The Clash of Generations or Remaking the Work Order

One of the hot debates in management today is how difficult it is to manage the new workforce generation of Millennials or Generation Y.

As a young manager born in 1983, I am living on the verge of these clashing generations, and I have had the privilege to understand a little bit of both worlds. Let me share with you my insights on how to lead this new generation. From my experience it all boils down to 3 things young people need from leaders to unleash their potential:

• Trust: give them challenging, complex, tasks/projects
• Give them regular and open feedback
• Assistance in developing self-awareness and to grow—to find their “spot” or career path

Trust and Complex Tasks

Young people are hungry for learning. They are willing to accept new tasks about which they know little or nothing. This can mean they can be a valuable asset to the team in finding new ways and new solutions and demonstrating strong engagement in the process. These positive aspects are based upon the feeling that they are developing their skills. It may seem obvious, but the reality in many companies looks quite different. I experienced this disillusion personally.

My first experience in working life was as an intern for a large, multinational consulting firm. The selection and interview process were really hard and detailed. I expected that my job description would be at the same level of stretch. The reality was quite different—just MS Excel data combining and assistant “bring me this and that” style of work. Do not get me wrong. I was willing to do all that “small” work, but I wanted to know more about why I was doing this work and what impact it had on the finished proposal. At the time I didn’t know what I didn’t know, so to speak, and I kept asking myself, “What am I learning here?” I felt I was wasting myself. In my next job it was completely different. My employer had the courage and trust to give me a complex project that came with a large responsibility (to the extent that I was even scared if I could do it). But I was willing to sit and work late hours and every task seemed so important. I was engaged. I was trusted and trust is something you do not want to lose. On the contrary, you want to pay it back – with the trust that you can do the job right.

I often see the same old mindset. New interns are given simple, seemingly meaningless tasks that simply seem boring. The implied message is that “I do not trust you to give you real work.” The reality appears to be that their mindset is still “We have a new intern; he/she should be used/abused”. Instead of “We have a chance to develop him/her and test what he/she can do.” Zero trust = Zero chance to develop, which = Zero engagement.

“What I see around me is that there is less focus on ‘how much money I can get’ and more on ‘how much exprience I can get’. This is what I observe particulary in people my age (22-28), especially from business. Young people seek more for new experience and on-the-job learning. They seek to try things and value the management that is willing to risk it.”

Peter K., age 26

Open Feedback and Guidance

The upcoming generation is commenting on and “feed-backing” everything. Using social networks, we make comments about photos on Facebook or join the discussion following an interesting article on the web newspapers. We have opinions and we are used to expressing them—maybe you noticed this already. However, we are also ready to accept it as well. Yes, we are - openly and instantly. Ask your problematic Millennial at your work how often he/she was given feedback on his/her job lately. I guarantee you that the answer will be, “Not so often”. Otherwise, the likelihood is that they are either not problematic or they have decided to find other work. Despite the fact that young people seem confident, they are confused at the same time. They search for your guidance in the corporate world. They want to listen to us managers about how to handle certain situations or certain types of personalities. They want to understand what it takes to be promoted and to deserve something. They need it on a regular basis and in an open, frank atmosphere.

My personal experience is this: I was a student in a business faculty. Sarcasm and its accompanying language was the working method. I was told that sarcasm and being the object of demeaning jokes was proof that I was cared about. “If you can’t take a joke, there is no hope for you here” was the idea. You can imagine the reactions of my colleagues who were often older than I was with different backgrounds and personalities. However, my manager and someone from HR took the time to explain to me the typology of different personalities and that feedback helped me understand the differences, which gave me a new perspective, which led to an enriching learning experience as well.

Now, as a manager, I have almost weekly individual reviews of upcoming tasks and progress of projects with each of my team members. Not only am I informed about their work, I can give them advice and correct their thinking about priorities when it is relevant. I also see how they think and what kind of skills they need to work on. Yes, it takes me at least 7 hours weekly, but it is proving to be one of the best allocations of time in my role as a manager. What’s the message? We need your feedback, challenges and guidance. Yes, it is time-consuming, but we are fast learners and we pay it back with high levels of engagement and the ability to deliver.

“It’s great when leaders aren’t commanders but rather teachers. People who challenge you, ask you, give you constant feedback on your work. But still focus on the goals of the company.”

Martin V., age 27

Assistance in Finding the Right Career Track

Nowadays there are thousands of career opportunities. Finding the right one is very difficult. It is so hard when one has so little experience. It is difficult to understand the potential consequences—intended and unintended—of certain choices. We come out of school full of ideas, searching for purpose and meaning in our lives. Reality is so different and often may lead to giving up, losing the desire to develop one’s self. Disorientation is common and maybe natural for young people. Yet it is a very stressful period and can lead to passivity, and on many occasions I witnessed just that with some of my friends, my colleagues and even with myself. Finding the right vision and place in this world is what we are searching for. We need your guidance and assistance. I found this guidance to be at the very core—the essence—of the word leadership. Do you agree?

One solution, besides direct mentoring, is to create “special” positions tailor-made to one’s specific needs, with a broader job description, perhaps. It is not easy to establish something like that in an organization. But in the early stages of one’s career it might be better to adapt the position to be broader and to give different tasks/projects to Millennials. Not only would you eliminate fluctuation or thoughts about leaving, but you can test us and quickly see what we can handle. We are open to new challenges and we prefer to be multi-tasking. I believe it helps us to be better employees as well. This approach—combining principles from various fields in new creative ways—will not only broaden our understanding, but it will make us more holistic contributors.

Conclusion

Now, I want you to imagine all the people who helped you in your career the most. What did they do to deserve that place in your memory? Maybe there was a moment when they trusted you more than you trusted yourself with a new project, or they gave you direct feedback and challenged you by asking if this was the best you could do. Or, maybe they told you to go for a new job even if it meant losing you, because they knew it was the best for you. If this resonates with you, it might be true that we are not so different after all: trust, feedback and assistance to find the right career is what we all need.

Interesting figures

In closing, allow me to share some local and global perspectives with you.
The local one indicates why the generations might be different. I’ll let the numbers speak for themselves. (Number of children born in Slovakia and number of graduates in the equivalent year www.infostat.sk, www.uips.sk):

If you were born in the 1970s, you had to work really hard to get what you wanted from childhood. We can see there are quite big differences, for example, in how demanding the teachers could be during final state exams when 1988ers were at universities compared with the 1972ers. So, I guess there are many reasons for the differences between generations: lower expectations, the lifetime opportunities of the Velvet Revolution (privatization, new companies searching for talent to build businesses from scratch), technical innovation, internet and social media and other big changes in the past 20 years. As far as the expectations are concerned, read more on this issue through the eyes of Mirka Durankova, a Millennial as well, in the September issue of this newsletter - http://www.pragueleadershipinstitute.com/content/i-learned-most-leaders…

Global research indicates that the needs of the Millennials are pretty much the same all over the world. I think that this table explains it all (Harvard Business review, http://hbr.org/2010/05/mentoring-millennials/ar/1):