Here Come the Millennials

Trait 1 – How Come No One Asked Me?

From being dragged along with parents to Best Buy to choose a computer to being asked to research what car to buy, millennials have become among their parents’ most frequently consulted advisors. Burned-out baby boomers have struggled to find time for a vacation—let alone plan one—so why not turn to the kids? Millennials not only had the time when they were growing up, but they were Web savvy enough to find the best deal.

The Clash: Millennials are accustomed to freely offering their opinions at the dinner table, but they face a different situation at the boardroom table. Management knows why a person who has been with the company for six months isn’t editing the five-year strategic plan, but millennials are used to being involved in big decisions at home and are surprised (and perhaps offended) when they’re not consulted at work. They might conclude that they are working in a place that doesn’t value their opinions, or a culture that believes in order to have a good idea, you have to be around for a while. That could lead to higher turnover among millennials who dislike and do not understand a system that places tenure before anything else.

The Click: When vacations that used to take weeks to plan were arranged between dinner and bedtime, parents realized that asking a millennial to get the job done was a smart move. Companies may benefit in a similar way, gaining a competitive edge by tapping into millennials’ up-to-date ideas, knowledge of cultural trends, and ease of adapting to new technologies. Because millennials have become so comfortable giving input at such an early age, they are ready to initiate ideas. The advantage: Millennials will speak up at a time when other generations are afraid to challenge the way things have always been done.

Advertising agency Campbell Mithun in Minneapolis, for example, invited millennials to determine what would make the most meaningful experience for interns, because the company recognized that doing so would give it a competitive advantage in recruiting employees. The result? A branded internship program called The Lucky 13 that features a mentoring component and two mandatory performance discussions. Campbell Mithun saw its number of internship applicants more than double.

Trait 2 – There Are No Winners or Losers

Stop by any T-ball field on a Saturday afternoon, and you may be surprised to find that these days, kids get to swing until they hit the ball. And it wouldn’t be right not to let everyone have a turn at bat, so teams no longer switch places after three outs. Chalk one up for boomer parents who did a great job of launching the self-esteem movement with their children. Millennials are as proud of a 10th-place ribbon as they are of getting the gold.

The Clash: Boomer parents took to heart the theories in Thomas Harris’s 1976 bestseller, I’m OK, You’re OK. While “everybody is a winner” may work on the T-ball field, it’s not always how the game of work is played. There are winners and losers—and yes, someone is keeping score. After the first round of formal reviews with millennials, managers report that they find it useful to keep a box of tissues handy. After all, millennials are not used to hearing much criticism; they were always told that they were better than average.

“Our supervisors come from a generation that did not need a lot of external recognition beyond pay and promotions, so this need to provide a lot of praise may not come naturally,” says K. C. Foley, executive vice president of human resources at Campbell Mithun. Managers and supervisors risk writing millennials off as immature rather than trying to understand the true reason behind the tears. What the manager sees as a minor suggestion can leave the millennial feeling paralyzed or lacking a sense of belonging.