“I could not be happier.”
“It could not have gone better.”
Let me begin by sharing the backstory to these two comments. Over the past four to six months, I have had intermittent conversations with a young professional who has been, “struggling but hanging in there.” This is a sharp, hard-working young woman who excitedly accepted an opportunity just over a year ago. I would call her an A player. For purposes of this story, I will call her Stephanie.
Stephanie’s experience over the course of several months has been described by her as follows:
- “During the interviewing process, the opportunity sounded very exciting…exactly what I was looking for.”
- “Six months in, and my boss has not spent focused time with me to talk about my role.”
- “Most of my time is spent doing busy work that the interns do, because I can’t get my boss’ attention. I do not feel good about what I’m contributing.”
- “I have asked to meet with my boss to get clear on some things, and every meeting we have scheduled, she has canceled. 100 percent. I know she has a very busy job, so I get it that it’s difficult to find time for me. It’s just that I am floundering.”
- “I continue to do the best I can. I am helping others and working on some projects that I feel may have value, based upon what I’ve observed and based upon what I think can be beneficial to others. Every day, though, I’m not sure I’m doing the right things.”
Before I play out Stephanie’s story, let me share a couple more examples of young professionals who have had difficulty with their leaders.
In one situation, a gentleman who attended one of our Gen Y-topic events shared that his 20 something-year-old daughter was struggling mightily with her job, because of the same types of things that I described above. He told me that she confided in him numerous times that she was just miserable for lack of direction. She tried to talk to her boss who seemed disinterested in the “drama.” His daughter took a different job.
In another situation, a young professional named Anna reached out for help designing an approach to talk with her boss who was demonstrating a different set of challenges. Essentially, for any of the work Anna was doing, her boss took credit for it, never acknowledging Anna for her hard work and contribution. During meetings, when questions were directed to Anna by other members of the organization (pertaining to her projects), Anna’s boss always talked over her and answered the question. Anna talked with her boss and made no progress. Anna eventually went somewhere else.
According to Gallup, “the number one reason employees leave their jobs or report dissatisfaction in their jobs is the relationship they have with their immediate boss.”
Additionally, Gallup has reported its most recent engagement statistics (February 2015): only a third of U.S. employees feel engaged at work. Half (50.3 percent) are “not engaged” and 16.8 percent are “actively disengaged.”
The good news is…in some organizations, the employee engagement is higher than the 32.9 percent national average. This happens when organizations and leaders are intentional about addressing and responding to the needs of employees.
Back to Stephanie. Ten months into her job, Stephanie remained committed to making this work. She persevered and scheduled a meeting with her boss. She shared her concerns, to some degree communicating the list of items at the beginning of this column.
The very first thing her boss said to her was, “You are absolutely right.” Anytime an employee is affirmed or acknowledged for what they think or what they are struggling with, the conversation has a very good chance of going well.
Stephanie and her boss met for almost two hours, sorted out a number of things, clarified a number of things, and as I mentioned at the beginning, Stephanie’s feelings now can best be summed up as “I could not be happier.”
This organization has strengthened the commitment, productivity and loyalty of this young professional, whom they should not want to lose.
-Aleta Norris is a co-founding partner of Brookfield-based Living As A Leader, a leadership training, coaching and consulting firm. You may send her your ‘Leading Generation Y’ question at anorris@livingasaleader.com. To read all of her columns, visit the knowledge portal at www.livingasaleader.com.
