This is the advice from Nancy Lublin of Do Something, who champions Millennial workers in an article published in FastCompany magazine. Instead of bashing this young and audacious generation, she vouches for their uniqueness and potential for impact. She says, “The very same characteristics that are frequently maligned are the very qualities that make millennials awesome employees. The trick, of course, is to know how to exploit them.”
Knowing how to exploit millennial qualities, it seems, is also a gateway to better management of ALL of your team members! The very principles that enable better leadership of millennials can also be applied to leading each member of your team.
Here’s what that looks like…
1. Millennials are inveterate multi-taskers, even though studies show they’re not as good at it as they think! Lublin’s advice is to simply accept this work habit and manage them by goals and outcomes rather than insist on a different methodology. She says, “I see my role as defining a clear goal, giving…the resources to take the shot, and then getting out of the way…”
THE TAKEAWAY FOR GOOD MANAGEMENT: As much as possible, do the same for ALL your team members: Define the outcome required; provide the resources and support they need; then give them the freedom and trust to accomplish the goal in their own way.
2. Millennials “live out loud, sharing details of their lives with thousands of other people.” Lublin sees this openness as a conduit for promoting her organization and marketing it to the legions of friends and connections that her millennial employees communicate with through FaceBook, texting, and tweets.
THE TAKEAWAY FOR GOOD MANAGEMENT: Use the uniqueness of every team member as a springboard to promote the growth and effectiveness of your organization and its products and services. If you have a worker who volunteers for a worthwhile community cause, find ways for your organization to support and promote the charity, especially if you can connect your products or services with the charity’s needs!
3. Millennials are notorious for their sense of entitlement. Lublin sets this quality on its head: “You say self-indulgent and self-obsessed, I say optimistic and self-confident.” Lublin describes millennials with words like “Awesome. Bold. Audacious.” She says simply, “They are hungry for responsibility and I give it to them.”
THE TAKEAWAY FOR GOOD MANAGEMENT: Give work assignments that exploit the uniqueness of each of your team members. Do you have a talkative worker whose socializing distracts her from her work? Give her tasks that REQUIRE her to interact and collaborate with others. Do you have a “class clown” who loves to be the center of attention? Let them give the next team presentation at your departmental meeting.
4. Millennials are often accused of being high maintenance, “demanding constant… and incessant praise.” Many managers I talk to use the phrases “baby-sitting” and “hand-holding” to describe the extra time and attention this requires of them. Lublin doesn’t object to their need for encouragement and praise—she encourages an even greater and wider use of praise for ALL employees in the workplace—it is her strongest takeaway.
HERE IS WHAT SHE SAYS ABOUT APPLYING THIS PRACTICE:
“…celebrating small victories shouldn’t be seen as just a way to kowtow to this generation’s oversized egos; at a recent conference, Jack Welch said that it’s a great—and underused—management tactic. We should learn to recognize the contributions of each team member more explicitly. We should give feedback more than once a year in a stilted annual performance review. If your people aren’t worthy of praise, get rid of them. If they deserve praise, then be generous with it. Praise is one of the most affordable tools out there: it’s free!”
Do you have team members with “problem” traits? Maybe the real problem isn’t your employees—it’s that you don’t manage them for effective impact. What we often forget is that each person has their own unique qualities, traits, strengths and weaknesses. Our challenge as a leader is to move each team member into work that exploits their uniqueness.
If you are interested in learning more about the unique qualities of your people and how to use them for greater productivity and impact, LET US KNOW! We can help with insightful training in personality styles, generational distinctives, and motivational quirks. Call us today for quotes and dates.
In the meantime, stay tuned to this blog—I promise plenty of insightful and practical content is yet to come!
Until next time… Yours for better leaders and better organizations,
Dr. Jim Dyke – “The Boss Doctor” ™ helping you to BE a better boss and to HAVE a better boss!
