What I learned From Millennials On Leadership

I recently read Sapiens by Yuval Harari. The book lends a fascinating perspective to the history of the human race. One interesting fact Harari highlights is that homo sapiens co-existed with other closely related species such as Homo Erectus, Homo Soloenis and Homo Ergaster. Then, for reasons scientists don’t yet understand, homo sapiens gained an advantage over their rivals and eventually conquered the world. In his sequel to Sapiens, Homo Deus, Harari argues that humans will consciously evolve through engineering—as our science is far outpacing the rate of natural selection. Yet, recent evolution of humans has not happened through either natural selection or engineering.

 BREAKING NEWS: MILLENNIALS ARE NOT A NEW SPECIES

I find much of the millennial rhetoric baffling; a rash of articles have passed through my feed labeling millennials as entitled, lazy, emotionally fragile, and even disloyal job hoppers. Leaders publicly complaining about employee performance is not a new phenomenon. Leaders who blame an entire generation for poor performance, however, is ridiculous. What happened to the leaders who assessed their organizations, identified opportunities to improve and then worked with their teams to establish and implement action plans, review the results and then iterate?

The problem is not with millennials; the problem is with leaders who are attempting to apply outdated leadership models to new problems. Lazy, weak leaders blame and complain about their employees. Every generation is made up of individuals and broad generational stereotypes are insulting and unproductive.

Leaders need to think deeply about every group they lead and treat each member of the group as an individual. There is no such thing as a tried and true leadership model. There are only basic principles of dignity, respect and kindness. These principles are the bedrock of relationships. Leadership models must evolve to meet new challenges and the realities of the world as it is today—not how we wish it to be or how it was in the not too distant past.

A poor carpenter blames his tools and lazy leaders blame their employees.

As a leader, what are you doing to address the unique needs of millennials? It is easy to blame them for not being like the baby boomer generation or generation X, but it misses the point. Millennials are different than generation X, just like baby boomers are far different than the world war II generation, and so on. Ask yourself, “Why do you expect that what works with one group of employees will meet the needs of, motivate, and grow another group?”

As a leader, I want to hire and retain the best and brightest. It is MY responsibility to design a hiring process and work experience that is valuable to the company and the employee. If my process is successful, employees will stay long term while they thrive and do amazing work.

The challenge in leadership is to figure out what works for individuals.

A Unique Set of Problems

The term ‘millennial’ is used to describe someone who was born approximately between 1982 to 2002. They are, to say the least, a unique generation. Millennials are the most educated generation in history. And most of that education was paid for using debt, meaning many new graduates are starting their careers out with a big burden. Further more, for many of them their college degrees were a terrible deal—half a step away from a scam. College debt is the modern-day equivalent of indentured servitude. Student loan debt cannot be vacated, even in a bankruptcy, and new graduates will carry that debt for the rest of their lives. Regardless of their ability to pay it back.

To make the student loan problem more difficult, the first wave of the millennial generation graduated high school in 2000, just as the dotcom bubble burst, and began graduating college in and around 2004, just in time for the great recession of 2008 to kick off. During that time it was very difficult to find even part-time retail and restaurant jobs. For the first time in US history, college students were competing with the generation before them for part-time work.

A common complaint about millennials is how they take jobs and then leave after only a few months for slightly more money, the job was “too hard” or not what they thought it would be when they applied. At the core of this issue are poor hiring processes and a disregard for the fact that student loan debt is driving starting salaries up. Millennials are swimming in debt making them feel they cannot afford to start at lower salaries. In many cases the market is not ready for the wage increase and the wage pressure is causing enormous tension between employers and employees entering the job market for the first time. Some millennials feel taken advantage of, while some employers feel candidates have unrealistic expectations. The reality is a little of both.

Unfortunately, millennials were sold on the false idea that if they went to college and got good grades that a good paying job would be waiting for them on the other side of all their student debt. Except that is not the case. Underemployment is one of the biggest issues facing modern economies. Globalism is putting downward salary pressure on many white-collar professions that can be accomplished remotely at the same time new graduates who are laden with debt enter the job market with higher salary expectations.

Employers need to wake up to the fact that the problem is unique to millennials and find solutions to the problem—not blame the individuals. The people are not the problem. Many of them are young and inexperienced, therefore, they jump the moment an opportunity even slightly better than their current situation appears. Leaders who hire employees for the least amount they can and do not adopt their leadership style to that group, will experience increased churn and frustration with new employees.

My personal experience with new college graduates, even from good schools, with marketing degrees has been frustrating. They spent four years supposedly learning about marketing, however, very little of what they learned actually applies in today’s market. They invariably need to be trained from the ground up. Some of these graduates have high salary expectations, little experience and do not have the skills they need to succeed.

My experiences have forced me to think deeply about the traits we hire for and our training program. I’ll admit, I have made some big mistakes and have had to pivot, but once I understood the problem the solution was obvious. They need leadership, training and guidance more than most new employees.

As I’ve already mentioned, millennials are the most educated generation ever. They thrive on intellectual challenges, long for collaboration, praise and feedback in a way that was unknown in companies 10-20 years ago. They are also the most technically saavy and creative group in memory. They question everything we do and challenge me as a leader to continue to look to the future. I do a great deal of management consulting and time and time again millennials lead the way with their energy and enthusiasm toward making a difference in their organizations—and the world.

This leads me to another unique perspective I’ve observed in millennials: their world view is larger than most other generations. They think of themselves not only as Americans but as world citizens. They are idealists in the purest sense of the word. Their world view is the next big step after what the country experienced in the 1960s and 1970s, when students spoke out against big government and the ongoing war in Vietnam.

Leaders who work with millennials must learn to adapt and broaden their minds concerning how they interact with their employees.

Millennials have taught me to think bigger. They have also reminded me that I have no need to fear for the future. That with a little guidance, training and experience, they will take the reins and lead us into a bright tomorrow. A tomorrow that I can be excited about.