Millennials as Today's Managers
Millennials are now the majority in managerial positions in the workplace today with more than 62% according to a Zapier Survey. Some of them moved up to leadership positions as the only way to advance in their careers. Others had a passion for managing people and functions.
With this high percentage, some millennials are managing not only Gen Z but also have baby boomers and Gen X-ers as their direct reports. But how are millennials leading? What are their strengths? How are they changing the workforce? Let’s consider these questions.
The main theme of millennial’s approach to management is collaboration; after which they have been given the label the Collaborative generation. This is the principle based on which many of them lead.
Collaboration is on the top of their leadership values, encouraging teamwork, and cooperation across their teams. As much as this is a strength, it can also backfire. Aiming to gain consensus for every decision, this can be viewed as a deficiency or lack of decision making.
In addition, when it comes to Gen Z who value individuality more, therefore a balance between collaboration and giving Gen Z the chance to exercise their individuality is crucial.
Millennials mainly rely on their management style on their morals, ethics, and values. For example, they mostly prefer work systems with flexible working hours and remote work options. Consequently, they do allow lots of flexibility within their leadership system. Since empowerment is an important concept for millennials, they apply & encourage it among their team members. It is as if the main motto for millennials is “Treat others the way you want to be treated”.
In addition to flexibility, collaboration, and empowerment, Millennials also put the vision and higher purpose ahead of making money as they consider the money of secondary importance. For Gen Z who are financially focused, this might create some conflict as the millennial might push for the extra effort to achieve higher goals and/or vision as the most important reward. While a Gen Z report might ask for the financial compensation for this extra effort and hours, only to be looked down on by his millennial manager, who sees reaching the big purpose and making a difference much more important than a paycheck.
Since they value feedback and seek it out, they assume their direct reports want the same. They tend to provide them with several checkpoints to allow for frequent feedback. Despite their good intentions, there are a couple of challenges for millennials.
First, millennials prefer encouraging feedback. Gen Z on the other hand prefers straightforward feedback and does not enjoy sugar coating. But there is also Gen X who are now receiving feedback from millennials who happen to be younger than them.
A Gen X has been raised to respect authority figures, and for them, an authority figure cuts out on the chitchat to which they cannot tolerate. Providing such quality, feedback for both Gen X and Gen Z might be a bit challenging for millennials who might go around what they need to say.
Speaking about this takes us to the trouble millennials face when it comes to conflict resolution as this presents a thorn in the side of many of them, which also leads to avoiding addressing performance issues so as not to disturb anyone.
Millennials are the digital natives. The natural digital tendency within millennials came in useful when the entire world suffered the COVID-19. They switched swiftly and easily handling different communications and meetings across various platforms and applications. However, with a load of digital apps, millennials and their teams suffer from communication overload. Therefore, some focused time must be dedicated to big tasks that require uninterrupted time1.
1 Marc C. Perna 2020, Forbes, Under New Management: Millennials as Successful Managers, Accessed 1 June 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/markcperna/2020/08/11/under-new-management-millennials-as-successful-managers/?sh=4a60e9122487
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