Our paths to the outside world are many.

I just read a great post on Dealer Refresh about “Your Future Manager.” Here’s a quick excerpt:

Your future manager is a multi-tasking fiend. She or he will embrace every form of social media and communicate with staff by email or instant messenger. Technology use will be first and foremost on his or her mind, with an understanding that it doesn’t always work perfectly, but incorporating technology into processes is crucial. They will demand it!

It goes on to discuss how the younger generation (about age 30 and younger) has been bred into a multimedia cauldron – you may remember how “multimedia” was such a buzzword in the 90’s.  Now it’s just a fact of life.  Those of us from the “Connectedness Generation” are a breed apart from the past… the information age has infected us to a much greater degree.

Alex Snyder, the author of the article, describes his siblings and cousins and how all of them live lives wired (and now wireless) in so many different ways. It’s an experience that matches my own – as I type, I’m listening to the podcast of last night’s episode of Pardon the Interruption, keeping an eye on my Twitter and Facebook feeds on TweetDeck, and downloading last week’s episode of Lost, which I missed because it conflicts with two other shows I record on my DVR – Lie to Me and Mythbusters.

By my count, there are nine items in my house that are connected to the Internet, and that’s just for me – the dog is only seven months old and hasn’t figured out the Internet yet. And the truth is, to a large degree, Alex Snyder is exactly right. We should be looking for people with a talent and comfort level that makes them able to learn and adapt to new technologies and technological habits as they emerge.

The key is – and the first commenter on his article brought this up – is that many of the people who have this skill use it purely as a means of gratification and distraction. It’s a very, very fine line to walk, because what may look like unproductive behavior in one person may just be part of the creative process for another. Making judgements about someone’s level of productivity based solely on how “connected” they are compared to you is a slippery slope and can alternately lead to a group of people who are all unproductive or all unimaginative and out of touch.

On the other hand, as employees, these younger folks have to handle the distractions out there with aplomb. Yes, I have other things going on in the background and manage to remain productive, but I am smart enough to know that if I really need to concentrate (and it is against human nature to be fully engaged on a constant basis), items of distraction need to be muted or unplugged.

How do we test for these things when hiring? The interview is an inexact tool for gauging the work habits of a potential employee. And it’s easy for someone to sit in front of a computer and look busy while they’re not really doing anything productive.

It’s a fine distinction, but an important one – the difference between leading a horse to water and shooting him with the firehose.

My answer? Results. Managers, most often the folks who are most intimidated by this technology, need to take control of the process and demand real results. In my work with car dealers, they are often inclined to draw a direct line to sales when I say this, but it’s not that simple. Your management team needs to determine real performance metrics and goals on a daily, weekly and monthly basis that lead to sales. It’s a fine distinction, but an important one – the difference between leading a horse to water and shooting him with the firehose.

The problem, though, is that many managers are uncomfortable with technology and don’t know the capabilities of what they have in their arsenal, so they don’t know what to ask of their people. Too many just want to have someone to “handle it” for them.

So, when we think about hiring, think about this: a good manager (or consultant), will have a plan for how to utilize the items in his toolkit to motivate and maintain productivity from his staff, while providing relevant and timely reporting of his department’s results to his bosses. It should involve technology, to be certain, but a good manager will make those technological tactics serve the business, not drive it.