Millennials in Leadership Positions

Does that title scare you or does it challenge you to look at how you are grooming younger mangers who are the future leaders of your organization?

Millennials make up a huge part of today’s workforce and therefore, they are moving into leadership roles already.  Many organizations are finding that developing new leaders in this generation has to be done in a different manner from how we’ve always done it.

We know that no new manager has all the skills necessary to be a good manager. Many managerial skills are learned on the job and through trial and error. Millennials tend to be supremely confident in their abilities to take on leadership roles. We need to provide opportunities for them to gain the knowledge and experience needed to supplement their strengths.

The Millennial generation’s leaders are facing a complex world that is dominated by technology and an ever-changing business environment.  According to an article in the January 2015 issue Workforce Magazine by Michael Watkins and PJ Neal titled Millennial in Training, the authors state that “(Millennials) experience as the first truly diverse and digital generation has prepared them well to lead the next generation.”

They give four key areas of focus for Millennial Leaders:

·       “Developing a Leadership mindset—moving from individual contributor to frontline manager can be a difficult change.  Millennial leaders need to make sure they understand how to build trust and credibility, leverage emotional intelligence and begin to think of themselves as a leader, not just a contributor.”

·       “Leading yourself—millennial leaders need to make sure they develop personal agility to survive in today’s environment. Focus on development areas, such as agility, time and stress management, and delegation skills.”

·       Leading others—two key areas for millennial leaders are accelerating talent development and developing high-performing teams. Focus o how to give feedback, be a coach, manage a team and effectively deal with team conflict.”

·       “Leading the business—millennial leaders need to successfully and effectively drive execution. They need to know how to create alignment with their team and effectively make decisions in a manner that results in their team members and stakeholders feel like they’ve been listened to.”

Our advice to you is to be thinking of how you are going to develop your next leaders so that we can tap into their strengths and help them and our organizations be as successful as possible!

Millennials—They‘re Changing the Way We Work!

Whether we like it or not, the Millennial generation is having a real impact on how work gets done in today’s increasingly complex and competitive workplaces.  The interesting thing to me is that I feel like I am re-living when Generation X first appeared on the scene.

I remember being at a meeting in Washington, DC where Bruce Tulgan was speaking on generations at work.  Bruce was a pioneer in this field and it was a really big deal to me to get to hear him in person. 

He talked about what this new generation wanted—things like more flexibility over when they worked, more feedback on the work they were doing, a chance to be recognized for good work…and more.  When he took questions, someone said, “They are asking for the same things we wanted but we were afraid to ask!”

Fast forward to Millennials and what we know of what they are looking for and it is similar to what I wanted when I started working many years ago and probably what you wanted and still want.

According to Joe Weinlick, vice president of marketing at Beyond.com, a job board and career advice job board and reported by SHRM.org, he says, “If we think about what Millennials care about (corporate culture, workplace flexibility, making a difference and being appreciated), they’re the same things that are important to everybody.”

This same article also quote research done by PwC which is based on 300 interviews, 300 focus groups and 44,000 surveys they conducted in partnership with the University of California’s Marshall School of Business and the London Business School.  PwC realized they better learn about this new generation because by 2016, it would comprise 80% of its workforce.

They found that competitive pay is important but equally important to this generation is flexibility, transparency, collaboration, recognition and management support.

So, when you know what is important to employees, the challenge is to give it to them within the framework of your culture and your business requirements.  Seems to me that providing the things that are important to Millennials (and everyone, for that matter) just will make an organization even stronger.

Rock, Roll, Recycle

The word innovation connotes new - new ideas, new things, and new ways. What about new ways of doing old things – out-of-the-box thinking that counters the mentality of "we've always done it that way?"  What about new uses for old things?

Remember pay phones? Some readers, and I'm not suggesting who they are, remember going to meetings and conferences and waiting in long lines to use the phone to check in with the office. Pay phones and phone booths are iconic parts of our infrastructure that are no longer used.

New York City has re-imagined them for modern use. A consortium of advertising, technology and telecom companies will deploy thousands of modern-day pay phones throughout the city that will offer 24-hour, free gigabit WiFi connections, free calls to anywhere in the country, touch-screen displays with direct access to city services, maps, and directions for tourists, and charging stations for cellphones. They will be capable of connecting to first responders and broadcasting alerts from the city during emergencies like Hurricane Sandy. The system will be the largest free municipal WiFi network in the world. But the old will not be totally abandoned. Some old pay phones will be retained for sentimental value, including three original Superman-style phone booths with operational phones, on the Upper West Side - for posterity.

Outdoor clothing company, Patagonia, holds a deep commitment to the environment. It lives the values of reduce, repair, reuse and recycle and has added a fifth R, reimagine.  They've introduced a new platform that redirects potential buyers of new clothing to an on-line auction that facilitates the sale of used Patagonia clothing. Its Common Threads portal is an evolution of its environmentally sustainable clothing – quality, durability and classic styling. Despite its investment in the portal, only eBay, not Patagonia, received commissions on the sales of its used clothing. So what did Patagonia gain? Brand awareness and engagement soared.

Music Go Round recycles music. More specifically, this retail store in Albuquerque NM, recycles musical instruments. When you walk in, you wouldn't immediately know that their merchandise is used. The walls on one side are lined with guitars that look like they just came from the manufacturer. Music Go Round buys and refurbishes used instruments and sells them for a profit. The telltale indicator - the price tag on each piece of merchandise proclaiming "Reuse, Recycle, Rock." They offer affordable merchandise that might otherwise have ended up in landfills.

John Lennon asked us to "Imagine." These endeavors are pushing the limits and challenging us to reimagine. Creativity is at the core of these innovations without any new product being created. Creativity is positively impacting the carbon footprint. If creativity is part of your organization’s DNA – imagine the possibilities!

Cornelia Gamlem, SPHR

Who Owns Organizational Culture?

Conversations and articles about organizational culture have become more prevalent in the past few years, especially as organizations begin to compete in the global marketplace. What is organizational culture and why is it important?  And what can we do as HR professionals to help strengthen organization culture?

Ed Schein, a former professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and an expert in the field of organizational development defines culture as:

A pattern of shared basic assumptions learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration… a product of joint learning. 

 http://thehypertextual.com/2013/01/17/edgar-schein-organizational-culture-and-leadership/

Culture is the way organizations work. It’s how they accomplish their objectives and the environment in which people work.  It’s the company values – its code of conduct. It is how an organization works together to achieve its business objectives. Organizational culture has a huge impact on an organization’s bottom line. 

A strong culture should be tied to organizational strategy and the execution of that strategy.  It should inspire employees to work hard in both good and bad times.   It helps attract new talent to an organization and retain existing talent.   It’s visible in group dynamics – how they deal with change and unexpected issues.  Those observable patterns permeate throughout the organization and influence how an organization does business. 

Culture is a living organism.  A strong culture changes and adapts to an organization’s strategy and business objectives.  Employees in a strong culture are confident and empowered to play an active role in pushing the organization forward.  A weak culture creates many obstacles and affects employee morale and impacts the bottom line.  It can affect the very core of an organization.

HR can have a positive or negative impact on corporate culture.  The way the HR team interacts with employees and leadership, and the communication between HR and the rest of the organization can affect culture.  The way HR responds to issues in the workplace demonstrates how employees are valued.  Is the organization doing all it can to attract new talent and retain their current talent?  If not, it’s important for HR to advise leadership on ways to improve employee attraction and retention.  Are leaders “walking the walk” or only “talking the talk?”  Organizational leaders should be setting the setting the example of what a positive culture looks like. 

Consider your organization and its culture.  What’s the current impact of your culture on employees?   Do your employees feel safe and energized and are they motivated to stay with the organization? Are they proud of where they work and are they excited to recommend your organization to perspective employees?  An organization must continually take a good look at their culture and understand the impact on its employees and the organization’s bottom line.

Mary Walter Arthur, SPHR