Dealing with Millennial matters- Its important and not that DIFFICULT!

If you are in business of selling to or delivering through the Millennials, you would have surely experienced that the competencies required to influence and relate to them need to be different.  Women in general or parents of millennials are no better in dealing with them.

Chip, through his intense work in this area, offers through this book offer insights into the source of tension and also provide set of competencies that managers need to develop to be able to deal with Millennials effectively.  At the theme level, CHIP goads Managers to appreciate that:

1 They may be suffering from the unintentional bias towards self-experience, which pushes them to compare every action of Millennials with their own behaviour, when of that age.  Managers (mostly baby boomers)  perception of Millennials, reinforced through dialogue among their own generation , does not allow them to interpret the behaviours differently, or see from the eyes of Millennials

2  The onus is on the more mature partner to adapt and make relationship work– try to like them and not be like them

3  Millennials are the first generation who can learn, get informed, seek answers and manage their life without formally learning from and reaching out to the authority – thanks to technology, education and information access. 

How Managers perceive Millennials (and example of how successful managers address this!) :

1.  Autonomous and do not respect process adherence and schedule commitments as important (explain the importance of process linked to sustainability of outcome, allow flexibility wherever possible- some of the cause-effect connections are not obvious to them yet)  

2.  Believe they deserve and are entitled to the best whatever their contribution (explain the incentive scheme and differentiated rewards and decision-making criteria)

3. Self-absorbed-and indifferent- Preoccupied with their personal needs for trust, praise and encouragement-(recognise that jobs don’t define them, help outcome to their personal need- invest in creating interest)

4.       Defensive- they want to be told when they are doing well and not when doing poorly---(Dialoguing in coaching mode than evaluating mode helps)

5.    Curt and abrasive communication style with little regard to authority (Actually informality on their part may represent authenticity, don’t take it personally.)

6.   Unfocussed- They have hard time staying focussed on tasks for which they have no interest or consider meaningless—(No one has bothered to explain the big picture and value of their effort and yes they can multi-task)

7.       Argumentative-(Listen with open heart- Resistance is closer to commitment than compliance is)

Millennials expectations from Managers

1.   Don’t hold us from opportunities because of lack of experience—we shall compensate with enthusiasm and energy

2.      Listen, if you ask for my ideas, opinion or comments- show that I am taken seriously

3.       Explain, in sufficient detail, what is expected of them- show flexibility in defining the how and when details to us

4.  We also look for having good relations with older workers, to go to them as counsellor for tough times

5.   Provide rewards that are meaningful to us- don’t assume what motivates us!

6. Provide feedback on how they are doing in non-threatening and non-belittling way- show us the alternate way, instead.

Book provides several examples of how to deal with biases and tense situations while dealing with Millennials and what differentiates successful managers from others, based on serious field work and research.  Readers can surely relate to these situations and also can judge their own responses to identify where the tweaking in response during the next interaction would help.

Even if you believe that labelling of behaviours and responses based on birth years is too much generalisation and of limited help, still this book clearly reiterates that it helps to invest in understanding the other party perspective, while suspending ones biases and also to modify ones actions to evince that desired response and evolve the relationship to next level of effectiveness.