Leading the Millennial Organisation. 5 Tips

As a founder of Captive Media, and before that of Captive Strategic Leadership, the consultancy, I've spent much of the last decade researching millennial mindsets and how they relate to media.  (Captive Media engages over 50,000 millennials each week through its interactive screen network, often polling them on behalf of brands).  But millennials now make up over half the corporate workforce, changing the very nature of what corporations are, and the management styles needed to lead them.   I was recently asked what insights this research offers for leaders more broadly.  So here, without further ado, are five observations or tips for leaders from my experience.

1. Embody the purpose

Millennials are attuned to purpose in organisations.  EIU research this week on behalf of HSBC finds that "87% of millennials believe that business success should be measured by more than just financial performance, and 93% believe that social impact is key."  They will even sacrifice wages for heightened purpose.   Some leaders shrug that this indulgent hipster nonsense: all very well for NASA or charities, but if your business is gritty industrial intermediates, profit IS the purpose.    This is lazy.  Disney famously restated its purpose as "to make people happy".  The chief executive of The Pension Service, a once-dowdy UK government payment processing organisation, articualted an inspiring and moving "dream story" around helping pensioners cope with dignity in their advancing years. Even Dutch dairy group Friesland Campina manages gamely to convey excitement in its vision around "exploring the possibilities of milk"!   Among senior teams I have worked with, it is striking how often a few hours spent away from the office thinking imaginatively about purpose, help leaders find something fresh and motivating to share.   

2. Be a player manager

You know... like Bryan Robson at Middlesbrough, or Gianluca Vialli at Chelsea: able both to lead - and to play.   Ten years ago when I was senior in a US consulting firm, my secretary (remember those?) said gleefully to me; "Mark, do you know how I knew you were ready to become a Principal (of the firm)? Because you've become completely helpless!"  She was referring to my reliance on her, the juniors and the various other support teams around me in a large organisation.  Nothing could be further from the mark today.  Over the last five years,  while hiring into a start-up organisation, we realise just how much we seek leaders with self reliance, and a willingness to role up sleeves with the troops.    Even large organisations are now flatter, and personal productivity tools, ranging from Keynote to Zoom to Google calendar mean that the modern leader needs to be more tech savvy and operate with less support. 

3. Don't command, network.

Organisation structures are changing, and increasingly looking less like pyramids than networks.  Leaders need personal styles which are more engaging - if perhaps less commanding.    They need to be thought leaders,  but the style of influence - both upwards to boards and downwards (outwards?) to the organisation - is one of co-opting to the purpose at hand.  George Davis, of Egon Zehnder's CEO practice says bluntly, "The command-and-control CEO is a dinosaur. Its now much now about the Servant Leader".   This even manifests physically, with the corner offices disappearing in favour of open plan layouts in organisations ranging from Citigroup to the BBC.   Leaders need to be approachable and widely, not just vertically, connected.  Moreover, business casual has informalised the tone of many office environments. Leaders need to be  empathetic and relatable.   Diverse experience and interesting personal stories are more valuable attributes than by-the-numbers corporate careers.

4. Embrace the new communications style.

Leaders need to recognise that Millennials communicate differently.  And I don't mean a predilection to Snapchat.  Millennials' expected style of management is more open to dialogue, thanks to their greater ease with the flow of information and ideas.   Transparency in process and decision making assumes heightened importance.    Tools do matter; millennials  are comfortable with a far wider set of comms channels than ever before. Blogs, wikis, tweets, and instant message platforms all become legitimate tools in the workplace.  It was probably around 12 years ago that a friend from Google first said to me: "email is basically for old people", and in Captive Media, we eliminated its use for internal comms.   But it is the openness and flow - not the tech - which is the key shift.   A particular example is feedback and appraisal, where Millennials are more likely to welcome swift feedback than the previous generation.  Leaders should place more emphasis on feedback in the moment and less on cumbersome annual appraisal processes. 

5. Think differently about talent development

91 percent of Millennials anticipate staying in a particular job for less than three years, according to Recruitifi.    Millennials are often derided as a self interested and entitled generation.  But this is to mis-understand them.  They are not without loyalty. Rather the object of loyalty is less the organisation, and more the network, (and individuals in it) whether within or beyond the walls of the organisation.   This presents near-term challenges for people and talent developers, who may rightly worry about investment walking out of the door.   Forbes recently fretted, "Employee tenure is shrinking: what do we do?".    Leaders need firstly to NOT PANIC.  While it's much written about, the actual effect may be over stated.  US Bureau of Labour Statistics figures actually show average tenure rising slightly in the decade to 2014.   Secondly, take the long view. Personal loyalty and relationships are alive, well, and more likely than ever to be sustained even across organisational boundaries.  

So times are changing.   Some 80% of next-generation business leaders say their leadership style will be different from that of their forebears, according to a 2016 Deloitte study.  These have been five, I hope, helpful suggestions as to how.