Category Archives: Professional Development

The ability to bring diverse perspectives to the workplace is a superpower, alumna Corliss Garner (second from right) advised Chicago high school students at a DePaul-hosted leadership program. | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

With our role as a strong corporate citizen, we want to be able to support our partners in doing their best work to the extent that we can.”
– Corliss Garner (BUS ’06)

Seven years ago, Corliss Garner (BUS ’96) returned to DePaul to address a group of high school students from underresourced communities as part of the university’s partnership with the Chicago Housing Authority. A Chicago native, Garner grew up in a West Side neighborhood, and wasn’t exposed to a diverse group of people until she entered high school. When she enrolled in DePaul to study finance, her exposure to diversity expanded.

As she spoke to the students, she encouraged them to think of their backgrounds as superpowers in their careers. She told them, “Your background and life experiences have taught you resilience and problem-solving skills. These are critical areas that will help you stand out and excel in any career path you choose.”

Now, Garner is in a new role that supports the advancement of employees with diverse backgrounds. After more than 20 years at BMO Harris Bank, Garner recently began working as the senior vice president and head of corporate social responsibility and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at First Midwest Bank, the first position of its kind at the company. For the past year, Garner has channeled her professional, personal and civic experiences into building and executing a DEI strategy. She also oversees the bank’s philanthropic and community initiatives.

Garner’s community work inspired her passion for promoting diversity, equity and inclusion. | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

“My work is designed to strategically connect our role as a corporate citizen to support our employees, our clients and the communities we serve,” she says. “As First Midwest continues to grow and expand its footprint, the opportunity to strategically align this important work to our business objectives is a high priority for our company.”

First Midwest Bank recently made a $500,000 gift to DePaul’s John L. Keeley Jr. Center for Financial Services. Over the next five years, this gift will be used to diversify the Keeley Center’s student cohorts through outreach, targeted programming, scholarship support and internship placements at the bank.

“With our role as a strong corporate citizen, we want to be able to support our partners in doing their best work to the extent that we can,” Garner says. “Leading this partnership with the Keeley Center is a full-circle moment for me. It is an honor to work for a company that understands the value of providing more access to opportunity for diverse students.”

Leadership commitment and employee engagement are essential for DEI efforts to succeed, Garner says.

An active member of Chicago’s civic community, Garner has served on the advisory board of DePaul’s Coleman Entrepreneurship Center and is now a life director of the African American Legacy, an initiative that aims to improve the quality of life of African Americans in Chicago. Garner’s involvement in the community helped crystallize her passion for DEI work.

Not long after Garner started her new position at First Midwest Bank, social justice and racial issues began rattling communities throughout the United States. In the summer of 2020, thousands of people protested the death of George Floyd, who died at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.

“The events of the summer certainly added a layer to my work. In many cases, those moments created the momentum needed to accelerate powerful and courageous conversations on race in America,” Garner says. “Even amidst all of the uncertainty and despair we experienced in 2020, I remain encouraged and hopeful, and look forward to progress.”

Below, Garner offers tips for building an effective DEI strategy:

1. Start from the top. Commitment from the CEO and executive leadership team is key. Leaders set the tone, influence the organizational culture and provide the resources necessary to advance the strategy. Sometimes DEI efforts can get overshadowed by other business imperatives. It is important to recognize the DEI strategy as a priority and provide adequate funding.
2. Empower champions. Choose individuals who can carry the DEI message throughout the organization. While senior leader messaging is critical, employee engagement is just as important. Employees embody the culture of an organization and can help provide valuable feedback and champion DEI more broadly.
3. Overcommunicate. Everyone at the company has a role in driving the DEI agenda. Clearly communicate the goals and objectives of your program and tell people how they can get involved. It is crucial that employees have a stake in the success of the strategy and understand that everyone has a role to play.
4. Keep up the momentum. Make sure you have a plan in place to advance your strategy and remember to communicate progress and wins. It’s the small steps and the work behind the scenes that keep the momentum going. Communicate broadly with your organization to help leaders and employees understand there is real work happening behind your public statements.

Want to explore more about this topic? Click here to view videos of virtual events hosted by the college featuring alumni and Chicago business leaders discussing diversity and the business community.

By Jaclyn Lansbery

The Chicago Food Depository adjusted its operations to meet both growing need and new pandemic safety measures.

We’re trying to obtain a variety of foods, but at the same time we’re also trying to make sure we’re continuously getting food out into the communities especially those that have been direly affected by the crisis.

— Sheila Creghin (MBA ’84, JD ’89)

Sheila Creghin (MBA ’84, JD ’89)

“If I’d had a crystal ball,” says Sheila Creghin (MBA ’84, JD ’89), reflecting on when the coronavirus pandemic erupted in the United States back in March, “I would have made sure we were extra stocked up on shelf-stable food items and hygiene supplies.”

But there is never a sure way to know when a crisis beyond your control is going to strike and rattle the way you run your business. As vice president of operations at the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Creghin found herself, like many leaders of organizations affected by COVID-19’s challenges, in a sink-or-swim situation.

The Greater Chicago Food Depository, dubbed “Chicago’s Food Bank,” distributes food to communities in need throughout Chicago and Cook County. Its large facility sits on a spacious lot on the South Side of Chicago, a hub that distributed more than 93 million pounds of food in the last year to a network of 700 community partners. “The demand for food has increased by upwards of 50% because of the pandemic,” Creghin says. “Many of the people we serve work in industries that were greatly impacted by the virus, like restaurants, so they were out of work and unable to buy food.”

Before COVID-19, the depository served as many as 800,000 people per year. Now, Creghin says, visits to local food pantries have more than doubled. By the time their fiscal year ended in June 2020, they had distributed 18 million pounds more food than the previous year because of COVID-19 and its economic impact.

“The crisis has disrupted so many aspects of our business model and operations. For instance, we’re big advocates of client choice, in respecting the dignity of people by allowing them to pick like they would at a grocery store what items they want to take home to their families,” Creghin explains. “COVID-19 has forced us to scrap that model to avoid a high-touch atmosphere and resort to distributing boxes of food that we have had to package ourselves.”

Acquiring the food itself has been another challenge. “We’ve struggled with procuring nonperishable foods because of how much people have been buying off the shelves,” Creghin says. “We’re trying to obtain a variety of foods, but at the same time we’re also just trying to make sure we’re continuously getting food out into the communities, especially those that have been direly affected by this crisis.”

Creghin and her team of roughly 100 employees comprising drivers, warehouse workers and facilities staff have been working long hours throughout the pandemic to meet the increased needs of their clients. Implementing social-distancing guidelines and other protocols to keep employees safe has required adapting to new processes. Drivers who transport food to communities, for example, are no longer accompanied by an assistant who helps to unload the food. As a result, the depository has had to invest in equipment to help its drivers safely unload hundreds of pounds of food from trucks on their own.

“It’s been challenging, but a crisis also offers learning opportunities,” Creghin says. “It forces you to examine the systems you have in place and come up with new and creative ways to get the job done. I’ve empowered so many of my team members during this time, and it’s been inspiring to see them rise to the occasion with incredible leadership and dedication under such difficult circumstances.”

Creghin shared these tips for crisis leadership:

• Listen and communicate. Communication during a crisis is critical, especially when you are managing people in different roles and at different levels. Listen and be empathetic to the needs and concerns of your employees so you can support them in their new working environment. Listen for feedback because some people may have access to data or information that can help drive better decisions. You also need to make sure everyone understands the plan on how to move forward. Sometimes you may feel like you are overcommunicating, but during a crisis, things can change quickly and frequently, so constant communication is important.
• Be flexible. When you create your crisis management plan, realize that you may have to change that plan at any time depending on how the crisis evolves. Make sure your team also is ready to adjust course if the situation warrants it.
• Stay calm. As a leader, if you overreact or appear overly stressed, you make your team nervous and stressed. Approach the crisis with a calm, level head and recognize that you set the tone for how your team handles the situation at hand. I always say, “Today we’re going to do our best and do as much as we can, and tomorrow is another day.” That’s all you can do during a crisis: face each day as it comes.

By Nadia Alfadel Coloma | Photos courtesy of Chicago Food Depository

Alyssa Westring | Photo: Erielle Bakkum Photography

Alyssa Westring has been researching work-life balance for 18 years, since before she became a parent.

Now an associate professor of management in the Driehaus College of Business and a mother of two, Westring thinks a lot about the advice her mother gave her when she was growing up. You can have it all, she told Westring. You can have a career and be a go-getter and do anything you want to do.

“In college I was surrounded by incredible, driven women who wanted to have careers but who also wanted to have a family and a life, and I saw my generation, my peers, confused and worried about how they were going to make both happen successfully,” she says. “I started to wonder: how do we create a life where we can have career success but also be parents, be healthy and be involved in our communities?”

This question took Westring to graduate school, where she studied organizational psychology and researched anticipated work-family conflict—how people think about future challenges they might face in their careers and family lives and how that thinking influences their career choices.

“I was doing exciting research, but I wanted it to help people and not just live in an academic bubble,” she says. “That’s when I reached out to Professor Stewart Friedman at the University of Pennsylvania. He was doing groundbreaking work at the time bridging leadership development and work-life integration. I started working with him on his research and have been working with him ever since.”

Westring has served as director of research at Friedman’s company, Total Leadership, for more than 15 years, conducting research on leadership principles and how they can apply to all aspects of life, not just careers. Their work together recently culminated in the co-authoring of “Parents Who Lead: The Leadership Approach You Need to Parent with Purpose, Fuel Your Career, and Create a Richer Life.” Published in March 2020 by Harvard Business Review Press, the book takes the fundamentals of effective leadership and applies them to working parents.

“It’s essentially a guidebook,” Westring explains. “We created a framework for how to take a leadership approach to being a working parent and how that can enhance your performance at work, your parenting at home and make you happier and healthier all around.”

The book includes research and stories about working parents—single, dual-career, one working full-time and the other part-time—and provides activities and exercises that engage readers in implementing the book’s tools for daily life. “A lot of the advice parents find or receive about work-life balance is based on the personal experiences of other people. I wanted to give advice based on research,” Westring says. “I feel I have a unique voice as a mom who has access to important research that can benefit busy parents.

“Stew [Friedman] and I are parents at different phases in our lives, and we are from different genders and generations, which all contributes to making this a well-rounded book for empowering both mothers and fathers.”

Westring has these three leadership tips for working parents—and anyone else—to thrive in their careers and at home:

1. Create a shared vision with your parenting partner.
We know from decades of research that good leaders have a vision for the future that’s based on their values. Talk to your co-parent, whether a spouse or another person helping you raise your child, and get on the same page with them about what you want your life to look like over the next 10 or 20 years. Your personal life and professional life don’t happen in a vacuum—one will always affect the other—so think about the values-driven choices you’re making and how those choices will bring you toward a future you want.

2. Communicate your vision with people who can support you. 
A good leader always gets people excited about their vision. Once you determine your vision, communicate it to the people around you so they can support you. If you can’t get people on board with what you’re aspiring to do, you will work twice as hard to get where you want to be, and that’s if you get there at all. Building a community of support will help open doors for you, push you when you need that extra push and keep you accountable to
creating the life you want to lead.

3. Don’t be afraid to try new ways of doing things. 
Good leaders know that one size does not fit all when it comes to finding the best route to success. If one route isn’t working for you, experiment with new ways to achieve your goal. Don’t give up or get discouraged. Cultivate a mindset of “keep trying” and eventually you will come across a way that matches your values and helps you feel more successful in life.

By Nadia Alfadel Coloma

Stephanie Smith DBA ’19

“Sponsorship and mentorship are often used interchangeably, but they are two different things,” says Stephanie Smith (DBA ’19), vice president and chief human resources officer at DePaul. Making the distinction between the two is a big part of Smith’s recently completed dissertation, which examines racial and gender differences in the executive sponsorship of black women.

Smith is a recent graduate of the Doctorate in Business Administration program at DePaul’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. She managed human resources organizations for big corporations, including Kraft Foods, before joining DePaul’s executive leadership in 2012.

“Sponsorship as a vehicle for career advancement resonates with me because it made a big difference in my own professional journey, especially as a first-generation corporate professional,” she says. “Over the course of my career, I’ve been fortunate to have people take an interest in my growth, [people] who have helped identify and provide opportunities for me to move forward.”

People tend to seek out mentorship when they want a professional relationship that provides career guidance and development. A mentor is a valuable resource but, according to Smith, can only take you so far, particularly if your goal is to sit at the executive table or get to the role of CEO.

According to research, 95 percent of all white males who are in CEO positions said that there was someone who helped them get there. “Those are sponsors, not mentors, who are lifting them up,” says Smith.

Mentors provide coaching and counseling around a certain issue or career choice. They offer psychosocial support, helping you navigate through organizations or difficult situations, but they can fly under the radar. No one may know you have a mentor. Sponsors, on the other hand, provide strictly career-oriented support that helps open doors to top positions. “They are the people who sit in the rooms where key decisions are made, especially decisions around succession planning,” Smith explains. “They possess the influence, leadership and reputation that allow them to advocate for others. That’s the key difference between mentors and sponsors.”

Conducting a study on sponsors and their proteges, Smith set out to investigate why black women are not represented in the CEO landscape of Fortune 500 companies. “With so much emphasis that companies place on diversity and inclusion initiatives, I find it problematic that the 5% of women CEOs today are all white,” she says. “That’s a weak number for women in general, but it’s bleak for black women in particular. I wanted to find out how and why sponsorship is playing out differently for them.”

They are the people who sit in the rooms where key decisions are made, especially decisions around succession planning…They possess the influence, leadership and reputation that allow them to advocate for others. That’s the key difference between mentors and sponsors.”
– Stephanie Smith

One theory Smith explores in her research is the similarity-attraction paradigm, which posits that people tend to be drawn to people who are similar to themselves. “I found that a number of black women out there do have sponsors to help get them to the top positions, in addition to the education, experience and intellect. But the missing piece had to do with similarity-attraction. White males are still primarily in charge, so part of the issue is that there aren’t enough people of other backgrounds or races with whom to confer on who gets into those executive board rooms.”

Based on these findings, Smith has some advice to share with sponsors: “I think you have a duty to develop a diverse talent pipeline and break the similarity-attraction paradigm. It’s important to see beyond just white males as the prototypical CEO or senior executive. Other people can succeed in those roles, too.”

Smith has these three tips to share for anyone interested in being sponsored:

• Do excellent work
  It may sound simplistic, but the best way to gain a corporate sponsor is to perform with excellence. Sponsors tend to take someone under their wing because they see a person’s potential, so how you get noticed is through your work. Particularly once they become senior, sponsors want to leave a legacy by developing a talent pipeline for their organization, so they are on the lookout for people who shine.
• Assume work that increases your visibility
  Of course, you can’t get noticed unless your work is visible, so it’s important to take on responsibilities and projects that will put you in front of the key players in an organization, even if it means going outside of your job’s main duties. You can volunteer to lead a task force or take on a challenging assignment. The quickest way to get noticed, however, is to have a job that is responsible for decisions that contribute to whether an organization/brand fails or succeeds, such as jobs that are responsible for profit and loss. You can ascend to high positions in just about any field, but if the CEO role is your goal, you definitely need experience in profit and loss.
• Seek access to senior leadership
  The best kind of sponsor-protege relationships happen organically. It’s something that can’t be forced. But to start, you need to be comfortable with introducing yourself to senior leaders when the opportunities present themselves. Whether at networking events or company meetings, don’t be afraid to approach them. Start a conversation and put yourself on their radar. This ability to advocate for yourself, to use political skill to influence people, is key to navigating and leveraging powerful relationships within an organization.

By Nadia Alfadel Coloma | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

Neal Outland, a DePaul management and entrepreneurship faculty member. | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

Like NASA, the business world operates in team-based environments. Whether these business-team environments are competitive, volatile or uncertain, they share many similarities with space crews.”

Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise was mostly a good leader, according to Neal Outland, a DePaul management and entrepreneurship faculty member who has researched the leadership qualities of real-life astronauts. While not a Trekkie himself, Outland says from what he has seen on the television show, Captain Kirk exemplifies traits shared by successful leaders. Kirk understood the strengths of his crew members (e.g., Scottie in engineering, Dr. Spock in science) and how their expertise could help the team succeed, although the captain occasionally put his team in danger because of his own brashness.

Outland, the winner of a 2017 Illinois Space Grant Fellowship, has worked on two NASA-funded studies with DePaul faculty to understand the individual qualities needed by future astronauts. His current research focuses on the organizational effectiveness of workplace teams and is inspired by his exploration of how astronaut teams develop shared understanding.

“Even though NASA teams operate in some of the most solitary, stressful and extremely dangerous environments, like outer space, the NASA research relates to the business world in many ways,” says Outland. “Like  NASA, the business world operates in team-based environments. Whether these business-team environments are competitive, volatile or uncertain, they share many similarities with space crews.”

These similarities involve having strong leadership roles, defined task structures and team self-management, he says. NASA and business teams also face communication issues (or, in space, a lack of immediate communication) that force leaders to make important decisions affecting the group’s success. Based on his research, Outland identifies the following qualities and tips that can help any type of leader and team blast off.

Qualities of Good Leaders

• Self-management. This is the No. 1 quality of a good leader, according to Outland, because it’s difficult to lead or inspire others if you cannot lead yourself. His advice: think critically about yourself and your actions to understand your strengths and weaknesses.
• Ability to share the vision. Good leaders task people with assembling smaller pieces of the puzzle while motivating them to see their part in completing the full picture.
• Intelligence. Higher intelligence generally affords a leader the ability to make sense of situations and quickly process large amounts of information associated with a particular decision. Leaders must have a deep understanding of decision outcomes and how they contribute to achieving the vision. Leaders also are continuous learners, taking time to develop their skills and remain up to date on best practices.
• Excellent soft skills. Leaders don’t do all the work themselves; they get work done through others by communicating their vision and motivating individuals to work together to achieve it. Effective communication skills, tailoring interactions to the individual and managing relationships well are essential for leaders.

Assembling an Effective Team

Team success depends upon how and why the team was formed, Outland says. Based on his research, factors that are important for forming teams include:

• Understanding the context of the team’s work. The amount of work a team may have to do, the complexity of that work and how often the work situation may change are important factors to consider when forming teams.
• Selecting people who will fit well together and in the work context. Choose people who can handle the work and effectively interact with others.
• Creating a supportive environment. Teams need coaching to uncover effective and ineffective patterns of interaction. Leaders need to facilitate discussions about conflicts that may diminish team effectiveness, as well as ensure that teams have all the resources necessary to accomplish their work.

Getting Past the “Third Quarter Phenomenon”

In their NASA research, Outland and his colleagues noticed a pattern affecting some missions in which team performance started to decline once the mission passed the halfway mark. Performance lagged when team members knew they would soon be free from the close quarters and crew members they had been interacting with for months. This change in team behavior is called “third quarter phenomenon.” For teams in the business world, third quarter phenomenon can go in either direction— triggering a slowdown or a flurry of positive activity.

Whether you are flying to the moon or managing a terrestrial work project, Outland’s advice for managing third quarter phenomenon includes:

• Ensure that your team knows success is an option. Teams and individuals need to know that what they are working for is worthwhile. When feeling down, many will look for reasons to not continue, especially if they believe success won’t happen. The leader’s job is to ensure that the team knows that success is still an option.
• Reinstill the vision. Reconnect the team to the ultimate goal of the project. Replay the motivations that sold the project or task to the team in the first place.
• Boost confidence. Remind team members of previous successes, lessons learned and progress toward the ultimate goal. This is important, Outland believes, because it is rare for anyone or any team to do this reflection on their own.

By following this guidance, teams have an opportunity to boldly go where no one has gone before.

By Andrew Zamorski

There is no such thing as a one-size fits-all approach to career education at business schools. While some students are just entering the workforce and need help with résumé building and interview skills, others are looking for career coaching to help them advance on the path to the C-suite.

The Kellstadt Career Management Center offers a variety of programming for students and alumni at all career stages, though career advancers make up the majority of requests for its coaching, says Jennifer Kopczynski (MED ’08, BUS MS ’17), director of the center. “They have an idea of what they want to do with their careers, whether it is staying in the same company, function or industry, and are looking for additional career education to help them advance.”

The Career Management Center created the Executive Career and Leadership (EXCEL) workshop series for working professionals who have at least three to five years’ experience. The quarterly workshops have tackled such subjects as “How to Build a Personal Brand,” “Building a Business Case to Hire You” and “Take Charge of Your Career.”

Naeem Morris (MBA ’17)

Naeem Morris (MBA ’17) attended every EXCEL workshop offered during his time at DePaul.

“I like to get to workshops a few minutes early and stay a little later to exchange business cards,” says Morris, who works in sales management. “I found EXCEL to be a great opportunity to network with other MBA students and alumni and come away with tactics and information to help with career goals.”

Morris’s goal is to be a chief marketing officer (CMO). The EXCEL workshop that he felt was most effective for him was “Advancing Your Career While Employed.” This seminar taught participants how to leverage their MBA within their organizations to move ahead in their careers.

“I always come away with a new tool or tip that has helped me in my career,” says Morris, who recently started a new position at LeasePlan USA. “In this particular workshop, I learned the ROI of advancing internally or externally, and how to identify and develop special skills, create corporate capital and understand the importance of having advocates on your team.”

In addition to the EXCEL workshops, the Kellstadt Career Management Center offers BUILD workshops for early career development and a BOOST webinar series for ongoing career management. Alumni are welcome at any workshop series and can take advantage of the center’s unlimited career coaching.

Learn more

For more information about the EXCEL workshops, email cmc@depaul.edu.

By Andrew Zamorski

Accounting Manager Amanda Rzepka (BUS ’07), at right, says it’s important for new managers to coach others, as she does with intern Allison Fisher, a DePaul accounting major.

Earning a business degree can lead to many different opportunities in the workplace including managing a team of employees.

Amanda Rzepka (BUS ’07) knew that she always wanted to lead a team, and she earned that chance when she was hired by Jet Support Services, an airline insurance company, as an accounting manager.

“I think it is fantastic to coach and mentor people, because so many people have helped me in my career,” says Rzepka. “You’re only a good manager if you are helping your team. If they succeed, you will succeed as well.”

Rzepka manages a staff of four, including a senior-level accountant and a DePaul student intern. “When it comes to being a good manager, you need to have training and leader­ship skills,” says Rzepka. “I learned a lot of these skills throughout my career and at DePaul, where I got experience working on real-world group projects, balancing a heavy workload and having to deal with conflict resolution.”

Rzepka admits the toughest part of being a manager is motivating employees, while the most rewarding aspect of managing a team is seeing her employees get promotions. She offers this advice for becoming a successful first-time manager: Learn how to be humble, how to give somebody else credit and how to take credit when credit is due.

Six Things New Managers Should Do

The most important thing for first-time managers to remember is that management is the process of getting things done through others says DePaul Professor of Management Robert S. Rubin. Rubin gives the following tips for first-time managers:

Set Clear Expectations Early

Many new managers fall into the “settling-in trap” whereby they wait a considerable amount of time before setting expectations with employees. Don’t wait three months or even three weeks to jump right in and establish expectations. Hold individual meetings with every direct report within the first week to set expectations about performance goals and professional conduct. Your first 90 days are ripe with goodwill—don’t squander it.

Get To Know Your People and Show Appreciation

You have no shot at influencing others unless you build mutual liking. Uncover genuine similarities and show respect for the contributions of others. Ignore any reports from prior managers about your direct reports or teams. Draw your own conclusions.

Celebrate Early Wins

Look for opportunities to provide positive feedback at the first signs of your direct reports’ success. Demonstrate that you are paying attention to their contributions.

Be Authentic

Whatever you do, don’t fake it. Every great manager makes mistakes. Show people you’re open to their feedback and learn from mistakes.

Underpromise and Overdeliver

Always do what you say you will do, and never make promises you can’t keep— it will ruin your credibility and trust.

Don’t Overcompensate for Differences in Age or Experience

When you are managing people older or more experienced, don’t overinflate your authority as a way to demonstrate who is in charge. Remember, you need your people more than they need you.

By Andrew Zamorski

Grace Lemmon, assistant professor of management at DePaul, explains how to manage a multigenerational staff.

We are at a unique place in the dynamic evolution of the American workforce. It’s not uncommon for people in their 60s to be working on teams with colleagues who are the age of their grandchildren. In some cases, younger managers are supervising employees twice their age.

With such age disparities, managers are seeking ways to motivate each generation to engage them and maximize their productivity.

“As a leader, it is important to take a different approach when managing each of the multi-generational employee groups,” says Grace Lemmon, assistant professor of management, who specializes in employee engagement and work-life balance. “Each generation views its employer in unique ways based on intrinsic expectations they hold of what an employer should be, should provide or should promise.”

Lemmon offers these insights and advice for managing the three primary generations in today’s workforce: baby boomers, Generation X and millennials.

Baby Boomers

Born in the post-World War II era (1946-1964), boomers grew up in a time of dramatic social change and economic prosperity. Loyal and hard-working, they seek security and may have stayed at one company their entire careers.

VALUES

Boomers are looking for companies that clearly value their employees. They seek stability and opportunities for advancement or growth. They believe that employees must pay their dues before advancing up the corporate ladder, just as they did.

COMMUNICATION STYLE

Boomers are more apt to want face-to-face conversations, largely because they have worked much of their lives within an environment that didn’t allow for instant communication.

HOW TO ENGAGE THEM

Boomers offer tremendous experience, so finding a task that challenges them can be tricky. According to Lemmon, they are motivated by tasks that appeal to their inner values. Boomers are a pragmatic, goal-oriented cohort, so finding out exactly what they want to accomplish before retirement is key to engaging them.

Generation X

Birth dates for Xers range from the mid ’60s to the early ’80s. They lived through the greed of the ’80s and often distrust authority and large institutions. They are results-driven, highly independent and extremely resourceful. They experiences the early age of innovation and know how to get information.

VALUES

Xers need stability because they are making important life decisions, like whether to have another child or go back to school. They are looking for advancement, but also careers that promote work-life balance. Xers often view work as a mutually beneficial contract between the company and the employee.

COMMUNICATION STYLE

Xers prefer a communication style that allows for reflection and reduced pressure for an immediate response, mainly because they prize separation of work and home life.

HOW TO ENGAGE THEM

Xers want autonomy and growth. They have developed extensive expertise from work experience and have ample information-gathering know-how. Tasks or goals that Xers can do independently and that deepen their skills will be especially fulfilling.

Millennials

Millennials reached adulthood around the year 2000. They are confident, well-educated, socially conscious, highly collaborative, savvy and always connected—to the Internet and each other. Work is important to them, but generally not the biggest priority in their lives. They would love to have a high-paying job, but are willing to give it up to have life experiences.

VALUES

They look up to visionary leaders who can guide them through advancement opportunities. They seek challenging work and want to put their academic experience to the test immediately. They switch jobs often to increase their skill set, and may not be interested in paying their dues.

COMMUNICATION STYLE

As the first generation to grow up surrounded by digital media, millennials prefers to use email, texting and instant messaging over face-to-face meetings.

HOW TO ENGAGE THEM

Millennials perform well on tasks that expand their breadth of knowledge. Because they are in the early stages of their careers, they are eager to build their skill sets, and see new experiences as rewarding professionally and personally. Critical to millennials is instant feedback that is fair and justified.

By Andrew Zamorski