Crossing the Generational Divide at Work: 13 Steps to Losing Your Job

I spoke with a group of really bright students at St. Thomas University's BLAW (Business Law Society) this week, and one of their questions was how they could cross the generational divide at work, and be successful.

Regardless of age or generation, smart people bring energy, enthusiasm, curiosity, and patience to a new job, with no expectation of changing the culture right away. There is no need to make a statement about clothing, culture, or cuteness as a new employee or intern. Pay attention to your colleagues behavior, demeanor, and dress. Your job is to figure out what your tasks are and how to perform them better than expected.

You do get to ask questions, but take notes when you get the answers. You should be curious about how your work fits in to the Big Picture. You must understand whether your colleagues expect face-to-face meetings, email, voicemail, texting, or tweeting as communications tools. Because different situations require different solutions, one is not better than the other.

The Pioneer Press offers "13 steps to losing your job," and they are each useful information for new workers, and important reminders for folks with experience.

Managing the Expectation of Instant Access

With the Personal Digital Gadget du Jour comes the Expectation of Instant Access.

Managing that expectation is a challenge.  When your client service philosophy is that you give each client your undivided attention, respect means no peeking at your phone during meetings, and no texting under the table.

Those clients should expect no less when you meet with someone else.

If they know that you will return their messages as quickly as is humanly possible, you will have managed their expectations and saved yourself some grief.

Leadership: sometimes the opposite of dithering

If you have to force a decision, should it be made? (Props to Judy B. Margolis, MA, for posing this question on linkedin).

Look at your staff. Some are hard-chargers who will go off any cliff with or without a guardrail. Others are so timid that they look both ways before they cross the hall.

If you always wait for them to come to an agreement, your organization out of your control, and may be sliding gently toward disaster. Decisions have to be made so that work can be done. The courage to make decisions is part of leadership.

Sometimes leadership is the opposite of dithering.

Pass the Baton works with managers to teach techniques that capture mission-critical information which can be shared with current and future employees to enhance performance and productivity.

Contact Susan Gainen at susan@passthebaton.biz.

Manager's Memo 2: Your best consultants are on your staff

Unless your organization is in start-up mode, you have processes that can be streamlined, improved or eliminated. It is time to enlist your best consultants: your staff.

Every employee has opinions about how his own job should be organized, and, if asked correctly, he will share his thoughts on how the entire organization ought to function. Managers who are reluctant to engage staff at all levels are wasting precious resources. For example,

• The person who has answered the phone for 20 years knows more about the business and the customers than most managers.
• The warehouse and delivery staff can almost always make suggestions for efficiencies.
• Secretaries and administrative assistants share ideas among themselves that they would never share with their supervisors.
• Everyone who performs a task that has been unchanged for 10 years probably has ideas about streamlining the process.
• Tech-savvy staff will be delighted to suggest ways to integrate technology to save both time and money.

Ignoring "why do we do this?" or "why can't we do this?" or "why can't we sell that?" leaves good ideas (and money) on the table.

While there may be good reasons to spend thousands of dollars on outside consultants, you may miss the time and money-saving ideas that your staff could contribute for the cost of a few pizzas and your genuine interest in their opinions.

Pass the Baton works with managers to teach techniques that capture mission-critical information which can be shared with employees in ways that enhance productivity and performance.

This is part of a series of PTB Managers' Memos.

Susan Gainen is a new Lawyerist Blogger, First Post -- Alternative Careers

I am a new blogger at Lawyerist: The Lawyering Survival Guide, which offers terrific advice about lawyering skills, marketing, practice management, technology, law school, and starting a law practice. Lawyerist also has links and posts about careers and ethics that illuminate real-world problems.

Although a lot of Lawyerist info is targeted to small and solo practices, as you know, the entrepreneurial skills that make a successful solo practice are the same skills that make or break a career in any other setting.

My first post is on Alternative Careers.

PTB Manager's Memo: Will your business be ready when the economy turns around?

With job satisfaction at its lowest level in two decades and an impending wave of Boomer retirements, capturing the mission-critical information that your employees use in your business everyday should be at the top of your task list.

In a bad economy, managers may sit tight, mind the store, make no hires, build no plants, and launch no products. While everyone else is holding their collective breath, you should be using creative and non-threatening techniques to preserve and improve the information that makes your business work. Sharing this knowledge with your entire staff can enhance productivity and performance. By engaging your staff, you may be able to change their jobs in ways that they find engaging, which may prevent inconvenient departures.

Pass the Baton works with managers to teach techniques that capture mission-critical information which can be shared with employees in ways that enhance productivity and performance.

This is part of a series of Pass the Baton Manager’s Memos.

Value transferable skills for the non-legal market: Step 5 in an alternative career search

Having identified the job that you want, do not be discouraged to find that other people have trained for it. You can explain and enhance your value to an employer by showing what you know about the job, the business, and the industry, and by putting your legal skills in context for non-lawyers. 

One benefit for lawyers seeking non-legal positions is that they are often posted with a lengthy job description. Unlike 2nd year associate sought for busy family law practice, job descriptions for non-lawyers contain specific information and smart candidates use every word in a job description in their resumes and cover letters.

Some of the language you might find: advising/counseling, analyzing (events, data, people,risk), anticipating/estimating, applying theory, appraising, assessing, compiling/gathering (information),comprehending technical material, Conceptualizing, Connecting, Coordinating/arranging (events), delegating, designing, editing, evaluating, examining, exercising good judgment, explaining, group facilitating, handling complaints, imagining, interviewing (to obtain information), listening, mediating, meeting deadlines, motivating others, negotiation, organizing/coordinating, persuading/promoting/selling, planning/scheduling, predicting/forecasting, prioritizing, programming, public speaking, resolving conflicts, reviewing, supervising, teaching/training, theorizing, translating, working effectively and calmly under pressure, and writing.

To connect your skills to job description language, identify:

People with whom you interact: Who are they and what are the relationships based on?;
Institutions with which you work: Who are your contacts and what do you do with and for them?
Tasks you do: What do you actually do? What documents do you create? What meetings do you attend or conduct?
Problems you solve: What kind of problems do you solve? What skills do you use to solve them?

Look carefully at the work that you do and to translate it into language that will be understandable to non-lawyers and that will relate to the job descriptions for your target positions.

For example, a busy litigator works with individuals, clients, co-workers, co-counsel, opposing counsel, court personnel, other professionals (medical, criminal, insurance agents, bankers, etc.). She interacts with institutions including courts, banks, and insurance companies, federal, state and local regulatory agencies. For any of these she identifies problems by creating a complete narrative drawn from a variety of sources; creates strategic and practical solutions; organizes large amounts of information; serves as project manager; participates as an effective team member; provides effective oral and written communication lawyers and non-lawyers; acts independently; deals with unexpected problems; and uses technology effectively and efficiently.

To recap, a search for an alternative career has five parts: self-assessment, research, purposeful and serendipitous networking, patience, and an articulated set of transferable skills. 

You are not alone and you are not the first person to consider changing careers.

Get started and good luck!