Lead Like a Millennial

There is so much millennial bashing out there. The entitled generation, the ‘hard to lead’ generation, the lazy generation, disloyal employees, I could go on.

I took a wonderful executive leadership development program a year ago from a world-renowned management school, and yet there was so much blaming of millennials for making leaders’ jobs too hard, and being terrible employees or managers. Being on the early cusp of the millennial generation myself, and the youngest participant in that training, I felt I had to speak up to defend an entire generation.

With the average age for first time managers being around 30, many millennials in the corporate world are now leading people. And here are a few of the ways they are changing leadership for the better.

Leading with Values.

A recent Deloitte research found that 64% of millennials in senior positions relied on their own values and morals to make decisions at work, while goals such as meeting company’s profit of target revenue ranked well below. And here's a couple reasons why this matters.

Firstly, our worlds are way more complex than ever before. There is rarely right or wrong, but only lots of grey. As much as we try to put numbers on everything, not every decision has directly measurable impacts on the bottom line. Having a strong moral compass as a source of truth can help cut through indecision and move faster, all the while leading with integrity.

Secondly, our worlds are now interconnected, and as the lines between life and work become more and more blurred, the ability to connect personal values to company values becomes of utmost importance. Millennial leaders prioritize social purpose, as well as a positive work/life balance that integrates values across all vectors of employees’ lives.

Rethinking Hierarchical Structures and the Rise of Servant Leadership.

Millennials favour flat hierarchical structures and emphasize collaboration and flexibility over structure, processes and hierarchy.

One of my pet peeves, that I now realize through my research I share with an entire generation, is policy for the sake of policy. Millennials will not shy away from asking why policies exist, and not be satisfied with the answer ‘because this is the way we’ve always done it’.

Flat hierarchies also allow employees to explore nontraditional career paths, and learn different skillsets on the job. In those types of corporate structures, the role of the leader morphs into servant leadership: a much talked about but still underutilized leadership concept where the leader’s primary role is to clarify the will of the group or the individual, and become the facilitator for others’ success.

Vulnerability and Courage.

I’m channeling my inner Brene Brown here, but we now know how important vulnerability and courage are in leadership. Millennials not only favour ‘human’ leaders with strengths and weaknesses, but tend to be so themselves. As opposed to putting superheroes-who-can-do-no-wrong on pedestals, the qualities of humility, openness and continuous learning become much more important. And while this doesn’t mean a leader needs to stand on stage and shed tears at every town hall meeting, it does mean they seek to actively learn from employees at every level, they say ‘sorry I screwed up’ when making mistakes, and openly share both successes and struggles, so that the organization can move forward more productively.

Some may say they are disloyal, but I believe it takes courage to question and challenge the status quo, and sometimes to leave an organization or a leader that does not align with your personal values.

Of course, millennials have a lot to learn from every other generation, just like every other generation stands to learn from millennials.

One day when she was 5, my daughter who was learning at school about the growth mindset, came home and said "You know what I learned today? I learned that everyone is a teacher. Even me, I’m a teacher!”. I will never forget this moment, as she could not have been more right. So let’s stop bashing one another, start recognizing that at every age we all have something to learn from each other, and lean on our collective strengths to make the world a better place.