What Millenials Have Taught us About Leadership

While 44% of millenials expect to leave their job in 2 years, they have taught us greatly about their expectations of leadership and what matters most to them in terms of employment.

If we expect to extend their tenure closer to 10 years (what we see with employees age 55-64) then a closer look at the following organizational and leadership qualities, styles, and skills that millenials have taught use are needed.

leadership skills

Building a great team of colleagues that surrounds everyone with a high degree of talent that enables each member to teach each other so everyone can progress and strive to be better.
Create an organizational purpose that resonates and aligns with an individual’s personal sense of meaning. Purpose attracts and retains top talent. It also matters more than money.
Extending flexibility in working hours and workplace where possible while maintaining accountability for results. Katie Burke of Hub Spot said it best, “Change the paradigm to reward and promote based on results and ingenuity, not time on the job.”
Leaders who embrace and support the individual development of their team by challenging individuals with stretch assignments to foster their individual growth. Individual contributions are valued and rewarded with praise, a new assignment, increase pay or some combination.
Leaders who help their individual team members to identify their personal brand identity and what they stand for.
Connection means having access to multiple levels of management or individuals (co-workers, leaders, mentors, coaches) without a formal reporting structure. It relies more on collaboration and networking. It also means having earlier access to an executive coach as a part of a leadership development program or as an apprentice.
Encouraging appropriate risk taking, use and development of intuition, and out of the box solutions without fear of punishment as a way to grow and create.
Utilize the entrepreneurial strength of millenials to create and innovate products or services that appeal to millenials.