Are they working in your organisation? Young people, either just graduated or in the second or third job of their career? Who live on their phone, who talk their own language and who seem so difficult to manage? Welcome to the world of the millennials. Young people born after 1984. The new and upcoming force in the corporate world.
I came across this great interview with Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why, in which he gives his views on what makes millennials tick and how the corporate world is dealing with it. He talks about 4 areas of concern when it comes to millennials:
- Parenting – Millennials are who they are based on failed parenting strategies. They were told by their patents that they were special, and could have anything they wanted. And then when they get into the real world and start working they find out that they are not special at all. In an instant their entire self image is shattered.
- Technology – Millennials live on social and mobile. They no longer know how to build relationships other than friends and likes. Social and mobile can be compared with alcohol and gambling. It releases dopamine in the body which is highly addictive. They can’t deal with stress so they go to mobile/social media – offering short term release.
- Impatience – Millennials live on instant gratifications – movies, dating, buying stuff. It’s all available under the button on their mobile phone. Except job satisfaction and deep relationships. They need to learn to be patient to get love, skills, joy and job satisfaction.
- Environment – And to make this all worse, when they start working we put them in a corporate environment who cares more about short term gain than the long term life of the millennial employee. We aren’t helping them to overcome the challenges. Millennials start blaming themselves for how they feel. Its the lack of good leadership to help and teach them the social skills they need to survive in the corporate world.
To hear the full story and to see Simon in action, watch the full interview below.
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