Millennials Bring Skills, Challenges to Management

Due to economic pressures or a desire to stay active and productive, more older workers are deferring retirement, and many of these will find themselves at some point working for someone much younger.

But managing people is a skill that comes with experience, HR professionals say, and a lack of that experience poses a challenge for the thirtysomethings and even twentysomethings moving into their first managerial positions.

 “I see some of the struggles that young leaders have early on in those roles,” said Brian Sorensen, president of the Northwest Arkansas Human Resources Association.

After nearly seven years in recruiting and talent development at Tyson Foods Inc., Sorensen joined Saatchi & Saatchi X last month as talent director at its headquarters in Springdale.

“I’ve been privileged to be in a leadership role for some time now,” the 34-year-old said, “but for many people my age, that opportunity is just now coming along.”

Though researchers vary in defining the generations, most label folks born before 1946 as veterans or traditionalists. Next are the baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964. Generation X was born between 1965 and 1980, followed by generation Y, or millennials, born after 1980.

Generation Y now comprises 21 percent of the workforce, Kristine Sexter, an industrial and organizational consultant based in Tulsa, has found. Half of the workforce is older than 40 and a quarter is older than 50.

Gen Y leaders need to be prepared to understand the dynamics at play between the generational groups, said Rachael McCone, director of leadership and organizational development at Tyson.

“We also have to prepare our organizations to understand the new leadership style we will see in the future,” she said.

 

Millennial Portrait

Maxie Carpenter, an independent management consultant and adviser whose 27-year career with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. included serving as VP of the People & Training/Development Division, said millennials bring a higher level of academic learning to the workforce.

They grew up in a time of prosperity and had more resources to pursue an education, said Carpenter, who is also an adjunct professor at John Brown University’s Graduate School. And often their parents pushed the importance of education.

Another trait, which he said some people view as a negative but he sees as a positive, is this age group isn’t tied to tradition.

“They are quite willing to jump out of traditional paradigms in a New York minute,” he said. “There are no sacred cows, and in fact [they have] a low tolerance for others who hold on to tradition, especially in the area of culture.”

This age group also is value driven, which Carpenter says has created an interesting dynamic in the workforce, especially among people who’ve spent years at a company.

“Unless you really have a mind that’s willing to accept change,” he said, “one of the things you don’t understand is how do you add value after you’ve been there and you think you’ve added great value for all these years, and then all of a sudden the rules change.”

People from the “old” workforce don’t understand what it means to create and add value, he said, because that’s not the way their world operated.

“Their world valued you for simply showing up every day without missing work and putting your time in, and ‘oh by the way, you have to do a good job.’ That was value to them.”

What the millennials bring to the marketplace, he said, is an emphasis on productivity, efficiency and profitability, and how a person can contribute to those processes.

On the other hand, he points out, they tend not to realize the value of experience. This can cause older workers to feel unappreciated, when in fact a company’s most valuable resource is the experience of its staff.

Because business moves so quickly now, Sorensen said, more is expected of leaders than ever before.

“That’s a lot of pressure for a young person who still fundamentally needs to deal with motivations and other human behaviors,” he said.

“You can’t read a textbook as a college student and then walk into the workforce and know how to manage somebody. It’s part science and part art, but it’s something that comes with experience, and you’ve got to have that experience to grow into that role.

“I like to say you’ve got to trip and fall and skin your knee a few times before you figure out what works.”

 

The Credibility Factor

 Managing workers who are older than they are is one of the biggest challenges millennials face, McCone said.

“These young people coming in were taught to be collaborative and work more as a team,” she said, “where older or more experienced people may want more specific direction from the new person. But that’s just now how they work. They’re more into shared responsibility than being the boss.”

Also, new managers may ruffle feathers among more tenured employees by questioning why things are done a certain way, McCone said. Because they don’t value tradition, they’re not content with being told, “That’s the way we’ve always done it.”

“Someone said they’re called generation Y because they ask ‘why’ all the time,” she said.

As a balance to these problems, McCone stresses what she calls the credibility factor.

When coaching young managers, she asks them to think about how to build credibility with their team. She walks them through an initial 90-day plan designed to help them develop relationships with subordinates and create a shared goal they can rally around.

McCone also has found that because millennials place more value on ability than seniority, they expect to be promoted faster based on their merit.

“In the past, it’s been a matter of who’s been here the longest plus who has the strengths,” McCone said. “What I spend a lot of time on [with young managers] is how do you position yourself as a leader in the organization. Age is a non-issue. It’s not what you do but how you do it” that matters most.

 Sorensen has noticed the same trait, and has come up with this advice for the eager beavers: “Slow down to go fast.”

He suggests they take time to build relationships, really get to know their employees and give them plenty of “face time.”

“That’s some of the art of leadership,” he said.

 

Growing Leaders

While younger workers bring a unique set of traits and skills to an organization, they often need some help to transition smoothly into a managerial role.

Carpenter stresses the importance of formal mentoring programs, which most organizations lack. That’s because of the time commitment it places on the executives, but most millennials have never had mentors and “blossom” in that relationship, he said.

McCone suggests several ways HR professionals or those who supervise these young managers can support them in their first leadership experience:

• Help them understand the “why” of their job – why they are asked to do something, and why it is important to the overall cause of the company.
• Give them feedback on a regular basis so they understand how they are progressing.
• Help them understand they may need to demonstrate to their team how using technology can improve productivity.
• Continue to show them ways they can develop themselves to become strong leaders.

“They value this and expect the development focus,” McCone said.

• Most importantly, help them understand what credibility looks like for the team members they lead, and help them modify their style when needed.

Sorensen would like to see corporations put as much focus on supporting employee development as they do on the bottom line.

“What’s common among virtually all companies is it’s easier for people to review numbers than it is to talk about people issues,” he said.

The rub, he said, is that the financials are concrete and can be determined with a calculator. There’s a formula for them, but the formula for people isn’t so clear.

“We see these things in staff meetings – what percentage of time is looking at numbers, and what percentage of time is looking at people issues. And I think it’s largely weighted toward things like revenue and ROI and sales, all those kinds of things.

 “I think we would be well served if we balanced that out,” he said.