Truth tellers needed to meet future challenges

I think we’ve turned a corner and I couldn’t be happier. It’s been a long time coming, but the days of walking on eggshells to appease snowflakes, Millies, and other entitled employees could soon be ending. The timing couldn’t be better because, if we’re planning to compete for the future on a global scale, we have to get back to seriously taking care of business in this country.

China and India are raising and training millions of serious, ambitious, diligent, and brutally hard-working individuals who are grateful for the opportunities finally afforded to them, willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead, and ready for the commitment, sweat and effort required for them to achieve their dreams. They’re not ashamed or apologetic about competing aggressively with their peers, wanting to make a difference for themselves and their families, and working ceaselessly toward those ends rather than wishing or waiting for them to magically appear.

Meanwhile, here at home, we’re raising millions of precious little flowers who need to be accepted and appreciated for what little they’ve achieved rather than expected and challenged to reach for better and bigger things. They’re fixated on trivialities and trumped-up traumas and concerns while the rest of the world rushes by them. They want to bring their whole selves to work, but they’re not that excited about actually working once they get there. They’ve been taught that they’ve clearly got more important things to do and other places to be.

I’m confident we’ve reached the point where telling it like it is—outside of their soon-to-be burst bubbles—is the best service we can do for our kids and our younger employees and, not incidentally, for our businesses as well. The pendulum is hopefully turning back toward frankness, painful honesty, daily doses of reality, and actual authenticity which can only help us all.

We need to give our current employees and newest grads a simple message about work: You don’t have to like it; you just have to do it. In a world of special cases, a million exceptions, tender sensibilities, and helicopter parents, this message has the special charm of being a “one size fits all” solution. Sit down, shut up, and suck it up. When you come to work, be prepared, be honest, and be on time. Leave your angst, your affirmations, and your anxieties at home.

You can hope to be anything, but in the end, you can only be yourself. If you’re true to yourself you’ll discover that’s the best you can be for everyone else as well.

Howard Tullman is a Chicago Star board member and G2T3V general managing partner.