Author: Dan Negroni

The Top 4 Reasons Personalized On-Demand Coaching is More Important NOW Than Ever in the Virtual Workplace!

Posted on September 3, 2020 by Dan Negroni - Career Growth, Executive Coaching, Future of Work, Millennials

Photo of light bulbs with shining fibers in shapes of Career Development, Planning, Business and Education concept related words isolated on black background

We’ve led the charge in speaking about why coaching is so beneficial and more specifically, spoken extensively at keynotes and workshops all over the country about the value of on-demand coaching. We also see coaching as “the new training and development” and of the utmost importance to the development of our next generation of leaders as our workplaces continued to change and evolve rapidly. Though no one could have predicted our workplaces would be required to drastically shift literally overnight, through COVID-19. It is crystal clear that what hasn’t changed is the need for personalized training and support for people who want to become their best selves and succeed in spite of every challenge. And there’s no bigger challenge right now than COVID-19.

The facts are that we’ve been fortunate to have coached thousands of individuals around the world, across industries and generations. We know and guarantee that coaching is the key way high-performance individuals can improve their results, achieve their goals, and make a greater impact on the world. But now, it’s never been more important as we deal with feelings of isolation, anxiety, fear, frustration, and uncertainty – everything that goes along with trying to work through a global pandemic.

Here are just a few reasons why you should consider hiring a coach to help you crush your goals in business and in life:

You’ll Get to Focus on the Most Important Relationship in Your Life: Yourself

Coaching helps you work from the inside out. We know that you can’t help others or make an impact for them if you don’t know who you are and what you really have to give. Personalized, on-demand coaching is your opportunity to create the space you need to work on yourself. Specifically, creating space between stimulus and response and owning your thoughts are the most important factors in creating success. Coaches can and must help you learn to articulate your story and connect to yourself so you can build better and stronger relationships with others. Helping you discover your own values and what really matters to you so can connect to purpose, contribution, and impact in everything you do is what we all seek.

You’ll Own the Gift of Self Reliance: Accountability

With all of us working at home with little to do outside of work and family life, it’s easy for time to just slip away. To get caught up in the “doing” of our day-to-day lives without pausing to reflect and make sure we’re actually making progress and developing ourselves. Your coach will help you find tools to hold you accountable through regular check-ins to help you bust through any obstacles, so you create the change you’re seeking. We guarantee changing your life is a no BS business where coaches can help cut right to the heart of your problems.

You’ll Be Pushed Outside Your Comfort Zone

Unlike your friends and family, your coach isn’t there to keep you safe. They will create a safe space for you to grow and change, and their real job is to push you. In order to become your best self and stop being stuck, you have to get outside your comfort zone, dig deep, and do the hard work. Your coach will push you when you need it to help propel you forward. In our lifetime, the world has not been tougher than it is right now. But in every obstacle, there is opportunity. Coaches help you find your superpower, articulate it, and push through and seize those opportunities so you can succeed and make a big impact for others.

Your Opportunities and Income Will Grow

Now this isn’t the only reason to pursue personalized coaching, and yet it is a big motivator for a lot of people. Whether you want a promotion, a raise, a new career, or to start your own business, coaching can help you meet your goals and more. Coaches are experts at helping people get to the next level and as a result, many of our clients do experience an increase in opportunities and income. Just another benefit of investing in yourself!

Wondering how coaching can help you change your life? Reach out to us to learn about our options for personalized, on-demand coaching. From one-on-one coaching with one of our launchbox coaches to virtual, on-demand learning through our new product, Hooga, we are here to help you get where you want to go. Guaranteed! Start your journey now – reach out!

3 Ways to High Performance in the Workplace

Posted on January 31, 2020 by Dan Negroni - Career Growth, Executive Coaching, Training, Workplace Culture

The #1 thing people ask Executive Coaches is “What do you actually do?” Which of course really means, “How can you help me be better?” Usually, people know we are Millennial experts that focus on bridging the gap between generations in the workplace. But they want to know how we actually help individuals and their companies?

To put it succinctly, we are speakers, coaches, and consultants who train and coach high performance in the workplace. We work with people of all ages from Millennials and Gen Z employees to their managers, Boomers, Traditionalists, and Gen Xers to help them break through their own BS to lead, transform, and empower results through connection.

What Will Our Speaking Do for You?

Empower your audiences through takeaways that improve mindset, leadership behavior, and empower growth.

How, you ask? We love customizing our presentation to fit the unique needs of your audience. Yes we have speaking topics ready to go (click here to browse our current selection of keynotes), but we believe in bringing as much value as we can to make the biggest impact for the audience. No matter your industry or the unique challenges in your company, we will tailor our presentation to ensure what we deliver moves the needle. When you book a launchbox speaker, you can be sure that your audience will walk away with actionable tools and strategies they can immediately put into practice. No fluff or BS.

What Will Our Coaching Do for You?

Provide you or your team with individualized help and the tools you need to break through any obstacle.

We offer individualized, group, and team coaching to help people connect to themselves and their story so they can show up as their best self in the workplace and crush performance. We focus on providing a dynamic, bold coaching system that creates lasting transformation. Through years of experience we have perfected the art of “speed coaching” where we’re able to quickly isolate what the problem is and equip our clients with tools and solutions. And we’re ready to help you, too.

What Will Our Workshops & Consulting Do for You?

Shift generational perspectives to solve the disconnect in your workplace and create lasting impact.

Our workshops are the perfect complement to both our keynote speeches and our individualized, group, and team coaching. We go into businesses to talk about the current disconnect and what the future of the workplace looks like. Through a series of targeted exercises and education, we help the different generations of employees learn to bridge the generational gap, create trust and engagement. Workshop attendees leave with strategies they can use to change the conversation and connect to drive results and create impact.

Ready to create high performance and solve the generational divide in your organization so you can grow your business, make more money, and create more results? Click here to book an exploratory call with us.

5 Tips to Help You “Do the Work” to Be More Successful in the Multigenerational Workplace in 2020

Posted on January 9, 2020 by Dan Negroni - Career Growth, Executive Coaching, Leadership, Management, Mentorship, Millennials, Retain Millennials, Training, Workplace Culture, workplace engagement

WOW! The new decade is here! And boy is there pressure to make resolutions and improve. Our tips are simple and they endure, not relative to the new year or decade but just plain and simple tips that if you “Do the Work,” you win! So, in order to help you crush performance and be more successful at work this year, we’ve compiled our simple 5 best tips that you can put into practice today. Our tips are real, actionable, and highly impactful – try them for yourself and see!

Tip #1: Relax and Smile

Most people want to like you and want you to succeed! They’re actually rooting for you. So, it should be simple to make a connection. Right? Well, wrong. The root to connection is simply smiling and being open, however, most of us (technical term here) suck at that. Myself included. And, if you’re stern, preoccupied, or just not present you tend not to smile. Not smiling makes you seem cold and unfriendly which means people are not going to be able to connect with you. However, a super simple easy way to connect is just to smile. Try it. I talk about this with executives and Millennials alike. Smiling more is so simple, yet tough to implement,

If we really want to be a productive worker of the future we need to create connection through trust. Smiling communicates to someone that you’re positive, approachable, and possibly someone they can trust (and we know how important trust is). So if smiling doesn’t come naturally, make sure you practice! That means you should smile so much that your face hurts. Even though we know smiling creates more serotonin and improves our mood we still believe we’ll look dumb or awkward. Just try this simple tool for a few days and coach yourself to smile. You will notice the difference and that difference will help you immediately relax in the workplace or in a client meeting. That relaxation will in turn allow your intent and impact to naturally shine through.

Tip #2: Positivity – Yes And

People love people who are positive. And while us humans generally are predisposed to thinking negatively, it’s all about your mindset which you can shift. You have to choose to be positive, think positive, and create positive experiences for those around you. As a matter of fact, science shows it takes 4x the positive statements to counteract the negative ones! According to a recent article from the Wall Street Journal, “a negative event or emotion usually has at least three times the impact of a comparable positive one.” So, this year, make a point to intentionally practice positivity! While that’s a very general statement, one tip we have is to read The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz and live by them.

Tip #3: Better Not Best

Best can be seen as an artificial barrier, mostly because best is arbitrary and always a moving target. Therefore, doing and being your best isn’t realistic because it’s based on the events surrounding it. An author we met through Heroic Public Speaking showed us that the alternative, “better” is something we can achieve everyday. We can be just a bit better than we were yesterday or last week. We can always strive to improve our performance incrementally. If our mindset is growth-based like Carol Dweck teaches in her book Growth Mindset, we can always be focused on trying harder and measuring ourselves to a higher standard each time. Better every day and in every moment will move the needle much further for you on a daily basis.

Tip #4: WIFTHEM – Audience

As humans we’re built in survival mode, which is mostly self-focused. That results in every person shaping all inputs as: “how will this affect me?” People only care about themselves. And while you might want to argue about the nuances and certain relationships in the workplace, it’s fundamentally true. We are wired for SELF-preservation. Which means we’re constantly looking out for ourselves, no matter how altruistic we might want to be. Everyone is me focused or lives by the WIFM method – what’s in it for me? Our twist is to focus on the audience and make it about them. We know that in order to succeed we need to understand and provide empathy to the other person so we put WIFM on its head to create instant connection. Voila. WIFThem – what’s in it for them?

So, whether you’re providing a service, doing a sales call, trying to get a promotion, or persuading your partner or friend to do something, make sure you’re showing the person you’re sitting across from what’s in it for them! It’s not about you, it’s about them and what you can do to help them get what they want. If you know WIFThem and practice it, the world will be yours. For more tips on how to do that using our communication tools, click here to download our free worksheet with our GPS conversation strategy.

Tip #5: Story – Currency

Your story, your identity, who you are and what you’re here to do, is your connection currency. It’s what will bind you to others instantly. But we suck at it. Personally and professionally we don’t have the skills to connect instantaneously. From the executive boardroom to our next generation workers, we are horrible about sharing our stories. And it is so critical. Critical to combine our personal why with our corporate purpose and value so we can transact great business. Whether a Millennial, Gen Z or a Boomer, knowing your story and articulating it in a way that serves others is the only way to connect and build relationships. It’s what you trade with others to build stronger and better relationships, which is the #1 most important skill in the world! Learn how to tell your story with a free copy of our book – click here to get it!

Over the next few weeks we will deliver real coaching stories so you can see these tips in action. Stay tuned!

Want more tips like these? Need help implementing these in your own life so you can be successful at work? Schedule your free coaching call today to ensure this year is the best one yet! Click here to book your call.

Young Lawyers are Leading Change in the Law Practice, Like it or Not

Posted on May 15, 2019 by Dan Negroni - Attract Millennials, Career Growth, Gen Z, GenY, Law Firms, Leadership, Millennials, Retain Millennials, Worker of the Future

Change is coming one way or another. That was the conclusion of a recent report from Major, Lindsey, and Africa, a leading attorney search firm, in which they detailed their findings after surveying over 1,200 millennial attorneys. And while their survey was exclusively focused on law firms and the people they employ, we’ve noticed similarities about our clients inside law as well as those we work with across all kinds of industries.

There are three things we’ve deduced from the survey as being absolutely critical for employers to understand: 1) Work-Life Balance Rules 2) Lack of Authenticity and Transparency is a Non-Starter 3) Career Pathing is Your Duty

Just look at these results:

-Less than 30% of respondents described their firms as being very transparent about an associate’s career path. Yet more than 80% of respondents still described transparency surrounding their individual career paths as being important to crucial to them.

-Only 20% of respondents classified themselves as being highly loyal to their firms. And of those, 54% still said they were not open to new job opportunities. It seems these things go hand in hand!

-When evaluating prospective employers, respondents cited these three factors as being most important in their decision: the employer’s commitment to fostering work-life balance, compensation, and professional development.

-If a respondent was open to new job opportunities, it’s usually because they were seeking better compensation, looking for a change in management or company culture, or wanted more work-life balance.

-More than 60% of respondents said informal mentorship has had a significant or crucial effect on their career. And almost 30% indicated that formal mentorship was irrelevant.

(Click here to read the full survey)

Did any of those results surprise you? They surprised ME and I do this for a living!

Like it or not, change is coming to your organization. So the question is: are you ready?

We’re going to break down how you can prepare your company to meet the needs of the worker of the future so that your organization can survive and thrive. After all, a company is only as good as its people. And if you can’t figure out how to give your best people what they want, they’ll find someone else who can – like your competition!

WORK-LIFE BALANCE RULES

We’ve been fighting to achieve work-life balance SINCE THE BEGINNING OF WORK.

Can we actually achieve work life balance or is it a myth? And what the heck does work-life balance even mean? Because it’s different for every single employee.

One hack is to turn your organization upside down and ask each employee what work-life balance means to them. Understanding what your audience wants, a novel concept. Does it mean coming in early so they can leave early? Does it mean working from home a few days a week? Or does it mean not working a weekend, ever. Whatever it is, you’ve got to figure out what your employees need from you and then figure out how you can deliver it in a way that still serves your business goals.

There, now you have a system to find a way to help your employees achieve the work-life balance they crave. Remember, it goes both ways. You can give employees the better balance they want, in a way that meets your expectations.

LACK OF AUTHENTICITY AND TRANSPARENCY IS A NON-STARTER

Ah, transparency. Seems everybody and their brother wants the people, the government and the companies in their lives to be more transparent. Science and data demonstrate people want the truth, as in can you be trusted.

So, you need to figure out how to be really real with your employees. And not just raw and authentic when it suits you – it needs to be baked into your company culture. So entwined with the day-to-day operations that it is embedded in your culture.

How do you get there?

Friggin connect with your employees. Learn their story, find out what they want out of their job and their life, and understand what really matters to them. If you can achieve that you will create Trust. Having a culture of trust and transparency and communication is what creates results. See The Speed of Trust by Stephen M. R. Covey: (Strategy x Execution) ^Trust =RESULTS . And not just any results, exponential results!

CAREER PATHING IS YOUR DUTY

In a world of on-demand learning, is it really any surprise that formal and forced mentorship is on the decline? We all want to learn at our own pace, on our own schedule, and with who we trust – which just doesn’t gel with a rigid mentorship structure.

Which isn’t to say that formal mentors themselves are out. We just want advice delivered in a more informal, of-the-moment way. So rather than formally defining our relationships with our employees in the workplace or relegating their career development to some far-off date on your calendar, practice delivering real-deal, authentic feedback. That means correcting the behavior when it happens, not during their annual review. It means taking time out of your busy schedule to commend an employee on a job well done – even when you’re so busy you can’t think straight.

We have to find a way to build more mentorship and professional development into the day-to-day culture of the workplace. And while you may be rolling your eyes and thinking, “Sure Dan, I’ll be sure to add that to my never-ending to-do list” the truth is, it’s critical you get this right. Employees who are listened to, supported in their role, given the tools to succeed, and encouraged to bring new ideas to the table do better work and STAY! It’s that simple.

Here’s the bottom line: if you want to survive in the years to come, you’ve got to figure out how to create and deliver:

1. Work Life Balance

2. Authenticity and Transparency

3. Career Pathing

It’s the only way.

Need help figuring out how to give your employees what they want in a way that still serves your company? Reach out to us for coaching – we’ll equip you with the tools you need to succeed! Click here to sign up for your free coaching session.

7 Strategies to Create a Habit of Learning

Posted on April 12, 2019 by Dan Negroni - Career Growth, Health, Training, Worker of the Future

Have you ever noticed that when you run into someone you know at Starbucks and ask them how they’ve been, most people give you one of two standard answers? “Good” or “Busy”. Or my personal favorites, “Good, but busy” or “Busy, but good.”

Let’s face it: we don’t know how to get un-busy anymore. We have too much going on at home and in the workplace. ESPECIALLY in the workplace!

We know the future of work is changing rapidly and we MUST keep up. So how do we prioritize our own learning and development to ensure it becomes a habit?

It starts with hacking our existing habits to make learning fit. Choose any one of the seven strategies below and you’ll be surprised about how much learning you can add to your already packed day.

Morning Routine Hacking

Most successful people have a morning routine, whether that involves going to the gym, praying or meditating, or just enjoying the first cup of coffee. Whether you already have an existing routine or want to start one, try waking up just fifteen minutes earlier. Use it to read an article or just a few pages from a book related to your industry. Depending on the difficulty, the average person takes between two to six minutes to read a page.

So while you might only be reading three to twelve pages a day, keep in mind that many non-fiction books are fairly short – only around three hundred pages in length. At that pace, you’ll finish a book every thirty to a hundred days which means you’ll read three to twelve books a year! Not a bad result for devoting just fifteen minutes each morning to your learning!

Makeover Your Commute

For most of us, the morning commute is a pure and simple waste of time. But rather than spending it listening to music, catching up on the news, or having a casual conversation with a friend or co-worker, why not put on a podcast episode instead? There are thousands of hours of podcasts available on all kinds of topics and many podcasts take the form of interviews, which allow you to learn from the success and failures of others. Find a podcast related to your industry and take your education on the road! Some of my favorites podcasts are the GaryVee Audio Experience, the Tony Robbins podcast, School of Greatness by Lewis Howes, the Tim Ferris Show, and the Peter Attia Drive podcast.

Knowledge by Subscription

What’s the first thing you do when you get to the office? Make a cup of coffee and gossip with your coworkers? Browse social media before the boss comes in? What if you started each work day with a bit of education instead? While most of us don’t want to add any more email to our already overcrowded inboxes, be purposeful about subscribing to email updates from an industry leader or coach whose content you enjoy. If you don’t have a particular person in mind, there are also services like Nuzzel, Feedly, or Flipboard that will send you a curated list of news articles that match a certain keyword or topic.

Lunch and Learn

Most of look forward to lunch as the time we can take a break and relax. But I’ll bet that you often spend your lunch hour scrolling through Instagram or watching funny Youtube videos. So what if you took that time and redirected it towards your learning? Read an article from an industry leader, watch a how-to video, or put your earbuds in and finish listening to the podcast you started on your morning commute! For lunchtime reading, I recommend Josh Bersin, Ariana Huffington, Brené Brown, Ray Dalio, and Adam Grant.

Daily Workouts for Your Body and Mind

Whether you hit the gym before or after work, the gym presents yet another opportunity to engage your mind in learning. While you might feel that you can’t workout without a good playlist, try listening to a podcast episode from an energetic speaker instead! And if you really can’t listen to anything, but music when you work out, use that time to review what you’ve learned recently and make a plan to implement the new knowledge as soon as possible.

Social Media With a Purpose

After a long day at work, most of us can’t wait to wind down with some mindless time spent looking at social media or watching Youtube videos. And I’m not saying you shouldn’t allow yourself a little freedom to indulge in these activities, but what would happen if you spent fifteen or twenty minutes purposefully looking at content that educates or inspires you first? Who knows – those fifteen or twenty minutes could easily become forty minutes or an hour of learning! I personally enjoy following and consuming content from Gary Vaynerchuk, Tom Bilyeu, Grant Cardone, Tom Ferry, Mel Robbins, and Oprah.

Self-Directed Courses and Certifications

These days there’s no end to the continuing education courses and certifications you can take. While you can attend classes through a local college, for many working people it’s a lot easier to choose a self-directed online learning program without a hard deadline. That way you can work at your own pace and make learning fit your schedule, rather than the other way around. If you don’t know where to start, try looking up courses on Udemy.

Whether you spend five minute or five hours on your learning each day, what really matters is whether you actually DO something with the knowledge. Most people go to conferences, sit on webinars, read books, watch videos, and do NOTHING with what they’ve learned. If you can devote a small amount of time each day to learning something new and then actually implement it, you will win! Learners are Earners!

How to Hire the Right Person for Any Position

Posted on April 8, 2019 by Dan Negroni - Interview Skills, Leadership, Management, Worker of the Future, Workplace Culture

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that a bad hire costs the employer, on average, 30% or more of the individual’s first year salary with the company. So if their salary is $100,000, the cost of one poor hiring decision is $130,000 or more!

Do you have that much time and money to be wasted on the wrong employee? Heck no!!

How do you HIRE RIGHT, NOW!!! The Worker of the Future who will crush it in their role and grow with your company for years to come is who you want, but HOW?

It starts by asking GREAT QUESTIONS!

To do so, download our free handout that will get you asking the right questions to ensure you’re hiring the right employee to crush it for your organization.

One Personal Challenge that will Make 2017 your Best Year Yet

Posted on December 21, 2016 by Dan Negroni - Millennials, Workplace Culture

One personal challenge made up of three special words has the power to positively change your career and greatly impact your world for the better. Are you ready to make 2017 your best year yet? Here we go! The act of branding livestock with a fire-heated iron to identify ownership dates back to the ancient Egyptians. In business, the concept of “personal brands” dates back to the late 1990s. At launchbox, our approach to branding is a fresher take on the value of defining your personal brand and considerably less painful than being touched by a hot iron (although millennials are not averse to marking; nearly 40 percent of them sport tattoos).

We call this your “brandstamp.”

Brandstamps are about who you want to be, how you want to be perceived in the world, and whether or not you deliver on that brand. To help our clients define, articulate, and own their personal brands at launchbox workshops, keynotes, or peer-to-peer networking groups, we create brandstamps through an exercise you can start right now.

It starts by finding your three brandstamp words: Three words that define your personal value and how you want to be perceived by the world. You can pick any three words you want to but try and pick:

words that are aspirational—that you think you are and wish to be perceived as—such as smart, caring, honest, and thoughtful.
words that, when you wake up in the morning and immediately think of, make you push yourself to be your best.
words that if you lived by them every day, you would be the best version of yourself and who you are meant to be.

Now that you have your brandstamp words, you need to field-test them to find out how well they are aligned with views people you know have of you. Because when people see you as you see yourself, you are succeeding in conveying your value.

Before I started launchbox, I struggled with what my brandstamp would look like would look like. My coach, Lauren, had an idea that we should assemble a group of thirty friends, former employees and bosses, peers, workout buddies, and mentors to discuss who I was. They would help me start to determine how I could build something big.

Before I went in to talk with this group, I chose my own three words. Once we were assembled, Lauren and our facilitator, Angela, had the group pick the words they thought represented my personal brandstamp. They had fun joking and whittling down hundreds of words to three: direct, giving, and motivational. (I admit to being relieved when “arrogant” and “annoying” finally left the table.) Wow. Not only were they generous words (I felt like I was at my own funeral), but they also aligned quite well with mine at the time: generous, bold, and inspirational. To me, that meant I was living my story, and my story reflected who I was to them.

As launchbox has evolved, so has my personal brandstamp. Today my words are generous, bold, and empowering. That is the cool thing about your three words: they can evolve and you can change them whenever you need to, as long as you own them and keep them aligned with how people see you.

Okay, your turn to try.

Once you have your words, see how they align with the way your people see you, and listen to their comments. Do this with at least three people. See what they think your three words should be, then share yours and see if you are in alignment. If the words are aligned, congratulations! Live them and let them evolve as you do. If they are not aligned, get at it. Find out and explore the inconsistencies—seek to understand why disconnect exists—and get the words aligned.

For more on working from the inside out, check out Part One of Chasing Relevance: 6 Steps to Understand, Engage, and Maximize Next-Generation Leaders in the Workplace TODAY.

4 Ways to Coach Millennials to Drive Results and Engagement

Posted on November 20, 2016 by Dan Negroni - Millennials, Workplace Culture

If there is one take away from the Presidential Election and all the recent media coverage, we need to “de-polarize” the biggest challenge to your workplace – Millennial Employee and Customer Engagement. The critical steps for healing the disconnect starts from controlling ourselves. Working on becoming our “best self” by working from the inside out (it all starts from within).

It wasn’t until the first time I spent the day with my dad at launchbox, watching him walk around and engage with the team and the space, that I realized how amazing it feels to create and be a part of a business where I can be 100 percent me (my authentic self) and own it.

In every job, I have ever had before I started launchbox, I played “the game” and suppressed at least a part of who I was for what I thought, or “they” thought, I was supposed to be and do. I found it limiting, and thus my ego flared. I never saw the wisdom in being any other way. Today, I am responsible and accountable to myself for empowering everyone I connect to and with everything I touch.

I get to be the jolter and stimulator, the coach, the mentor, and learner all in one. It does not get better than that.

Does that mean my ego is gone today? Hardly. I’m still (a little) vain and drive an expensive car and love my watch du jour. But I appreciate the relationships I have. I value meaningful connections, making it about others, and the power to create and work with next-gen/millennials to both lead and be led by me and my team, because we are mastering learning to work from the inside out.

I was careless before. Today, I choose to care more. And I’m intense about it, especially when it comes to empowerment. Unlike others, we don’t just talk about it. Our system solves the challenge by delivering real and immediate connections between managers and next generation (millennial) leaders and customers.

How? We customize and facilitate special training events and one-on-one coaching for organizations large and small. We strive to empower people to succeed 24/7 and expect empowerment from them in return—we study it, live it, teach it, technologize it, and love it.

What are you doing to de-polarize your workplace? If you are in the majority, you don’t have a plan. How are you empowering and engaging your employees to be successful? Are they connected, engaged and empowered so you can do your job successfully? When you can answer these questions with a resounding “Yes!” you have empowered success by empowering your employees to develop a culture that you can be proud of.

Here are 4 ways used by some of our most successful clients to reinforce empowerment and heal the disconnect in the workplace:

Focus on individual growth. Manage each person differently, align tasks with employee competencies, focus on and help employees develop their strengths, and create a system to identify high-potential employees, challenge them, and create growth opportunities.

Pave the road by ensuring your millennials have what they need to be successful. Make sure delegation and creating trust are givens, and make them want your job. Make future advancement opportunities transparently available.

Give Feedback 365: Now! Always! Do it daily and never stop. Provide and ask for regular feedback on performance. Be specific and listen.

Recognize and celebrate in a fun, creative, and interactive team culture that empowers more success and recognition. Do it for short-term wins, individual contributions, and team successes, in a public way.

It took a long time for me to truly understand how to put these four pieces together to empower individuals and myself to be better. When it works? It is beautiful. When it doesn’t? It is still fun just trying to do things the right way. Yes, I said fun. This can and should be fun.

Leadership today is never easy. It’s filled with contradictions, just like millennials themselves. We can’t ever reconcile those contradictions so … enable them! Create a culture of disruption and transparent learning—an environment where authentic communication and education also mean calling everyone (yes, yourself included) on their shit.

Get out of your own way and ask yourself: What can I do tomorrow to start doing those four things to empower my culture and employees to succeed – to develop a culture that everyone can be proud of and that empowers everyone (including you) to do their jobs successfully?

If not now when? Let us help you stop chasing relevance and make it happen. Our CEO and Founder, Dan Negroni, will be in New York at the end of the month on his Millennial Speaking Tour. He is so passionate about this issue; he wants to meet you and hear about your challenges and help solve them on the spot. For more on the power of relationships, check out Part One of Chasing Relevance: 6 Steps to Understand, Engage, and Maximize Next-Generation Leaders in the Workplace TODAY

Embrace Millennials as the Opportunity they are

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Dan Negroni - Millennials, Workplace Culture

A massive shift is taking place in the workplace and marketplace. Millennials—currently representing 36% of the workforce—will be 75% of your employees and customers by 2025. This change is creating a huge gap. Boomers and Gen Xers grew up with structure. Millennials have grown up with flexibility and the freedom to say what they want, when they want, simply by sending a tweet or a snap. They want feedback 24/7. They collaborate and create influence through network and community. They work way differently than previous generations. This difference is causing what you might label a “problem” in the workplace. There is a clear disconnect between expectations and work style.

But what if you challenged yourself to view this generational gap not as a problem to be solved, but as an opportunity to be embraced? Millennials control $660 billion in spending and will soon be leading the workplace, if they’re not already. Be the solution and embrace this generational “shift”–you can “shift” your perspective on this gap and win the millennial race! Millennials hold a tremendous opportunity for your workplace to excel in the future. Here are 3 millennial “problems” that are actually opportunities to be embraced.

They constantly seek feedback
Millennials grew up in an era of instant gratification, so they expect feedback all the time. While this classic millennial trait may seem annoying or ridiculous, it offers you an incredible opportunity to actually communicate and connect. The” problem” isn’t just that they want feedback, they are scared to ask for it and don’t know what to do with it or how to react.
Use this opportunity to be a mentor and guide for your millennials. Be real, be honest, be a teacher. Show appreciation when they do a good job, and let them know when they make mistakes and how they can improve. Ask them questions on a regular, weekly basis so you can create a two-way relationship. If they see you, their boss, asking questions, being vulnerable and caring, they will mimic your behavior and develop confidence.Use feedback the way it is intended, as a give and take.
They want flexible or their“perfect” schedule
It may seem like a pain to offer a flexible schedule to your millennial employees. You may think, “Why can’t they just work 8 hours straight like I did and not complain about it?” Well, technology has changed the world and millennials can get work done remotely as well as in an office. Millennials tend to seek a perfect work/life balance. By allowing a flexible schedule, you provide your millennials the opportunity to fulfill other activities that make them happy and keep them fulfilled and engaged.
If your millennials are engaged in the other areas of their life, they will be more inspired to do more great work for your company. By caring about their needs, they are happier, therefore so are your customers and you also create more success of your company.
They have wild ambitions and ideas
“They all want to create the next Facebook.” The initial reaction to millennials’ wild ambitions may be that they’re entitled and expect success overnight. But what if you could focus their ambitions within your own company? As a manager, you can motivate your millennials to learn and grow within your company. You can provide opportunities for them to excel, create and innovate…a win-win that would benefit your company. Don’t suppress your millennial worker’s ambitions, but guide them so they can flourish and excel both personally and professionally.

Where one sees trash, another sees treasure. The millennial shift is happening…its inevitable. However, it’s up to YOU how you view it…as an opportunity to be embraced!

Need help understanding, engaging, and retaining your millennial workforce? Dan Negroni, Author, Speaker, Attorney, Kick butt business consultant, coach, and proud Dad of a few Millennials delivers actionable solutions. Different from all other millennial experts, Dan’s empowering business approach at Launchbox, creates quick value and seamless connections with millennials and management each on their own terms. Using unique content and delivery methods that audiences respond to immediately he leverages results from the inside out. Allow millennials to be your secret weapon and maximize your commitment to them to innovate, create a culture of engagement and grow your businesses today. To start click here to grab your copy of Chasing Relevance: 6 Steps to Understand, Engage and Maximize Next Generation Leaders in the Workplace or call them at 858.314.9687 for a free Coaching Assessment or visit www.launchbox365.com.

4 Things You Probably Hate about Millennials and Why You’re Probably Wrong

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Dan Negroni - Millennials, Workplace Culture

Listen, the challenge of parenting, educating, training, mentoring, and guiding young people has been around for thousands of years. Consider this quote attributed to Socrates, almost 2,500 years ago:

Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.

“But my millennials are so much more annoying than we ever were.” Got it.

Remember, millennials look nothing like the previous generations, and that’s why they annoy you. It’s a lack of understanding of and between different generations. The point is millennials are probably everything and nothing we say about them.

Entitled, lazy, and won’t do what they’re told? In a poll of 5,000 workers by Jennifer Deal of the Center for Creative Leadership and Alec Levenson of the University of Southern California, 41% of millennials agreed that “employees should do what their manager tells them, even when they can’t see the reason for it,” compared with 30% of baby boomers and 30 percent of Gen Xers.

Aren’t competitive? The Economist cites research by CEB, a consulting firm that polls 90,000 American employees each quarter, that 59% of millennials say competition is what gets them up in the morning much more than the percentage of baby boomers or Gen Xers that say that about competition.

Only communicate digitally? That study by Jennifer Deal and Alec Levenson showed that more than 90% of millennials surveyed want face-to-face feedback and career discussions.

Jump ship and are not committed for the long term, or really any term? According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average worker stays at a job 4.4 years, and yes, according to the Future Workplace “Multiple Generations @ Work” survey of 1,189 employees and 150 managers, 91% of millennials expect to stay less than three. But beware of averages: Millennials may find it normal to job-hop faster than any previous generation, but when they find the right opportunity they actually are more loyal than the previous generation. The CEB study showed millennials put future career opportunity among their top five reasons for choosing a job, again ahead of other generations.

Simply put, when it comes to millennials, most of us have no idea what to believe or do. So we believe and assume the worst. Until we see this, the most powerful myths or assumptions that we have about millennials will continue to negatively impact our attitudes about, perceptions of, and relationships with them.

Get past the  myths and realize that individual differences are more important than generational ones In the end, most millennials just want what we all should want: challenge, flexibility, purpose, engagement, collaboration, work-life balance, transparency, and authenticity.

They want bosses who care, set clear expectations, and are willing to coach—and who understand what they expect and need in the workplace. Are these things so unappealing or are they just not your story?

Don’t let generational differences be the problem. Lean in and consider millennials an opportunity to learn, connect, and kick more ass in your business using millennial power.

Need help getting started? For more on this, check out Busting Myth in Part Two of Chasing Relevance: 6 Steps to Understand, Engage, and Maximize Next-Generation Leaders in the Workplace TODAY.