Talking ‘Bout My Generation: These 5 Questions Define How to Manage a Millennial

Rewind around twelve years, I remember sitting in a friend’s house on a quiet Monday morning: fifteen years old and bright eyed, I was admiring his parents as they prepared for their working day – suits, ties, breakfast round the table, the bucolic routine of a bygone era.

But a typical scene back then, as breadwinners headed out to jobs they’d spent twenty years perfecting; their bid to get the mortgage paid off in time for retirement. Then, perhaps a non-exec role to keep the wolf from the door – but there was always the prospect of a healthy pension.

Fast forward to today; I’m sitting with the same friend.

Idle chat glides through side projects and start-ups, childhood memories to upcoming adventures – but one thing is obvious: it’s unlikely we’re going to be sitting with kids at the breakfast table any time soon. Even less likely we’ll be talking about a job we’ve been in for twenty years when we finally do.

For times have changed. Employment has veered towards diversity of experience rather than a single-track career. A life with less stability but swathes of excitement; a technology-driven world intertwining values with experience, work with play.

But, while I feel our generation has recognised the shift, employers need to wake up to 2018.

The Cost of Menial Work

Accusations often fly that Millennials are lazy, that we’re unwilling to put in the yards to earn our retirement – but this seems somewhat unfair.

Work is now so entangled with what people stand for, we just ask that what we work on also allows for personal growth, leveraging existing and growing new skills while recognising expectations.

If this causes us to job-hop, so be it. It’s not a sign of laziness.

Where jobs don’t challenge us, we lose motivation. Some look elsewhere, while others go even further as in the case of Frederic Desnard: the gentleman suing his former employer for ￡280k following four years of menial tasks – an environment that left him “depressed, destroyed, and ashamed.”

The Value of Millennial Work

Nick Blunden – Global MD of The Economist – recently praised the ‘selfie-generation’ for an ability to “manage their own personal brands, not just as an ego trip, but because they want to inspire action around the causes they are passionate about.”

And therein lies the point: it’s not a question of being unwilling, or too self-absorbed, to work. It’s an expectation of the right to meaningful work with the prospect of having an influence on something we care deeply about.

Millennials want to make an impact. But we struggle to find sufficient opportunity in a single line of work – so, we actively seek opportunity.

Five Questions to Define the Mindset

To understand the millennial mindset, perhaps it’s best to take a bottom-up approach, considering the five questions the 2018 employee would ask when valuing their existing role:

1.    What can I learn from my current role? Or, ‘will this help me take steps forward’ rather than suffering the fate of Frederic Desnard?

2.    What experiences can I gain in my current role? I’m seeking an outward-looking environment which combines experiences with learning.

3.    Where can I add value and make an impact? I’m here for a reason, to serve a cause; how can I best use my skills to contribute to a whole that is much bigger than the sum of its millennial parts?

4.    How can I expand my network? The best ideas often stem from chance meetings, and I need a network to grow them.

5.    Will I learn every day? The Kaizen Approach (Kaizen is Japanese for ‘continuous improvement’) leads to greatness. If I can improve by 1% every day, compounding will mean I’ll have much more to offer in one-month, six months, two years.

Now you know the questions, it’s time to embrace change.

Ownership x Freedom = Results

The questions provide a framework to work within, but what do employers need to do to achieve the best outcome? It revolves around giving employees space to explore with opportunity for impact – amongst other things.

Authenticity is key: it highlights what your organisation stands for such that prospective employees can make informed decisions about whether their values fit your mission.

Cross-departmental collaboration brings chance encounters and internal networking, guaranteeing learning opportunities as interdisciplinary teams combine.

Agile practices promote flexibility, demonstrating an open-minded organisation willing to roll with the punches, not becoming entrenched in a single-minded approach.

Ownership & freedom need not mean anarchy; the best-performing setups delegate responsibility and do so to great effect. Learning happens beyond the comfort zone. So, challenge your teams, let them err as they explore, and never restrict freedom – if that means allowing a work-from-anywhere culture, so be it.

Taking a negative view of the millennial mindset is easy. But as we begin to outnumber baby-boomers, employers must take advantage of a bright, daring and engaged generation who want to have an impact.

But to do so, you’ll need to attract them with an employee-centric culture. Then, create the appropriate operations and management processes to keep them engaged.

So, keep innovating – keep adding value – and most importantly, keep having fun! 

A collaboration between myself & Bertie Conibear - Thanks Bertie!