A Secret the Smartest Companies and the Smartest Leaders Already Know

19 Mar A Secret the Smartest Companies and the Smartest Leaders Already Know

Here are a few fast facts that warrant every company’s attention.

• 38% of your workforce is made up of Millennials – born between 1980 and 1997.
• That percentage will grow to 75% by 2025.
• Most of them are not happy – and aren’t particularly engaged in their job or their career (around 70%.)
• The reasons are myriad but the overwhelming factors are brutally simple:
  • Their leader
  • The training and support they receive in the role
  • The specific goals and sense of job nourishment that is offered

Now, a few additional insights that add a further clarity on the above:

• Bersin by Deloitte suggests that talent development remains one of the top 3 challenges as regards Millennials – and is an essential for a generation that will soon represent a majority of the U.S. work force. And yet most Millennials are incredibly frustrated by their coaching and development – one of the primary reasons they’re projected to leave their place of employment in 2 years or less. Other data suggests at least 4 job changes in the first 10 years – at a significant cost to employers.
• Gallup reports that 87% of Millennials indicate professional development is important to them. Check that – critical. This is the generation less likely to accept the standard organizational patter. They want meaning, purpose, and growth opportunities that align with that vision. A full 71% say that if they know what their company actually stands for that it will make a difference in their decision to stay there.

The Insight

Millennials expect more as regards professional development – but it may not be just as simple as better leaders and more comprehensive training. Let’s take a brief moment to consider the perspective of this – the digital generation. At the risk of painting with too broad of a brush, these assumptions around common characteristics can be made:

• They grew up in the virtual age – ¾ of Millennials not only embrace technology but consider access to it in their job as essential to making them more effective
• Work by PWC suggests 67% of Millennials judge employers based on their technical knowledge – and a majority will select the company they work for based on the sophistication of the employer in this area
• 71% of Millennials use the Internet as their primary source of news. Gallup asserts 91% own a smart phone – my question is where are the 9% that don’t!?!?
• Their attention span – and a by-product of the digital world they grew to maturity in – is a lot less than Gen Xers and Baby Boomers. That’s not an indictment – they process information quickly and move on. Microsoft’s suggestion of 8 seconds for all of us (and the Goldfish example) may or may not be completely accurate – but the overwhelming premise is legitimate. “Give it to me quick…and don’t bore me with too many details.”
• They learn differently – a lot differently – than previous generations. Placing the prototypical Millennial in an 8-to-5 classroom, covering them with product manuals, and immersing them in countless meetings to hammer training messages home not only won’t work – in many cases it will damage.
• Shift Disruptive ELearning reports Millennials are 2.5 times more likely to try new technology – and over half of them will refuse to work for companies that limit or ban social media

And now the compelling Problem Statement for every company, leader, and training department – what most are doing to develop this – the rising generation of the future – isn’t working.

More important, the reasons may speak to less the WHAT of training and coaching – it may speak to the HOW of training and coaching.

The Millennials look at the world differently, they interpret information differently, and they learn differently – and yet many companies deliver coaching and training in much the same way as it’s been provided for the past 50 years. Sort of like hitching a mule to your covered wagon for a trip on the nearest interstate so you can go shopping for a new Tesla.

Archaic.

Some 10,000 Baby Boomers are retiring a day – the torch is passing to a new generation. And yes – it may be time to literally light the way in how we support and develop those who will carry it.

Ideally, training and coaching in the 21^st century will enjoy characteristics radically different from the past. Specifically, it must be:

• Quick. Think microbursts of learning with specific objectives that are simple to understand/execute against – not laborious learning modules that take days to read and interpret.
• Accessible. Millennials learn on the devices that are a part of their life – and if you can’t find it in your pocket or pocket book then you are potentially compromising the learning experience.
• Succinct. This is the generation that grew up in the “140 character world.” “Tell me what I need to know – not what you want to tell me. Get to the point.”
• Mobile. Millennials are on the move – and inundated with information as they travel. “If I can’t see it on my I-Phone or Android then you are already compromising my life. Don’t kill another tree to build me a manual.”
• Communal. There is a reason for the success of social networks – the constant inflow and outflow of information that offers a sense of collaboration and belonging can be powerful for the Millennials. It takes more than a village to build powerful employee support. Give this age group training that aligns with larger purpose and we begin to shift the axis dramatically.
• Customized. The Baby Boomers’ tolerance for bureaucracy – and the sometimes arcane nature of training programs designed by internal experts who don’t do the day-to- day work – has been replaced with the growing impatience of a generation used to quick answers to simple problems. (If you want to test that supposition, take a look at YouTube “fixes” that have replaced direction/installation manuals for almost any product on earth. The average 30 year old goes to the Internet for answers – not to the written directions at the bottom of the box.)
• Flexible. One size does not fit all – to include “when I choose to learn what you want to teach me. I have a life … don’t try and fit me into the box of a 60 year old.”
• Innovative. The tech savvy generation has little tolerance for companies mired in 1984 – or leaders who can’t bridge the gap quickly. “I live in a world that changes by the moment… do you really believe that I don’t need support that mirrors that reality?”
• Immediate. Give me information that I need right now in my life… for the sales call I am about to make; the client follow up discussion I am starting; or the financial report that’s due tomorrow morning. “Don’t make me search a thousand files or a dozen manuals to get the solution for a problem that’s in front of me this very moment.”
• Vivid. “I learn by watching – show me what you want me to know, and align it with how I conduct my life.” (See the YouTube example above.)
• Fun. “I grew up in front of video games … I love to compete… this doesn’t have to be as boring as what and how you’re training me now … does it?” Translation – progressive companies who understand the pedigree of today’s Millennials are much better able to connect with them – and deliver a superior learning experience.
• Collaborative. Today, in every company, scores of workers will do their jobs – effectively building a data bank of potential learning that can shape the future of that firm. But only for those organizations who embrace technology to leverage the insights – and find innovative ways to introduce it to everyone in the company. “Let me give you ideas and inputs to make what we do better … just give me a chance to help make us successful.” Translation – “Give me legitimate purpose that helps me know what I do makes a difference!”

The 12 characteristics offered above are a starting point – one destined to be a part of every company’s training and development approach as demographics shift – and Millennials assume the senior leadership roles of the future. Yes, there will be a day when reference to the above will seem as common sense (or perhaps as dated) as proclaiming someone is “telephone literate.”

The future has already arrived – yesterday.

A final factor – but a compelling one – change often only comes when it is accompanied by crisis – especially when it involves established institutions like coaching, training, and development. Consider:

• Up to $450 billion is lost because of employee disengagement in the U.S. alone each year. A very conservative estimate would place that figure at somewhere between $150 and $200 billion with Millennials alone. That is a sliding scale and that scale is tipping each day.
• The value of connectivity in terms of company and brand strategy, for most companies, is essential. Advanced technology offers a channel for the continuous inflow of information that will allow progressive firms to assess success (or failure) instantaneously – not to wait for the next marketing cycle – or worse yet, the next sales report. Translation – “1984 thinking” is no longer relevant.
• Just in time training adjustments allow a company to proactively address issues – and based on quantifiable analysis input by the community responsible for that work. For every company that literally invests millions in market research – a rich avenue for the future.
• Predictable analysis tools – that allow organizations to identify areas of the company where there is legitimate lift – and then quickly share vital information that otherwise might be isolated, delayed, and/or ignored – is mission critical in the Information Age. A rewrite on the old aphorism is needed – It’s not knowledge that’s power, it’s systemic knowledge that’s power.

Which carries us to the final point. The single greatest determinant of Millennial engagement remains clear – the quality of the boss they report to. That individual either makes or breaks jobs – and careers. The coaching and leadership follow up that advanced technology potentially offers is staggering – especially when placed in the larger context of Millennial motivators. Does this suddenly fix the larger issue of ineffective managers? Not by a long shot – but it does provide solutions that can empower a generation hungering for autonomy and purpose.

A new era dawns – a few enlightened companies will lead the way.