<p>Modern business demands that leaders understand how to motivate, how to lead through involvement, and how to encourage and reward innovative thinking. Given that today’s workforce is comprised of 4 very different generations, each with their own motivational forces at work, a variety of workplace needs, and very demanding workplace expectations, that is no small request. Business leaders of the 21st century understand that each of the generations in today’s workforce is motivated by different values. They must know how to tap into the strengths of each of the groups, they must address their responsibility to mentor and create new leaders, and they must bridge the gaps between the generations so the entire group can work together as a successful, cohesive unit. Have the fundamental rules of leadership changed with the generations? Yes, and no, but regardless of the generation, regardless of the situation, and regardless of the preferred method of leadership, the same governing tenet still prevails: everyone wants to feel included, have their ideas acknowledged, feel appreciated, and work in a company that agrees with most of their fundamental values. Values are an integral part of situation, and understanding them is a vital part of the solution. Given the massive change in values over the last 4 generations it is no wonder that the generation gaps are causing very tangled and chaotic misunderstandings. Global realignment of values is causing tremendous upheaval and necessitating the reconsideration of the norms of leadership. Today’s employees are brilliant, technically savvy, and essential to move businesses from here to there, and they are demanding to be heard. Where employees of bygone days were content to fulfill the expectations of their position without question, and were expected to start at the bottom and work their way up the corporate ladder, today’s younger generation will have none of that. For better or for worse, the commonly accepted hierarchy of business organization is being questioned in favor of a more circular system of leadership. Leaders are discovering that the pyramid of power is no longer palatable to the workforce. What has precipitated these changing attitudes, and more importantly, how can leaders provide environments that cater to the needs of all their people? Each generation has unique limitations and undeniable brilliance, the question being: How can leaders today excite and motivate each board member, employee, and stakeholder to create and share their own brand of brilliance for the betterment of themselves, the company, and the community? Confident Leadership in 21st Century Business: Bridging the Generation Gaps provides information, shares others’ points of view, expresses opinions, and offers suggestions for rectifying the misunderstandings between the generations in today’s workforce. Once leaders understand the reasons for the differences, and how those reasons affect workplace expectations, they can begin to fulfill the needs of individuals so that desired outcomes may be reached more easily and expeditiously.</p>

Confident Leadership in 21st Century Business: Bridging the Generation Gaps

Business & Money

Barnes, Rosemarie

Management & Leadership

MBK Enterprises, LLC

Our world is moving at an incredible pace. From miniature recording studios in our pockets to driverless cars to artificial intelligence, the speed with which new discoveries and innovations are occurring is dizzying. Everything is under scrutiny; it can be exciting, and it can be a little frightening.The need to reinvent happens and good or bad, it’s always an adventure. Sometimes we are prepared and have instigated the move to improve. Sometimes it happens to us and not because of us. The truth remains, though, that we are always in control of our reaction to it. We can choose to accept or reject, welcome or renounce, create or prevent. When we are on the receiving end, we call it change. When we are the instigators, we call it reinvention.Reinvention can be an exciting experience. Alternately, it can be very alarming. It can very efficiently deflate our personal, professional, or corporate ego, and it can be a master at undermining confidence. We can choose to rant and bluster, or we can acquiesce with elegance and grace, accommodate, and adjust to the new situation.Better still, we can choose to be on watch for possible innovations and ways to improve, ready and agile enough to forge a new path or process. Do you have the necessary confidence to adopt the mindset of reinvention and be able to renovate your personal, professional, or corporate realities?

Confident Reinvention: Personal, Professional, and Corporate Transformation (Confidence)

Business Development & Entrepreneurship

A good idea not shared or understood by others is a shame. A brilliant idea not shared and understood is a tragedy. Public speaking is so much more than the courage to stand in front of a group and talk. For a presentation to be powerful, it must have the right amount of content, organized in a memorable way for both speaker and audience, it must be delivered with power, warmth, and charisma, and it must be spoken in the language of the audience. How much content is enough? How much is too much? Most public speakers work so hard to give great value to their audiences that they inadvertently make a huge mistake; they include far too much information into far too little time. Time is never a speaker’s friend. Going overtime in a presentation is an egregious error and rude to the nth degree. How well is your presentation organized? If you must rely on notes, cue cards, or even worse, slides, to keep you on track, the problem is not one of memory; the problem lies in the organization. Excellent speakers use systems and strategies so that the presentation is simple for them to remember and impossible for their audiences to forget. Through good organization, speakers are able to build anticipation, excitement, and engagement; so simple, but not easy. Speakers are not generally trained actors, but they do need to know their way around a performance space. Don’t like that word, “performance?” Get over it, because each time a speaker stands to deliver a message they are absolutely, un-categorically, giving a performance. As such, knowledge of stagecraft is as vital as is the message. Which part of the space is the strongest? The weakest? How can a speaker use that information to assist the audience in understanding the message? What are the best ways to enter and exit? A general understanding of how to use presentation spaces properly is extraordinarily valuable to every great speaker. To move or not to move? That is the question. Speakers must fill the space, but (and here’s the important bit) they do not have to do it with their feet to do it. Movement can be good. Movement can be effective. Movement can make the audience seasick, drowsy, and provide an opportunity for them to disengage from the presentation and answer e-mails. Too much, or idle movement can and does dilute the message. Period. The trick, of course, lies in using movement with purpose and one of those purposes is NOT to connect with your audience. It is sad but true, that moving to one end of the performance space gets the speaker closer to that side of the audience, but the consequence is to disengage from the other side. Your listeners are there to benefit from your entire presentation, not half of it. There are other, much better strategies to keep the audience engaged the audience at all times, and scant few of them involve cardiovascular exercise for the speaker. Hot on the heels of understanding the effects of movement is the monumental importance of body language. When we feel threatened, nervous or surprised, our reptilian brain immediately takes over and high handedly imposes its control. Adrenalin floods our systems causing us to fight, flee, or freeze with little care as to the physical message we are sending. When an audience sees a conflict between the verbal and physical messages they will always, always, believe the physical over the verbal. If you want the listeners to like you, understand you, and trust you, (and that is the point, isn’t it?) then the messages you send absolutely must be unified. From the tilt of the head to the direction of the toes, be sure the story being told is the you intend. Now add in the secret ingredient of vocal control, the fine art of linguistic choices, and the careful use of charisma, and we have the recipe for creating excellence in public speaking.

Confident Public Speaking: Being Heard Above the Noise (Confident Stages)

Reference

Words, Language & Grammar

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

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