What's the best way to develop a future millennial leader?

People born since the 1980s, commonly referred to as Millennials, centennials, generation Z. Call them what you will but let’s all be clear on one thing, they are the future. During my recent lectures on neuroleadership subject at Business Schools in Paris and in Lyon, I have interacted with so many millennials who have shared with me that companies’ current leaders sometimes lack an understanding of how to interact with them.

From that perspective, how will leadership change with this new generation taking the helm? or How can companies help Millennials grow as leaders?

There are two things that I think that great leaders need to have: empathy, and perspective. I think these things are very often forgotten. Leaders are so often so concerned about their status leading with their left brain in mind, they forget their real job and the real job of a leader, it's not about being in charge, and it’s about taking care of those in our charge - definitively a right brain approach.

Empathy is being concerned about the human being not just their output and we have to practice empathy. One of the groups that we are pretty bad at practicing empathy with is our young millennial. So, how do we practice empathy with someone we don't understand? How do we practice empathy with an organization or group that we're struggling with?

We are social animals, and we need empathy and we have to learn to rely on our friends and that skill is desperately lacking. Again, let's practice empathy. How did they grow up, they grew up in a world of instant gratification. You want to buy something, you go on Amazon, it shows up the next day, you want to watch a movie, you don't check movie times, and you just log on and download it whenever you want to watch it, stream it, you want to watch a TV show you don't wait week to week to week, just binge watch for the weekend. In other words, everything comes instantaneously. They have falsely applied the instant gratification model to life fulfilment and career fulfilment. They want it all instantaneously.

The problem is life. Relationships career are not destinations. Like I found the job I love. That's not how it works. It's not a scavenger hunt. I'm looking for the job and it doesn't work that way. It's a journey. It's the same with love. It's like I fell in love. No, you didn't you work hard every single day to stay in love. It's a journey. It's as if they're standing at the foot of a mountain. They know exactly what they want. They can see the summit. What they don't see is the mountain.

In my recent visit in Paris this week, I met some recent MBA grads who are in their entry level jobs and I always ask them things like how's it going and they'll say:

yeah, I think I'm going to quit. I'm like, why? I'm not making an impact.

I'm like, you've been here 3-4 months, and this is the problem. They see it as destination: "I'm not making an impact." I hear it most of the time after 4-6 months in the company. But they don't even know what that means impact. Yes, we all want to make an impact, what kind of impact what you want to do? What do you want to contribute to the world?

Based on Gallup studies , Millennials are happiest and most engaged at work when they feel they're making a difference. By all means, focus on efficiency and effectiveness, but also on making work more meaningful.?

But in fact, discussing with SUPERHUMAIN Leaders in our community, they disclosed to me that Millennials expect a "tailored" experience, meaning?they want to feel their career path has been created specifically for them. Granted, you may not be able to offer every employee a custom career path, but that's OK. Why? If Millennials feel they are not making progress in their personal development, they'll become disconnected and seek other opportunities. Whenever possible, get employees involved in projects that are not only mission-critical but also create opportunities for learning and development.

So one challenge is to keeping Millennials at one company long enough?to invest in their leadership training. They tend to view jobs as places to learn and grow and seek out opportunities rather than longevity. One way to get them to start thinking longer term is to provide them with opportunities to learn within the company. Reverse mentoring is a great way to get them engaged, where they can lend their expertise to an older employee in return for invaluable lessons and expert advice. Not only does it help Millennials to start to hone their leadership skills, it provides them with a role model and trusted advisor who they can turn to.

From my experience as well, to successfully manage and lead Millennials, a sense of transparency is highly required. It’s not about giving them the keys to the castle that they haven’t yet earned, it’s about showing them the steps to take to get those keys. Give them measurable goals and hold them responsible for achieving them. Providing Millennials with something to work towards helps them understand how their role plays into the bigger picture. They want to know that their work matters.

So, you have an insecure generation that doesn't have coping mechanisms that wants everything resolved and resolved now. We're now taking this wonderful, smart, idealistic, ambitious, hardworking, good group of people that were dealt a bad hand. We're putting them in corporate environments where leaders may not care about them as human beings.

For some reason, our work world has changed faster in the past years, even more during COVID-19 period. Companies talk about how they want to build trust and cooperation and they announced a round of layoffs. Do you know the quickest way to destroy trust and destroy cooperation in a business literally in one day? Lay people off and everyone gets scared? Can you imagine sending someone home to say, honey, I can no longer provide for our family because the company missed its arbitrary projections this year and forget about the people who lost their job. Think about the people who kept their jobs. Because every single decision a company makes is a piece of communication. The company cut the company has just communicated to everybody else. This is not a meritocracy.

From my perspective, we have to forget that one employee is a Millennial and that another isn't. Generational differences, while interesting, are only a small slice of what makes each individual different. To lead, you must first take the time to truly know the person and then adapt how you lead to the interests, needs, and goals of that individual. At the heart of it, leadership is becoming more human. We’re starting to see trends in people first leadership and companies are now striving for more diverse and inclusive workplaces.?They are changing the way we approach work?for the better. The future not only belongs to our millennials and the next generation, they will be leading it too and the one thing they need right now is empowering, inspirational and human leadership.