Millennials in the Workplace: Are We THAT Different?

Millennials comprise 70% or more of the workforce and we still hear lots of labels and myths about this generation.  I work as a Millennial coach and get a lot of comments or questions about my generation and their work culture.

I am happy to report that I see much less rolling of eyes when I say the “M word” these days, but there are still comments and jokes that are a mere representation of generation gap and lack of understanding what are peculiarities and challenges of Millennials today.

 

Why is it important to talk about Millennials now?

 

Apart from the fact that Millennials stopped being the future of the workforce and became its present, they are now entering the management strata and they have started managing and influencing their peers, people who are older than them and the younger generation “Z”.

This is the critical time when it is crucial for companies and Millennials themselves understand what particular challenges they face, what kind of culture they are building and how they can become better leaders in order to influence their companies and surroundings in the most positive way.

The earlier we can guide and coach our these young leaders, the lesser is negative impact of their differences and the more we can leverage their many strengths.

 

Getting the facts together

 

When we look to understand and characterize one generation, it is important to differentiate between which attributes are specific to those who were born in 80s and 90s (rough definition of Millennials), and which are developmental traits that are common to any young adults in their 20s and 30s, no matter what generation they belong to.

For example, a recent report by Pew Research Center showed that Millennials aren’t job-hopping any faster than Generation X did: in US 22% of Millennial workers had been with their employer for at least five years as of 2016, similar to the share of Gen X workers (21.8%) in 2000 when they were 18-35 years old, for shorter tenure the figures don’t differ much between two generations as well[1].

As Millennials get older and face more external challenges, their behavior changes as well. The 2017 Deloitte Millennial survey showed that in spite of perceived across-the-board advantages of working as freelancers or consultants, nearly two-thirds of millennials said they prefer full-time employment. The survey also discovered that loyalty to their employers and a desire for certainty is increasing, with the number of Millennials planning to leave within two years decreasing from 44% in 2016 to 38% in 2017[2].

If young adults across generation face similar problems, where do the differences come from?

Early adulthood is considered by psychologists[3]to be the time of identity formation as well as defining and growing self in context of society and relationships.

Understanding oneself, discovering our abilities and preferences in life and work, experimenting and at the same time being susceptible to peer and other pressures to make the right choices, to perform well and to achieve fast are to a high degree familiar to all generations.

If we summarize roughly, what is unique to each generation, it is the circumstances that they react to.

If Gen X was fighting for personal enrichment and professional growth versus the stability that their parents were seeking, Millennials, having been exposed to overworked, high achieving parents are more inspired by work-life balance and sustainable business models.

I say “inspired” with purpose – the fact that Millennials value work-life balance doesn’t necessarily mean that they work less or only seek employment in the companies that can provide ideal work conditions. New and emerging research shows that Millennials actually do not have advantage of less working hours than other generations, and in some countries are more reluctant to even use the vacation time that they are already entitled to.

So, bearing in mind that each generation is going through somehow similar set of challenges in different circumstances, what traits do we see that are common in Millennials?

Most of the descriptions below come from coaching cases with different clients in China, it is fair to say that even if I can relate to the phenomena described below as relevant across the globe, some of it is China-specific.

 

“Nice girls don’t get the corner office”??

 

The feedback that I hear very often about potential Millennial leaders is their lack of assertiveness. During performance reviews and even in their own perception they are referred to as  “being too nice”.

Of course the interesting question is; why are Millennials in China are reluctant to be directive and assertive in the workplace?

While lack of experience and confidence in their own management style may be a contributing factor, there is another reason that is specifically Millennial

Most of the young generation were frequently exposed to a “command-control” style of communication and influence at work, educational institutions or at home, to the degree that might have felt almost abusive. While other generations experienced that as well, at least in the workplace, Millennials have the opportunity to observe other communication styles and have a higher degree of freedom of choice and mobility than young adults two or three decades ago.

On top of that, social media is full of messages that things don’t have to be the way they used to! Which in turn gives Millennials more confidence in choosing their own style, and after being negatively affected by commanding style, they much prefer to opt for softer types of influence.

They are afraid of being “too pushy”, and the word “directive” carries only negative connotations to them.  On the surface it might seem as a sign of bringing more tolerance and support in the workplace. In reality by turning away from directive style of influence Millennials open the door to two types of scenario.

The first, is excessively withdrawing from conflicts and interactions that might be perceived negative and displaying lack of assertiveness in communications. The consequences of that could be numerous, from sacrificing their own time and energy rather than delegating effectively, to loosing authority over their teams and a sense of chaos.

The second scenario of youthful “dictatorship” happens either in a highly stressful environment or when inexperienced manager is given authority for the first time. Since  the directive style of influence was not practiced enough first-hand and the person is simply uncomfortable with it, they overdo it and become extremely directive, sometimes even aggressive, eventually achieving short-term results and creating longer-term damage.

 

                    Time of identity formation and defining and growing self

 

Working on self-esteem, discovering and strengthening their own value and belief systems fall into another area of big importance for Millennials coachees.

The twenties and thirties are the time for building confidence and further developing understanding of self and our own chosen path in life, that is something common for young adults of all generations. First-time managers struggling with their own confidence and experimenting with the leadership styles is hardly just a Millennial phenomenon.

What has changed is the way we compensate for our lack of confidence and experience. While it was more common in earlier generations to fall into authoritarian confidence, Millennials compensate by becoming fanatic collaborators.

Collaboration is a resourceful state that helps to obtain greater resources, results and rewards, and should be a foundation of any business activity. So, in this aspect Millennials benefit from their openness to talk about trust and high consideration of human factor in work relationships. However, collaboration fails to deliver promised results when, for the sake of everyone’s happiness, one side chooses to take more damage and carry the weight of the task/problem on their own shoulders, something that is closely related to assertiveness issue mentioned above and lack of experience in negotiation and crisis communication.

            

     Blue are the faraway hills…

There is another trait in Millennials that I don’t get to work with that much due to its nature, I call it “dreaming of La-La-Land”.  The grass has always been greener on the other side of the fence, but in my perception the disruptive energy of this phenomenon in my generation is somehow bigger than before.

Simon Sinek in his viral video on Millennials[4]talks about the influence of displaying of only positive sides of life on social media, and how it creates unbalanced image of others living in eternal state of happiness and success, stimulating a sense of dissatisfaction with our own present circumstances.

The reflection of that in the workplace is an image of “other companies” where everything is much better than at our current employer and hence a failure to see what is “good” with our current situation.

Exposure to videos of fantasy campuses of Silicon Valley with private gyms, babysitters and personal chefs, success stories of overnight billionaire start-ups and articles about companies where all managers are caring, dedicated to their team’s happiness and development is another double-edged sword.

 

On the one hand it creates motivation for better results and higher performance, challenging status-quo is often a stimulus that companies need to innovate and become more efficient. In response to Millennials exiting companies in big numbers, many organizations started paying more attention to their human resources management and have created initiatives that benefit both new and previous generations.

On the other hand, being youthfully impatient, many Millennials start to change external settings without first trying to take responsibility and accountability for the present situation. Millennials talk about clash of cultures and inability to fit in, forgetting that culture, even corporate one, is something they create themselves.

Surrounded by their peers of the same age, they ricochet complaints and jointly reaffirm their their views and opinions.  Being mobile and unwilling to settle for less, they can change numerous jobs in one year dreaming of better boss, and failing to see the opportunities to overcome the issues in the current workplace and within themselves.

This phenomenon is fortunately slowing down, with less people willing to change workplace witnessing the shortcomings of gig economy and its effects on their income, in US that results in a contrary phenomenon of younger generations putting up with longer work hours and lesser pay than generations before them in exchange for medical and social packages.

The important question however is, for the ones who are unhappy and stay, how much they are invested in developing themselves, engaging with the business, delivering good results and trying to establish new culture, vs dreaming of the better working conditions in the ideal Neverland.

 

                   “The best way out is always through”

 

What can companies do to support Millennials and what would be the price to pay if nothing will be changed?

One area that needs development is building the right kind of assertiveness to help Millennial leaders to master a impactful style of communication and successfully promote their ideas to the top. The “right” kind is the one that makes people confident about speaking up or directing others without sounding rude or offensive.

The methods to achieve that could be tools like Non-Violent Communication, coaching and mentorship on confidence and self-esteem, trainings on influence, team management and executive presence.

To help to rise above initial challenges and help to create new mutually beneficial corporate culture mentors, coaches and supervisors should help Millennials to raise their self-awareness and self-reflection and give them ability to take ownership over their decisions and actions.

To be successful with that just coaching Millennials themselves is not enough, we need to support people development culture within all levels of the company and teach managers how to effectively coach their teams. This investment of various resources is essential not only to improve retention levels and but also to keep young employees engaged, energetic and therefore delivering excellent results for the company.

Investment in developing Millennial talents can not only prevent financial losses, it can also create new business opportunities and extra income. Millennials are not just a significant part of the workforce, they are also a significant and growing part of customers base for the majority of organizations.

The external impact: where young managers are reluctant or unable to promote their views in front of the upper management, companies are wasting money on outdated marketing strategies and products, neglecting or misusing new technologies and communication channels.

The internal impact: motivation, productivity and results fall rapidly as Millennials struggle to operate in structures, processes and systems that were designed for previous generations and stifle the innovative creativity of natural collaborators.

Companies who fail to understand, accept and adapt their development approaches to build strong Millennial leaders are taking a very real and significant risk.  As these new leaders become the role models for future generations, low retention, engagement and productivity rates may well become the norm and today’s successful global businesses built over decades may rapidly become the legacy businesses of the future!

 

 

[1]Richard Fry. Millennials aren’t job-hopping any faster than Generation X did. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/19/millennials-arent-job-hopping-any-faster-than-generation-x-did/

[2]The 2017 Deloitte Millennial Survey. Retrived from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/gx-deloitte-millennial-survey-2017-executive-summary.pdf

[3]Erikson, Erik H (1975). Childhood and Society. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-020754-5; Birch, Ann (1997). Developmental Psychology: From Infancy to Adulthood. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-66959-4.

[4]Simon Sinek on Millennials in the Workplace. Retrieved from https://startwithwhy.com/library/millennials/