In his masterpiece, The Tao of Leadership, John Heider says:

"Too much force will backfire. Constant interven­tions and instigations will not make a good group. They will spoil a group. The best group process is delicate. It cannot be pushed around. It cannot be argued over or won in a fight.  The leader who tries to control the group through force does not understand group process. Force will cost you the support of the members. Leaders who push think that they are facilitating pro­cess, when in fact they are blocking process. They think that they are building a good group field, when in fact they are destroying its coherence and creat­ing factions. They think that their constant interventions are a mea­sure of ability, when in fact such interventions are crude and inappropriate. They think that their leadership position gives them absolute authority, when in fact their behavior dimin­ishes respect. The wise leader stays centered and grounded and uses the least force required to act effectively.  The leader avoids egocentricity and emphasizes being rather than doing."

I have a number of clients who struggle with employees in the Gen X (born between 1965 and about 1980) and Gen Y (born between about 1980 and the early 1990s) generations. My advice: learn everything you can about them, empathize with them, learn how to appreciate them, and learn how to access their generous qualities. They come from a completely different mindset from those of us in the Baby Boomer generation. It is nonsensical to judge them. They are neither worse nor better than us; they are simply different. And it is even more nonsensical to dismiss them.   Like them or not, they are part of our world, indeed part of us. Where to start? Wikipedia is always a good place nowadays (Gen X and Gen Y).

(By the way, I also have a number of clients who will take Gen X’ers and Gen Y’ers over ’Boomers all day long, and are doing quite well.  Without exception, they are the ones who took the time to get to know them.)   

In an August 25, 2008 Business Week article, Robert Sutton, professor of management at Stanford and author of The No Asshole Rule, cites the scientifically proven phenomenon that leaders are prone to becoming jerks. Specifically, three things happen when people are put into positions of power: (1) they focus more on satisfying their own needs; (2) they focus less on the needs of underlings; and (3) they act like the rules others are expected to follow don’t apply to them. How do you protect against this? Make sure you have a network of mentors or advisors who will tell you the unvarnished truth about yourself. It helps to have a couple teenage kids, also!

In an August 25, 2008 Business Week article, Robert Sutton, professor of management at Stanford and author of The No Asshole Rule, cites a scientifically proven phenomenon called “emotional contagion.” Basically, most people, regardless of their personality traits, will automatically and mindlessly start feeling and displaying the emotions expressed by the people around them. Combined with explicit peer pressure to “be like us,” this phenomenon transforms newcomers to a group into clones who think and act much like the people they work with. The good side: a really healthy corporate culture tends to change those who aren’t necessarily all that emotionally healthy into acting as if they were, thus preserving the culture. The bad side: an unhealthy culture will suck healthy newcomers into the abyss, making them feel and behave as badly as those they’ve joined. The lesson: if you have a healthy culture, protect it mightily but rest assured that it has a nice immune system built into it. Another lesson: if you have an unhealthy culture, plan on gutting it, really cleaning house, to start to effect positive change. Another lesson, if you are more on the participant, as opposed to the leadership, level: if you find yourself in an unhealthy culture, get out. The statistics say you won’t be able to change it and it will likely change you for the worse.

Enron whistleblower Sherron Watkins, quoted in the August 25, 2008 issue of Business Week:

Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, authors of Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It and former executives at Best Buy, one of the most progressive employers, wrote a brief column in the August 25, 2008 issue of Business Week about the archaic notion, borne of necessity in the industrial era, that time plus physical presence equals results. In our information economy, the notion crumbles. Work is no longer a place you go; it is something you do. It happens at all hours and across all borders and time zones. The only question anyone really wants an answer to is: “Did you get it done?”

From Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York and Founder of Bloomberg, quoted in the August 25, 2008 issue of Business Week:

“Office layout reflects an organization’s culture, but more and more, I think it will reflect the state of our economy. Are we going to open our doors to the best talent and ideas in a continual push for innovation? Or are we going to close our doors and rely on the “That’s the way it’s always been done” approach? The global marketplace is moving so fast that in five years, those who aren’t pushing for openness are going to be increasingly pushed aside.”

From Jim Collins, author of Built to Last and Good to Great, interviewed in the August 25, 2008 issue of Business Week:

"The idea of a personal board of directors came to me when I was in my 20s.  I drew a little conference table on a sheet of paper with seven chairs around it and wrote names on them of people I admired.  I pasted it above my computer and would look up an in my mind poll the personal board when I was wrestling with tough questions.  If I as really stuck, I might talk to some of them.  It’s sort of like a group of tribal elders that you create for yourself."