Why are millennials so hard to manage?

Millennials are the generational demographic cohort following Generation X. There are no precise dates for when this cohort starts or ends; demographers and researchers typically use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years. - Wikipedia

This “millennial question” pops up in different guises in my work with senior leaders and their teams. It might be expressed as: “they all think they can run the company” or “they need constant praise” or “they don’t have the work ethic.”

In addition to coaching at senior level, I also coach millennials; either helping them decide what kind of career they would like and then helping them with CV shaping and interview skills or helping them make the transition to first time manager. What I hear, see and experience working with these young clients doesn’t match the judgements (and they are judgements) made by those Baby Boomer and Gen X managers.

Research from Gallup and Deloitte this year, and by Manpower in 2016, paints a complex picture of this generation, showing that what makes them leave a company is not the same as what they might demand of a new employer. And what hiring managers think attracts millennials – pay and career prospects – is not what they’re after at all.

Millennials have a problem with management

But not in the way you might think. The problem they have is that they don’t think they’re being managed; they feel either neglected or controlled. More than a third consider their bosses are not up to it. 

Millennials don’t feel much loyalty

The under-35s are likely to be the least engaged group in any organisation. Their average stay in a company is only a couple of years and the free lattes and ping pong tables don’t change this. 

I see millennials as 21st Century canaries

It was only in the mid-1980s that coal mines in Britain stopped using canaries as a way of warning of the presence of toxic gases. One way is to see millennials as disruptive, disloyal, entitled and lazy. The other way is to get curious about millennial disenchantment and turnover and listen to what this is telling you about the culture (and by that we really mean leadership) in your organisation.

Millennials ARE different

Despite technology, they want more face to face time than previous generations do. They are much more likely to pay for their own self-development and they are comfortable taking what older generations consider “risks” by starting their own businesses or developing entrepreneurial ideas in their own time. They are also better at setting boundaries; they take their holiday leave and consider their weekends should belong to them and not their employers.

Bridging the generation gap is surprisingly simple (but not necessarily easy)

Having discovered patterns in the research, in addition to my coaching work with both sides of this generation gap, I consider there are five things that would help motivate, retain and develop millennials. You may already have worked out what the cure may be from the symptoms I have listed.

My podcast How to Manage Millennials tackles each of these five areas. Click to listen here.

I’d love to hear what your experience of this “generation gap” is. Does it exist? And if so, what do you think would help?