Millennials and Simon Sinek

Talk of Millennials is aplenty especially amongst the community of middle aged communication people of which I am an admitted member. Knowing how to connect and communicate with people outside your own generation has become a key issue largely as time is passing and Millennials become a larger and more important group in society.

So apart from the fact that categorising a group of people in society as different, only due to their age group, is sometimes regarded as being prejudiced (can you be a millennialist?), I wanted to share some insight which helped me to understand how millennials differ, at least to my own generation (Gen X). 

Back in early November in London, with my colleague Frazer Chesterman, we attended a Simon Sinek lecture in London as part of his tour to promote his latest book ‘Together is better’. I will freely admit that I am a Simon Sinek fan and read his books, blogs, and like his message. The theme of ‘Together is better’ is all about effective leadership, communication, and collaboration. In the book, he suggests that by working together as opposed to in isolation, we are better equipping ourselves for sustained success. It sounds somewhat obvious, however in this increasingly individualistic world in which we live in, this is something well worthy of attention and it was an inspiring, entertaining and informative talk.

After he had finished his talk, he was asked a really good question from one of the delegates about millennials. The question was asked by a young business owner about employing younger people within the business. Simply put, the owner was struggling as to why the people she had recruited almost immediately wanted large projects and that when this did not transpire quickly (largely due to lack of experience) - they lost interest and left the business.

His answer became a detailed outline of what he views as the key differences between millennials, the baby boomers, and gen-x generations, and given how interesting and helpful I found it, I felt compelled to write it down and share. Please note the following is not his exact words verbatim, but my interpretation of his words.

Firstly ‘What are Millennials’?

Millennials is the term given to the generation who were born on or after 1983. They are pre-dated by Generation X, (1963-1982) and the Baby Boomers (1945-1962).

To find our more about the generations click here https://socialmarketing.org/archives/generations-xy-z-and-the-others/

Firstly, in explaining the difference with millennials, Sinek highlighted that he felt with this generation there had been a change in parenting style and all of the content below is based upon what Sinek said, abut not his exact words...

Parenting

The millennials are the first generation of kids that have been brought up believing that they're special. Parents intervene in their education far more than previous generations who preferred to remain at a more respectful distance, deferring to the authority of education. These kids who have more invested in them than in previous generations. So they do well at school and they graduate, and then they head out into the ‘real world’. Unfortunately, they then realise that they are not necessarily super special and their parents discover that they cannot get them a job, nor can they intervene when something goes awry with their career. And this presents a big challenge to the millennial.

Millennials do seem more naturally confident than my own generation. However, despite this outward confidence, Sinek suggests that Millennials have a lower base level of self-esteem than earlier generations. This is a problem. Social media fixation compounds this as it affords them the ability to project an image which is not necessarily who they actually are. They may seem together, empowered and tough, however, they lack the social skills and experience whilst having a puzzling ability to mask this insecurity.

Technology

Sinek explained that this generation has an over addiction with smart technology and social media. Social media itself has become the main barometer that measures their social standing. Many of them define their self-worth depending on the amount of followers and engagement they achieve from social media. The release of dopamine from posting something and people responding positively to you is addictive and it becomes a thing that governs self-perception and to some extent, our self-worth and millennials simply depend on this too much.

The reason that millennials connect with social media so much is that they crave the approval from their peers. This is particularly the case when they are going through stressful times of change. These constant hits of dopamine, Sinek suggests, is as addictive as alcohol or nicotine and he asserts that there should be age restrictions placed on this technology, just like there is with alcohol, as it is equally damaging. The chemicals triggered are exactly the same. This propagates low self-confidence as millennials may not develop tangible coping mechanisms with stress as they use smart technology like some sort of coping ‘crutch’ to get them through difficult times.

Impatience

Millennials can gain instant gratification for pretty much anything through digital media. However, to use the word ‘entitled’ to describe millennials, he suggests is unfair. This impatience is systemic as opposed to ‘entitled’. If things do not easily work out for them immediately, they will become frustrated.

In the context of a project, when at the start they can see the summit or goal, due to this impatience, they want to short cut to get to the top without doing all of the work. They don’t seem to want to put in the graft and don’t see the value of small steps, instead wanting to make giant leaps, again due to this impatient need for results and success. Dopamine.

Sinek placed the responsibility onto earlier generations by saying that people who manage or lead millennials are also impatient and don’t have the empathy to understand them properly. This is because they define millennials as ‘flabbergasting’ and as a result he suggests, Millennials have been dealt a poor hand all round. Understanding what makes them different and then helping them to play to their strengths is the right method.

Environment

Lastly, he says we need to do more to include, support and encourage millennials and companies must take more responsibility these days to help with coping mechanisms to learn the skills they have not learned in their formative years. Employers are not doing this properly largely because they didn't think they had to. Some of the things we can do is really just about simple communication.

Trust is born out of daily interaction. We don’t have to suddenly behave the polar opposite of how we are currently as consistency as opposed to intensity really gets things done.

Think of health and fitness. It's the weekly commitment that makes the difference, not the odd ten-mile run that merely serves to shock your body and injure you.

If we all did this, it would make a big difference.

Anyhow, all of this really helped me to understand just how wrong I may have been about people outside of my own age group. This may also help me think about my growing children as they enter teenage years and why they respond the way they do to things.

So What?

I think that rather than despairing and harrumphing at what this means for you, and that you simply don’t understand them, and would rather Millennials worked in the same way we all do, it is worth thinking differently. It demands emotional intelligence to be able to communicate with diverse groups. But adapting our approach is worthwhile. It may sound obvious, but all people are different and their motivations are different. They may not respond to traditional incentives, they will need convincing in order to believe in what they do. But their abilities will add value to the mix of people and abilities within a team group. No question. However thinking positively about this segment, moving expectations will likely get us the results we all need, and our people making the optimal contribution whilst feeling fulfilled.

Check out Simon Sinek speaking here about Millennials: https://youtu.be/hER0Qp6QJNU