Dates vary, but if you were born after 1978 you are considered to be a millennial. If you were born before this time, than chances are you work with, or perhaps manage millennial employees. To the baby-boomer generation millennial employees seem to be high-maintenance, needy employees, while to the millennial, the baby-boomer seems to be stuck in their ways, and frankly, 'old fashioned'.
Regardless of what the generations think of each other, the reality is that a generational hand-off is coming. The world is facing the largest retirement boom in the next ten years, and that little 'brat' down in sales will probably be running a company some day, but will it be your company? Only if you can face a few truths.
1. The era of going to work for GM for 30 years is over. Today, Millennial age workers are more mobile than ever in the history of the world, and that mobility includes their employment. Once you hire someone, it's not a slam dunk. The recruitment process continues to keep that employee with your company. It's cheaper to keep a happy employee, than continually hire new ones to replace the ones you are not satisfying.
2. Filling your leadership pipeline is not purely an issue of experience. Experience and wisdom are clearly linked, but people often equate experience with solid leadership, and experience has proven many times to be a poor indicator of leadership. If you're going to have a leadership pipeline that will meet your needs, it won't come from simply keeping employees, but INTENTIONALLY developing them for those roles in the future. Oh, and guess what, intentional development is one of those things that will help you keep your employees, because millennial workers don't just want it, they demand it, and they will find another company or organization to get it.
Here's the deal. Religious workers aren't any different. I heard recently a statistic that 80 percent of pastoral trained workers will not be working in their field of training in five years. On the missions side of things, I can sit here and easily outnumber my fingers with the number of 30 somethings that I know who have left mission agencies for one reason or another and have either left altogether, or gone to a different agency.
The reality is that mission agencies have to do a good job of managing and leading our people. God may call people to missions, but it's less often that we hear that He's called them to an organization, and there are more organizations out there than ever. If a millennial feels that their impact is muted with one organization, or that they aren't progressing forward, they can, and will leave.
So here are three suggestions for leading millennials in missions or business.
1. Communicate - They are the Facebook generation. A recent poll of 1000 millennials found that 60% expected to hear from their boss once a day. A top reason that 90% did not expect to be with their organization in 10 years was because of a 'lack of communication.'
2. Win their favor, but don't cross the line from advocate to friend. - Millennials will have many friends, but only one boss. The chief reasons millennials will stay at a company is also the chief reason they leave.....the boss. People most often stay for somebody, or leave because of somebody. This also goes back to communication because millennials expect their boss to be close and in the know, but their boss, not their buddy.
3. Millennials need several things to work on. - Believe it or not it's estimated the millennials are 10X better multi-taskers than the previous generation. Forcing a millennial to work in the same manner as you do will drive them nuts. They are impatient, but quick learners. They will take orders well, but don't care for mindless busy work. They are team oriented and don't see themselves as independent agents.
These are some practical tips for that are pretty well documented all over the internet and generally agreed upon. As a mission agency, we are working to be better at leading and developing our younger employees, because they will be OMS in the future.
Hopefully we will have some things to announce in the near future. I will be taking this blog from a 'leadership' orientation, back towards a ministry orientation and would like to transition is as a tool for regular updates on what we're up to beyond just the Emerging Leadership Initiative. More to come!!
Jonathan
No comments:
Post a Comment