Sing it with me now…we all know the tune but it seems less people are putting it to work. Interesting conversations today about recent college graduates working in the office and how they interact (or not) with construction guys in the field.

The field guys told me they will work to help the new graduate IF they make an attempt to spend time in the field and IF they ask for help and advice. The field guys told me they will do nothing to make the new guy look good IF they never come visit the field (mandatory trips do not count) and IF they never ask for input. I knew all this but it was good to hear again.

Sounds like common sense to me. As an Officer of Marines I asked my senior enlisted leaders for input whenever I could. Two heads are better than one especially when one has 20 years experience. Further, no entire team goes stupid at the same time (more on this one at a later date).

Why then is it so hard for new people to reach out and ask? To step out and build relationships? The generation gap at work is real and we talk about how the old timers must adjust to accept Gen X and Gen Y. I agree but Gen Y needs to adjust to. Further, we need to suggest to them ways to do that. Get out of the office, get off the technology and look people in the eye is a good way to start.

Who can you give this advice to today?

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 4:01 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.