has had a lasting effect! They are not ready to give up the little “extras” we gave them to keep them engaged and entertained while we finished up a late assignment for work. Puzzles, word games or any game is a better way to learn and keep them coming back for more.

Four: Be on-line, create on-line, and share on-line – Okay this is it! You had better figure out how to write sassy Blog-posts – or better yet hire someone who can… like one of them! After consulting her friends, the second place where a Gen Y woman will look for information is on-line. She will have a specific question and she will be looking for a specific answer. Blog postings with rich content will help Google to find you, and then help her to find you and what she is looking for. If she finds the answer and likes the place she found, she will be back – with her friends!

Five: Be authentic and respectful – You don’t need to know the latest lingo or the hottest anything. Just remember to be yourself, to listen, and to ask questions. Use the coach’s perspective – the Gen Y woman leader knows everything she needs to know or at least she knows how to find out. (And knowing that she will ask her friends first – if you’re on her “friend” list as a resource, all the better.)

Six: Packaging is everything! –Beyond good value, it must be cool, fun and sexy. This includes things like being able to keep 2000 songs in her pocket or choosing her laptop in a colour and shape that matches her home décor and office.

Seven: It has to be fun! - If what you are offering is not fun, forget it!

BONUS TIP: It MUST be environmentally friendly… remember we are responsible for making such a mess of things, so the least we can do is start cleaning it up – and don’t expect them to participate if we are not!

One of my favourite examples where these tips have been skillfully employed is on a paper bag for mushrooms. Yes a lowly old paper bag for the common-place ordinary mushroom. Look closely. It is awesome! Here is the back side of the bag. How can you not include these “fun-guys” to cook with? ...

all about mushrooms

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"By Terrill Welch of Terrill Welch – A Woman behind Women. Terrill Welch is an Executive Coach, providing coaching services designed specifically for women leaders. To learn more, feel free to browse through the http://www.awomanbehindwomen.ca and http://terrill.gaia.com websites."