4 Things You Probably Hate about Millennials and Why You’re Probably Wrong
Listen, the challenge of parenting, educating, training, mentoring, and guiding young people has been around for thousands of years. Consider this quote attributed to Socrates, almost 2,500 years ago:
“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.” ~ Socrates
“But my millennials are so much more annoying than we ever were.” Got it.
Remember, millennials look nothing like the previous generations, and that’s why they annoy you. It’s a lack of understanding of and between different generations. The point is millennials are probably everything and nothing we say about them.
- Entitled, lazy, and won’t do what they’re told? In a poll of 5,000 workers by Jennifer Deal of the Center for Creative Leadership and Alec Levenson of the University of Southern California, 41% of millennials agreed that “employees should do what their manager tells them, even when they can’t see the reason for it,” compared with 30% of baby boomers and 30 percent of Gen Xers.
- Aren’t competitive? The Economist cites research by CEB, a consulting firm that polls 90,000 American employees each quarter, that 59% of millennials say competition is what gets them up in the morning much more than the percentage of baby boomers or Gen Xers that say that about competition.
- Only communicate digitally? That study by Jennifer Deal and Alec Levenson showed that more than 90% of millennials surveyed want face-to-face feedback and career discussions.
- Jump ship and are not committed for the long term, or really any term? According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average worker stays at a job 4.4 years, and yes, according to the Future Workplace “Multiple Generations @ Work” survey of 1,189 employees and 150 managers, 91% of millennials expect to stay less than three. But beware of averages: Millennials may find it normal to job-hop faster than any previous generation, but when they find the right opportunity they actually are more loyal than the previous generation. The CEB study showed millennials put future career opportunity among their top five reasons for choosing a job, again ahead of other generations.
Simply put, when it comes to millennials, most of us have no idea what to believe or do. So we believe and assume the worst. Until we see this, the most powerful myths or assumptions that we have about millennials will continue to negatively impact our attitudes about, perceptions of, and relationships with them.
Get past the myths and realize that individual differences are more important than generational ones In the end, most millennials just want what we all should want: challenge, flexibility, purpose, engagement, collaboration, work-life balance, transparency, and authenticity.
They want bosses who care, set clear expectations, and are willing to coach—and who understand what they expect and need in the workplace. Are these things so unappealing or are they just not your story?
Don’t let generational differences be the problem. Lean in and consider millennials an opportunity to learn, connect, and kick more butt in your business using millennial power.
*****
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Getting Nowhere!
I learned about a creature that I didn’t know much about in Lesson #9 of 52 Leadership Lessons: Timeless Stories For The Modern Leader by John Parker Stewart. The lesson used the analogy of the Processionary Caterpillar. You know how I love analogies and this one is a good one for what happens in all organizations at some time or another. These cool little creatures feed on pine needles. The interesting part is, though, that they travel like a train with their eyes half shut, head to tail fitted right against each other. So, wherever the first one goes (let’s call her the leader) the others go blindly. Are you getting the analogy here? According to the lesson, you can place them in a circle and it can take up to 10 hours for them to realize they are going nowhere. Again, are you catching the powerful analogy?
“Don’t become processionary. Question the status quo. Work smarter, not harder.” ~ John Parker Stewart
We all have become Processionary Caterpillars at some time or another. Either as the 
leader, or one of the followers. This is something I have called Lazy Leadership. You can read about it here. The big thing to keep in mind here is to avoid blindly, without question, performing tasks the “way it has always been done,” with no regard on how to improve or change for the betterment of the organization. I actually was discussing this last night at one of our family events after I had spoken to some of our teachers about ways to improve some processes. Our teachers are very talented and knowledgeable, and we need to continue to find ways to tap into that knowledge gained. We can then take that knowledge and improve as a learning organization.
If we find ourselves resembling the Processionary Caterpillar more than we would first think or want we need to make adjustments. If you fear that you share some of the style of the Processionary Caterpillar, here are some questions Stewart suggested to ask:
- Why are we doing this?
- Don’t answer with, “That’s the way we have always done it.”
- Don’t ever do something because, “We’ve always done it that way.”
We need to avoid mistaking activity for accomplishment. We do not want to act like the Processionary Caterpillar. We possess an intelligence that enables us to be different from all the lower forms of life. Be all you can be by learning from the pitiful Processionary Caterpillar. My takeaway is that we need to assume there is always a better way. That does not mean we redo everything, or we would never get anything done, but we do need to question the status quo. Remember, if better is possible then good is not enough.
Everyone is Watching!
One of my leadership heroes, John Wooden, was a great coach and an amazing person of true character. One of many of his quotes was:
“The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.” ~ John Wooden
While I totally agree with this quote, I also believe that leaders need to remember that everyone is watching as decisions are being made. This past week I have had several situations happen where I have had to make decisions and take action knowing that everyone is watching. Honestly, I was was very aware that everyone was watching and was actually taking this into account. It seems to me that a leader’s character and core values are tested most when EVERYONE is watching and it is in that environment that many leaders fail the test of true character and walking the walk. I wish Coach Wooden was still alive to ask him if: Perhaps character and great leadership is better defined by what you do when everyone is watching, just as much as it is when no one is watching?
Whether we know it or not, people are paying attention. The way we act today, influences how we all act tomorrow. And those actions influence others – whether they know it or not. Whether we’ve chosen to recognize it yet or not, we are an example to others by the actions we take and decisions we make – for ourselves and those around us. Either of how to act or how not to, or how we walk the talk of what we say we believe in. In this sense we are all leaders and you know I believe everyone is a leader. Every choice we make, big and small, is a chance to lead. We are either an example of high standards and what’s possible, or another contributor to the complacency. I have been preaching, for example, in our schools that we must tighten the ship and make every decision based on what is best for students. Therefore, my decisions this week have had to be with this in mind, knowing everyone is watching and using the metric of, “Is he tightening the ship?” Remembering this unavoidable principle has always helped make decisions quite clear for me. If my actions (or inactions) aren’t something I’d want those I lead to take, then they probably aren’t what I need to take.
We must even pursue the decisions and actions we cannot make or do today because this makes it a lot more likely to pursue it tomorrow. And as others notice, it enables them to do the same. Remember, everyone is watching. We must realize that we all are a personal example of what’s possible to someone, or a whole group of someones – however small and subtle those decisions and actions might be on a day-to-day basis. They add up. And to be that same example for those around us. For the people you might not realize are watching… because someone and everyone always are.
My actions and your actions are training ourselves and others. Are we living up to our organization’s vision, mission, and core values? Are we living up to our own personal core values? Everyone is watching! What will they see us do next?
Work Like a MacBook
I catch myself saying, “We need to work more like a MacBook” all the time. I am such a believer in the streamlined and simple approach that Steve Jobs gave the world when designing Apple™ products. It is the same surface level simplicity with back-end oomph (OS) that I want for the schools that I lead. To me a streamlined process means fewer errors and delays. I touched on this some in my 2012 post Lead “Like a MacBook Pro.” Click here to read that post. In that post, the comment is made, “With a Mac what used to take three or four steps with a pc will only take a single step with the Mac!” That’s really how I believe everything should run in an organization.
So, why would we not want the organizations we lead to have all the features I believe Apple™ products bring to the table? Here are a few of the top ones:
- Easy/automatic integration between devices (iPhone, iPad, MacBook)
- Streamlined, single step processes
- Home/individual content creation is excellent (iMovie and Garage Band specifically)
- Joyful buying experience and after sales care
- Very high build quality, premium materials and components, and generally great customer service when an error does occur
Think about it. If we achieved these things in the organizations we lead, there could not help but be great things happening.
It gives me great angst when there are times when the process involves one person doing something or collecting information only to pass that information to someone else to enter somewhere else – Why do we do this to ourselves? Many work processes are developed on an ad hoc basis out of necessity and become the standard model for getting work done. In many cases, there is already collective wisdom within your organization on how to improve the work flow, but it is extremely difficult for any one person to make a change in a work process without the opinions and involvement of other employees and leaders. Great leaders request input about streamlining efforts from anyone in the work-flow chain. Seek their opinions about how to improve efficiency.
One thing that I try to pay close attention to is how employees improve their own part of the process. Many times people will naturally streamline their own portions of a work flow, simply to defeat tedium. This is not a bad thing, but sometimes this streamline for an individual causes extra processes somewhere else. Rule of thumb: Aim to make the work flow efficient, but not your people. This will in turn create efficiency for the organization and ultimately all of those you lead and not just a select few. Implementing streamlined work flow improvements, starting with the obvious low-hanging fruit that is a usual part of any work flow process is a great place to start.
Take a look at the processes, reporting protocols, and all the work your people and organizations do and see if there are ways you can streamline like a MacBook to a single step instead of two or three.
Too Tall Leadership
Leadership, an act or series of acts that moves people in a certain direction can no longer be displayed by a lone giant or heroic individual. As you know I believe that leadership can come from anyone who displays leadership as an occasional, discrete act of influence, anywhere and at anytime necessary. Yes, a leader must provide direction, but the person at the so-called ‘top’ isn’t the only person who can provide it. More importantly, this is not the only person that should be providing it.
Many times, and wrongly I might add, we consider that the ideal leader has vision, charisma, integrity, emotional intelligence, an inspiring delivery and sterling character. But if there are leaders who don’t fit this image, then we cannot use our ideal to define leadership in general. Too many times we make leaders out to be giants. Providing direction is still a core role of leadership. However, leaders can provide only a portion of it. Leadership can also be provided by all employees, where its meaning shifts from deciding new directions to influencing others to accept a new direction.
In this week’s entry, Lesson #8, titled “Two Friends and a Giant” in 52 Leadership Lessons: Timeless Stories For The Modern Leader by John Parker Stewart the topic was the large Sequoia Redwood trees. The story was about the Chickaree and the Wood Boring Beetle. Both use the Sequoia cones as food sources and this allows new trees to grow. In other words the big giants need others to step up and be part of carrying on the species. It takes the team to make this all work.
“As soon as you are too tall to let a small one help you, you are doomed to extinction.” ~ John Parker Stewart
Leadership does not have to happen from giants at the top. Leadership shown by outsiders or bottom-up does not entail occupying a particular role, being a certain type of person, or using positional authority to make decisions. It means creating an environment where everyone is a leader. When, what I call a ‘street level’ innovator, promotes a new product to management, leadership is shown bottom-up. I believe that information should flow up as opposed to the other way around. Decisions need to be made as close to ‘street level’ as possible. We need to find direction regardless of its origin. Everyone is a leader, so anyone with a better idea can influence change.
The Leadership Tower: A Classic Jenga Model
I recently got a very cool gift from a group of Hoosier Academies Network of School’s teachers. The teachers took Jenga® pieces, signed them, and then glued the tower together. This was such an appropriate and appreciated gift because of how much we use the Jenga® theme, and the fact that they built something to give to me. For those that know me well, know that I am a believer in creating models and building when do professional growth activities. In other words, I strive not to use technology and presentations. I was deeply moved by the gesture and have picked a special place in my office for this.
You all know what Jenga® is, right? That’s the game where you start with 54 wooden pieces stacked in 18 alternating rows creating a stable tower. Every move from that point on destabilizes the tower as pieces are removed from inside the structure to place them on top growing it taller and taller until it eventually topples. Many times when we play we just pull pieces till someone (the loser) makes the tower fall. As I looked at the tower I had been given, I thought about the powerful metaphor Jenga® is as a leadership model. I have blogged about it before in Jenga Masters Leadership. Click here to read the post. This time as I was viewing the tower I thought of a new aspect. I viewed the tower as a model of change and strategy decisions.
As a leader, are you building towards a cohesive vision for the future of your organization? Or, are you just pulling blocks out and placing on top of the tower, hoping the structure does not topple over?
Being A Multiplier
Lesson #7 in 52 Leadership Lessons: Timeless Stories For The Modern Leader by John Parker Stewart was titled “Chains and Ribbons.” It was the story about how circuses used to restrain elephants by putting a chain on their leg attached to a stake at a very young age when the chain and stake would actually restrain them. An adult elephant could easily pull up the stake, but he has been conditioned that he can’t. In other words he had been conditioned to the restraint. This can happen to those we lead too. If we chain our people down, they get used to the restraint and then their innovation, creativity, collaboration, and self-motivation go away.
Employees who don’t self-start, make decisions on their own, give input, get feedback, and grow as people with purpose, eventually suffocate under micro-management and lose the will to contribute meaningfully. Top-down bosses are notorious for killing intrinsic motivation. Then, good employees are turned into order takers. These same employees then tend not to exercise one of the better traits that we want in those we lead – being a self-starter. Great leaders are present and in the moment. They don’t need to talk over others to get their point across.
Great leaders care less about flaunting their own IQs and more about fostering a culture of intelligence in their organizations. Under this type of empowering leadership these leaders become “multipliers.” Employees don’t just feel smarter, they become smarter. I believe in shifting the responsibility for thinking from myself to those I lead. As a multiplier I work at taking the time to understand the capabilities of each individual I lead so that I can connect employees with the right people, the right opportunities, and hyper personalize their personal growth. This enables an organization to build a virtuous cycle of attraction, growth, and opportunity.
Are you restraining those you lead? How can you empower your people to collaborate in a culture of excellence that encourages dissent, growth, innovation, and creativity? Go out and be a multiplier by explicitly giving people permission to think, speak, and act with reason.
My New Leadership Talent: Spinning Plates!
Coming to grips with the multiple parts to any organization is invaluable for leaders trying to keep their people and priorities in balance at a time when cultural and leadership change sometimes seems an existential imperative. Just as a circus performer deftly spins plates or bowls to keep them moving and upright, so must leaders constantly intervene to encourage the sorts of behavior that align an organization with its top priorities. Masters in this circus manipulation art can barely keep 100 plates spinning at a time. How many plates can any harried player-manager handle? Typically, less than a dozen.
Today, for the first time in my life I did a plate spinning act for our entire school staff. I had been using the metaphor for a few months now because of all of the things we have going on. In fact, I would many times just make a motion like I was spinning a plate. Therefore, I decided in my opening session that I would spin plates. For being my first time it went very well – I think. I even used the act introduce our newest administrators by passing them a poll with a spinning plate as an act of passing the torch, so to speak. The plates really represent all the facets, initiatives, paradoxes, parts of an organization a leader must be focused on. Spend to much time on one plate and the others fall. Left too long without attention, they run out of energy, start spinning out of control, and may come crashing to the floor. Personal development, coaching, performance management, addressing team dynamics, and reinforcing objectives are all forms of plate spinning. The leader must find the exact right balance.
Embracing the paradoxes can be uncomfortable. Yet the act of trying to reconcile these tensions helps leaders keep their eyes on all their spinning plates and identify when interventions are needed to keep the organization lined up with its top priorities. I believe approaching leadership much like plate spinning makes it possible to avoid the frustration of many leaders I’ve witnessed, who pick the extremes by either trying to stifle complex behavior by building powerful and rigid top-down structures, or by looser, more laissez-faire styles of management that expose the messy realities of human endeavor. Far more centered and high performing, in my experience, are those leaders who welcome the inconvenient contradictions of organizational life.
This is why I am such a believer in engagement and empowerment of everyone on the team. With an intent-based leadership philosophy where everyone is a leader, all individuals have a role in keeping the plates spinning. Empowerment is fundamentally an individualized equation, or what I call hyper-personalized. What might make one employee engaged might turn off the next person – we, as leaders, must be able to read these turn-ons and turn-offs. There are many variables that can impact any one person’s engagement, and the mix is individually unique. You can’t just become a better plate spinner. You have to find ways to keep the plates spinning on their own.
Leaders As Non-Conformists
This morning I just started reading the incredible book, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant. As a card carrying non-conformist I am really taking in all the stories and research in this book. It also goes right along Lesson #6 in 52 Leadership Lessons: Timeless Stories For The Modern Leader by John Parker Stewart. This lesson titled “Hooks and Loops” was about George de Mestral. Ok… be honest, do you know who he is? Or, what he is famous for? I didn’t until I read this lesson.
George loved to hike, but hated coming back with burrs stuck all over his clothes. He decided one day to study the burrs under a microscope and discovered that they were made up of little hooks that would, well, hook the fabric of your clothes. He was struck by the idea that he could create a hook and loop fastener out of fabric. Long story short, everyone thought he was crazy and even ridiculed him about his idea. He finally found a French fabric maker to help him manufacture a prototype. His original prototype did not hold up to continual use, but then after more research and trial he learned he could treat nylon with infrared light and it would hold up under use. He then combined the words “velvet” and “crochet” to, yep you guessed it, name the product we all use today – Velcro®.
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
~ George Bernard Shaw
We are all faced with opportunities dressed up as problems or challenges. How we deal with those opportunities is up to us. I prefer to run toward those challenges and face them head on. Think about it – George de Mestral found a tremendous opportunity that literally changed the world in an annoyance during hiking.
“We are continuously faced with opportunities disguised as insolvable problems.”
~ John Parker Stewart
- What do our people need in order to resolve challenges?
- Who is the best qualified to help those we lead?
- What is our attitude toward new ideas that are non-conformist?
- What is our attitude when faced with opposition to our own ideas?
Letting Go Leadership
As an organization grows, evolves, and develops, it needs a leader who knows how to give autonomy to different stakeholders who can be leaders more effectively in all areas. In other words, it needs a leader who can let go of needing to push all decisions out and do it all. I believe most leaders have a hard time letting go is because they believe that they can do it better. I also believe that many leaders have a narcissistic fear that somehow they won’t get credit for the successes of the organization or it won’t be exactly like she envisioned it. Guess what? It probably won’t be. It will probably be better. If you want to read a little more about this fear thing, click here to take a look at a post entitled “The Fearless Leader” by a great teacher leader, Ann Semon.
The best leaders, however, learn how to do it – let go. In fact, they often learn to love doing it once they start bringing in people who are even better than they are in key areas–people who know more than they do, and from whom they can learn. When that happens, it can push organizations forward to a whole new level. This strategy in a sense “unlocks” the entire organization to continue evolving in a much faster and healthier way.
As part of letting-go, the best leaders learn to trust the people they’re bringing into the organization to become the future leaders. Leaders must be a part of building this trust by being actively involved in, and owning, the leadership development of those in the organization. Let me emphasize here – Development of the leadership pipeline is crucial here. This can only happen if you’re willing to give all in the organization ample control. Ask yourself these questions:
- “Do I really trust them to the point that I’ll let them make tough decisions?”
- “Do I trust them to learn?”
- “Do I trust them to grow?”
- “Do I trust them to experience their own failures?”
Can you answer yes to all these questions? If you can get to yes on all these it will be an incredibly powerful force for your organization. The culture you want to build is one that gives other leaders full autonomy without micromanagement. So let’s talk about this empowerment and autonomy…
I was fortunate to take a group of teachers and new principal to Harry and Izzy’s last night as a planning and team building. So, you know me, we don’t just talk about empowerment and intent based leadership, we practiced it. I wrote about what I like to do already this week in “Imagine A Place Where Everyone Is A Leader!” Click here to read the post. I literally would not let our group even look at the menu and told them we were going to empower our amazing waitress, Jen Becknell, to pick our meals for us. We gave her any boundaries, such as being pregnant, food allergies, et cetera. We even gave her permission to pick our drinks for us. Then, off Jenn went to put together one of the most incredible meals ever. I would love for Jenn to post a comment to this post as to what she chose and how she chose the dishes for us. Having done this now multiple times I am struck that I have never had a bad meal. We asked Jenn how she became so knowledgeable and she explained all the professional development Harry and Izzy’s had given her. Even things like going to their meat supplier in Chicago to understand the different types of aging processes in beef. This is a great example of Harry and Izzy’s giving Jenn the technical skill necessary to be fully empowered to be a great ambassador for the organization.
If you develop your leaders properly you will be able to trust the people who you hired to do their jobs with full autonomy, you may be surprised by how well it works out. Letting Go Leadership is nothing more than empowering your employees and teams to make their own decisions. As long as everyone has a shared vision and is committed to doing what’s best for the organization and those you serve, it can lead to bigger and better things. This certainly the environment I strive to create for every staff member in our school.
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