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As you know, in just a short amount of time millennials will occupy nearly every leadership role in the world. Whether in government, non-profits, education, or business, millennials are on track to fill the retiring Baby Boomers slots. And they’re eager to get those jobs. But even though they’re eager for all this responsibility are they truly ready for the challenge of leadership? And what can companies do to prepare them for it?
Millennials (the generation born between 1984 and 1996) are commonly known for their desire to work jobs that they not only find personally meaningful but that they also feel contribute to society at large. In a recent study on millennials across the world conducted by INSEAD Emerging Markets Institute (EMI), Universum, and the HEAD Foundation, more than 16,000 millennials were surveyed in 43 countries in an effort to study their values, workplace habits and career ambitions.
Although responses were different depending on regional geographic locations more than 41 percent of respondents world-wide indicated that becoming a leader or manger was very important to them. And the younger millennials indicated that coaching and mentoring were important pieces to holding a leadership position that they strongly desired.
Although such a large proportion wanted to be managers and leaders, only 21 percent of respondents indicated that they were interested in a fast-track career with frequent promotions. For millennials the primary goal is to foster a work-life balance that brings happiness. Not achieve high salaries and acquire a better job title. The second most important goal for the generation was to learn new things and to grow as individuals and millennials see work as a way to do that.
When work-life balance was compared to different career and salary aspects, work-life balance won by a landslide. 73 percent of millennials preferred having a better work-life balance than a higher salary and 82 percent said work-life balance was more important than their position or job title within their company. And perhaps most surprising, 42 percent of millennials would prefer to be unemployed than struggle through a job they hated. This might not bode well especially when companies are trying to fill undesirable positions.
So what do millennials fear the most? 40 percent (which was the largest percentage) said their biggest fear was getting stuck in a career that offered no growth potential or room to develop professionally.
Preparing the Next Generation of Leadership and giving millennials what they want/need
Although a large proportion of millennials want to be leaders at some point of their career, they will have to be lead to that position. Since they will spend a large portion of their work life following another’s leadership, companies must be prepared to groom millennials for their turn at the helm. So what can companies and managers do to help prepare millennials for their inevitable rise to leadership and give them what they need?
- In Western Europe and North America, millennials reported that they desired managers who could empower them in their roles. Other regions didn’t indicate that this was as important. According to the survey, millennials connect empowerment with the ability to make decisions and is actually more of a conceptual desire rather than a practical work-related need.
- The survey reports that North American millennials hate micromanagement while those in the Middle East want their managers to answer all their questions and have all the answers. Also, most regions preferred having more frequent feedback from their managers rather than the traditional annual performance assessment. With the survey’s findings many companies could make some minor changes and greatly influence their millennial workers for the better.
- As employers seek to hire and retain millennials and prepare them for the next generation of leadership, companies can open up traditional career tracks and allow millennials to try different positions at the company and department hop.
- From the results of the survey, it’s clear that employers need to provide benefits beyond salary, health care, and vacation days. Millennials crave growth and development, so instituting programs that teach new skills or allow millennials to sharpen the ones they have will foster company loyalty and prepare them for a successful career.
Despite what you might think, male and female millennials share very similar values. But a bigger gap seems to occur at the age level. Older millennials and younger millennials might need to be studied differently and approached with different tactics in order to prepare them for leadership positions adequately.
As more Baby Boomers prepare for retirement, millennials will be making their rise to the top. But as they currently stand, they’re not ready for the leadership roles. Companies will need to prepare them for success and can best do that by appealing to millennial values and preferences.
For more details do have a look at the study, which is an extremely detailed and well presented 6-part series.
About The Author
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Carl Eacott
Whilst there is truth in Millennials being the future workforce, I felt it was necessary that the overarching discourse of this article should be evaluated alongside the best available social scientific evidence on the subject of generational group differences.
A recent meta-analysis review of generational differences revealed that contrary to popular belief and hype, there are no ‘significant’ differences between generational groups in terms of overall job satisfaction, organisational commitment and turnover intentions.
So the conclusion is to not jump to making business and management decisions purely on the reasoning that millenials are significantly different to other generational groups (for example, deciding that millennials get first pick/priority for international assignments over any other generational groups). The findings from the meta-analysis are of 265 articles, included 20 reliable researches across nearly 20,000 workers. Despite the discourse in this post being ‘pro generational differences, particularly on Millennials attitudes, expectations and intentions towards their work, good quality evidence doesn’t completely support these assertions.
Here’s the post and link: https://twitter.com/carleacott/status/814942874034958336
Happy reading & stay critical! 🙂