8

OWN IT: TAKING—AND GIVING—RESPONSIBILITY

“The ancient Romans had a tradition: whenever one of their engineers constructed an arch, as the capstone was hoisted into place, the engineer assumed accountability for his work in the most profound way possible: he stood under the arch.”

—C. Michael Armstrong, former Chairman of AT&T

Ownership. Outside of the term “business casual,” ownership might be one of the most nebulous terms in business for millennials. It all became apparent to me after hearing Captain Mike Abrashoff speak at Leo Burnett, where he shared his turnaround story of how he took a ship—the USS Benfold—from being one of the worst ships in the Navy to winning the Spokane trophy for combat readiness. One of the first things that Abrashoff did was instill a slogan on board the USS Benfold, “It’s your ship.” He put the future, the results, and power in the hands of each and every sailor—“It’s YOUR Ship.” Abrashoff said, “Show me an organization in which employees take ownership, and I will show you one that beats competitors.” Abrashoff shifted the focus from the typical “chain of command” to a focus on purpose. He made it about performance not obedience, and I remember how he told stories of “aggressively listening” to his crew members, trying out their ideas, and rewarding them for taking risks. Abrashoff took ownership of the success of his ship, but he also instilled responsibility and ownership within each and every crew member. In this chapter, you will learn about these two sides of ownership and how to empower your people just like the captain.¹

You likely have heard the term “ownership” thrown around a lot. Ownership is holding yourself accountable for what you do and how you do your job. Since your job is manager, your ownership goes a step further. You are the leader of the team, so you must hold yourself accountable for how the team performs. You are personally invested because the results and outcomes from your team reflect on you, the manager.

This is a great area of opportunity for millennial managers to grow. Take ownership of the success—or duress—of your team. Some negative feedback we hear about millennials is that they don’t take ownership of their position. Senior leaders tell us that they think millennials struggle to see their responsibilities as solely their own. Millennials often seek permission when it comes to incorporating new ideas, or they miss a few steps when “seeing a project through from start to finish.” With your collaborative nature, you tend to see things as more of a shared responsibility rather than ownership. You think of shared success and shared responsibility, and your generation likes consensus.

According to a Mr. Youth survey, 70 percent of millennials say they prefer consensus, especially when they’re with their peers.² Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, makes the analogy, “Few things in life are less efficient than a group of people trying to write a sentence. The advantage of this method is that you end up with something for which you will not be personally blamed.” By making decisions as a team, millennials can try and sidestep the ownership of that decision. “It was everyone’s decision, so it’s everyone’s responsibility,” you might say.

For example, it is Frank’s responsibility to compile the report after the site visit. He sends the report to his colleagues who visited the site to see if they have any input, but the final deliverable is the main responsibility of Frank. Now, Frank sends out the report, and his manager finds a significant discrepancy. As a millennial, Frank likely thinks, “Oh, our site visit team really messed up on that one. We should have caught that,” instead of “I messed that up.” Frank could also think, “Well, that’s why my manager is there—to double-check and make sure everything is perfect before we send this out.” Senior leaders and Frank’s manager are really looking to him to be the final stop and ultimately the one responsible for his report. Now that you have stepped into a management role, this idea of ownership is even more important. You must have the responsibility, and you must instill it in your team.

HOLDING YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE

Julian Rotter conducted a study that hints at the underlying drivers and the fundamental reasons your generation may have a hard time with this idea of ownership as a manager. Rotter studied the “locus of control,” which is a psychology theory that determines how much you think external forces impact your life.³ Do you think you can control the events that affect you? If you have an internal focus, you’re more likely to hold yourself responsible for the results of your situation. If you have an external focus, you’re more likely to look at the world as responsible for your state of affairs. With internal locus, you look within to hold yourself accountable, and with external locus, you look out to hold people and forces around you accountable.

Some studies have shown that Rotter’s idea of locus of control varies across the generations. A study by Twenge, Zhang, & Im discovered that younger generations are more likely to put greater emphasis on external forces.⁴ This insight supports anecdotes we have heard from senior leaders who wish millennial managers would take more responsibility for their teams and really own the opportunities and challenges.

With an external locus of control, millennial managers may be more inclined to blame the poor performance of their team on the poor economy, new company policies, or a difficult client. If they have a poor performer, then the millennial manager may see the individual as the problem. It may take some time for the millennial manager to look within and question himself—Am I motivating this employee? Am I equipping this employee with the skills he needs to do the job? Am I adjusting my style and doing what I can to make sure this employee thrives? As a millennial manager, you may look at those external forces that impact “the situation” before taking a closer look at the causes of those external forces or what you can do to impact or change them.

When you played sports, was it often the ref’s bad calls that made you lose the game? Or, was it because you missed several important shots? When you received a “C” on your literature paper, was it because the guidelines for the paper were misleading? Or, was it because you waited until the night before to write it and it wasn’t as good as it could have been? In the workplace, did you get passed over for the new business team because the team lead didn’t like you? Or, was it because you never took that presentation skills training, and you wouldn’t have been the most qualified person to deliver the new business pitches?

As a leader, you must be open to looking internally for the answers. In Jim Collins’s Good to Great, he cites one attribute as the differentiating characteristic between effective leaders (Level 4) and truly great leaders (Level 5).⁵ Level 5 leaders, as defined by Collins, are ambitious and driven leaders who seek success for their team and organization, not their own, personal glory. Collins states that Level 5 leaders are the first to accept blame for poor results, and they are the first to share credit for a job well done.

The main difference between a Level 5 leader and a Level 4 leader is one unsuspecting characteristic. What characteristic separates good leaders from great? Take a moment to guess. Vision? Charisma? Integrity? Intuition? Intelligence? Creativity? The one defining characteristic of a Level 5 leader is humility. Collins noted that it was humility and the leader’s ability to accept responsibility when things went wrong that defined them as truly great and a step above all those pretty good leaders. These great leaders weren’t looking out for someone to blame; they were looking in for ways they could improve and change their circumstances. The Level 5 leaders often led companies in industries that were failing and getting hammered by outside forces, but the companies with Level 5 leaders at the helm realized they could look within and focus on the things that they could control.⁶

There will always be excuses. There will always be a world out there that impacts your business and team. But what do you do and where do you turn when hit by an unexpected jolt? Do you throw up your hands in the air and wave ’em like you just don’t care, millennials? Do you play the “why me?” card? Or do you buckle down and try to figure out how you and your team can change these events?

In 2008, when companies were getting hit hard by the economy, our training and development business suffered. Training and development is often the first line item to get cut when a company is struggling. Admittedly, at first, we complained about the difficulties we were going through, but then, we rose above the fray and had a laser-like focus on building our client base in spite of the downturn. We could be victims, we could worry and complain, or we could figure out what to do about it. We stopped blaming all the forces trying to crush us, and we looked internally to what each of us could do to keep our business growing. We made it through 2008, and because of our grassroots efforts, we enjoyed a bright 2009.

Do You Own Results Through the Good and the Bad?

Do you have more of an internal or external locus of control? Admittedly, it’s more difficult to have an internal locus of control when you’re going through hardship. It’s especially hard to maintain an internal focus if you’re a Type A personality, and the individuals on your team aren’t performing well. It can be hard to own the results of their mistakes or poor performance. It’s their fault, right? There will always be some downright bad hires, and we aren’t saying you have to own their idiocy. Frequently, there is something you could have done better or differently. “It’s funny how often the problem is you,” asserts Captain Mike Abrashoff.⁷ Level 5 leaders would look internally and see what they could be doing better or differently to help the situation.

I recognize this is a significant change from being an individual contributor. Previously, you were responsible for your work and yourself for the most part. You felt like you had control over your performance. Now, you’re responsible for the work of an entire team, and there seems to be quite a few things out of your control. To bring this important idea to life, think through real-life work obstacles you have encountered and consider the internal and external forces affecting them. Specifically, think through five examples of mistakes, obstacles, or poor results that you have experienced lately. I’m not saying you should accept all blame for your employees’ mistakes. They, too, need to take ownership, but this exercise will give you a good awareness of your mindset. First, list the external forces that could have affected that situation, then list all of the reasons how you affected the situation (see the chart on the next page). The chart provides an example of an individual responsibility and a managerial responsibility.

Have you heard of Charles Coffin of GE, Bill Allen of Boeing, or Darwin Smith of Kimberly-Clark? Probably not. Jim Collins asserts they are Level 5 leaders and a few of the greatest CEOs of all time.⁸ They were driven yet humble. They weren’t afraid to hire people smarter than themselves, and they pursued success and glory for their teams and organizations—not themselves. That’s why their names may not be familiar to you. It was less about them, although their companies were wildly successful.

Mistake/Obstacle/Poor Results	External Forces	Internal Forces
Did not win a request for proposal	Potential client didn’t really know what he wanted; design team didn’t make final deliverable that eye-catching; potential client is obviously not very smart	I could have asked more questions up front to get at what the client really wanted; I should have set clearer and higher expectations with the design team; I didn’t effectively show why we are the absolute best company for the project
Your employee sent a sloppy report to the senior team	Your employee is an idiot; your employee is really stressed with work and personal matters; your senior team is too critical	I could take more time to show what high-quality work looks like; I should have had her read a couple of my past reports; I could have established check-ins; I could have shared details about the quality of work the senior team expects
1. Your example:
2. Your example:
3. Your example:
4. Your example
5. Your example:

As a manager, you will find that it is less and less about you. If you recall the way you were raised, it was all about you and your specialness. Now, as a manager, you have to take a step back from this mindset. Truly great leaders are not narcissistic; they are concerned with values and ideals greater than themselves. To “own” your management position, you must put your team members and the success of your team first. Lao Tzu offers, “As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence.… When the best leader’s work is done the people say, we did it ourselves!”

Before you became a manager, you were likely a star employee, so you were accustomed to receiving accolades and appreciation. Now you want to focus on making your team stand out. I know what you’re thinking, “So Brad, you’re telling me that when things go wrong, I need to step forward and take ownership, and when things go right, I need to step back and let my team take credit? Where is the fun in that?” The fun is in watching your team learn, grow, and excel. And, your boss knows. Your boss knows that if your team is high performing, it’s due to your leadership. As you are beginning to see, “owning it” might be a tough skill to master as a millennial manager. Throughout this chapter, you will gain tips and techniques for taking on leadership responsibilities and truly owning your management role.

There are a few elements to think about when it comes to owning your role as manager:

Failure is on the road to succeeding.

Do what you say you’re going to do.

Be your own CEO, and ask others to be their own CEOs.

Orchestrate success and ownership.

FAILURE IS ON THE ROAD TO SUCCEEDING

The sticky part about “owning” your role is that you will find that there isn’t always a “right answer.” Or, the best answer might not be the best answer three months down the road. For the most part, in school, there is a right answer and a wrong answer, but in the workplace, the answers can be far more nebulous. Real-world problems are complex, multifaceted, and ever changing. It can be difficult leading through a situation where the answers and elements are always transforming, but that’s what management requires. It requires flexibility to adapt and own the good and bad through the good and bad.

One thing I often hear from senior leaders is that millennial managers don’t seem to own a decision as a leader. From the perspective of Brian, a gen X employee, millennial managers struggle with owning that final decision and answer in part because they are searching for the right answer. Brian says you are all about collecting more and more data, working together, hearing opinions, and thinking it through.

The next step, which is deciding and owning it, is scary. Just knowing that there won’t always be a right answer puts you one step ahead. It actually makes you more agile and poised for success if you are working under the never-changing foundation that nothing will ever stay the same.

If there are no are right answers, then you’re bound to make a couple mistakes, right? You are such a high-achieving generation that you have a hard time seeing that mistakes are okay. Millennials didn’t want to earn an A- or a B, much less a failing grade. At work, failing is part of learning. Owning your mistakes and learning from them can be one of the most beneficial things you do as a leader.

A Look at Great Failures

Let’s look at all of the great people who experienced great failures. They include Thomas Edison, Michael Jordan, Colonel Sanders, and Oprah Winfrey. You may see people at the top of their game, and you think, now that is the perfect leader who did everything right. Thomas Edison is famous for “proving that those 10,000 ways will not work.”⁹ Michael Jordan “missed more than 9,000 shots … lost more than 300 games … and missed twenty-six game-winning shots.”¹⁰ Colonel Sanders was rejected from 1,000 restaurants before someone finally accepted his secret recipe, and it took numerous rejections before a television station took a risk on Oprah Winfrey.¹¹ It was not the absence of failure that made these leaders great; it was their reaction to the presence of failure and their resilience to the abundance of failure.

The executive vice president of a financial services firm, Marc, has a unique view on failure. He requires it. Marc requires his team members to have a failure because he says if they haven’t failed then they haven’t really pushed themselves or taken a risk. He tells his employees, “If you can look back over the last six months and you haven’t failed, then you haven’t been doing a great job—you haven’t challenged yourself or tried anything new. Go out and fail.”

Marc’s view on failure also gives his team the confidence and empowerment it needs; it releases that fear of messing up. There is a beautiful quote by Theodore Roosevelt that speaks to this idea of failing along the road toward greatness. Roosevelt said, “Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” The hundreds and thousands of millennial managers I have talked to all had an element of a bright will and optimism that would never want to settle for a “gray twilight.”

Exploring and making mistakes is good for learning. It’s like when Courtney was trying to learn the public transportation system when she moved to Chicago. She was at first perplexed by all the different-colored lines, the “el,” and the subway. It was so easy to go the wrong way around the loop. To speed up the learning curve, she bought an unlimited day pass, and she spent the whole day hopping on and off trains and buses. She got it! It just took a little exploration and going in the wrong direction a few times to understand.

As a manager, you will fail here and there. Own it, learn from it, and move ahead.

BEING YOUR OWN CEO

Leah Busque, the CEO of TaskRabbit, says, “I wake up every morning and think to myself, how far can I push the company forward in the next twenty-four hours?”¹² Leah owns her role and knows that her day-to-day actions have the power to move the company forward. Think about it this way—what if your team was a small business and you were the business owner? Although the term seems nebulous, “taking ownership” means acting like you’re the CEO of your job and your team. If you mess up or an employee messes up, at the end of the day, it’s your responsibility. What can you do in the next 24 hours to push your team forward?

The author of A Thousand Joys, Byron Katie, says, “Anything you want to ask a teacher, ask yourself, and wait for the answer in silence.”

Your generation grew up with everyone telling you that no question is a bad question. You also were encouraged to ask “why?,” and you were accustomed to receiving a real answer. You are comfortable with looking out for the answer. You can ask your parents, ask your boss, and ask your friends, and if you’re still not sure, you can just Google it. You’re not as comfortable looking within for the answer. Before asking or looking out, challenge yourself to look in and ask yourself.

Admittedly, it can be difficult to trust your decision making at the start. One thing that Courtney did to hone her decision making skills would be to guess what I would say or how I would answer questions in business meetings. Instead of being just a passive attendee at the meeting, Courtney was quizzing herself. She was formulating opinions and decisions in her head, and she was able to compare them side-by-side with my actual answers and decisions. As she stepped in a client relationship role, Courtney listened in on a lot of my calls. For example, a client asks us, “Can you customize your management workshop to include goal setting and motivating virtual employees?” Courtney thinks, yes, we can include goal setting in our first module, and we can customize the motivation section to encompass managing remote employees. Then she gets to hear me say, “Absolutely, we have a module on PUSH goals that fits nicely into our first section on laying out expectations. Then we wrap up the day talking about how to spark engagement and motivate employees, and we can give some tangible tips for working with employees who are remote in that portion. We could even write a role-play situation that covers this issue.” Courtney, thinks “yes!” She just passed a no-risk decision-making test. Taking ownership and making decisions go hand-in-hand.

Do What You Say You’re Going to Do

“Lead by example. There’s nothing more discouraging than the opposite: seeing your manager circumventing responsibilities and possessing low morale,” says Lin, millennial manager at a not-for-profit organization. As a leader, you have to own what you say. It’s extremely frustrating to employees when a leader says one thing and does another—or does nothing at all. “Hold yourself accountable for keeping your commitments. No one respects someone who doesn’t keep their word, no matter what excuse they give,” offers Garry Tackett, Global Director, Learning and Employee Services at CareerBuilder. “Even if you absolutely hate what you’re doing at the time, if you made a commitment—keep it. Learn from the experience and don’t make or accept that commitment again in the future.” Do what you say you’re going to do. Own your words and actions, and honor your commitments to be the CEO of your position.

ASKING OTHERS TO BE THEIR OWN CEOS

Now, if you’re taking ownership over the success—or duress—of your team, how do you make sure there is more success? You inspire your employees to take ownership as well. As you feel more comfortable being the CEO of your position, you can begin teaching your team members how to take ownership of their responsibilities as well. Teach them how to be CEOs of their positions. My favorite quote from Captain Mike Abrashoff is, “The key to being a successful skipper is to see the ship through the eyes of the crew. Only then can you find out what’s wrong and help the sailors empower themselves to fix it.”¹³ He didn’t say he would fix the problems for them; he would empower the sailors to fix it. It’s a notable difference.

When it comes to empowering your people, your Xer and boomer employees are craving ownership and autonomy. For millennials, you may have to teach them how to think on their own and not always look to you and others for answers.

For example, Courtney was giving creative and entrepreneurial projects to one of her direct reports. The employee would think about it and then come back with an idea—one idea. Courtney had to explain that with creative and new projects, resourcefulness and big thinking are required. In most creative exercises, the first idea isn’t always the best idea. It’s the idea that comes after rooting yourself in the information, brainstorming different ideas, and processing and analyzing the pros and cons of implementation. To get the employee to embrace the project fully and take ownership, Courtney gave specific ideas of how it would play out.

She said, “When thinking through a new business opportunity like this, you really want to immerse yourself in the material. This topic is new to you, so you may spend a few hours researching and learning more. Then when it comes to idea generation, you want to go a little wild. Think outside the box. You came to me with one idea that would work. Can you fill up an entire page or two with ideas? Challenge yourself, and have fun with it.” Walking through examples of what taking ownership looks like is helpful for millennials, and it’s incredibly empowering.

Having them take more ownership does mean that you have to let go of some of the control. You may be waiting until they can prove that they can take ownership and produce high-quality work, but often, if you let go a little and give that freedom, then they step up and take it.

You Step Back; They Step Up

For example, I was coaching an executive creative director (ECD) at an advertising agency who had a brilliant, creative mind. Before becoming the ECD in charge of the entire department, he served as a group creative director in charge of a team of six. Quite frankly, the team he managed wasn’t very strong, and he became very disappointed and frustrated. He would receive work that was absolutely not acceptable to give to the client, and he would have to enhance or fundamentally change it to bring it up to standards time and time again. Nothing left the agency without him having to put his stamp on it to make it the quality the client demanded.

Then he was promoted to ECD, and no one was brought in to replace him as direct manager of his former team of six. Spending more time with his new senior duties left his former team members on their own. He was no longer available to look at the work and improve the quality before it went to the client. He was petrified that left unattended his team would disappoint the client and ultimately lead to his agency losing the business. In actuality, just the opposite occurred.

Without him reviewing the work, it actually got better. He couldn’t figure out why at first, but then it sunk in: they finally felt a sense of ownership. When the creative team didn’t have the crutch of the creative director, the employees stepped up their game. Previously, they knew their work would just get changed and overhauled, so why put in the extra effort? At some point, when you know someone is going to go over everything you do with a fine-toothed comb, you just sort of give up. It took the creative director giving them more freedom to have them accept the ownership. It sounds counterintuitive. Often, when things aren’t going well, we have a tendency to tighten control. Sometimes, those are the times you need to loosen your control and allow your employees to step up.

It has been found that in countries where there are fewer traffic signals and signs, there often are fewer accidents. People must be alert and aware. They must show up to drive every day, or they just might not survive. In the United States, where you can have four instructional signs or traffic lights on one corner, there are a lot of accidents. You can almost drive on autopilot—from your house to work without even thinking. You don’t really have to bring your brain to the driving experience. In countries like India, there is more freedom on the road, which empowers drivers to take more ownership of their actions. With all of the outside rules and regulations in the United States, you’re not as alert because there are so many outside factors protecting you. You assume that others will follow the rules—stop at red lights, go pretty close to the speed limit, and yield the right of way. One way you could look at this is that Americans don’t have that much ownership in the driving experience and therefore leave the responsibilities to others. Everyone assumes everyone else is taking responsibility and a lot of accidents ensue. Those “defensive” drivers who take more ownership and are always alert skirt by with fewer incidents.

If we parlay that to work, it means that by giving more freedom and asking employees to take ownership, you create an environment where every day is “bring your brain to work” day.¹⁴ Employees who have the freedom to make their own decisions make better decisions because they are more alert and connected. They have more ownership.

Think about a couple companies that give their employees a big sense of autonomy and freedom to do their job. Zappos and Southwest Airlines come to mind. At Zappos, the customer service representatives are empowered to do whatever they need to do to make a customer happy. They don’t have to float their idea past two levels of bureaucracy and finally get back to the customer in five days. Right then and there on the phone, they can do what is in their power to wow their customers and “deliver happiness”—a Zappos motto and principle. They don’t follow a script; they simply ask questions and listen to the customer. This is just one of the many reasons that Zappos has outstanding customer service reviews. They train their employees on how to do their jobs, but then trust that they are smart and resourceful enough to work without a script. They give them this freedom, and Zappos is rewarded with amazing customer service.

Similarly, at Southwest Airlines, employees have the autonomy to do what they need to do to serve their customers. All employees are empowered and tied to the company values. For example, if pilots see the baggage handlers struggling to turn the gateway bags around quickly, they pitch in to help out. If cockpit employees recognize that a customer has a question and the flight attendant is helping someone else, they offer to help. People step up when they have autonomy, freedom, and ownership. As you are beginning to see, freedom and empowerment go hand in hand with ownership. Overabundant rules and regulations and micromanaging bosses can stifle creativity and solutions. Give autonomy and ownership to your team members, and trust that they have the skills and tools to do a great job. Just as you can take ownership in your management role, your employees can take ownership in their jobs. Everyone can bring their personality and strengths to their position and complete projects the best they see fit. Be the CEO of your position and empower your employees to do the same. Gregory Tall, Director of Human Capital Management at Robert Morris University Illinois, sums it up, “The best way to lead by example is to take total accountability for everything you do. If those you lead do that too, there is no limit to what you will accomplish.”

ORCHESTRATING SUCCESS AND OWNERSHIP

Say what? Orchestrate? Is this an “O” word I’m throwing in here to stick with our C-O-N-N-E-C-T theme? This idea of “orchestration” supports the theme of ownership because as you are learning “ownership” as a manager, you are helping your employees take ownership. It doesn’t mean take control of everything; it means leading and guiding your team toward success. You’re the conductor.

Let’s think about the conductor of an orchestra for a moment. The conductor knows all the cues, understands everyone’s parts, and leads the show. That’s you, the millennial manager.

Unifying Your Team

I will talk more about this point in Chapter 11, “Engage: Connecting to the Big Picture,” but as you grow into a leader, you will be the one who fosters engagement, keeps morale up, and rallies the team. Your millennial employees, in particular, want to be a part of a strong team. A millennial manager said, “If I’m spending eight to ten hours with someone every day, I want to get along with that person.” As the leader of the group, you are guiding the group and ensuring everyone is working together to accomplish great things. “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.”

To parallel this quotation by Babe Ruth, you can have the smartest, most creative person on your team, but if she’s aggressive and a poor team player, then the entire efforts and morale of your team will suffer. You will have ups and downs as a team, no doubt, but as the leader, you help unify the group through it all. You recognize that everyone brings different strengths to the table, and you can help your team members play to their strengths and complement other members of the team.

With a unified and strong team, employees feel more connected and take more ownership of their responsibilities. They know if they slack off, they let down their team. When talking about his millennial manager, Jorge said that his energetic manager was so supportive and engaging, that she made the entire team want to do a good job and want to go the extra mile. If you lead everyone to have a solid sense of teamwork, then they will be stronger individual players who take individual ownership to better serve their team.

Setting the Tempo

This is a really important part of being a millennial manager. You’re used to multitasking and working at a fast pace. People can get burned out by the workplaces and teams that operate under an “everything is urgent” mindset. I find that especially in client-serving industries, everything is urgent, go-go-go, and a fire drill! When you step into the office that has an “everything is urgent” culture, you can almost feel the tension, anxiety, and frenzy in the air.

In environments like this, when there are so many urgent matters that pop up, the important projects tend to slip through the cracks. You may be familiar with the 80:20 Principle. It’s the idea that 80 percent of what we do yields 20 percent of our results, and 20 percent of what we do yields 80 percent of our results. It all comes down to urgent versus important.

For instance, you receive thirty e-mails from your clients, and you spend the entire day rushing around, trying to find the information you need to address these urgent matters. You do this even though you were planning on making some quiet time to tackle and work through your important ideas for being more strategic with client partnerships. It’s a project that would impact the entire company. However, it’s not urgent, so it gets lost in the “everything is an emergency” atmosphere.

Teams are driving, pushing, working hard, and this breakneck tempo goes on and on and on. It’s not sustainable. At the Wisdom 2.0 conference, Stuart Crabb, Head of Learning at Facebook, talked about this idea of a sprint and the importance of taking pauses—breathers—at work.¹⁵ In a high-growth environments, such as Facebook, Crabb expresses, “Everyone needs to know the difference between sprinting and pausing.... It doesn’t resonate if you try to tell them [employees] that they’re running a marathon, not a sprint, because at this rate they’ll be sprinting for a while. What we can teach them is the value of the pause. They have to break up their sprint into sprints.”

If I sprinted a marathon, I most likely would die. However, I could sprint a marathon if I was able to insert some pauses. Okay, maybe I couldn’t, but Courtney absolutely could. Even at highly energized and stimulating workplaces like Facebook, the “sprint marathon” and piercing tempo of work is not sustainable.

Unifying the team and setting the tempo are ways that managers can regulate the environment to create an atmosphere where employees are more likely to take ownership. You can set the tempo by encouraging your employees to take breathers between sprints. If you’ve been hard-charging for a while, trying to hit deadlines and finish projects, and you feel the energy waning, take a break.

At JB Training Solutions, we take a Boggle break. When more mindless breaks are needed, we complete a small jigsaw puzzle or even color. The color break usually takes place when I’m out of the office, but my team promises it’s invigorating. Any time I return to the office and see colorful Crayola butterflies and pictures on the wall, I know my team has been working hard! After a short, 15-minute break, it’s amazing how refreshed you are when you get back to your desk. It’s that breather between sprints, the rest between sets in the gym when weightlifting, and the 15-minute power nap that gives you twice the energy.

The pause is a moment of mindfulness, a moment to allow the brain to relax and rejuvenate. It’s true that most great ideas come in the shower, while you’re running, or listening to music. Your brain needs the alpha waves of relaxation to shut down the logical left brain and allow the more creative right brain to have a chance to say hello. Creativity hates logic. Have you ever pressured yourself to try and think of something creative? It can’t happen. The pressure and tension suppresses the right side of the brain that thinks creatively. That’s why you always hear about the author who has writer’s block after writing her first best seller. “I have to write another best seller; this book has to be better than the last one.” This pressure shuts down the right brain and, therefore, creativity.

Encouraging your team to take pauses and monitoring the tempo of work allows everyone to center themselves, refresh, and be more productive. Nonstop sprinting pushes you toward burnout and an idea shortage.

Fortunately, your generation gets this idea. This is just another way that you’re shaking up the workforce. Although the science and results are there, older generations can get stuck in this mindset of “all work and no play.” As millennial managers, you can stand firm and lead the way that a little play or a few breaks at work is much more productive.

I find that older generations feel guilty about this break. “We’re at work to work, so I must be working every single second,” they seem to be saying. Your generation truly seems to embrace and get this way of thinking, and workplaces are listening. What are the “coolest places” to work equipped with? Most have fun spaces, so employees can take a break between sprints. At Google, employees zip around on scooters; at Red Frog Events, employees can have a conference meeting in the office tree house—just take the rope bridge there and the slide down. You can jam out to rock band at SilverTech in their “MTV Cribs Room,” or you can climb the rock wall at Clif Bar’s office.

Just 15 minutes of fun or relaxation to let your mind run free. More and more companies are realizing that it’s easier to be creative, open, happy, and productive in an environment that physically represents these ideas with bright colors, open spaces, and innovative designs. How inspiring are those gray cubicles and heavy, mahogany walls? They practically are saying be boring and follow all the rules. This change in workspace is just another way to show that people recognize that work is more than just a fast sprint or place where you go to earn a paycheck. It’s an inviting place with a dynamic tempo of go-getting high achievements and refreshing breathers.

As a millennial manager, help set this tempo. Constant high speeds will burn your team out, but on the flipside, a slow, long, arduous jog that goes on and on and on is just tiresome—especially for your millennial employees. Everything can’t be “now, now, now,” but everything can’t be laid-back and “we’ll get to it tomorrow.” Employees appreciate a little of both. As the leader, you help set the pace and tempo to provide an environment where people are most likely to take ownership of their work. Be in tune with your team so you know when they can handle more and when they need a breather.

Executing Clear Preparations and Beats, Listening Critically, and Shaping the Sound of the Ensemble

You are setting the bounds in which your team can play; you are creating a stimulating yet stable environment in which employees are likely to take ownership. As the leader, you’re always one step ahead. You are prepared. You know what’s coming up; you plan.

Then, there’s that “listen critically” cue again. Listening is not framed as a passive activity. Listening done right is aggressive and critical and analytical. It’s discovering what’s there, what’s not there, and what needs to be done. Listening critically gives you the information you need to act and “shape” the results of your team.

I was working with a global energy company, and one of its departments was struggling because the rest of the company saw its members as “the police,” who always said “no” to everything. The leader of the department listened to the comments from the company at large to pinpoint the best course of action. He set the stage for improvement by telling his people that “we need to be unfailingly self-critical.” He knew his department first needed to look internally to see what type of perception and message it was sending to other employees. The leader—conductor—listened critically and shaped the direction of his department on the road to improvement.

In the orchestra, it’s not about the conductor. Many people in the audience actually close their eyes, so all of their senses focus on the sound. The conductor, although in the front, takes a back seat to the power of his orchestra. It’s about the beautiful piece of music that is created. It’s about leading the way to empower your team to perform.

Take ownership of the success of your team by releasing a little control and giving your employees more responsibility. Trust and empower your people. You will make some mistakes along the way, and there won’t always be a “right” answer. Look internally to see how you can impact the people around you positively. Because as a millennial manager, it’s not about you. It’s not about you; it’s about them. It’s not about you doing it for them—that would never work. It’s about you owning the success of your team by leading, empowering, and guiding them toward greatness.