Welcome to our Publishizer Pre-Launch Campaign for Are You Ready to Turn Gen Y On? We're excited you're here, and hope you'll support us as we put the finishing touches on the book. This book has been a baby of ours, based on over 7 years of research, interviews, dialogues, coaching sessions and workshops, and with your help, we can get it out there to those who need it the most.

Please see below for more information about us, why we have written this book, and how to support us. During this Pre-Launch, as a special incentive, to every Reward we're adding an Audio Book version of the book, which will include additional case studies. Listen and learn while on your way to work, spare your eyes, and open your mind.

Without your help, publishing this book will not be possible. THANK YOU.

WHY WE HAVE WRITTEN THE BOOK?

From a Gen X – by Marion Neubronner (Co-Author)

As a manager and owner of my own business, I have had the chance to recruit, develop, mentor and (regrettably) fire staff on a regular basis. At times, I wondered if I was a poor boss or if they were poor staff. However, as a psychologist and coach, I am well aware that career development is an emerging field of study as Gen Y (Generation Y) employees are expecting the workplace to give them more than any other generation. Or at least in my generation, we asked for more and settled for less. This new generation is not going to settle for less so soon. And they will shape some workplace behaviours through their demands for more.

What I want from this book? That managers who are enlightened and want to create the New Generation Workplace see what I see and learn how to Turn Gen Y On. Not because that is what Gen Y wants but because it is what all the workforce generations want but did not verbalise so clearly before.

I also want to bring great companies – that work and grow and are profitable – to the awareness of the average manager and CEO. The people management strategies of these great companies should be emulated for all our good. Let's start measuring our bottom lines with People, Profits and Planet.

And People first – as the rest will naturally follow.

From a Gen Y – by Josephine Poh (Co-Author)

Among the managers that I have encountered – the Gen Ys that I have as friends and even myself – I noticed a huge discrepancy in the perceived abilities of Gen Ys by their managers and themselves.

It was thought that Gen Ys possess a certain set of characteristics. Yet, the truth is, this generation has the potential to be the most exceptional and innovative generation of employees to give companies the extra boost and breakthrough that they need.

This book is not meant to provide you with direct solutions to the situations that your organization deems unacceptable. This book is meant to provide you with the psychological blueprint (without over-generalizing and stereotyping) of your Gen Ys for you to analyze, assemble and implement.

Every Gen Y is a gem. You just need to know how to rub them the right way.

Marion Neubronner in action

Table of Contents

Introduction

Section A: Understanding your Gen Ys before they come on board

1. Getting into the minds of Generation Y .
2. Attract the best fit with the job descriptions that rock
3. Attract the best fit with the company's mission that rock
4. Social Media Presence
5. A career path is a great motivator. Does your company have one?
6. Is it a job or a calling?
7. Sonru - Attracting and Selecting the Best-Fit Gen Y Candidates

Case Study: Strategic Recruitment – 8 investment

Section B: Onboarding

1. Get them a Great Mentor and the right Buddy
2. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations

Case Study: GDEX

Section C: Retaining and Developing

1. Delayed Gratification
2. Flow at Work – if not let them Flow or Let them Go
3. Protecting your talents from bullies
   1. Sorry, I broke my employee
   2. Sorry, I could not live up to your expectations
4. Mindful and Powerful Leadership
5. Losada Line
6. The company is awesome but my reporting manager is not

Case Study: Mindvalley

Section D: Appraisal

1. Communication and Hats
2. What to measure as a Manager
3. Constructive Feedback
4. Coaching
   1. Why I don't praise you
   2. Why do you never say anything positive?
5. Constructive communicator at work

Case Study: Zappos

Section E: What do I want? From their mouths to our ears

1. Meaning
2. Happiness at work - What does it look like to them?
3. Work-Life balance
4. Flexi-Time
5. Giving back
6. Open Communication
7. Active Constructive Feedback
8. Empowerment/Freedom
9. Adding value and skills to employees
10. Upward progression based on individual performance
11. Having a voice in the company
12. New and challenging work within job scope/Variety
13. Feeling appreciated
14. Seeking alignment of personal goals to corporate goals and vision

Excerpt

Retaining and Developing: Mindful and Powerful Leadership

Why does State of Mind matter?

In the last few chapters, we spoke about how the way we treat all Gen Y staff is crucial in retaining and developing them.

In all the numerous bookshops and coaching sessions I have done with leaders, almost every one of them agree when they are calm, patient, clear, happy and in a peaceful state of mind, they can handle their staff well and their staff receives their feedback, both positive and negative, well. Once the managers are in an agitated state of mind, they will neither be likely to handle a relationship appropriately with the staff or with their own family members and friends.

State of Mind was once considered something random. One could not control it and could not understand it. It is now something we can influence and be aware of. Leaders can be more aware of our state of mind and that of others.

What is State of Mind? It is a temporary psychological state. Some people refer to it as a mood.

Leading practitioners of peak performance and leadership are aware of this principle that no matter how talented a person is, they are only as good as their current State of Mind and behavior always follows State of Mind.

Many thoughts in the moment are not actually true. However movements of thought create a person's state of mind from moment to moment. No feelings towards your staff, or the people you are in relationship with, come from outside of yourself.

A person's individual experience of life is created by themselves from the inside-out and from their perceptions of the world.

How does one improve one's State of Mind? We understand that we need to come to discussions with our Gen Ys from a state of mindfulness and less thought. Yes, you heard me, less thought and more openness and listening and being present to the staff rather than full of our own agenda, thoughts and judgments.

What is Thought?

We have 50,000 thoughts in a day. Most of our thoughts are unconscious to us. They pass by so fast that we don't realize that we have them. However, we have repetitive thoughts because we hold one thought as true or more true or more real than another thought.

This makes us believe certain thoughts and falsely use them as a representation of our lives.

For example: there is a huge project coming next week, however in this moment you have a thought about the huge project. So in this moment you may be anxious.

This anxiety is because of an event that has not yet happened. So your anxiety was fuelled by thought rather than an actual event.

Another example: when a staff has disappointed you before and there is a report for them to do. You give them the report and start wondering if they will be disappointing you again. While this may be true or has the potential of being true, ever since you gave them the report to handle, you have not been able to stop thinking about how they would mess it up. In actual fact, until they return the report you have no reason to think about the mess. Instead what we do is to look for all the things that will go wrong and try to solve them enough it even when it's not possible.

If we begin to see all thoughts as merely thought and allow them to come and go, we can be more in the moment and assess our lives more realistically.

Thoughts of Anger

When we get angry with our staff, when we argue or have clashes with other people, could it be due to the other person being caught up in his/her thoughts?

Just as you sometimes get caught up in your thoughts, the other person may be stuck in what he/she “knows", or old thoughts. He/she may not see you in the moment. We know that in the moment we are calmer and when our thoughts are slower or less or none, we can be more present for our family/friends and even people who usually irritate us. And then the other person' thoughts matter less and less to us. In fact when we are calmer usually the other person becomes calmer too as we are not fighting their thoughts. They become less defensive and resolutions can occur.

How do we know it is just our thoughts? Because sometimes we get very irritated with someone, and then sometimes we do not even think of them at all and then we are calm again – so it is not them. It's mostly our frenzied thoughts about them.

Manage from the Space between Thoughts

When we have over 50,000 thoughts a day, some of them may appear to be true or the truth. This is where an enlightened leader has to be aware of his or her thoughts. As leaders we sometimes assume that a certain set of beliefs and values and identities are so true, we never step back to have a space between thoughts to consider what we believe.

When we are in a Low State of Mind ¹,we react to the Gen Y as a stereotype. We see all our thoughts as real and so we believe we are acting from truth. There have been times when I had looked at someone or something from this Low State of Mind and reacted, instead of letting a space occur for a new and fresh thought to come in and question what I saw to be true. When I allow a new and fresh thought to come, I am responding to the situation and being in the present. I am not reacting from an old mental mindset and/or the past. In this state, we come off as more open and more likely to listen. In this state of mind, we can then have a meaningful feedback, coaching or other conversation with any of our staff. However, many managers never get themselves to the right state of mind before they give feedback or relate to their staff and so the relationship is soured.

Action Steps

Today, instead of reacting let's try responding.

1. Before we assume we know what our boss, spouse or person is going to say and mean, let's pause and make a space for some new perspective and thought to arise. Pausing means not repeating the existing story in our heads, rather, taking a deep breath and staying in the moment.
2. Make a checklist so you know when you are in a Low State of Mind. Many times in situations of stress, we feel a sense of urgency when actually much of the urgency is made up in our heads. If you are approaching conversation from the space of lack or attack, this is a clear sign that you have been derailed by your thoughts. Common signs of derailment include, but are not limited to:
   
   • Feeling tense in the belly and you do not understand where it comes from
   • Your mood drops quickly, feeling frustrated or angry;
   • Thinking others need fixing (and not knowing how to do it);
   • Hanging on to uncomfortable feelings and wondering why they

   • never disappear;
   • Blaming others for your feelings;
   • Frowning – you can feel those lines on your forehead creasing up, a sign that you are definitely giving something too much thought;
   • The creativity and fun stops; somehow there is no time for fun anymore;
   • Feeling that everyone else's needs are too much for you and being resentful when someone else needs your help, or even just you feeling like they might
need your help;
   • Judging others (not always in a bad way) and measuring other people against yourself;
   • Believing you have not enough time.
3. Understand the brain and mind better. Listen to these videos and be a more mindful and powerful leader. Start with small mindfulness practices like deep breathing and 5-minute pauses throughout the day. Soon you stop sweating the small stuff and can talk to your staff about complex and emotionally challenging matters from a space of calm and clarity.
   1. Google Tech Talks. (April 23, 2009) Mindsight. Podcast retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=SG&hl=en-GB&v=Gr4Od7kqDT8
   2. Chade-Meng Tan, Search Inside Yourself. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/speakers/chade_meng_tan

[1] One Thought Institute. Three principles of State of Mind. Retrieved from http://www.onethought.com/