Today's Author Spotlight is on Bruce Tulgan and his office guide, Not Everyone Gets A Trophy: How To Manage Gen Y. We caught up with Bruce over email and asked him about some of the misconceptions he tackles in his book.

Tulgan's main message to managers: limit the praise and rewards millennials have come to expect and focus on the boundaries and authority that they need. Not Everyone Gets A Trophy is available now, but we're giving away free copies to the first three commenters who share their own eye-opening experience managing — or being managed as — Gen-Y.

Author Spotlight: Bruce Tulgan

Ypulse: How have Gen Y workers' expectations and performance levels changed since you started researching the subject?

Bruce Tulgan: Well, to be more precise, I've been conducting in-depth interviews with young people in the workplace steadily since 1993. That was shortly before the oldest Gen Yers—those on the cusp of Generation X—started arriving in the workplace as teenagers. Since then, we've followed Gen Yers as they have become the new young workforce and have been developing a comprehensive picture of who they are, how they became that way, and what motivates them. Of course, the identity of any generation is very complex and is always constantly changing. When I describe GenYers, I am making vast generalizations about tens of millions of people. Every individual has his or her own unique story. But there are broad trends in attitude and behavior that shift with each generation.

Generation Y is the generation of kids where every kid did get a trophy, just for participating. So many so-called 'experts' have jumped onto the bandwagon of this topic, but our research shows that most of these so-called 'experts' have got it all wrong. In many recent books and articles, many of these 'experts' argue that, since Gen Yers have always gotten a trophy just for showing up, maybe the best way to manage them is to give them lots of praise and, basically, give them a trophy just for showing up. These 'experts' tell managers to create "thank-you" programs, "praise" programs, and “reward" programs. They recommend turning recruiting into one long sales pitch; transforming the workplace into a veritable playground; rearranging training so it revolves around interactive computer gaming; encouraging young workers to find a "best friend" at work; and teaching managers to soft-pedal their authority. In my view, this approach is out of touch with reality, especially in today's environment.

The message of Not Everyone Gets a Trophy is simple: The high-maintenance Generation Y workforce calls for strong leadership, not weak. This is a good time for managers and leaders to be giving GenYers a wake-up call about realistic expectations.

YP: What are some of the myths about Gen-Y workers that you debunk in your book? Which "myths" are actually true?

BT: There is usually some truth underlying any myth. The myths are usually distortions of some notable underlying reality. I tackle the top 14 myths in the book. Here are [a few].

Myth: Gen Yers are disloyal.
Reality: They offer the kind of loyalty you get in a free market—that is, transactional loyalty (whatever you can negotiate).

Myth: They won't do the grunt work.
Reality: They are so eager to prove themselves they will do the grunt work or anything else. But they won't do the grunt work, or anything else, if they start to fear that nobody is keeping track of what they are doing and giving them credit. They are not about to do the grunt work in exchange for vague, long-term promises of rewards that vest in the deep distant future.

Myth: They don't know very much and have short attention spans.
Reality: They may not have the same shared knowledge base that people with a certain level of education used to take for granted, but they walk in the door with more information in their heads and more information available at their fingertips than anyone ever has before. They think, learn, and communicate in sync with today’s information environment.

Myth: They want to be left alone at work.
Reality: If they actually care one bit about the job, they want managers who know who they are, know what they are doing, are highly engaged with them, provide guidance, help them solve problems, and keep close track of their successes.

YP: What particular challenges do managers face when it comes to managing young workers today? How can they overcome these challenges?

BT: Like every new generation of workers, GenYers bring to the workplace new attitudes and behaviors that require adjustment. But our research suggests that GenYers are likely to be the most high maintenance generation of workers in history. Generation Y will be more difficult to recruit, engage, develop, motivate, manage, and retain. Every day, leaders and managers tell me stories about the challenges of working with GenYers. I've tried to include the best of these stories in the book. But most of the book is focused on conveying concrete best practices for tackling these challenges.

GenYers don’t need to be humored in the workplace. They need to be taken seriously. Managers need to hold them to high standards and help them every step of the way to reach those high standards. I urge managers of Generation Y employees to never undermine your own authority; never pretend that the job is going to be more fun than it is; never suggest that things are up to GenYers when they are not; never gloss over details; never let problems slide; never offer praise or rewards for less than excellent performance.

The best way to manage GenYers is strong highly-engaged management. Give them boundaries and structure, negotiate special rewards in very small increments, and help them earn the things they need and want. Spell out the rules of their workplace in vivid detail so Gen Yers can play that job like a video game: if you want A, you have to do B. If you want C, you have do D, and so on.

YP: How can companies work with their Gen-Y employees to weather the economic downturn?

BT: Don't make long term promises right now because you have no idea what's going to happen. Plus nobody with half a wit would believe any long term promises right now. But you can make lots of short-term promises in exchange for short-term extra-mile performance. This is exactly the time to get creative with non-financial rewards… because they don't cost anything… and employees really value stuff like more control over their own schedules. Use short-term quid pro quos to drive performance, take better care of your people, and get everyone and everything back into an upward spiral. Help every person aim at one small target after another, bank one small win after another, and earn one small reward after another.

More about Bruce Tulgan
Bruce Tulgan is internationally recognized as the leading expert on young people in the workplace. He is the author or coauthor of seventeen different books, including the classic Managing Generation X and the recent best-seller It's Okay To Be The Boss . His newest book, Not Everyone Gets A Trophy , was released on March 9, 2009 by Jossey-Bass. Bruce is an adviser to business leaders all over the world, and a sought-after keynote speaker and management trainer. He is the founder and chairman of RainmakerThinking, Inc. in New Haven, CT.

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