ENERGISE YOUR TEAM BY USING GREAT IDEAS FROM GEN Y ‘K

hun Kriengsak, I want to discuss how to energise my team,’’ Surat tells me. ‘‘They’ve been under a lot of pressure for the past few months. Things have not gone as we’d planned. We’ve tried everything we could think of, but I notice that they’re very tired now. I want to find a way to energise them before they burn out.’’

‘‘Khun Surat, what are the criteria?’’ I ask.

‘‘I want something that’s quick, with reasonable cost, and a high-impact result.’’

‘‘Based on those criteria, what are some of the options you have?’’

‘‘Usually, here are some of the options we would use: a communication day like a town hall meeting, a sports day, or a party.’’

‘‘How do you feel about those options?’’

‘‘I don’t think they’d create enough impact to energise my people at this point.’’ ‘‘What else can you think of?’’ ‘‘I’m stuck. That’s why I need your help. What do you recommend?’’

‘‘Khun Surat, we agreed that my role is facilitate your thinking by asking questions. Besides, my solution usually doesn’t fit with your culture. Perhaps we should look at this from another angle.’’ ‘‘What’s that, Coach?’’ ‘‘Can you tell me more about your team profile?’’

‘‘My leadership team has two groups. Half of them are mostly around 40 years old and the other half are around 50. Seventy percent of my staff are younger, Generation Y.’’

‘‘Which is the primary target group you want to energise?’’

‘‘My leadership team has good morale. But my staff are the group that I want to energise.’’

‘‘What are the characteristics of those Gen Y staff?’’

‘‘They are young, energetic, full of ideas. They want to voice their opinions,’’ Surat says, then pauses to reflect.

‘‘Coach, perhaps we should ask them. I have a mentoring programme in which the senior leaders such as me have to mentor four Gen Y staff. I’d like to use their input.’’

Surat has just hit on a potentially powerful idea. In his book What the Best CEOs Know, Jeffrey Krames wrote about ‘‘reverse mentoring’’, which he learned about from Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE. During a trip to the United Kingdom in 1999, Mr Welch learned from a GE manager about a programme in which the youngest people in the organisation taught the oldest how to use the internet. ‘‘It was the best idea I ever heard,’’ said the CEO, who introduced the idea to his top 1,000 managers within two weeks.

‘‘Perhaps this is the moment that I need some reverse mentoring,’’ says Surat, who asks his secretary to call the four younger staff to his office.

Ten minutes later, they arrive and Surat tells them he would like their opinions on how to create a programme to help energise the staff.

‘‘I propose we use social media as a tool,’’ one young staffer says.

The second one reinforces the idea: ‘‘I can create new Facebook and Instagram pages today with a target to energise team spirit.’’

The third one adds: ‘‘I will record your motivational speech and put it on YouTube within two days.’’

The fourth one comes up with another idea. ‘‘I think we should do an outside activity together during the weekend. For example, we can do a mini-marathon. We also can do a volunteer project such as building a house in the Habitat for Humanity programme.’’

Surat is happy with the result. ‘‘Thanks guys,’’ he tells them. ‘‘Perhaps you could spend some time together now in the next meeting room. Then, come up with a detailed plan to propose to me this afternoon.’’

They walk out, energised and happy the boss actually valued their opinion.

After they leave, I ask, ‘‘Khun Surat, what did you learn?’’

‘‘Coach, I have tremendous brainpower within my organisation. I have not realised it before. I think my team might not also realise this either.’’ ‘‘What will you do next?’’ ‘‘I will share this experience with my team. I want them to use our brainpower more.’’

‘‘How do you ensure that will really happen?’’

‘‘I will share with them our experience today. Then, I want them to try to have similar experiences with their teams.’’

‘‘Khun Surat, how will you ensure that your leadership team does this with passion?’’ ‘‘Coach, what do you mean?’’ ‘‘Because it sounds like you have a good idea and you want to impose it to your team.’’ ‘‘What’s wrong with that?’’ ‘‘What do you think?’’ ‘‘They may not have ownership of the idea,’’ he says ‘‘Ah! . . . Coach, here’s what I can do: I think I’ll share my experience. Then, I’ll suggest they try something similar, on a voluntary basis. Those who tried could then share their experiences with others as best practices.’’

‘‘That’s better than instructing them.’’