About the Book:  When we talk about the generations that make up our society (and workforce), the myths are just as important as the general truths.   These myths are very powerful because they shape how we look at generations. They form in these spaces of misunderstanding between them. We must recognize and acknowledge the gaps that exist. If we focus on the commonalities instead of the differences, we can arrive at a place where all generations can thrive.   What are the challenges with a generationally diverse workforce? What is the gap we're minding? How do we mind this generational gap, use our understanding of it, so we get business results? Many organizations I've worked with, and senior colleagues I've talked to, struggle to work through how to get the best business results from an organization made up of many different generations that want different things.   Today, so many organizations are flatter and freer of hierarchy. Employees once segregated by age and position now work more closely together. The flatter the organization, the more it takes to effectively execute a business strategy.  This book addresses simply what organizations and leaders in organizations can do to focus on minding the gap to get the best business results from their multigenerational employees.  --Curtis L. Odom,  Ed.D.

Mind the Gap - Getting Business Results in Multigenerational Organizations

Business & Money

Odom, Curtis

Management & Leadership

Booknology

What is this gap we’re minding?
It’s generational. There are many conversations on the Internet and at conferences about employee engagement, and what is needed to hold on to Millennial, and now Gen Z talent. Members of each generation bring distinct sets of values and behaviors in the workplace. They come to work with different expectations, assumptions, priorities, and approaches to work and communication, which will either help or hinder organizations. Not only is the workforce changing, so too is the customer base. Many organizations I’ve worked with, and senior leaders I’ve talked to, struggle with managing and utilizing a workforce made up of many generations—five covered in this book—that want different things.
Why do they come to work? What is it they’re seeking? What does work-life balance mean to them? What is it that employers need to ask of them? What do they need to do that isn’t asked? How do we mind the generational gap, so we get the business results we want?
Successful organizations take action to serve their diverse employee and customer base. When we manage generational challenges within the workforce, we create opportunities for collaboration and synergy to achieve optimal business results–giving an organization a competitive edge.
Inside this book, I have answered the pressing questions about what can be done to help organizations and leaders focus on minding the gap.
--Curtis L. Odom, Ed.D.

Mind the Gap: Getting Business Results in Multigenerational Organizations

Seventeen-years-old when I saw it, what always stuck with me was how disappointed I was at the ending of the film. Of course, having seen it countless times over the 30 years since, I’ve learned to appreciate its finer aspects. And I now think the conclusion actually provides us with a bonus that–like the Spanish Inquisition–we may not have been expecting. I could call this a carryover from the lesson of Roger the Shrubber, but I’ll just get on with it.
All too often, many aspects of life seem to end in disappointing ways. Sales deals fall apart, someone misses the last second shot on goal that would have won the hockey game, a romantic relationship fizzles out or crashes and burns, or you end up failing to study for a final exam because you have an A going into it, but blow the test and end up with a lower grade. Any way you look at it, there’s a reason the British can use the saying “before it all went horribly wrong” in a plethora of situations.
Unsatisfactory endings are an unpleasant fact of life. But do all need to be second-rate? No, they don’t. We know this because many events in life have ended well.
How we complete things can be very telling. We can take the time to finish properly, or we can rush to move on to the next thing. This book is about leadership, which doesn’t always mean just leading others. It means you, too. How you conduct yourself, in what you start and how you finish it, in life.
By writing this book, I have attempted to pass along a few life lessons I have taken away from watching one movie (perhaps once too often). But it is a film rich with subtle—day-to-day—wisdom. My goal—with this book—is simple, and I hope an honorable one. To pass on knowledge that might make a difference in your life.
Onward Patsy!
- Richard Parker

Leadership Lessons From Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Parker, Richard D.

In my career, I've learned the importance of earning trust and how one way to attain it is by helping others. HELP: the origin of the word has such meanings as to support, to benefit, to do good, to cure. I like to think of HELP as standing for How to Eliminate Life's Problems. That philosophy has worked for me, and I think it is good advice for others, no matter your profession or career. Some problems and situations covered in this book are ones most professionals contend with, including: <ul> <li>Just not enough time to do what needs to be done.</li> <li>Being uncomfortable/unsure about how to interact with clients in a business development setting.</li> <li>Client discussions about your competition and how you are different.</li> <li>Overcoming complacency or just plain laziness.</li> <li>Handling the confusion resulting from a crisis or confrontation.</li> <li>Uncertainty about a direction or action to take.</li> </ul> This is a business book about furthering your career, which presumably, and naturally, also means making more money and becoming more secure professionally. Within this book, I use HELP as a means by which you discover how it-helping-is an excellent path to earning trust. And that is a cornerstone to better 'selling.' It is a guidebook for mid-career and experienced professionals to create a valuable network and develop new business opportunities for themselves and the companies that employ them. -Jim Barratt

EARN TRUST By Changing Selling Into Helping: Practical Tips for Client Development & Networking

Barratt, James W

Marketing & Sales

I do not profess to know everything. I know a lot about a few things, which makes me open to learning something I have never heard of before. That, to me, makes learning fun! When I am in my professor role on campus, I bring my 20-plus years of knowledge, skills, ability, and experiences to teach content by placing it into a real-life context. What makes the writing of this book so beautifully ironic to me is you will be reading the career learnings and lessons of someone who barely made it out of high school but who found their personal definition of success as a business owner and full-time faculty member at a top business school in Boston. In the following pages, you will find over two decades of professional insights, lessons learned, and personal experiences as captured by a student in my class who gave me the greatest gift of my career: a transcript of me putting my entire career's worth of context into the content of academic lectures taught over a fall semester in a college classroom. This engaged student distilled the insights heard in what I said-as his professor-into simple statements that most impacted him. Clear proof that words matter. --Curtis L. Odom, Ed.D.

Things I Heard My Professor Say: Insights From My Favorite Business School Class

Education & Teaching

Odom, Curtis L.

Higher & Continuing Education