Talking Bout My Generation

In a recent interview I was asked what I consider the challenges of managing a team of Gen Y’s.

When I was recruiting for a team a few years ago, I interviewed a young girl who I thought was absolutely perfect for the role. While she may have been lacking in life experience, she had a good handle on the organisation, what the role was about and would have been a great cultural fit for the team. I really liked her, but my colleague from London was concerned that she needed more “life” experience. As a 20year old, the opportunities for life experience are fairly limited so I wrote a six month development plan for her. My colleague again dismissed that this would allow her enough experience or emotional IQ to be suitable for the role and suggested I set a 1-2year plan. When I explained that as a Gen Y, the candidate would probably not be thinking beyond 6 months,  my colleague had no idea what I was talking about and needed to look up the meaning of Gen Y. Thankfully Wiki had enough entries on the subject to enlighten her. Sadly, we lost the opportunity to employ the candidate who then went to work for the competitor. I believe she is still there in a more senior role, kicking goals and loving life.

I am surrounded by Gen Y’s and I love it. My daughter is a Gen Y, her friends are Gen Y, and I get the fortune of working with a lot of Gen Y’s.

My observation of working with this group of people are that they are fast moving, intelligent, altruistic, have a strong sense of self and their place in the world, they are confident, intelligent, interesting and most importantly – they don’t compromise their standards. These are skills I value in anyone, regardless of generation.

I work with a couple of young girls at the moment who are intelligent, caring and seriously funny women. I enjoy listening to their views on various issues we face at work and just love that they feel empowered enough to “talk up” with confidence and a maturity I never enjoyed at that age. I don’t manage them, they are colleagues and I love that I can respect them because of who they are and not judge them because of the time they were born. And more importantly, its mutual.

So if I had to really think about the challenge of managing a team of Gen Y’s – it would be keeping up with them.

Holy Holidays

A trip to the Vatican city for one young family turned into every parents nightmare when their little girl become extremely ill. Imagine for a minute what it would be like to be travelling around Europe on a trip of a lifetime with your young family to discover that your 3 year old daughter had leukemia. Now imagine that not only were you very far from home, but also that getting home for treatment was near to impossible.

I came across this case a few years ago running a team of emergency assistance specialists in Australia and this was complex for a number of reasons.

The young patient was fortunate enough to be in a centre of medical excellence with a reciprocal health agreement, meaning that the medical expenses were almost covered by the healthcare system. But the language was an issue and the family were finding it difficulty to navigate through the system. The patient had been given a treatment plan with a view for a window of opportunity to move in the near future, and this was the time that we needed to start planning for.

It also happened to be at a time when the Australian Prime Minister was in the Vatican City for the G8 summit. This was both a blessing and a curse - a blessing because it meant we could leverage assistance from the prime ministers office and a curse because it gave the family unreasonable expectations.

And finally it was also the time that H1N1 was globally infecting those with low immune systems - which meant transit airports and large commercial carriers were a great risk to the patient.

Without understanding the logistics and with a moment of fame, the father of the young girl requested a private jet to fly his family home in as soon as his daughter was well enough. He was becoming anxious and angry at what he considered a lack of assistance by us and his insurance company and he sincerely thought a private air charter would be the best thing for his daughter.

We all knew this was an impossibility and an unreasonable request, but it needed to be handled delicately and with the deep respect to the father that he deserved. A long range private air ambulance is cramped with equipment and space for only one accompanying passenger, and even more unrealistic  considering the countries they would be flying over. Should the patient become ill on the plane and be forced to divert, she may have to land in a country that had sub standard health care and deteriorate further. A jet is also not very comfortable (unless you're talking gulf stream) - and it's extremely expensive. Our desired outcome was she be brought home for treatment and our medical recommendation to their insurance company was that we were against the passage via private jet on medical grounds. We simply didnt believe it was in the best interest of the patient.

The emotions are always high when a child is involved, and with publicity around the story because of the Prime Ministers involvement, the case was becoming more and more complicated by the hour.

As soon as we were advised of the dates she could travel, we set our plan in motion and found a Australian paediatric oncologist who happened to be living in Europe to assess the patient and prepare her for travel. He would also be flying home with her to take care of any medical need during the flight.

We used the publicity to our advantage in finding a solution. The insurance company were willing to pay for business class seats for the family and escort doctor to return home together in, and we managed to book all transit airports VIP rooms away from other passengers who may have been in contact with the H1N1 virus. The cost to the insurance company was close to $100,000AUD which they were more than happy to pay out. The Prime Ministers office become our allies and assisted us with a special customs team and consular official at each point - and together we all met the patient and her family on arrival in Sydney.

An ambulance awaited the patient outside the gates, and a hire car ensured the rest of the family travelled to the hospital together for ongoing treatment. I spoke to the dad a few days later who was extremely grateful of the assistance and very relieved to be home, and I have since learnt that the patient is in full remission and living a healthy happy Australian childhood.

These were the stories of my job that kept me going; ending my day knowing how much I had contributed positively to another persons life was the most satisfying job in the world.