Category Archives: People

“The FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS of a TEAM” by Patrick Lencioni – a Book review

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Book review

I heard a lot about the book “The FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS of a TEAM” by Patrick Lencioni previously and found it on a list named “The Best Company Culture Books To Read“. It felt like I should give it a try.

Book structure

The book’ content wraps around a really great story around executives of a virtual tech company in the Silicon Valey finding their way from being a wild group of individuals towards a real team. There is Kathryn, a really experienced CEO coming from a totally different industry background. Jeff, the former CEO and one of the founders – now looking after business development. The CMO, Mikey, a big-shot contributor with an incredible backlog of successes in the broader tech industry. The CTO, Martin, very strong opinionated person with a clear tech-nerdy attitude and among the founding team. The CSO, JR with also a quite huge list of successes on sales side – always increased revenues quarter over quarter. The Chief of Customer Support, Carlos – one of the buddies of Mikey and a quite silent person. The CFO, Jan, who is very carefully keeping the money of the company together and the COO, Nick, who was brought to the company to fix operations.

The story is a great read and I could sympathize with various characters right from the beginning. I could also see some parallels to some of my colleagues in leadership positions. So, the fictional story is not that fictional after all. The fictive CEO Kathryn is one of the CEO’s you would want to work for – or even better – being such a role-model as a C-Level yourself.

My learnings

Patrick wraps his learnings from working with teams in this story and gives some advice at the end of the book on how to overcome the described dysfunctions. Patrick talks on his website more about the details of the model: Teamwork: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

Nevertheless, I’ll sum up what I learned in the next brief paragraphs.

The book is a great read. I found myself in various situations and couldn’t agree more with Patrick on his observations on leadership teams. I had the pleasure to work with outstanding CEO’s in the past, myself. One of them being Martina Bruder, the CEO at my times at FriendScout24 and the other being Florian Geuppert the CEO at gutefrage.net. It has been great to be part of the team since these teams were build around trust. I, however, worked with other leadership teams as well and know the situations described by Patrick first hand.

So, go on, build you own opinion and enjoy the story Patrick Lencioni created!

Model: The Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

Dysfunction #1 – Absence of Trust

Absence of Trust among team members is primarily due to their reluctance to show vulnerability in front of the group. It is impossible to establish a basis for trust when team members are not genuinely honest with one another about their mistakes and weaknesses.

Dysfunction #2 – Fear of Conflict

Being unable to establish trust is problematic because it supports Fear of Conflict. Teams lacking in trust are unable to have frank and impassioned discussions about their positions. Instead, they use secret conversations and cautious remarks to create an environment of artificial harmony.

Dysfunction #3 – Lack of Commitment

The absence of healthy conflict is a real issue because it makes Lack of Commitment more likely. Team members rarely, if ever, buy in and commit to decisions without first raising their viewpoints during intense and open debate, even though they may pretend to agree during meetings.Returning back to their teams these team members are more likely to defend their own opinions and increase ambiguity in leadership.

Dysfunction #4 – Avoidance of Accountability

Team members try to avoid accountability as a result of this lack of commitment and buy-in. Even the most motivated and dedicated people actually hesitate to confront their teammates about actions and behaviors that seem to be unfavorable to the success of their own team unless they have agreed to a clear plan of action.

Dysfunction #5 – Inattention to Results

Inattention to Results can develop in an environment where people fail to hold one another accountable. It happens when team members prioritize their own interests over the group’s objectives, such as ego, professional advancement, or recognition, or even the demands of their own divisions.

Expectations on leaders – issue 3: Your Role & Yourself

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Expectations on leaders - issue 3 of 3: Your role & Yourself

Leaders, what can you expect from your peers? What do they expect from you?

Issue 3 of the three-part series focuses on my expectations of leaders in terms of Your Role & Yourself.

On my journey to my personal core values, I have addressed a number of topics. Among others, I asked myself: “What do I expect from colleagues in leadership positions?” and also “What is my role as a leader?” These questions are anything but easy to answer. My expectations in this series of three posts reflect the bare “minimum” that I expect from a reflective leader. Beyond this minimum, only the sky is the limit.

Know your job – willingness to delegate

Delegation is a core principle of leadership. To achieve a vision as a team, a leader must ignite enthusiasm for this very vision and create a culture of willingness among people to achieve the vision, to implement it. People are the heart of every company. They are knowledge carriers, experts and carry the organisation on their shoulders. The willingness to implement a tactic and a strategy to achieve a mission and ultimately a vision depends on the ability of individuals to contribute to the achievement of the vision. Huge companies, such as Google or Amazon, have built a strong vision and an organisation that enables people to move towards that vision. The individual contribution to achieving the vision is marginal. But the reward for the individual is a high salary and working for a great brand. Smaller organisations can attract great talent only with much lower salaries if they promise them that they will have a big impact on the process to achieve the vision. This motivates employees to go the extra mile and exceed expectations.  

All this is ONLY possible if top management is willing to delegate responsibility and ownership to their subordinates*) **). Delegation must be done in a transparent way with clear boundaries – both in terms of expectations and the freedom of subordinates to decide to the best of their ability. Delegation requires leaders who are willing to relinquish control, lower their expectations of results, and change the standard for evaluating results from their personal standard. Other people will perform, in different ways, with unexpected results, with aspects not previously considered. The unwillingness to delegate is a major barrier to organisational growth and development. Great ideas will remain ideas because they are not operationalised. They will not be executed. So, one of my expectations on leaders is to delegate work to their teams.

You to communicate – acceptance of responsibility

The actions of leaders are always under observation. The organization misses no step, no word, no communication. Not communicating is not possible, not speaking out is a message to the organisation. Therefore, leaders in particular must take responsibility for their own actions at all times and also stand up for them accordingly. There is no concept of “non-communication”.

Watch yourself – recognizing limits

Top management – also consists of: People. People also reach their limits at the leadership level – and grow. Especially in growth phases, it is important not to forget what tasks every executive has. When someone reaches limits, it is crucial for the senior leader – but moreover – for the entire organisation that these limits are recognised and actively shaped. Actively asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength. Doing so, multiple minds can tackle the challenge at hand. On of my expectations on leaders is to ask for support, reach out for help – if needed. 

Next level leadership – lead the leaders

Managing regular employees is already a very complex process. Providing perspectives, communicating purpose, defining goals, tracking progress, instilling confidence, tracking personal development and helping to grow into the role.

Leading employees who are themselves in the role of leaders is even more complex. Now the staff member wants to be led themselves, but needs freedom, information (e.g. budget) and clearer boundaries within which their own staff can act. This is a task that senior executives must master – especially in a fast-growing organisation.

Expectations on leaders – issue 1: People, Respect & Appreciation

Expectations on leaders – issue 2: Company Culture

Expectations on leaders – issue 2: Company Culture

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Expectations on leaders - issue 2 of 3: Company Culture

Leaders, what can you expect from your peers? What do they expect from you?

Issue 2 of the three-part series focuses on my expectations of leaders in terms of Company Culture.

On my journey to my personal core values, I have addressed a number of topics. Among others, I asked myself: “What do I expect from colleagues in leadership positions?” and also “What is my role as a leader?” These questions are anything but easy to answer. My expectations in this series of three posts reflect the bare “minimum” that I expect from a reflective leader. Beyond this minimum, only the sky is the limit.

Top senior leadership responsibility – culture building

Culture is so intangible, so abstract. It’s so difficult to actually create it and to steer it purposefully in any direction. It is so indirect, there are so many levers to turn. That is why I have observed that many leaders do not consciously invest time in working on culture. They don’t have a clear goal in mind and don’t know what kind of culture to create.

Nevertheless, Peter Drucker nailed it with his famous statement:

“Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast” *) **)

PETER DRUCKER

Means? It means that the culture of a company always determines its success, regardless of how effective your strategy is. However, a strategy is easier to define, easier to extract. It is a much easier task than working on culture. Nevertheless, corporate culture is largely determined by the leadership team. Take your responsibility and work on the culture! Don’t leave culture to chance, but try to influence the outcome. One of my expectations on leaders is to work hard to create an excellent company culture!

Foster fast learning – mistake culture

Mistakes are the fastest way to gain experiences – to learn*). Mistakes are okay. In the right culture, mistakes are celebrated and no one is afraid to make them. If mistakes don’t have negative consequences, people will stand by their mistakes. A cornerstone for invention! People want to think about problems and find solutions. Allow this to happen.

I Have Not Failed. I’ve Just Found 10,000 Ways That Won’t Work. *)

Thomas edison

Admitting mistakes is often interpreted as a sign of weakness in some societies. That is why mistakes are all too readily covered up, passed on. In my eyes, admitting and standing by mistakes is a sign of strength, of self-confidence. A strong leadership team fosters a culture where mistakes are allowed and encouraged so the whole organization can learn as quickly as possible. Naturally so, one of my expectations on leaders is to create a mistake culture.

Expectations on leaders – issue 1: People, Respect & Appreciation

Expectations on leaders – issue 3: Your Role & Yourself

Expectations on leaders – issue 1: People, Respect & Appreciation

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Expectations on leaders - issue 1 of 3: People, Respect & Appreciation

Leaders, what can you expect from your peers? What do they expect from you?

Issue 1 of the three-part series focuses on my expectations of leaders in terms of People, Respect and Appreciation.

On my journey to my personal core values, I have addressed a number of topics. Among others, I asked myself: “What do I expect from colleagues in leadership positions?” and also “What is my role as a leader?” These questions are anything but easy to answer. My expectations in this series of three posts reflect the bare “minimum” that I expect from a reflective leader. Beyond this minimum, only the sky is the limit.

Leading by example – appreciation and respect

Punctuality Top-level management is punctual to agreed appointments. Nothing to add. Time of employees is as valuable as time of senior management.

Appreciation and Respect are due to people, but also to work results. For me especially appropriate language expresses appreciation and respect for people – employees, colleagues, customers, suppliers, janitors.

Verbally degrading people and results in public (e.g. ‘… we need to get this sh*t out …’ or ‘… this stupid idiot of a janitor …’) raises questions with people – ‘Why am I working on this sh*t?’, ‘How do they name me when I’m not present?’. This doesn’t create a culture of trust and willingness to out-perform.

I expect any level of management to show appreciation for the effort that is being put forth within the organization. Teams that go above and beyond and deliver need appreciation. This can come in the form of praise, recognition, and especially appropriate language.

Employees are adults management members are not mommy and daddy. Employees are grown-up, intelligent people who enjoy coming to work to contribute. If this were not the case, we should ask ourselves why the organization employs them. One of my expectations on leaders is to treat employees as grown-ups!

Attitude towards people – empathy

Empathy (= the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another’s position *) )

Empathy is the ability and willingness to recognize, understand and relate to sensations, emotions, thoughts, motives and personality traits of another person

Unknown, but hits it very well

This personal ability to understand people, their motivation, sense their thinking, get an understanding of their needs is fundamental for any leader. Empathy is for me a form of appreciation of people. Leaders have this ability, some more developed, some less so. The degree to which it is developed is irrelevant, but it is important for individuals to recognize how much attention needs to be paid to empathy. Empathy is important in coaching situations to recognize how to support others and by what means. Empathy is also important for recognizing organizational shortcomings and being able to initiate appropriate countermeasures.

Listen to people – demand and encourage

An organization is able to attract great talent if – and only if – the overall interview process is a great experience and the players involved are fully motivated and willing (!) to attract new people. The interviewers need to fully stand behind the organization, the values and the culture. The organization can not attract people if that’s not the case.

PEOPLE QUIT PEOPLE, NOT COMPANIES *)

John C. Maxwell

As a leader one of your biggest duties is to work with your people. Apply the principle “Demand and Encourage“. As a leader you’ve hired great talent – and why shouldn’t you use the talent? Demand from people to fulfill their tasks, to reach goals, to outgrow themselves, to lead the company to success. Encourage them to go the extra miles needed to achieve personal growth. Listen to them, work with them – together – to master challenges ahead. Work together with them through the “LOVE, CHANGE, LEAVE” cycle.

Typically, people leave quite soon after they enter the “LEAVE” phase and it’s the leaders’ job to prevent people from entering the “LEAVE” phase. Another of my expectations on leaders is to give people reasons to stay, to support them, to encourage them to grow.

Expectations on leaders – issue 2: Company Culture

Expectations on leaders – issue 3: Your Role & Yourself

Experienced leader and startup. Is this a good idea ?

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Adventure Startup for experienced leaders.

Does an experienced leader and a startup organisation go hand-in-hand? Or is there a nominated winner? I am in leadership roles since 2010 – quite some time. Early 2020 I had to decide if I wanted to join a startup – well, a young organisation. 10 years leadership experience and bigger teams vs. a young, well-funded, organisation with a great vision and roughly 15 people overall.

Just recently, end 2022, I reflected on the decision from almost 3 years ago. Was it a good decision to join a startup as experienced leader? Would I do the same again – enter a young organisation? Before I share my summary I’d like to share some of my impressions.

VUCA? I experienced it live and in color.

VUCA is an abbreviation and stands for volatile, uncertain, complex, ambitious. It is typically used as a description for the economic situation currently perceived in comparison to “the good old times”. Typically, VUCA comes as a very abstract und intangible description. I at least haven’t had the experience of a real VUCA environment – so far.

The young organisation changed this – a lot. The key paradigm of the overall organisation was and still is to get as much value for the company as possible in the finite amount of time left. This resulted in a series of constant changes in strategy and direction for the employees and the leaders (volatile ✅ uncertain ✅). As a lead person – in whatever department – it was always a tough decision between do it just “good-enough” or now is the “right” time to do it right (complex – ✅). Now, mix a bit of COVID with some financial crisis and the need to kick-off the next financing round. The end result are external signals that need constant interpretation and allow at best a “steer at sight” approach (ambitious ✅).

It takes a lot of patience, a “keep-calm”-mindset from an experienced leader in the startup to get the organisation ahead – in the right direction.

Time warp – 1 for 7

After some time in such a dynamic environment you start to realise that 1 month in the organisation feels like 7 months in real life. Decisions are taken so fast, projects need to be prioritised, organisational changes fly by, important meetings with investors and clients are lined up, technical escalation meetings and management meetings give each other a hand. It happens a lot in a minimum amount of time. So, better be prepared on how you organise yourself and the functions you’re responsible for. It’s definitely a different pace than what you’ve experienced so far.

Surprise? Surprise!

“Planning replaces coincidence by error.” by Albert Einstein. So true! Most of the other planning activities you do for roadmaps, budgets, mission, project planning, quarterly plans are typically altered after months, weeks or even days. After a while in this hamster wheel you realise that you can only prepare yourself for “not being surprised by any surprise” (borrowed with pride from D. Siegel and his great book “Decide & Conquer”). So, prepare yourself for the unthinkable – it’s likely to happen.

And out of the chaos a voice spoke to me: “Smile and be happy, it could be worse!”, and I smiled and was happy, and it came worse…!

unknown (most likely the “Chaos”)

There will be nobody to delegate to … get your hands dirty!

A lot of experienced leaders are used to have some people around them – subject matter experts eager to shine on topics. This is different in a small organisation. It’s you to shine – be prepared to get your hands dirty. I ended up – initially – installing notebooks, creating user accounts in Office 365, setting up the tech environment for performance ads, drafting a great recruiter strategy, put rough processes in place – which are better than nothing, but far away from good. No time to lean back. It hits you like a train.

Fun & lots of talented people around you

Typically, the people around you purposefully selected a young organisation. They are hungry for the pace, the responsibility, the growth and the purpose. The energy and willingness of these people is stunning. Clever, talented people around you – ready to grow. And they are typically looking for a certain level of experience to guide them, to indicate the “right” direction. That’s a part of the experienced leader – they’ll need your advice.

Experience matters, a lot.

You and your experience – you are the lighthouse in heavy water, you’re the rock in the surf. You have seen a lot in your career – so your prime action instruction when the organisation faces one of the aforementioned surprises: stay calm. Most likely you’ve been in comparable situations – others have not. Where your heartbeat parallels others in the organisation are close to panic’ing. In these situations all eyes are on you and typically it’s by applying simple management techniques and you get the situation cleared. The calmness is, however, important for the organisation. Your spot in the organisation is to support with your experience and bring it forward, fast.

Would I do this again?

Even the above mentioned points are surprises in its own and one might ask “Why would you even consider repeating such a journey?”. Well, “with great power comes great responsibility”. In no other environment you can move things as fast as in a young organisation. Impact, everywhere. Clever and eager people, everywhere. Surprises, well also everywhere. Fun, definitely. So, count me in for the next round!

Personal core values. What’s important to you, leader?

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My Personal Core Values - People, Simplicity, Transparency, Performance

Personal core values

Companies have core values, leaders should too – Personal core values. Many organisations spend a lot of time trying to figure out from their teams what is important to the organisation. What are the principles and norms that the team can relate to? These core values should give employees of the organisation guidance, stability.

Have you ever thought of doing such an exercise on your personal profile? Wait a minute, why would you do that? For me, it was quite simple. I needed to understand what is really important for me. What do I focus on in my daily leadership work? What values can people stand on? How can I become clearer as a person, as a leader?

I decided to share my personal core values so people can look them up and take me at my words. Like a user manual for me.

What’s important to me, Michael Maretzke?

The reflection and thinking phase – which took me some hours spent across a minimum of 3 months resulted in my core values.

For me, the personal core values are real values, no phrases.

These are People, Transparency, Simplicity and Performance – short: PSTP.

Personal Core Value #1 – People: What do they mean to me, Michael Maretzke?

People do their best. they grow. shine. make mistakes and learn. We are these people – we all have strengths and weaknesses. People – our employees – are the organisation. Every single person has individual characteristics, views, needs, fears, desires, motivations.

Most people are reflective enough to see a higher value for themselves and behind their work – the purpose. Some maximise wealth, others sell insurance, others optimise business processes. Everyone operates according to their own value system. Important for everybody is the “Why?” Why do I get up every day and go to work? People need purpose to deliver highest performance.

In addition to a sense of purpose, these people are driven by the opportunity to address problems and solve them alone or as part of a team. These head people feel comfortable when they can work in a self-determined manner – autonomy. Unlike on the assembly line, it’s not about optimising repetitive processes, but creativity and cleverness are required.

When these people pursue their work, they want to get better at the specialty they are pursuing. They want to master their field – mastery.

People and their leaders

The role of the leadership team is to enable a creative, creating organisation to do this. To this end, the leadership team ensures that everyone in the organisation understands what the organisation is striving for. Why are we doing all this? Once the direction is clearly understood, it is consistently corrected and communicated accordingly. OKR’s are a participatory model exactly for this purpose. Employees contribute their individual knowledge to the collective of the organisation. Through intelligent corporate goals, the leadership team ensures that the framework is set wide or narrow enough for the organisation to move in the desired direction.

Once the direction is clear, the leadership team ensures that staff have enough space to contribute. Mistakes are allowed and encouraged – only from mistakes will individuals and the organisation learn. Successes are confirmation, mistakes are learning opportunities. Through this freedom, staff take responsibility and relieve the leadership team. The leadership team can devote itself to other, more important topics. The experts work on the implementation and solution of the assigned tasks.

Person-centred and participative leadership models turn away from the Taylorist “command & control” model of leadership and focus on developing the employee – coaching. One – if not the – central task of the leader is to help the employee grow. Provide guidance at the right time, don’t intervene too early, avoid catastrophic consequences, but always stay on the edge of the comfort zone. Coaching enables optimal, individual development of the employee – towards readiness to take on bigger and more valuable tasks.

People who work in creative, formative organisations want to contribute, they want to be challenged and encouraged. Recognising this – and then implementing it successfully – is extremely important to me.

Without purpose – no buy-in from staff
Without buy-in – no contribution
Without contribution – no success.

Michael Maretzke

Personal Core Value #2 – Transparency: What does it mean to me, Michael Maretzke?

Transparency in communication is a key element in creating understanding. This understanding leads to wider acceptance of policies, rules, restrictions, strategies and other conditions that management needs to communicate to a wider audience. This knowledge, the background information, is an important prerequisite for an environment of trust. I argue that transparency leads to trust – and trust is, after all, one of the essential building blocks of an organisation.

Even in situations where the news is catastrophic for individual team members – for example, when the need to restructure the company leads to job losses – you should be transparent. Transparency in such cases gives people who remain in the organisation confidence in the leaders.

Be cautious! I am not saying that everyone needs 100% of all available information at all times. Of course, there are differences in the degree of transparency depending on the target group. But the information that is relevant to the target group must be communicated as early as possible.

Personal Core Value #3 – Simplicity: What does it mean to me, Michael Maretzke?

Simplicity affects both the structure of an organisation and the development of technical solutions. 

An organisation must be simple in order to be understood. Only when employees understand their role and their tasks, when they know where their area of responsibility ends and where the area of others begins, can they give their best within the organisation. Simplicity enables them to understand their position within the organisation and the impact they can make.

Technical solutions tend to be over-thought and over-engineered. Take the simplest solution to your problem, forget the gold rim solutions. When working in a team on possible solutions to complex or complicated problems, I think it is always advantageous to choose the simplest solution with the least necessary complexity. The focus is on solving acute problems, not anticipating future problems. If you aim for the smartest – and most likely more complex – solution possible, you invest now in not-yet-known problems of the future. You may solve the problem, but you may not. Point taken: simple solutions will probably need revision or perhaps even replacement in the long run, but you still gain time acutely. You solve the problems of the future when they are known and actually occur.

Personal Core Value #4 – Performance: What does it mean to me, Michael Maretzke?

Performance here means: Impact on the organisation and technology. 

Normally, an organisation acts in an economically oriented way and strives for profit. The outcome of an organisation depends on the willingness of people to go to their limits – and beyond. Outstanding organisational results require a high level of commitment from people. They drive the organisation to perform at its best. They want to give their best to achieve the best for the organisation. Results, as quickly as possible. Striving for success. A good way to drive an organisation to peak performance is to implement OKRs well.  

In technology, performance means optimising a system to produce customer value as quickly as possible. A high-performing system delivers web pages to the user as quickly as possible, it also delivers finished developed functions to the user as quickly as possible using continuous integration or continuous delivery, it also uses methods and tools to help developers write high quality code in the shortest possible time. 

In both cases, organisation and technology, it is all about the right mindset. Strive for performance to get as much real value or result as possible from the system.

“the REMIX” by Lindsey Pollak – a Book review

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"the REMIX" by Lindsey Pollak - a book review

Book review

The book “the REMIX” by Lindsey Pollak deals with challenges and solutions in a multi-generational workspace. Me, being a Generation-Xer, working with a lot of Gen-Y and Millenials, read the book and had some real A-HA moments. Those moments make a book valuable (and allow a better understanding of your employees, colleagues and even kids).
The book is definitely worth reading. It is a good mixture of theoretical aspects and practice tips, examples and easy to read (especially for a non-native). Most impressive – for me – were the rules for remixers – people who pay special attention to the differences in expectations due to different ages / generations.
I’d definitely recommend the book to “new work” addicts and leaders with a “lean” or “agile” mindset.

Lindsey’s rules for remixers – something to keep in mind from “the REMIX” by Lindsey Pollak

#1 Stop the Generational Shaming.

“I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today.”

poet Hesiod, eighth century B.C.

There is no point in blaming other generations for whatever they do. Most likely it’s a form of socialization, a habit – and most likely it’s up to us to try to understand them better.

#2 Empathize.

Replace the blaming from #1 with empathy. Try to understand them. Why does this person of another generation act like she / he does? What’s the motivation behind? Try to see the world through the person of the other generation.

#3 Assume the Best Intentions.

Expanding on #2 Empathize, always assume the best intentions. This enables you to better understand the “why” behind somebody’s behavior. It also allows to explain the “why” behind your reasoning.

“It’s so annoying that the Millennials and Gen Zs on my team always wear earbuds in their ears at work.”

#4 Think “And”, Not “Or”.

If you ever come across to make a decision “the old way” or doing something “the new way” – never make this exclusive choice – combine the best of both.

#5 Remember That “Common Sense Is Not So Common”.

Don’t take your socialization as granted. Other people were raised in different economic conditions and in a different technology context.

Executive: But that was confidential!
Millenial: You never told us that!
Executive: I didn’t think I had to!

Traditionalists, Baby Boomers and Gen Xers have a different understanding of sharing information. For Millenials and younger information sharing is a natural habit and leads sometimes to misunderstandings.

#6 Don’t Change What Works.

Do not change what works in your leadership style and habits. Good leadership skills are inter-generational and independent of the age of people you’re working with.

#7 Be More Transparent.

Share information with your people, explain rationales behind decisions – make them understand to raise their understanding. Don’t be 100% transparent – but more transparent.

#8 It’s Okay if Everybody Wins.

Give more trophies for accomplishment. Celebrate, everybody wants to win, wants to be a hero. Don’t allow questions like “When there’s an intergenerational conflict, which generation should win?” – the right question would be: “How do we flex and adapt to one another so each person can have the opportunity to be part of the winning team?”

Classification of Generations

GenerationBornSize USCommonly Cited Characteristic
Traditionalists1928-194547mloyal, cautious, formal, proud
Baby Boomers1946-196476mself-focused, competitive, optimistic, “forever young” mentality
Generation X1965-198055mindependent, cautious, skeptical, tech pioneers
Millenials1981-199662mself-expressive, group oriented, purpose-driven, tech dependent
Generation Z1977-tbdtbdcautious, technology advanced, diverse

To keep in mind from “the REMIX” by Lindsey Pollak

Lindsay cites an CMO’s answer on a panel discussion on the question “If you could go back to the very beginning of your career and give yourself one piece of advice, what would you tell your younger self? What do you most wish you had done then, knowing what you know now?”
The CMO said: “If I could go back to the beginning of my career and give myself one piece of advice, I would tell myself not to be so afraid. When I think back on my career – and I have been very successful and achieved a lot – but to this day I still think about and regret the jobs I didn’t apply for, the raises and promotions I didn’t ask for, the ideas I had and didn’t share. I don’t regret my mistakes or embarrassments of failures; what I regret are the times I held myself back.”

Find this book as well on my Agile Bookshelf.