Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y »

Bruce Tulgan is internationally recognized as the leading expert on young people in the workplace. He is an advisor to business leaders and the author or coauthor of sixteen books, including the classic Managing Generation X and the best-seller It's Okay to Be the Boss. Since founding the management training firm RainmakerThinking, he has been a sought-after keynote speaker and seminar leader. Tulgan's work has been the subject of thousands of news stories, and he has written for dozens of publications, including the New York Times, USA Today, Human Resources Magazine, and the Harvard Business Review. He also holds a fourth-degree black belt in karate and is married to Debby Applegate, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

This book will frame Generation Y (children born between 1978-1991) for corporate leaders and managers at time when the corporate world is desperate to recruit and retain worked in this age group. It will debunk dozens of myths, including that young employees have no sense of loyalty, won't do grunt work, won't take direction, want to interact only with computers, and are only about money.

This book will make a unique contribution in four key ways:

It will disprove the idea that the key to recruiting, retaining, and managing this generation is to somehow make the workplace more "fun." To the contrary, Tulgan argues that the key to winning the respect of this generation, and getting the best effort out of them, is to carefully manage their expectations by never downplaying any negative aspect of a job.

He will show managers how this Generation thinks transactionally in all negotiations. For them it's about what they will do for you today and what you will do for them today, not tomorrow, not five years from today, but today.

He will explain why they have no interest in tying their futures to your corporation. But he will also make clear that they do have a well thought-out plan for themselves, one that requires that every job they take build up their skill sets, so they become more valuable employees for someone else—if and when you do not fulfill your end of the bargain, or drag your feet in doing so.

But most of all, it will explain to corporate leaders that for this generation their personal life comes first, so that each job they take must accommodate itself to some need defined by their personal life. Tulgan argues thatuntil you know the personal need the job can satisfy for a potential employee, you and the applicant may be talking past each other. Those needs are so beyond the imagination of most bosses that Tulgan devotes a third of the book to explaining how they affect the job decisions of this generation.

Allen McGinley - Library Journal

Compiling years of research, including interviews with Gen Yers (those born between 1978 and 1990) and the organizations that manage them, Tulgan (Managing Generation X) crafts insightful lessons on how to manage the newest generation to enter the workforce. With extensive quotes from members of Gen Y and their more experienced managers, Tulgan successfully dispels popular myths (e.g., that managers of Gen Y staff need to present their work as fun) and offers practical advice for recruiting, retaining, and managing this new crop of young workers. While conceding that Gen Yers are more high maintenance than their predecessors, Tulgan also argues that these new recruits have the potential to be the most highly productive generation in history. The author's assessment is far from sugarcoated; he describes Generation Y as "Generation X on fast-forward and with self-esteem on steroids" and dissects a diverse range of case studies to help managers overcome possible Gen Y obstacles. This book will serve as an effective tool for both veteran managers and self-evaluating Gen Yers. Recommended for business collections in public and academic libraries.

Ch. 1 Meet Generation Y: The Most High-Maintenance Workforce in the History of the World 1

Ch. 2 Get Them on Board Fast with the Right Messages 19

Ch. 3 Get Them Up to Speed Quickly and Turn Them into Knowledge Workers 43

Ch. 4 Practice In Loco Parentis Management 57

Ch. 5 Give Them the Gift of Context 75

Ch. 6 Get Them to Care About Great Customer Service 89

Ch. 7 Teach Them How to Manage Themselves 101

Ch. 8 Teach Them How to Be Managed by You 123

Ch. 9 Retain the Best of Gen Y, One Day at a Time 147

Ch. 10 Build the Next Generation of Leaders 165

Acknowledgments 171

About the Author 175

Index 177