I was really curious, considering that I fall into the category of "Millenials" (people born between 1980 and 2000), if this article (and this one and this too) about managing Millenials would be at all on target.
I was pretty shocked to find that I agreed overwhelmingly with most of the article. They described Millenials as:
- Confident - being raised by parents they believed in the importance of self-esteem (and remember those middle school classes all about building up your self-esteem?).
- Hopeful - all you have to do is look at the percentage of McGill students who majored (or minored) in International Development Studies - IDS is, I believe, the most popular program at McGill these days, drawing all us hopeful Millenials who want to save the world.
- Optimistic and Practical - oh boy, that's me.
- Goal Oriented - I sometimes forget how old I am, just by virtue of how much I think about the future.
Interestingly, Millenials are also compared to Baby Boomers, partly due to the size of the generation and the results stemming from that... in particular, the sheer size of the Baby Boomer generation led to such competition that Baby Boomers were expected to do what they had to do to get ahead - working extra hours and so on. Same with Millenials, except that Millenials will put in the extra time and effort, but, because we're in high demand (and know it), we expect something back.
Here were some of the tips outlined for managing Millenials:
- Millenials are "techno-savvy" so ramp up your website and use technology to appeal to Millenials.
- Set expectations from the start - if the job requires grunt work, be upfront about it.
- Keep in mind that Millenials like to work collaboratively (goodness, you can see some of these differences just within our small marketing team...).
- Millenials like guidance. We've grown up with great leaders and not only appreciate input, but expect it.
- R-E-S-P-E-C-T (OK, maybe not from the Millenial years, but I love it).
