The Foreign Service Journal, October 2012

44 OCTOBER 2012 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Strengthening mentoring programs can go far to bridge the generational gap. FOCUS THE NEW FS GENERATION learn, while newcomers want to learn, be heard, participate and contribute from their first day. Rah-rah recruiting pitches and encouraging presentations from senior State Department officials to A-100 and new specialist orientation classes all too often inadvertently mislead our new colleagues as to the realities of the Foreign Service. Diverging expectations can lead to conflict in the office, as well. A new consular officer likely wants to hear she did an exceptional job for interviewing 120 visa applicants in one morning, whereas a veteran consul might dismiss this as just an average day, nothing special. A new engineering security spe- cialist wants to stay late to devise a new technical solution, but his veteran supervisor might say, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. No one will thank you. Go home!” The flip side is the veteran political officer who stays late to polish a subordinate’s reporting message, while the “newbie” colleague is anxious to enjoy the local social scene to make con- nections. That same entry-level political officer not only wants to know what happened at country team, but thinks she should attend regularly. Her boss thinks she’s out of line, and fails to share what went on at the meeting. To bridge this generational gulf, here are some ideas that have worked for both of us. What Younger Employees Want Attention. More than anything else, younger employees crave feedback from above. They want their work recognized and praised, for they have recently left an educational system geared to boosting their own self-esteem and shielded from negative comment. Yet they truly want their work criticized, too, as their parents and teachers have done—but constructively. It’s a recipe for frustration when supervisors treat subordinates’ work as merely routine and unworthy of commentary. One technique for bridging this gap is “small victories,” which come in two varieties. Managers can periodically give verbal or written kudos, invite subordinates to lunch, and offer ego-sus-