How leaders can inspire the instinctively adaptive generation
A growing Millennial workforce
It’s predicted that, by 2020, Millennials will make up 35% of the global workforce. They are an important demographic for businesses to recruit and engage. According to the ‘Technology’s Role in Managing & Retaining Employees’ research, released by Speakap, “Millennials are a double-edged sword for HR professionals – being the most common and the hardest generation of employees to engage. As a generation, millennials; value meaningful experiences over products, are more idealistic than pragmatic, are continuously in search of personal fulfilment (rather than ‘just another job’) and aren’t tolerant of sub-par experiences – whether it’s the customer experience delivered by brands or the employee experience provided by employers” .
Many companies adhere though to outdated norms, many of which are tailored to earlier generations. This is particularly true when it comes to management. According to this Forbes article, today’s employees don’t need a Big Brother figure telling them that budgets are cut, that they will be in big trouble if they don’t meet deadlines. “They need leaders who set them up for success, instil a sense of bigger purpose , and give them the confidence they need to persevere when the work gets challenging”. Millennials don’t want (nor will respond to) an archaic management system that dictates rules and constraints – they crave mentors that guide and inspire them. Management can help the rising Millennial workforce thrive by: creating a relationship of trust and understanding and giving space for growth.
What motivates Millennials?
The question that is crucial here is: What motivates millennial workers? Kelly Baig writes this can be answered by characteristics like the following: “preference for working in teams vs independent work; preference for collaboration vs cooperation, a preference for team awards vs individual recognition, an expectation of technology-enablement in everything, a demand for a high quality work experience vs traditional business “wins” and a demand for meaningful work with tangible contributions and outcomes. The factors motivating millennials are factors which characterize DevOps. In short, DevOps methods appear to be made for how millennials prefer to work – and millennials appear to be made for what DevOps requires”. DevOps relies on a collaborative approach in IT; cutting across traditional silos, encouraging IT to operate in collaboration with business, changing traditional thinking and no longer focusing on efficiencies and cost-control but instead focusing on business contributions and outcomes. This all fits the type of work that millennials should find more attractive and rewarding. This is actually great news for all types of businesses with IT teams that need to progress their approach toward a more DevOps and Agile/Scrum culture. The natural evolution of the workforce should make this progress easier to achieve.
Failure is a step towards growth
Another demographic that HR managers and leaders (especially those from earlier generations) should get to know better, learn how to inspire, manage and create the best environment for are Gen Z. Generation Z is the cohort that follows the Millennials. Demographers and researchers typically use the mid-1990s to mid-2000s as starting birth years. Most of Generation Z have been using the Internet since they were born (so it seems) and are extremely comfortable with world of technology and social media.
Interestingly, according to a recent survey of 1,400 Gen Z individuals, a characteristic of Gen Z is that they embrace failure as a step toward growth. More than 80% of Gen Z think that embracing failure on a project will help them to be more innovative and 17% believe that it will make them more comfortable to take on new risks. The EY survey found that this generation is eager for innovation and accepts that failure will likely be a part of the process. Employers should prepare for Gen Z’s mentality toward embracing failure by ensuring that they have the right resources available to learn from and succeed. This means providing them with mentors that are invested in their success and implementing professional development resources that give them the tools to build and refine their skills. The Agile and Scrum approach seems most suitable for this kind of attitude and culture as it is built on an assumption of learning from your own mistakes and implementing better solutions with each increment.
Gen Z are experts in adaptation
Forbes says Gen Z have grown in the world of exponential change. They accept uncertainty and complexity much better than other generations. Managers need to understand that Generation Z is innovative and entrepreneurial. Flexibility and autonomy in thought and processes is needed for them to flourish and work optimally in the workforce. This is a generation that has a specific set of expectations of what they want their career to look like. Similar to Millennials, Generation Z has the ability to enhance the workforce with a complex set of ideologies, needs, wants, motivations and beliefs compared to earlier generations.
