From jazz ensembles to barbershop quartets the sound of four-part harmony attracts our rapt attention.

How?

The musicians are each committed to their place, part, and presence. They are aware that if one of them drops out, it impacts the others. The clarity of each instrument reflects both the individual and the collective impact. As they interweave the notes and lean into the next note simultaneously, we are transported. We move right along with them. When they dance to a discordant sound for a moment or more, we feel the tension and anticipation. When the notes resolve at the end of the phrase or song there’s a sense of relief, wonder, and even satisfaction.

• This very dynamic is happening in our workplace right now. Gen Z has just entered the workforce in more significant numbers (by 2025 will be 27% of the workforce). What they're noticing and reacting to are too many discordant notes that have yet to resolve. In a recent blog by the Future of Work Author, Ryan Jenkins Gen Z has an increased desire for Work-Life Harmony. According to Gallup's research “nearly 3 in 10 millennials are very often or always burned out at work.” At least 7 in 10 have experienced some burnout.
• Lack of harmony and health in the workplace contributes to employees calling in sick and they are 3X more likely to quit.
• “Helping Generation Z strike the appropriate harmony between work and life will be critical.”

Leaders and coaches, it’s time to explore three key ways to create harmony in your workplace, and spoiler alert—those harmonious creations impact the home front, too.

Skill Development

Remember that Gen Z had their education completely interrupted by a long quarantine. That means they didn't have teachers and coaches. So instead of having a two-day or a week or a quarter to onboard your gen Z people, think about a longer program (perhaps 120 days or even a yearlong program) that has training, mentorship, and sequential leadership programs. While this will help your younger generation employees and new recruits, it will help all generations as you up to your game and make skill development a key portion of your onboarding.

Leaders, your manager's KPIs, and incentives can include intergenerational relationship development. Replace disparaging or adverse remarks or impressions of the younger generation with the inviteCHANGE Generative Wholeness principle of perceiving and accepting everyone, starting with you, as Whole, Resourceful, Capable and Creative(WRCC). This will affect teaming in an authentic and positive manner.

One quick tip from the Harvard Business Review that I loved is to have the younger generation work with senior employees on their tech skills and social media. Our CEO Janet M. Harvey works with our marketing team to learn how to navigate LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and it gives Janet great delight when she gets it. In turn, our team feels confident and more contributory as they bring what they know to the workplace and see that it contributes and has merit.

Stress Management

Long before Gen Z, we had stress in our workplace. It costs American businesses over 500 billion a year in absenteeism, loss of productivity, and apathy. Gen Z is simply bringing an intolerance of unwarranted stress because their whole life has been filled the transition stress of a paradigm shift. They have been connected to the worldwide web since they were walking. They have been marketed to, overwhelmed by media and global connection. They love the access and variety but are overwhelmed by it, too. What can you do as a leader to support navigating the challenges of a post-pandemic workplace?

• Designate and create a “Wellness Room”. Organizations with a passion for wellness are designing rooms that encourage napping, meditation, aromatherapy, deep breathing, yoga, massage, etc.
• Look into consoles or apps for all employees that support decompression, destressing, and taking the time needed for emotional management.

These accommodations help all of your employees. The irony that we have is that stress and the consequences have been around for decades. The demand for workplace harmony provides the impetus to change and transform the marketplace.

Here’s my bias showing--my favorite stress management tool is right out of Harvard Business Review -- Coaching.

• Coaching supports younger employees' introduction to self-awareness in the workplace, builds confidence, relieves anxiety from “the Imposter Syndrome”, and cultivates their authentic leadership.

Emotional Intelligence

• Because this generation has been tested not by a moment, not by an incident but by a collection of losses, they have a different experience of Emotional Intelligence than prior generations. Research shows that leaders need emotional intelligence to self-manage their emotions. E.I. supports the practice of a broader perspective of the challenge of work itself and the teams that they lead. It improves their agility to step up and see things with greater clarity.
• Providing emotional intelligence either through a specific program or through a coaching engagement is a great way to support your Gen Z for the future and benefit your company. We know from two decades of research that coaching cultures outperform non-coaching cultures by more than two times. That out-performing is not from over-striving and working unsustainably. It’s from deep listening to what intrinsically motivates the people on your teams, building meaningful and reciprocal relationships from employee to customer, and providing the space for the potential to be realized and their contribution to reflect an authentic connection to the enterprise's purpose.
• Members of Gen Z missed out on many rites of passage during Covid-19 that help to develop students before them. They missed out on key rituals like proms and graduations and audiences for theatre and arts, along with athletic events and the “roar of the crowd” encouraging them. Many of these things we took for granted did not happen for them. These events and societal rituals developed us and helped us learn how to team and struggle at times and triumph at others. Missing these benchmarks and opportunities need to be recognized and addressed.
• Providing the current and evolving tools from Emotional Intelligence (i.e. Positive Intelligence) throughout the career of your Gen Z leaders will provide dividends for them and for the organization. Providing coaching for all generations on your teams recognizes resiliency, resourcefulness, and generativity as the foundation of your sustainable excellence.
• As the younger generations lead from a place of perspective, awareness, dignity, and humanity, perhaps we will not just be at work better than before ------we can be at work better than we've ever been.

With Mother’s Day this Sunday, I asked some of our team about their special ways of being with their children over the years and what has worked that they would share with us. Here are their gifts to us:

Sarah Graves, PCC - has a senior in high school, Joseph Hale Fa’aleava, a rapper and a TKD Black Belt. Her daughter, Lele, is 25 and lives in PDX, employed and contemplating creative opportunities:

• Keep my sense of humor. Really, I mean it.
• Don’t be overly attached as things could change in a nanosecond.
• Cook ahead. Sundays are great for making mega, meaty meals that last through Wednesday and sometimes Thursday. It makes having a healthy dinner together easy and accessible after a full day.
• Any chance to drive to school or work, be grateful. It provides real conversation and that’s a treasure.
• Linger at the kitchen table during the late evening when the senses wake up fully and folks are more talkative. The deepest conversations arise from this space.

Katherine Gilliland, PCC:

• One of the things I love about coaching is the flexibility… I can block out my calendar to be
  available for my child on key days or at key points in the day.
• We also have a routine for dinner together whenever possible – that’s the one time of day when we know we can connect. Someone just told me yesterday to ask questions towards the end of the meal (after food has started to hit the system!) – better chance at getting a lengthier response.
• Also, I find (with a teenager) car time is golden – we have some of our best conversations in the car (possibly because we’re not looking at each other, ha)!

Sharmin Banu, PCC, - mother to a current NYU student:

• Focus on what brings you joy, as that’s what your kids learn from you. Not how perfect
  you are in attending their every sports activity.
• Quality beats quantity.
  

Paige Christian - tips while working from home and managing a 9-year-old learning from home:

• Keep the same morning routine you had when going into the office - getting up and ready helps start your day and gets accomplishments flowing while showing your kids routine (and hygiene) is important even if you have nowhere to physically go.
• Block a recurring time to eat.
• Be active/play every day outside if possible.
• Have a start/stop time and stick to it.
• Create a boundary with work around those times.
• Have your own physical space to work (sometimes you can work with the TV on and kids running around and sometimes you need QUIET).

Erin Moncada, mother of Alma, 4 years old, star of Facebook and Zoom:

• Have a lock on your door.
• Make time for yourself.
• Ask for time/boundaries from any other supporting adults in your house, if you have them.
• Make time for breaks in the day to spend time with kids, even if it’s 5-10 minutes after lunch.

Laurie Johnson, PCC - As a Grandmother of three children, ages 2, 6, and 15, Laurie is sometimes asked if she can help when the little ones are sick or off of school. At these times, she remembers her own Grandmother's way of being with her. Everything stopped when she was with her and it was just about them together, making memories. These days, when called upon to support the grandchildren, she can connect in the same ways, with some negotiation.

• A Yes to stay with them can only happen if my clients also have priority if already scheduled.
• Confidentiality is paramount, therefore, I do not coach or listen to meetings unless they are napping and I still use headphones.
• I negotiate with the older ones when we will do what and where we will do it.
• For the toddler, I make sure there are lots of books and things to color. Sometimes, we go outside for him to play, and I bring the iPad to check mail, etc. periodically. And yes, sometimes Cocomelon and Disney movies are featured with a bowl of popcorn or other snacks. I'm not sure it's realistic to think you can balance it all without a bit of other entertainment. Don't beat yourself up about it - decide how much and when so that it works for all of you.
• I do think it's important to show them what it's like to be a business owner, so they are able to sit at the desk with me, ask questions and learn aspects of Entrepreneurship. They enjoy the days they get to come into my office and pretend they are working as well. They love office supplies, so I have a box of extra things just for them. And they are now experts at being on Zoom, as we did Family Time during the lockdown. They have pretty great Zoom etiquette, which works for informal meetings where this can work.

Want more tips on achieving harmony? Check out this YouTube video!