Leadership in the New Millennium-Written By Dede Henley

This past week, I gave a speech called as a guest speaker for Toastmasters.  It was called, “Leadership in the New Millennium.” What I pointed to are the new skills and capacities leaders will need in the years to come as the Millennials enter the workforce and move into positions of influence.  First, we must be willing to learn a bit about them.

The Millennial Generation was born between 1977 and 1998.  This means they are between the ages of 13 and 34 right now.  The 75 million members of this generation are being raised at the most child-centric time in our history.  Because they’ve gotten much attention from parents, teachers and coaches with high expectations, they can display self-confidence almost to the point of seeming cocky.  They are technically literate, as you might imagine, having cut their teeth on computers, the Internet and PDA’s.  Millennials are team-oriented, banding together to date and socialize rather than pairing off.  They are good multi-taskers, having juggled sports, school and social interests as children. Many of the Millennials have had “peer” relationships with their parents, so, in the workplace, they expect to have a relationship with those in power. 

Our challenge as leaders is to understand and meet the needs of this new generation.  Knowing what makes people “tick” allows leaders to call forth the highest and best from each and every employee, supervisor and manager.

Here are five tips that may help with the Millennial generation:

1.    Provide lots of challenges and the structure to back it up.  Break goals down into steps and offer necessary resources and information needed to meet the challenge. 

2.    Mentor the Millennials in groups, as they are comfortable in this setting.

3.    Make the workplace fun.  In truth, no one really enjoys drudgery, no matter what generation they come from!  Check out “Ideo” – a Silicon Valley based design firm – they seem to have figured out “fun” at work.

4.    Provide opportunities for growth and development.  Create stretch goals and support Millennials through failures or setbacks. 

5.    Support balance lives. This generation won’t have it be all about work.  They will demand time with family, time to recreate, and time to work.  Do what you can to create flexible working schedules that allow for a life.

Above all, as a leader, keep learning.  This is the antidote for becoming outdated and irrelevant.  Here’s to the next generation!