We all know great leaders inspire action. But do you want mere action from your employees or do you want them to put their whole self behind your cause? Blood, sweat and tears are stuff of the battle field but the emotions, the loyalty and the warrior spirit behind them can be instilled in your own company's cavalry.
What do millennials need from you?
The Story
- What's the story behind the business and what's the story behind the work you have set them to do?
- Why are they doing that work?
- How do we want the story to end? What will be the desired result of that work and what are the wider implications of those results on the company, on clients and on society/ the world?
Do this and watch them not just be your employees but your ambassadors, proselytising everywhere they go.
Ears
- Remember that phrase 'Ask for money, you'll get advice. Ask for advice, you'll get money'. That applies here, ask your millenials for advice and watch what they reap in the form of performance and effort.
- Encourage them to be able to confide in you, especially about things that are unrelated to work
- Ask them to be proactive and tell you about any suggestions, ideas, recommendations that they have for the business. But do not patronise.
- Speak to them as equals and they will treat you with the respect a superior should get. Speak to them as subordinates and they will treat you with no respect.
Breadth
- Some millennials are happy to be button pushers, most are not. They want amulti-dimensional role which encompasses a variety of skill sets and challenges. This gives them the mental stimulation they crave to satisfy their curiosity and creativity.
Ambition
- No real millennial knows what a ceiling is and they don't want to hear about some rigid slowly-scalable structure from you neither.
- Millennials were bred and branded in an era of nothing is impossible- they have witnessed people their age and younger conquer the world in various forms; don't put a damp cloth on their imagination with draconian bureaucracy.
- Preach about the endless opportunity that is on the horizon if they stick by you and then watch them adhere to your vision like trained pit-bulls.
For more insights into the Millennial Mindset, contact me and improve your relationships right now.