Eric Chester

Business training expert and speaker; Author,
Reviving Work Ethic: A Leader’s Guide to Ending Entitlement and Restoring Work Ethic

Perspective: All play and no work makes Jack irrelevant in the workplace. How to retrain America’s youth to
create work standards for themselves, and perform at their very best.

JOSH: With young adult unemployment at an all-time high, and many jobs previously open to youth now being filled by immigrants and older workers, what do you feel is the essential ingredient that will make young adults competitive again?

ERIC: The bad news is the employment lines are long. The good news is that it doesn’t take that much to stand head and shoulders above the crowd. Any young adult who exemplifies in-demand old school work ethic will rise to the top of any employer’s radar. However, work ethic isn’t something that you can put on like a suit, it’s the character you reveal during the application process and throughout your employment and career. Core work ethic values include continually being
• Reliable – showing up on time – or better yet, showing up 15 minutes early, and working your tail off through the end of your shift
• Professional – separating personal from work and dressing conservatively and well within the dress code, not using your phone or doing personal business during work periods, keeping your voice down and not using any foul language, etc.
• Honest – a dedication to tell the whole truth and never compromising. Never calling in sick when you aren’t, etc.
• Ambitious – this means doing more than what is asked of you. Going above and beyond the call of duty, making sure each assignment is completed to the very best of your ability.

JOSH: Is it as important to stress that young adults think outside the box to create their own job (in lawn care, for example, or in network marketing) as it is to train them on work ethic, due to the poor job market?

ERIC: Too many young people want to be their own boss thinking that’s the easy way to the top. It’s not. Before you can work for yourself, you need to prove yourself working for someone else. How can you lead others if you haven’t learned to follow? How can you coach a game you’ve never played? Many young adults get trapped into thinking they’re too good to flip burgers or cashier at the local drug store. But this is where they will learn the skills and develop the work ethic they need to excel. If they’re a star, they’ll rise quickly in any occupation. After they do, they’ll grow the confidence that it takes to start and succeed in a small business, and they’ll be unstoppable.

JOSH: How important is the use of humor in reaching and training young adults?

ERIC: Vital. But that doesn’t mean you have to be a comedienne. Humor is simply being able to look at things from a different perspective while not taking things so serious. In the beginning, you’ll find it’s easier to allow them to find the funny and simply go along with it than it is to try to be Seinfeld and end up bombing or being heckled.

JOSH: What are the most important three things to remember, when creating an effective communications strategy that reaches adolescents and young adults?

ERIC:

1. Don’t simply tell them what to do; explain the ‘why’. You aren’t going to penetrate the hearts and minds of today’s youth with a lot of orders and commands. They are desperately seeking rationale for what it is that you’re asking them to do or to not do.

2. Be Spock-like. The Star Trek charachter Spock couldn’t tell a lie if his life depended on it. This generation has been lied to, exploited, and manipulated so much they don’t know what to believe. You don’t have to tell them everything, but everything you tell them must be 100% true. Be the Spock in their life, someone they can trust to give them the absolute truth in any situation.

3. Use the power of story. Good stories teach and transform. They hold attention. It doesn’t always have to be your story, as in, “I remember back to when I was your age…” but once in a while, that’s a good path to take. Use stories as a teaching tool, and occasionally, let them be the storyteller. “Tell me about a time when you received awesome customer service.” “Tell me about a time when someone was late and really ruined your plans.”

Eric Chester is an award winning leadership speaker and the author of Reviving Work Ethic – A Leader’s Guide to Ending Entitlement and Restoring Pride in the Emerging Workforce. He can be reached through www.RevivingWorkEthic.com or at 303-239-9999.