Generation wh-Y

An interesting article from HR daily. I can absolutely identify myself with it :)


Connect with Gen Y - improve thinking, not processes

15 December 2008 8:26am


Managers should focus on solutions rather than problems when communicating with Gen-Y employees, according to executive coach Gaynor Lowndes.

Lowndes, who is also a trainer and director of The Recruitment Training Company, points out that unlike previous generations, Gen-Y employees are largely "knowledge workers" who are paid for what they know and how they use it.

The people leading and managing them, she says, need to know how to improve thinking, rather than processes.

"Gen Y need leaders who will help them shine at work, and who help them fulfil their potential rather than the old paradigm of management. They want leaders who improve their thinking. Most current leaders have been trained to improve processes, not thinking, which is where the communication problems occur."


More powerful communication
It's widely accepted that Gen Y are "loyal to themselves, not their employers (like baby boomers) or even their careers (like Gen Xers)", Lowndes says.

"They don't respond to authoritative and dictatorial communication methods, which is how the rest of the workforce was brought up. To get the best from Gen Y, you need to challenge them to think for themselves."

To achieve this, and improve the performance of Gen Y workers, Lowndes says, managers should focus on solutions rather than problems when communicating.

For example, rather than asking a Gen Y worker, "Why didn't you hit your targets?" a manager should ask, "What do you need to do next time to hit your targets?" she says.

"This slight change in the way the question is asked will make a huge difference to the response that you receive and the performance that will follow after the discussion.

"The first question keeps you in the problem, the second question moves you toward a solution. Rather than 'Why did something happen?' (problem), ask, 'What do you want to achieve here?' (solution). Many problem-type questions start with the word 'why."


Focus on the positive
Gen-Y workers respond well to acknowledgment, Lowndes says, but most people receive only a couple of minutes of positive feedback each year, as opposed to many hours of negative feedback.

"Learn the skill of acknowledgement and you will be amazed at the quality of your communication. Not only acknowledge those around you but acknowledge yourself as well."


Listen without an agenda
People only listen a small proportion of the time, with the rest of their attention on "judging, assessing, trying to sound smart, listening to distractions, trying to work other people out, or being self conscious to the extent that they are only listening to themselves," Lowndes says.

Gen Y, however, respond well to people who "listen for potential". To do this, try not to have an agenda when communicating with them, she advises.

Frissites / Update

Uj kepek feltoltve! / New pics are uploaded!

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/tamas.mihalovits

Imádom.../I love...

... ezt a szamot/ this song...

...mar vagy egy oraja ezt hallgatom/ ... I am listening to it for an hour now...

Santana - Into the night



Santana Lyrics
Into The Night Lyrics

Vissza az AIESEC-be / Back to AIESEC

Folytatom retrospektiv bejegyzeseimet, mert lassan mar elfelejtem miket csinaltam mostanaban :)

2 hete egy AIESEC-es konferencian voltam levezeto elnok, a jelenlegi vezetoseg adta at a tudasat a megvalasztott vezetosegnek. En pedig segitettem nekik, hangulatot csinaltam, tartottam par treninget (joval tobbet mint eredetileg akartam...). Sydney legdelebbi reszen voltunk - foldrajzilag, Bunawee-ban, ami mar resze a nemzeti parknak es komppal kellett Cronula-bol menni a varosreszbe, ami egy kisebb obol mellett fekszik. Roviden: gyonyoru volt, ide is vissza kell meg menni egyet bulizni. Leginkabb egy maradando emlekem van a hetvegerol, amellett, hogy sokat hulyultunk: a szombati karaokee! Playstationos programrol ment a cucc, a TV-n meg lattad, hogy ki mennyire pontosan enekel, szoval lehetett versenyezni ezerrel. Buszken jelentem, hogy egyszer dontetlent ertunk el a masik csapattal/parral szemben, amugy atlagosan 2-3-szor anny pontjuk volt mint nekunk :D Meg a fo kulonbseg, hogy a srac es a lany tudtak enekelni, masok altal is elvezhetoen, mi meg inkabb csak enekeltunk :D
Hajnal otig toltuk a bulit, aztan eltettuk magunkat aznapra, mert reggel 9-tol mar treninget kellett tartanom. Jol sikerult, nagyon elvezte mindenki es senki sem aludt el, ami a legjobb feedback egy ilyen este utan :D

Persze hetfon semmi hangom nem volt a munkaban, ami csak azert volt erdekes, mert egesz nap a ceg 60-ik szulinapjat kellett marketingelni - telefonon. Nagy meglepetesemre Darth Vader hangu emberekkel sokkal szivesebben talalkoznak a HR-esek, ugyanis 2 targyalast is le tudtam egyeztetni aznap :)


Let’s continue my retrospect writings until I forget everything what I’ve done in the past weeks.

2 weeks ago I was chairing an EB transition conference and I hold some trainings for the new team, plus helping the old team to prepare. Finally I did much more than I originally wanted/expected J We were on the most southern part of Sydney – geographically which is called Bunawee. This is part of the nearby national park and can be accessed from Cronulla by ferry. The town lies next to a bay, which is gorgeous, I have to go back once more to have a party there again with the interns. I have one very memorable thing from the weekend, besides the constant fun we had, which is the karaoke night we did on Saturday. We had a Plastation programme which put the lyrics and the tone on screen, and also measured how well the groups/people are singing. I am very proud that once we had a draw with the other group/couple, but on an average they beated us with 2-3 times more points. The main difference was that the guy and the girl could sing on a way which is enjoyable by others, well we rather just sang :D We had the party till 5AM, then had a short nap and started again from 9AM, because I had to deliver a session. It was quite successful, everybody enjoyed it and nobody has fallen asleep which is the best feedback after the night before :D

On Monday of course I did not have any voice, which was funny, because we had an international celebration of the company’s 60th birthday, so we had to do marketing – on phone. For my biggest surprise, HR people like it much more to meet with Darth Vader, because I could fix 2 meeting on that day J

Buddhista templom avagy a 21. szazad csodaja / Buddhist temple or the wonder of the 21st century

Kb. 3 hete voltam Woolongongban (mondtam, hogy itt minden 3. varos neve W-vel kezdodik :)), hogy megnezzem a deli felteke legnagyobb Buddhista templomat. Lelekben, valami regi(marmint itteni mercevel merve) epuletre keszultem, mindenfele erdekesseggel megspekelve. Hat ez ossze is jott, na persze nem egeszen abban a formaban, ahogy gondoltam. Maradjunk annyiban, hogy nem valoszinu, hogy visszamegyek.

Woolongong ropke 2 orara van vonattal delre Sydneytol, elso elmenyem a tavolsagi vonattal. Hat az itteni masodosztaly kb. olyan minosegu mint nalunk a piros barsonyuleses, kabinos elso. Szoval megszoktam mar :). Az allomastol a templom egy ropke 20 perces seta, balra szemetgyonyorkodteto ipari negyed hatalmas kemenyekkel es szmoggal, jobbra autopalya, mogottunk gyonyoru hegyek. Termeszetesen a templom az autopalya mellett talalhato. Utkozben megismerkedtunk a hires ausztral legyekkel, amik abban kulonboznek az otthoni legyektol, hogy kisebbek es pofatlanul agresszivak. Belerepulnek a szemedbe, orrodba, szadba, ahova eppen akarnak es abszolut lehetetlen elkergetni oket. Nagy szerencsemre en vilagos ruhaban voltam es hala a jo egnek ezek a sotetet szeretik, szoval vicces volt latni a tobbieket, akik sotet ruhaban, a hatukon kb fejenkent 50-100 leggyel utaznak, mig rajtam nagy ritkan 1 esetleg 2 megult :) Anyaztak rendesen :)

A templom kivulrol igeretesnek tunt, szep kert, szobrok, nagy epulet, autentikus kinai. Bedobtunk egy fincsi vega ebedet az etteremben, ami olcso is volt raadasul annyit ehettel amennyit akartal, majd elindultunk az idegenvezetovel a turara. Sok erdekes dolgot tanultam a Buddhizmusrol, de a kedvencem az ausztral stilusu idegenvezetes volt. Egyreszt teljesen interaktiv, szoval az idegenvezeto egy csomot kerdezget, emellett tolja a poenokat, amik raadasul viccesek is, nameg nem kell vegigrohanni az egeszen, van idod nezelodni.

2 nagy templomot lattunk, tobb tizezer Buddha szoborral, belulrol nagyon szepek voltak, felteszem a kepeket, amint vegre megkapom oket. Es akkor most jojjon nehany 21. szazadi erdekesseg, amiken hasaltam:

No.1.: Elore csomagolt, "Szentelt Viz". Palackozva Melbourne, tartalma Szentelt Viz. Sajna nem lehetett lefenykepezni :(

- Legkondi beepitve a templomokba felulre, hogy kellemes huvos legyen
- Dugaszok a falban, termeszetesen a leheto legrosszabb helyeken
- A gyumolcsaldozat bemutathato gyumolcs-zselevel toltott piskota kepeben, amint azt sokan meg is tettek
- Egyeb aldozatok: Nescafe, csokis keksz, muvirag
- Egesz eves imadkozas 1 szemely 60 dolcsi, sok szemely (ejtsd csalad) 100 dolcsi
- kis biletak lognak a lampionokrol, megemlekezve a cegekrol, akik adomanyt adtak a templom epitesehez
- a viragfuzerek a templom oldalan muanyagok, es gondos onkentes kezek tekerik oket fa oszlopokra
- a muzeumban az elokovek kozott kerti es szobai csobogok "keltenek" vizeses hangulatot, fustgep tolja a parat, a vizben nagy muanyagviragok uszkalnak, kozepen pedig egy nagy arany szobor terpeszkedik a rengeteg betonbol faragott szobor kozott. A bejarat melletti vaskos kabelrengeteg csak emeli a valosagerzetet. Az, hogy minden kiallitott targy utanzat, gondolom mar nem is meglepo.

A vegen meg megkongattunk egy hatalmas, ritualis gongot - kulon a turistaknak felallitva -, hogy joszerencset kivanjunk az otthoniaknak, remelem megkaptatok. :)


I was in Woolongong (I said that almost every 3rd city’s name starts with W) almost 3 weeks ago, to see the biggest Buddhist temple on the southern hemisphere. In spirit I was preparing for something old (I mean, according to Aussie standards) with lots of interesting thingies. Well, I got it, but not necessarily in the form I have expected. Let’s say I am not convinced I will go back again.

Woolongong is a mere 2 hours travel to the south from Sydney by train, my first experience with the intercity trains. Well, the 2nd class here equals to the red-carpeted, 1st class trains in Hungary. So I got used to it J The temple was a quick 20 minutes walk from the train station. On the left, breathtaking industrial district with huge chimneys and smog, on the right motorway and traffic, behind us a beautiful hill with trees. Of course the temple was next to the motorway. On the way we familiarized ourselves with the famous Aussie flies. Their main differentiator is that they are smaller than in Europe and much more aggressive, they fly into your eyes, mouth, nose, ears, wherever they want and it is absolutely impossible to chase them away. I was very luck that I wore light clothes as they are attracted to darker colours. It was extremely funny seeing the others with 50-100 flies on their bags while I was carrying max 1, sometimes 2 flies at a time. They sweared like hell J

The temple seemed promising from the outside, nice garden, sculptures, big building, authentic Chinese. We had a great, veggie lunch in the restaurant, which was cheap and you could it as much as you wanted. Then we left with a guide for the tour. I learnt lots of interesting things about Buddhism, but my favourite was the Aussie style tour-guidance. It was completely interactive, so the guide asked lots of questions, paralelly joking all around (and having good jokes!) and you do not have to rush around, you have enough time to look around.

We saw 2 big temples, more than 10000 Buddha statues, they were beautiful from inside, I will upload the pictures as soon as I get them. J And now let’s see some interesting 21st century facts that shocked me:

No.1. Pre-packaged “Holy Water”. Made in Melbourne, contains Holy Water. Unfortunately it was not allowed to take pictures L.

- Air conditioner is installed into the temple to make it cooler
- Plugs in the wall, of course at the worst places
- The fruit sacrifice can be made with fruitjelly filled biscuits and lots of people did that
- Other sacrifices: Nescafe, choco cookies, artifical flowers
- 1 year prayer: 1 person 60 bucks, a lot of person (meaning family) 100 bucks
- Small papers were hanging from the lamps, commemorating the companies who donated for the construction of the temple
- The flowers on the side of the temple are made of plastic and volunteers are putting them on wooden crosses
- in the museum amongst the living stones you could find garden and room mini-falls to create a “real waterfall” effect, a smoke machine provided the fume, plastic flowers were floating in the mini-lakes. In between concrete statues a big golden Bussha was taking the main seat. Next to the entrance, the thick cable-jungle just contributed perfectly to the atmosphere. Well, I think the fact that all objects in the exhibition were replicas would not surprise anyone anymore.

At the end we ringed a huge, ritual gong – set up solely for tourists – to send our best wishes to our family and friends. Hope you received it J

Jutalom #2/ Award #2

Most nyertem 10 dollart a PayPal-lel, mert vettem valamit rajtuk keresztul. Juhuuu :) Remelem meg meccsben vagyok a 10000 dolcsis fodijert is :)

Jah es meg elek, sok erdekes dolgot csinaltam/lattam, majd leirom oket vmelyik nap :)

I just won 10 bucks through Paypal, because I bought some stuff through them. Yupeee :) I hope I am still competing for the 10000 bucks main prize :)

Ohh, and I am still alive I did/saw some interesting stuff, I will update my blog soon :)

Jutalom / Award

Kaptam ma (is) egy "Brownie pointot", ami a mi piros pontunknak felel meg, mert kiszurtam egy eleg nagy hibat a hetfoi globalis marketingkampanyban. Amikor mondtam, h nalunk piros pontokat szoktak osztogatni, mindenki elkezdett rohogni, hogy ez biztos valamilyen komcsi orokseg. Ki tudja, meg az is lehet, hogy igaz :)

Today I got a "brownie point" (again), which is equals to the "red points" in Hungary, because I noticed a quite big mistake in our Monday global marketing campaign. When I told in the office, that we have red points, everybody started to laugh, asking if this is a communist heritage. Frankly speaking I have no idea, probably...

Nevek / Names

A munkam keves szepsegeinek egyike a csodalatos nemzetkozi nevallomany amivel talalkozom. Volt mar Batman V. Superman-unk. A legujabb szemelyek Rhonda Ho es Hulya Kocak. Meg szerencse, h irasban lattam oket, nem eloben.

One of the inspiring parts of my job are the wonderful international names I meet. I had Batman V Superman previously. The newest people are Rhonda Ho (almost as Ugly Snow) and Hulya Kocak (almost as Hulye Kocsog - I think I do not have to translate). I am lucky that I saw them on paper and not live on phone.

Mebourne Kupa / Melbourne Cup

"A verseny, ami megallitja a nemzetet!"

Ez a Melbourne Kupa szlogenje. Na, ki tudja milyen sport ez?? Hmmm? Loverseny!

Sose gondoltam volna, hogy egy egesz orszag ennyire megszallott lehet valami irant. De hat mindig tanul az ember. Meg hat, azert kell nemi ego ahhoz, hogy ilyen szlogent adjunk valaminek. Meg ha ez a legkevesbe sem tulzas.

5 perce lett vege a futamnak, nagy elmeny volt, mar kezdem erteni mi vonzo lehet a loversenyben. Nezed nezed, folyamatosan valtozik az eredmeny, majd az utolso 10 masodpercben az egesz felborul es varod a celfotot. Iden Viewed nyert 1 centimeterrel, 3200m-en...

A bar, ahol voltunk dugig megtelt erre az 5 percre, mellettem egy szemre 70 eves neni fogadott eppen es kert meg udvariasan, h ne alljak be a kepbe :D

Amugy ma Melbourne allamaban (Victoria) es a fovarosi teruleteken munkaszuneti nap volt a Kupa miatt, es amugy egy tomott, baromi forgalmas varos (Sydney) kb. zombi volt a futam elott/utan (meg most is az, konkretan 5 ember es 5 auto volt az utcan). Hat igen, ez telleg egy eletforma itt :)

"A verseny, ami megallitja a nemzetet!"

"The race that stops the nation!"

This is the slogan of the melbourne Cup. Who knows which sport is this??? Hmmm??? Turf!

I have never ever thought that a country can be so addictied to something. Well, it is never too late to learn. And you need a certain ego to promote an event like this. Even if it is completely true.

5 minutes ago the race ended, it was a great experience, I started to understand what is so attractive in turf. You are watching it, the situation is changing in every second and then it turns upside down in the last 10 seconds and you are waiting for the photoat the finish. This year Viewed won by 1 cms in 3200m...

The bar where we were was full for that 5 minutes, next to me some 70 zrs old lady was betting on horses and asked politely that I should move further from the TV :D

Besides that today in the state of Melbourne (Victoria) and the capital territory was a national holiday because of the race and an otherwise completely crowded city (Sydney) was nearly empty like a zombie town before/during and after the race )well it is still empty, there were exactly 5 cars and passengers on the street). This is really a lifestyle here!

"The race that stops the nation!"

Kulináris élvezetek / Enjoying food

Tegnap ettem Kenguru husit. Nagyon finom volt, angolosan, spárgával. Kifejezetten izlett. Kovetkezoleg a krokodil hus jon, de azt nem Sydneyben eszek majd, mert itt nem csinaljak jol :)

Yesterday I ate Kangaroo meat. It was extremely good, english style with asparagus. I really liked it. Next time I will try crocodile meat, but not in Sydney because they do not know how to cook it well :)