According to a recent survey, 83% of respondents claimed to have seen Millennials inside their workplaces managing other generations. And while 44% of Millennial respondents of this survey viewed themselves as being the most capable generation to lead in the workplace, only 14% of all survey respondents agreed with this sentiment.
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Why? Mainly because Millennials still need more adequate leadership development opportunities, training, and experience. So, if you’re going to invest more in your current and future Millennial managers, as research continues to suggest you should, here’s what they need to know how to do.
Cope with Stress and Anxiety
According to research conducted by the American Psychological Association, Millennials are the most stressed-out generation right now and are also less able to manage their stress when compared to other generations.
Additional research shows that 30% of working Millennials have anxiety that often affects their work performance. Sources of anxiety for Millennials include but are not necessarily limited to a tough job market, student debt, being passed over for promotions, having no clear career trajectories, ambition, addiction, career crises, choice overload, and more.
If you want your Millennial managers to be more successful, consider offering them:
- Financial health incentives and training
- Mental health benefits and training
- Servant leadership training
- Career maps and clearly laid-out career trajectories
- Emotional intelligence training
- Comprehensive leadership training for long-term development
- Mentors or coaches who are successful leaders
Select and Assemble the Appropriate Teams and Team Dynamics
Millennials tend to value collaborative environments and work projects more than any other generation in the current workforce. And studies show that they prefer to work in groups.
Some experts have stated that Millennials tend to form teams with individuals they like working with rather than those employees who have the ideal skill sets and experience they need on those teams. Yet many generations, including the new Generation Z, don’t prefer working in groups as much and value autonomy and individual recognition for work completed inside the workplace.
So, as Millennials manage their workforces and teams, they’ll have to be coached in how to select more dynamic and diverse teams that work a little more independently.
Engage in Strong and Constructive Communications
According to a Deloitte survey, Millennials feel they need to learn stronger interpersonal skills to be more successful in the current workforce. But research also indicates that they tend to be less confrontational than other generations, that they don’t feel very confident, and that they aren’t always very communicative.
So, your Millennial managers will need to be trained in a variety of soft skills and communication-based skills and will need to have guidance in how to offer constructive feedback to their employees, as well as how to resolve conflicts that arise, etc.
If you want your Millennial managers to be more successful, focus your leadership initiatives and programs for them on the things that they need to know, as outlined above.