Rothacker Reviews

Brazen Careerist

Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk.

Today's world of work is not the same as your father's was.  Thank God!  Penelope Trunk, columnist for the Boston Globe and Yahoo Finance in addition to her own Website has written a spot on, insightful book titled Brazen Careerist.  Penelope hopes to provide a roadmap for Gen X and Y'ers to follow in pursuit of their own life's work.  Drawing on real world experience, she stories upon such topics as:

• Grad School
• Adventures
• Resumes
• Interviews
• Managers
• Office Politics
• Sex Discrimination
• Promotions
• The New American Dream

Penelope's work has been referred to as the modern day version of What Color is Your Parachute?  While the Brazen Careerist is a manifesto and rallying wake-up cry for Gen X and Y'ers, I find that it talks frankly and honestly to a whole other generation of folks.  Mine.  The Boomers.

As a Boomer manager, I feel as if Brazen Careerist is my own personal undercover spy, infiltrating the Gen X and Y'ers' world.  Of course for me, there isn't a trace of spying or undercover that goes into dealing with folks from these generations.  It is all about collaboration.  And if one wishes to collaborate, they must understand the other collaboratoree.  Brazen Careerist introduces us, stays in the conversation and provides that much needed understanding.

For Boomers who do not recognize the workplace change today, there is no help.  But for those of us who relish in the new environment and who cherish the spirit and attitude of those who will one day be placing us in nursing homes*, I find the Brazen Careerist positively fascinating!!

*Our Gen Y daughter has for sometime reminded us of her role in this potential eventuality, helping to explain why we should see and support her point of view...or perhaps our nursing home will not have all of the amenities that we would expect.  She tried to explain the concept of an outhouse...

Penelope Trunk

"One of the best posts on this site ever! I wish I had such focus." This is a comment in a post written by Guy Kawasaki at his site, How to Change the World.  Guy is interviewing Penelope Trunk about her new book Brazen Careerist. 

I am going to talk about Penelope's book soon here at the Reviews. I want to offer a point of view that differs from most others that I've read on Brazen Careerist.  I am also including Penelope in an upcoming RadioBack mission.  But for now I just wanted to point out this interview by legendary, rock star author blogger consultant rad guy Mr. Kawasaki.

Don't Treat Them Like Children

Allan Chochinov is a partner at industrial design firm Core77.  He writes an essay here titled Those Who Can, Teach.  1000 words of advice for design teachers. 

I am going to assume that undergrad students in design school mostly fall into the Connected Generation.  Even if you are not a design teacher, you probably either work with or manage folks in this age group.  Read this article through those lens. 

Along with this Allan tip: Talk to undergrads like they're grads; talk to grads like they're undergrads: This one is my favorite:

Don't start your class with your lesson.

There is only one way to start a design class: Ask your students what they did the past week, what they read, what design shows they attended. Communicate that design learning is not confined within class (or campus) walls, and give them license to go out and learn all the things we don't possibly have enough semesters to teach. I go so far as to say "You can bring in less homework next week if you just go see something." And some of them take me up on it. (Precious few, sadly.)

Remember, read this article and substitute your current role for that of design teacher.  Great stuff!!

   

Wisdom From the Connected Generation

To move forward we must let those who will follow - lead.

The Tampa Bay Business Journal recognized thirty professionals under the age of thirty in a special supplement to their weekly paper dated November 10, 2006.  The paper wrote a short bio on each person and asked a series of similar questions.  I became intrigued by the following question and am paraphrasing the answers here: 

An Inside Tip For Success at 30:

• Be ready and willing to accept change
• Find something you're passionate about
• Instead of being a member of many, be a leader of few
• No one hands you anything in life, you have to go get in yourself
• Stay focused on your goals and hold yourself accountable
• Learn as much as you can about your industry or business
• Get involved.  Make connections
• Believe in yourself
• Stay educated
• Start young and persevere.  There are not shortcuts
• Find a job you love and work hard
• Don't lead to gain power or prestige
• Never stop believing in yourself
• Read the paper everyday, watch the news, listen to NPR - talk to your friends about it
• Be active in the community
• Share what you've learned
• Take pride in your work
• Don't be afraid to think big - don't be afraid to act on it
• Follow your heart and passion.  If you love what you do, it becomes part of you
• Don't be afraid to try something outrageous or different
• Be willing to sacrifice a part of your youth by investing in others instead of yourself
• Passion and love for the job
• Work hard, be confident and set your goals high
• Decide if the sacrifice necessary is worth having what you want
• Don't sleep. You might miss something
• Take risks and follow your interests
• Always be professional.  Congratulate others for their success.  Never stop smiling
• Network and build relationships
• Remember your core values and ethics
• Stay humble.  Never think you've got it made, someone will take your place
• Don't let anyone tell you that you can't achieve
• Be yourself.  Be honest.  Be kind and learn from experts
• Never set aside your dreams due to everyday challenges and distractions

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, some of you out there might be thinking, I've known this kind of stuff all along."  You know what though?  This isn't about us.  It's about the connected generation, the ones who will one day be running business and the government.  Isn't it refreshing to see what they are already thinking about - in their twenties?  Heck, I think Jim Morrison best sums up what I was thinking about at that age, "show me the way to the next whiskey bar..." 

I have a challenge for those of you who are Baby Boomers or older:  The next time that you professionally interact with a member of the connected generation, provide some wind beneath their wings.  Even if it's just turning them on to a Web site, do something to help them along.

Sleeping on the Job?

To move forward we must listen to Al.

"It is impossible to solve significant problems with the same level of knowledge that created them."   Albert Einstein

Can a more relevant statement in any business book, publication or Web site be found...in all of history?  Status quo thinking is deep space.  There isn't oxygen in either.  How far can one get without oxygen?

Anastasia Goodstein brings us oxygen today:  Talking about Gen Y @ Work.  Anastasia, a Gen Xer, gives us 10 Tips for Creating a Gen Y Friendly Workplace.  She had spoke at a CIO conference and noted how some execs thought Gen Yers acted as brats.  Yeah, and so do some Boomers.  The point is we need to not only learn how to get along together, we Boomers and Xers need to incorporate and utilize the Yer's talents and ideas!

I am curious to your opinion of the nap time program instituted by the one conference attendee. ???

Totally Wired

To move forward you might consider partnering with a translator.

Anastasia Goodstein links out to approximately 205 sites from Totally Wired, a Web site that she created to help adults decode what teens are doing online and with technology, and to complement a soon to be published book by the same name.  I felt like I hit the jackpot landing on Anastasia's site!  While the fact that I am not familiar with most of those 205 (other than the social networks) sites demonstrates that I am an ole geezer, it more importantly opens a panoramic view into the intriguing world of the connected generation. 

Anastasia injects her take on teen trend observations and predictions formulated by the Zandl Group.  As a Gen Y'er dad, I find her insight allows me a slightly different but beneficial viewpoint.   According to my own observations, Anastasia's take on the future here is most believable!

Ypulse is Anastasia's other site.  It provides news and commentary about Gen Y for media and marketing professionals.  I highly recommend that you spend some time and check it out.

Mind Your X's and Y's

Mind Your X's and Y's by Lisa Johnson.

Mind Your X's and Y's is a book about the wants, needs and likes - the cravings of the Connected Generation:  Gen X (1965–1979) and Gen Y (1980–1997), and, characteristics and tendencies companies that wish to market to them should pay attention to.

Dave's suggestion for reading this book:  Slip on the glasses that you see the world with, the one you live in, the one you work in and the one you go to school in.  If you do, you'll connect with Lisa's observations.

I mention this suggestion above because I read a review of this book by Julia Kirby for the Harvard Business Review that dissects, criticizes and questions Lisa's findings.  Honestly, these intellectual types over evaluate and analyze to the point you wonder if they are living in the real world.  I have two daughters in the Connected Generation and tune into this generation when shopping, working, reading and in general observation.  Lisa, along with her writing partner Cheri Hanson, are right on target!

Mind Your X's and Y's is built around ten consumer cravings of the Connected Generation:

• Shine the spotlight - extreme personalization
• Raise my pulse - adventure is the new social currency
• Make loose connections - social networking
• Give me brand candy - sharp design
• Sift through the clutter - folks like bloggers gain stature
• Keep it underground - peer-to-peer over in your face advertising
• Build it together - connected folks create
• Bring it to life - a sense of theatre in life/experiences
• Go inward - spirituality
• Give back - redefining volunteerism and contribution

Underlying these cravings are five essential criteria:

• Experience - engage, explore and participate
• Transparency - be real, authentic
• Reinvention - be flexible, embrace change
• Connection - gather, share, cooperate
• Expression - voice, share, live and be who you are

Lisa does an outstanding job of delving into the individual cravings and answering why each are craved.  She also provides real world lessons, case studies and suggestions for taking action on each craving.

Real World

To get Lisa is to relate and connect to her ideas and assumptions.  Rosemary  and her sister Catherine, are in the process of building (along with many other wonderful women) a Tampa chapter for All Children's Hospital Guild .  The Guild had been trying to start a Tampa chapter for sometime when a twenty-something employee of the hospital and her sixty-something year old boss connected with Rosemary and Catherine.  Their chapter became official last month (should be added to Web site soon) and hit the ground running with forty charter members. 

Now here's the gig - Do you know how hard it is to keep chamber of commerces, rotaries and associations populated with members?  For those not familiar, darn hard.  But this charity is starting up with forty women!  I am told that the number has even increased.  Out of this crew, somewhere between twenty-five and thirty are younger than forty-two years old.  For the record Rosemary and Catherine are one year north and one year south of fifty respectively.  (not sure how much respect I'll get after making that public :)  Rosemary is a veteran of associations having been a former president of a chamber of commerce.  She is acutely aware of the spirit or lack of spirit of an organization.  She tells me their chapter here has spirit and the less than forty-two year olds are providing excitement and are involved!

As I've said before , I love the Connected Generation!  Pick yourself up a copy of  Mind Your X's and Y's, put on those glasses and see what they're all about!

Younger Generation: Do We Get Them?

"When he talks my brain screams out this song...

Hello I don't understand you won't you tell me your name
Hello I don't understand you why don't you get in the game"

Dude!  I hope there are not too many other cats like you out there...especially in management positions! 

Daniel Ruth, columnist for The Tampa Tribune, writes an article  about college students and the Facebook  phenomenon.  Judging from Mr. Ruth's picture, his origin can be traced to the Baby Boomer years, just like mine.  Judging from Daniel's discourse, his mind is still there.  I merely state this as an observation, not a slam.  Daniel asks a class of college students that he has been asked to teach:

"Wait a minute here.  Let me see if I have this straight.  You create an online profile of yourself for total strangers to read and then get in touch with you?  And why would anyone do that?"

Now, as a parent of a generation Y'er who has created a My Space account in stealth mode, I can somewhat relate.  But as old foggies who deal with younger folks and might actually remember that Sunday night in February of 1964, we need to understand why the connected generation feels the way they do about Facebook, My Space, other entities; and why they do do the things that they do.

Personally, I love the spirit of generation X & Y!  I love their sense of adventure;  I love their sense of connection;  I love their sense of expression;  I love their unwillingness to robotically do as their told (don't tell my girls this though);    I love their determination to find a better way;  I love their propensity to embrace experience;  And I love their desire to make a difference.

Kind of hard not to notice that I've been talking about the connected generation lately.  I can't help it.  Lisa Johnson made me do it!  I am reading Lisa's book Mind Your X's and Y's and couldn't wait to finish it before talking about it. 

I suspect that Daniel Ruth is more tuned in than what we (I) have deduced from his article.  I also suspect though, that a whole lot of folks born prior to 1964 and have read Daniel's piece are relating to; "why do these young people do what they do?"  And this concerns me.

Six Degrees of Blogging

Most Excellent Blog Adventure

Today's visit begins at Troy Worman's Orbit Now site.  My goal is to link from Troy's site to someone I am not familiar with.  And then link from their site until I reach six degrees of separation.  Criteria for the journey are:

• The site must contain a blogroll
• I must find the site interesting
• I cannot link to a familiar name

I was surprised to see how many people do not have blogrolls.  I wasn't surprised to see how many people have a Seth Godin link.  Congratulations Troy on your two year blogging anniversary!

By the way, my mode of transportation today is a Schwinn Cruiser Deluxe.  Troy sends me over to
Anna Farmery's place, The Engaging Brand .  What a delightful concept here that Anna paints:  See the Person Not the Roll.  Anna doesn't have a large blogroll but I found a gem with her referral of Heidi Miller's Talk it Up place.  Can you believe how Heidi is designing her promotional material and biz cards?  Guts!

Heidi says, "visit Garr."  Garr Reynolds calls his corner, Presentation Zen .  Garr starts of this post on Learning From the Art of Comics:

"You know my philosophy: Keep reading and keep looking — we just never know where we'll find inspiration and knowledge if we open our eyes and go off the beaten path."

I've kept this thought close to my heart for years! 

Garr tells me about this young woman who helps to liberate people.  Pamela Slim does just that.  As with Heidi, Pamela is enlisting her readers for biz help.  Awesome!  You know, on the way over here, after beating off this guy who wanted me to deliver his newspapers ( I politely refused you know, I'm not into violence), I passed a boat load of businesses run by the connected generation .  They all appear to be operating much like Heidi and Pamela.  Smart women.

No, the final stop on my visit today is not some wild Australian Aborigine.  Although I have often wondered how someone could apply the six degrees of separation and find one of these bush folks.  Pamela says I should absolutely stop by Kristie T's place of biz .  What a great way to end my trip - landing on Kristie's words on gratitude.

Thanks for riding along on the Schwinn with me today! 

X,Y: Job Promotion

To move forward we must be mindful of the past.  To move forward we must be mindful of those who will.

Jennifer, three years out of college was recently promoted to a senior marketing position.  Jennifer captured management's attention early on.  Her passion, drive, creativeness and work ethic were impossible to deny. 

Never before had management promoted someone so young to such a position.  They recognized Jennifer's contributions and potential however, and a buzz of anxious anticipation swirled amongst them.  "Won't Jennifer be floored when she finds out?"

Jennifer wasn't floored.

"It's about time they paid attention to what I'm doing.  I expect this promotion."

On one hand I feel for management.  Their intentions are genuine.  On the other hand management must wake up, open up and keep up.  Jennifer's management has become glued to the floor of yesteryear.  They need to take their shoes off and get out of that room.   The key to dealing with folks like Jennifer is to:

• Understand their hopes and ambitions
• Do not smother strengths with task based items that a less qualified person can handle
• Feed their drive with intellectual stimulation
• Do not allow job burnout
• Understand their need to experience stimulation from mulitiple areas
• Keep an eye on results
• Don't get hung up on how better-than-average results are produced (unless to teach others)

Many people from generations X and Y are moving forward.  We need to remove the boulders from their path, not place them there.