Managing The Young Guns: How To Handle The Millenial Generation

As another birthday approaches, I began to think about how we manage those that are of a different generation to ourselves. You will be aware of the generation group known as the Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1965. Now meet The Millenials, those born roughly between 1980 and 1995. They are also known as Generation Y and are the biggest section of the European workforce since the Baby Boomers.

Why are the Millenials important to leaders?

This generation is creating a cultural shift within companies and requires a more flexible management style. Many of these workers in their late twenties and early thirties are not intimidated by their bosses and expect to be free to think for themselves. They also demand more individualised mentoring and coaching than previous generations. Their approach to hierarchy is to assume that it is flat. They are not necessarily going to sit and wait for the next promotion either. They are often well connected outside their companies because they are technologically savvy and use all the new communication channels to network with likeminded people. Whether you see these attitudes as a problem or not, they are definitely a condition of the global marketplace.

How can leaders manage Millenials?

Leaders need to bring a more flexible mindset to this generation of worker. You as a leader need not feel threatened by the willingness of the Millenials to challenge your methods of doing things. Their energy can be channelled very usefully into offering new ways of doing certain things that may well need refreshing, such as how you recruit talent, how you conduct meetings and the types of training that you offer employees. Microsoft has its learning zones, Google gives their bright hopefuls access to its company co-founders and Eduserve expect their software developers to spend one day a week experimenting rather than working on assignments.

The Millenials are your future so if you want to attract the best and brightest talent from this group, you need to appreciate that they want a certain amount of freedom to act. They want room to develop their particular skillset and many of them, like any new generation, bring a vital energy, an irrepressible optimism and a determination just like we had a generation ago – but this time they won’t take no for an answer.