The time to start developing your Millennial talent into organizational leaders is now!
Millennials are already the largest working generation today and will make up as much as 75% of the labor force by 2025. Despite stereotypes of Millennials as lazy college students or fresh new hires, most are well into their 30s – and the next round of leadership at your company are ready to begin climbing the ladder.
But how do you transform your younger talent into business leaders? Millennials have demonstrated distinct priorities and ways they like to learn. Some key factors to understand about this generation are:
- They are the most educated generation to date and they prioritize continued education.
- They highly value opportunities for career advancement and will move companies if they feel their skills are not being developed.
- They are digital natives that can quickly pick up new technologies, and they get frustrated by cumbersome old processes that are no longer serving anyone.
- They strongly prioritize work-life balance and a sense of purpose in their career; this generation works to live, they don’t live to work.
With those factors in mind, here are our top tips for developing Millennials into business leaders.
- Challenge them with more responsibility.
One of the best things you can do to build Millennials’ leadership skills and confidence is give them ownership over a smaller project.
Compared to their highly independent Gen X predecessors, Millennials are more likely to seek structure from managers and prefer working in groups. They can be hesitant to stick their head up and ask for a leadership role – even if they’re ready for it.
Letting them take the lead on a campaign or run with an idea is an excellent learning experience, helping them realize the skills they already have and understand where they can grow. Ensure them it’s ok to make a mistake and learn from it. This will put them at ease, and over time they will feel more empowered to make day-to-day decisions for a team without hesitation and without seeking constant approval.
- Match them with a mentor.
Millennials value learning and connecting with others, which is why a mentorship program between senior and junior-level staff members is a great leadership development technique. Mentors can help coach Millennials in a variety of ways, including:
- Modeling leadership behaviors so that they can understand how to lead, communicate, and navigate at the organization.
- Providing career advice on how to set goals, build relationships, and leverage resources.
- Consulting with them about any issues, questions, or ideas they may have.
An additional benefit of a mentorship program is that senior staff can better see the leadership potential in their younger team members!
- Focus on communication & transparency
Encouraging open communication channels is critical to retaining and growing your top young talent. Millennials need a lot of feedback in order to gain confidence and feel like they understand what they are doing right and where they can improve.
Your current leadership team also needs to be open to communication and ideas from their rising talent. As a digitally savvy and resourceful generation, Millennials often have ideas about how things could be done better. Since work-life balance is one of their top priorities, they can develop innovative ways to increase efficiency and quality using technology.
You should also be transparent with Millennials about the purpose of their work. Millennial leaders want to feel like their contributing to the “big picture.” Make sure you communicate how their efforts contribute to the success of the team and the company.
When Millennials feel their work has a greater purpose, they will be truly motivated to work hard and deliver tremendous value as leaders.
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