Highly respected author, speaker, and TED Talker Simon Sinek interviewed with Tom Bilyeu and Inside Quest back in 2016, which caused quite a bit of buzz on social media—and still does today. The full interview can be found HERE, and I encourage you to watch it as (for the most part) it's very good. Indeed, the first 25 minutes or so are full of insights that echo very strongly with what we believe and champion with our BP2W program here at OptimaWork.
But it was his 'Millennial Question' segment about 40 minutes into the interview that seemed to hit a nerve with so many and resulted in millions of YouTube views and countless tweets, retweets, etc. In particular, a 45-second fragment on building relationships really tweaked my interest.
You can see the 'Millenial Question' section of the interview HERE on Simon's own website.
In it, he talks about how Millennials are "tough to manage" and are seen as being "entitled and narcissistic and self-interested, unfocused, lazy." He goes into a number of cause-and-effect-style reasons for this perceived issue, and it is very interesting to hear his take on it. He is tremendously articulate, to the point that even in areas where I may disagree or have differing views (and there definitely were some), I was more than willing to listen, digest, and appreciate his insight.
As mentioned, however, there is a snippet less than a minute in length that really resonated with me. He had been talking up to that point about how Millennials have trouble building relationships due to technology and other factors that lead to an instant gratification mindset.
We are all aware that There’s No Magic Pill To Boost Leadership & Employee Engagement, but rather, it's the ongoing smaller aspects, traits, behaviors, and actions that help deliver the desired results and outcomes.
In the interview, he categorically states that "trust doesn't form in an event; in a day" and goes on to say that organizations need to "create mechanisms where we allow for those little innocuous interactions to happen."
Understanding and facilitating these two sentences alone would do wonders for any organization, resulting in a workforce that appreciates each other, knows what motivates every person, and where all employees feel valued.
He referred earlier in the interview that these sorts of things cannot be taught in a 2-day leadership course, and poof, things just happen. Nor can they happen if building leadership and increasing employee engagement is viewed purely as the job of management and/or the HR department. The employees must be part of the improvement and ongoing growth process. They must be empowered and encouraged to be open, to take ownership of improving their workplace, and to build solid and lasting relationships with the folks they work with day in and day out.
Again, I encourage you to watch the entire interview and remember that the connections we build with our peers, subordinates, and supervisors ultimately determine the success of our team and the business.
