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Motivating the 'What's In It For Me?' Workforce: Manage Across the Generational Divide and Increase Profits
Advance praise for Motivating the "What's In It For Me?" Workforce
"The information on leading and managing generations found in this book is invaluable to all executives today. The war for talent has become increasingly fierce. Attracting and retaining this talent is critical to a successful global company. This book is a masterful tool for developing the skills required for managing multigenerational teams. It is a must-have for executives at all levels who are responsible for a company's greatest its people."
--Phebe Port, Vice President Global Management Strategies,The Estee Lauder Companies
"Motivating the 'What's In It For Me?' Workforce has given our managers good ideas about leading the different generations in our workplace, particularly the New Millennials who we at Enterprise are especially reliant upon to grow our business every single day and, ultimately, become our company's future leaders."
--Marie Artim, Assistant Vice President Recruiting, Enterprise Rent-A-Car
"After Marston presented to our management group, approximately 400 individuals, and after we responded to the clamor for his book, it became commonplace to hear people discussing solutions to problems based on generational considerations. There aren't many people discussions that occur today where we don't at least consider differences between Baby Boomers, Millennials, etc. He really changed our way of thinking!"
--Anne Donovan, U.S. HR LeaderSystems and Process Assurance, PricewaterhouseCoopers
"If you ever had any doubt that generational differences have an impact on go-to-market strategies, Marston's book, Motivating the 'What's In It For Me?' Workforce, provides thought-provoking realities you need to consider. This is a must-read . . . At our Sales Leadership Conference, Marston gave our top sales managers actionable ideas on how to gain better understanding of what drives today's workforce to take direct action and deliver exceptional results."
--Damian A. Thomas, General ManagerCorporate Sales Leader, General Electric Company
"The information on leading and managing generations found in this book is invaluable to all executives today. The war for talent has become increasingly fierce. Attracting and retaining this talent is critical to a successful global company. This book is a masterful tool for developing the skills required for managing multigenerational teams. It is a must-have for executives at all levels who are responsible for a company's greatest its people."
--Phebe Port, Vice President Global Management Strategies,The Estee Lauder Companies
"Motivating the 'What's In It For Me?' Workforce has given our managers good ideas about leading the different generations in our workplace, particularly the New Millennials who we at Enterprise are especially reliant upon to grow our business every single day and, ultimately, become our company's future leaders."
--Marie Artim, Assistant Vice President Recruiting, Enterprise Rent-A-Car
"After Marston presented to our management group, approximately 400 individuals, and after we responded to the clamor for his book, it became commonplace to hear people discussing solutions to problems based on generational considerations. There aren't many people discussions that occur today where we don't at least consider differences between Baby Boomers, Millennials, etc. He really changed our way of thinking!"
--Anne Donovan, U.S. HR LeaderSystems and Process Assurance, PricewaterhouseCoopers
"If you ever had any doubt that generational differences have an impact on go-to-market strategies, Marston's book, Motivating the 'What's In It For Me?' Workforce, provides thought-provoking realities you need to consider. This is a must-read . . . At our Sales Leadership Conference, Marston gave our top sales managers actionable ideas on how to gain better understanding of what drives today's workforce to take direct action and deliver exceptional results."
--Damian A. Thomas, General ManagerCorporate Sales Leader, General Electric Company
240 pages, Hardcover
First published August 28, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 16, 2022
Stuff you already know but the beginning of the book has some interesting generational perspectives.
January 18, 2012
This book, given to me by a senior manager of mine to read in the context of management advice for leaders in our group, was a pretty engaging read. This was not the first time I had heard of this type of study done on the impact of generations in the workplace, but it was definitely the most in-depth amount of reading I had ever done on the topic. Marston sets out to educate the reader about both what and who individuals of each of the 4 working generations are, how the generational influences of each has played a part in their work style, and what types of conflict might be generated between members, particularly managers and subordinates, when working across generational differences. I think he was pretty successful at accomplishing this, but I did have some complaints about the work, mostly relating to the point of view used in it.
From a content perspective, the book contains first an outline of each of the 4 working generations: what Marston calls Matures (otherwise called the GI and Silent generations, which group together from a work-style perspective), the Baby Boomers, Generation X, and the New Millennials. As an aside: It’s not stated outright, but I think it’s likely that the scope of this book is limited to the United States… I am not familiar enough with this kind of study and how it differs in different countries, but clearly many of the influencing factors in each generation are pretty specific to where you live and what you’ve lived through (for example, the great Depression, the Vietnam War).
He spends the first 5 chapters exploring the societal factors which shaped each of the generations, and provides some examples of how we can think of each generation’s approach to professional life. He includes anecdotes and interviews with individuals from each generation, which really do help to illustrate how people approach work and life differently, depending on what they have lived through. I found this portion of the book to be really engaging. I was able to relate to the stories, and in particular found a lot of my own attitudes reflected in the Generation X chapter – subtitled Cynical? Questioning? Cautious? You’d Better Believe It. (Har har)
After this initial strong start, with the chapter organization a really clear indicator of the content and a very linear, well-paced flow, I found the remainder of the book much less well-organized and less engaging. Not to disparage Marston or this book unnecessarily, but my thought is that the most enjoyable part of the book, the first part, was clearly very derived from existing research and work that others have done. When he starts in with his real content, the management advice filtered through a generational lens, he becomes less engaging and less organized. I found the multiple headings throughout the chapters to be somewhat distracting, but I suppose it’s standard in this type of book (doesn’t mean I have to like it).
I would posit that the weak points of this book was its point of view, and to some extent, its datedness and acknowledgement of its own limited scope. What I mean by point of view, is that Marston seems to want to avoid alienating anyone from any one generation, and as a result he claims no point of view, no allegiance to any one generation. Which creates more than a little mistrust for me (is it that Gen X cynicism coming through? – perhaps!). He also seems to believe that his main audience is going to be Baby Boomers, as he says many times that they control the workforce these days, and so he tends to write more to their viewpoint. This alienated me a bit because I am a Gen X-er managed by a Gen X-er who is also managed by another Gen X-er… certainly not something Marston considered in this work. And I manage Baby Boomers… it’s not such an anomaly as he seems to think. So this perhaps is partly a failure on his part to consider all viewpoints, but it is probably also at least a little due to the fact that the book was published in 2007, and it’s now 2012, and the content is fast becoming dated. The other thing that seems dated is when he uses the economic state of the United Stated in 2007 to predict the near-term future... yeah we all know how that has worked out!
Although I have listed some complaints with the book, in general I felt it was thought-provoking and it definitely helped me to reflect as a manager, an employee, and as a professional. Some of the points made at times were uncomfortably close to home, which makes Marston a pretty good marksman. It makes me want to go out and read more about generational studies, particularly from a more sociological viewpoint. So I would recommend it, if you have an interest in this kind of work.
From a content perspective, the book contains first an outline of each of the 4 working generations: what Marston calls Matures (otherwise called the GI and Silent generations, which group together from a work-style perspective), the Baby Boomers, Generation X, and the New Millennials. As an aside: It’s not stated outright, but I think it’s likely that the scope of this book is limited to the United States… I am not familiar enough with this kind of study and how it differs in different countries, but clearly many of the influencing factors in each generation are pretty specific to where you live and what you’ve lived through (for example, the great Depression, the Vietnam War).
He spends the first 5 chapters exploring the societal factors which shaped each of the generations, and provides some examples of how we can think of each generation’s approach to professional life. He includes anecdotes and interviews with individuals from each generation, which really do help to illustrate how people approach work and life differently, depending on what they have lived through. I found this portion of the book to be really engaging. I was able to relate to the stories, and in particular found a lot of my own attitudes reflected in the Generation X chapter – subtitled Cynical? Questioning? Cautious? You’d Better Believe It. (Har har)
After this initial strong start, with the chapter organization a really clear indicator of the content and a very linear, well-paced flow, I found the remainder of the book much less well-organized and less engaging. Not to disparage Marston or this book unnecessarily, but my thought is that the most enjoyable part of the book, the first part, was clearly very derived from existing research and work that others have done. When he starts in with his real content, the management advice filtered through a generational lens, he becomes less engaging and less organized. I found the multiple headings throughout the chapters to be somewhat distracting, but I suppose it’s standard in this type of book (doesn’t mean I have to like it).
I would posit that the weak points of this book was its point of view, and to some extent, its datedness and acknowledgement of its own limited scope. What I mean by point of view, is that Marston seems to want to avoid alienating anyone from any one generation, and as a result he claims no point of view, no allegiance to any one generation. Which creates more than a little mistrust for me (is it that Gen X cynicism coming through? – perhaps!). He also seems to believe that his main audience is going to be Baby Boomers, as he says many times that they control the workforce these days, and so he tends to write more to their viewpoint. This alienated me a bit because I am a Gen X-er managed by a Gen X-er who is also managed by another Gen X-er… certainly not something Marston considered in this work. And I manage Baby Boomers… it’s not such an anomaly as he seems to think. So this perhaps is partly a failure on his part to consider all viewpoints, but it is probably also at least a little due to the fact that the book was published in 2007, and it’s now 2012, and the content is fast becoming dated. The other thing that seems dated is when he uses the economic state of the United Stated in 2007 to predict the near-term future... yeah we all know how that has worked out!
Although I have listed some complaints with the book, in general I felt it was thought-provoking and it definitely helped me to reflect as a manager, an employee, and as a professional. Some of the points made at times were uncomfortably close to home, which makes Marston a pretty good marksman. It makes me want to go out and read more about generational studies, particularly from a more sociological viewpoint. So I would recommend it, if you have an interest in this kind of work.
February 17, 2016
Exceptional book, written primarily to “Matures” and “Boomers” on how to “manage across the generational divide and increase profits.” Marston combines significant research and statistics (e.g., the average new employee stays with the company for 1.3 years, most that stay beyond 4 years will stay considerably longer) with insights on the distinctions between Matures, Boomers, Gen-X and Millennials. The author includes interviews with representatives of the new workforce to aid the reader in understanding why they are the way they are and what needs to be done to deal with these new workers.
Some of his insights include: they value time more than money, do not want friends at work but leaders who value their opinions and show an interest in their growth, seek flexible work schedules and merit-based performance systems and generally focus more on outcomes than processes. They are technologically literate, using this knowledge to their advantage in getting things done. If they are more efficient, the time they saved should belong to them. These new employees don’t see their work as their identity, but something that they must do in order to do what they want with their leisure time. They are extremely impatient, insistent on doing things they enjoy and generally unwilling to put in long hours for the promise of an eventual promotion or raise that may never come. Moving back home after college, they are often able to “prolong” their adolescence by as much as 10 years. In addition, their teamwork and social skills are rather suspect, as they typically communicate via email, IM etc., not through face-to-face conversations.
Marston provides some practical advice for managing this new workforce, from supervising and criticizing to developing leadership skills. He also includes some “tough love” advice for the Boomers as well. These new workers will not be like us, and we need to acknowledge it and adjust. The book closes with some projections for the future (he quotes research from Strauss and Howe that suggest the 4 stage cycle for generations - Hero, Artist, Prophet and Nomad - may repeat with the Millennials as the next heroes, although I recently attended a seminar by Dr. Mark Taylor that challenges their description of millennials as the “next Greatest Generation.”).
The author also includes a short chapter on what he feels should be said to this new generation at graduation. A Gen-X himself, he admits that they need to adjust to the Boomers as well, as Boomers will remain in positions of power for some time yet. The end of the book includes a short quiz to test reader’s ability to recognize the four generations as well as providing a suggested reading list.
Some of his insights include: they value time more than money, do not want friends at work but leaders who value their opinions and show an interest in their growth, seek flexible work schedules and merit-based performance systems and generally focus more on outcomes than processes. They are technologically literate, using this knowledge to their advantage in getting things done. If they are more efficient, the time they saved should belong to them. These new employees don’t see their work as their identity, but something that they must do in order to do what they want with their leisure time. They are extremely impatient, insistent on doing things they enjoy and generally unwilling to put in long hours for the promise of an eventual promotion or raise that may never come. Moving back home after college, they are often able to “prolong” their adolescence by as much as 10 years. In addition, their teamwork and social skills are rather suspect, as they typically communicate via email, IM etc., not through face-to-face conversations.
Marston provides some practical advice for managing this new workforce, from supervising and criticizing to developing leadership skills. He also includes some “tough love” advice for the Boomers as well. These new workers will not be like us, and we need to acknowledge it and adjust. The book closes with some projections for the future (he quotes research from Strauss and Howe that suggest the 4 stage cycle for generations - Hero, Artist, Prophet and Nomad - may repeat with the Millennials as the next heroes, although I recently attended a seminar by Dr. Mark Taylor that challenges their description of millennials as the “next Greatest Generation.”).
The author also includes a short chapter on what he feels should be said to this new generation at graduation. A Gen-X himself, he admits that they need to adjust to the Boomers as well, as Boomers will remain in positions of power for some time yet. The end of the book includes a short quiz to test reader’s ability to recognize the four generations as well as providing a suggested reading list.
January 18, 2021
HIGHLIGHTS:
1. Direct communication. Explain why. They figure out HOW. Need instant feedback.
2. Loyalty to a good boss, not the company.
3. Dissatisfaction with the boss is the #1 reason millennials quit.
4. Seek self-fulfillment, aren’t interested in paying dues.
5. Successful: Be adaptable. Work independently and seek advice. Individual contribution AND the whole team.
6. *Need* = clearly defined jobs, roles, and lines of communication that enable them to get work done effectively. Make responsibilities clear. Flexibility.
7. Articulate the skills an employee must have to do the job well and how possessing those skills will benefit the employee.
8. Prepare for your own futures.
9. “Role” refers to the value of the person’s job (less specific in macro). The reason an employee works for the company. WHY performing the job description. Share the bigger picture. Help them grow. Show them you care. Role models, not buddies, employees want to connect with their bosses.
10. Need: = learn to talk to people. Art of conversation. Learn how to make presentations effectively.
1. Direct communication. Explain why. They figure out HOW. Need instant feedback.
2. Loyalty to a good boss, not the company.
3. Dissatisfaction with the boss is the #1 reason millennials quit.
4. Seek self-fulfillment, aren’t interested in paying dues.
5. Successful: Be adaptable. Work independently and seek advice. Individual contribution AND the whole team.
6. *Need* = clearly defined jobs, roles, and lines of communication that enable them to get work done effectively. Make responsibilities clear. Flexibility.
7. Articulate the skills an employee must have to do the job well and how possessing those skills will benefit the employee.
8. Prepare for your own futures.
9. “Role” refers to the value of the person’s job (less specific in macro). The reason an employee works for the company. WHY performing the job description. Share the bigger picture. Help them grow. Show them you care. Role models, not buddies, employees want to connect with their bosses.
10. Need: = learn to talk to people. Art of conversation. Learn how to make presentations effectively.
August 5, 2011
5.0 out of 5 stars Finally..."Enlightenment"!, July 28, 2008
This is the most enlightening book I have read in years! As a Baby Boomer, I have been struggling with trying to understand the younger folks I have working for me. Even some of my younger managers leave me scratching my head wondering if everyone has gone insane! Now I get it. It's not me,is the great generational divide and this book has brought me much clarity and understanding. We, the Boomers, are still in charge, and until I am ready to retire, the knowledge in this book will help me to keep my sanity.
August 15, 2009
This book had some good insights about the generational differences between four different generations (millennials, Xers, Boomers, and the "Matures") which were very helpful. The book probably could have been about half the length but it was a worthwhiel and helpful read for someone working with people in the various generations.
September 9, 2008
Despite the very unfortunate title, this book is quite a good and objective description of generational styles. It consists mostly of interviews and summaries of the findings from them. Definitely helpful in understanding the way people think at work.
September 4, 2009
I think the book had some good insights about the generational differences. It also did a good job of explaining the shifts in conversation that each generation needs to make in order to communicate effectively.
October 26, 2009
Interesting, but nothing surprising or new.
October 8, 2013
loved this book
Read
May 25, 2010"What's in it for me" motivation philosophy with a generational focus.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews