Millennial Management Ideals: Part One

Technology and Communication:

Times are changing, people are changing and technology is ever becoming a more integral part of our daily lives.  It is very important to understand how technology, politics and business tie into the persona of the generation called the Millenial  or generation Y.  The Millennial, the generation to which I belong, was able to witness the transformation of civilization into the internet and small electronics dominated culture of today from the much slower paced baby boomer generation.  The access to information is no longer limited to the printed media (newspaper, magazine, pamphlet, flyer, dictionary, encyclopedia) but has expanded to a network of internet based information providers (online newspapers, online magazines, Wikipedia, blogs, Ask.com, EHow, WebMD, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn).  This increased availability to information plays a vital role in how we are exposed to local, national and global politics.  Everything is now available on the internet and can be accessed in avid detail, no matter how well protected.  Such a great increase in information flow has had a drastic impact on the millennial individual and collective mentality.  Changing management styles now to adapt for the Millennial will help companies attract and keep a talented workforce the current modern age.  

The first topic that needs to be discussed is the change in effective communication that technology has created and how this relates to the business world.  At first there was no long distant communication outside of word of mouth.  It then evolved to the transportation of hand written documents and from there to telegraph then telephone.  Up until just recently the best way to communicate instantly was by telephone.  For the Baby Boomers (BB) this is the form of communication they grew up with and primarily still rely upon.  The Millennial (M) was born at the end of the land-line telephone and has witnessed the evolution to modern computers, satellites and mobile phones during their adolescence.  Today we can connect through social networking sites, e-mail, and mobile phones at any desired time.  We will focus on two major effects this has on the millennial persona.  

The M relies heavily upon e-mail and text vs. face to face or verbal communication.  The M has a crutch, social skills.  Their comfort level with inter-personal communication differs greatly from the BB generations method of communication and from the expectations of current employers. It is a known standard that social experience is a definite must when working with others and becoming a working professional.  Unfortunately this is hardly ever explained to students in such clear detail.  It is usually in the form of “Colleges and employers like to see that a person has been in multiple organizations, clubs and extracurricular activities.”  They fail to simply mention that the main reason they wish to see this is so that they can be confident you have adequate social skills when working with a team or when dealing with complete strangers.  To those from an earlier generation (now most likely managers, executives and CEO's) the new influx of college graduates (M) must seem a bit timid and ineffectual.  There are exceptions to this rule.  However, the older generation, coming from an era where face to face or verbal contact was the main or only way to interact on a daily basis, would have been much more effective in a social working environment when starting their careers.  Learning to be assertive, professional and clear when speaking to a co-worker and manager can be a difficult thing if given no guidance or prior experience.  

It is necessary for managers in this day and age to have an understanding of this fact and give their younger workforce more advice.  This will reduce the likelihood of negative interaction with co-workers or customers, as well as, decrease the stress level for the new millennial employees.  Without prior experience or advice, they go into a heated situation blind and the chances of a small issue escalating into something much harder to manage is very likely.  Management needs to create clearly defined rules and guidelines for basic routine communication and function within the workplace.  This may seem obvious to most of you but you would be surprised at how many companies still have a ‘shoot from the hip’ mentality.  What I mean by this is that they want to hire someone capable and insert them into a position and let them find their own way.  If this is done for every employee then the company is very poorly managed.  The only way this route would be both necessary and acceptable is if a new position were created that never had any clear pre-defined processes or if the position being hired for was a CEO or upper level executive.  These individuals will have to jump into the mix without much guidance other than an overarching goal that is usually pretty broad.  Examples of these goals would be, say a 5% increase in turnover from this year to next for the CEO or the adherence to ISO 9001 standards for a newly created business excellence department.  They will be forced to create their own way through the organization and develop more efficient methods along the way.  Guidelines, structure and clearly defined tasks will be necessary for the M to succeed without feeling overwhelmed or over worked.

It must also be understood that e-mail will forever be the preferred mode of communication for the new workforce.  This habit of reverting to e-mail for normal workplace communication is due to a different logic base and a different comfort level.  For the most part it is sound reasoning to state that verbal communication requires more time and energy than an e-mail, especially if this e-mail is negative in nature.  Having to verbally face someone’s disappointment, anger or frustration is much more demanding than facing written negativity.  When they need to argue their point, an e-mail will be the preferred method in the beginning because they can clearly write and re-write their reasoning to ensure it is worded to perfection.  This falls again to comfort level with verbal communication.   

Tension will most often be created in the office due to the younger workforce combating (not literally) with the older generation.  For example, Jon Doe, a member of BB calls about everything and rarely relies on e-mails.  If he needs something he will call to get it.  He does not only call to ask for what he wants, he expects to receive his answer via phone as well.  You can imagine the M does not resonate well with this.  They will wonder why Jon Doe is calling to make simple requests better suited for e-mail.  Even after you e-mailed Jon Doe the answer (reverting to e-mail), he still calls you later to ask that you give him the answer via phone because he does not check his e-mails.  To M the persistent phone calls are seen more as a level of harassment than a level of communication because they have not built a tolerance for differing personalities and mentalities.  While both types of individuals exist in the workforce it is necessary to find a way to create a work structure that allows both to feel accommodated.  To this extent it is going to be very hard for management to teach an old dog new tricks but very easy to explain the situation to the M and reach an understanding about why Jon Doe communicates as he does before conflict.  It could be as simple as follows, "Emily (M), I wanted to give you some advice about certain office individuals.  They usually communicate and make requests via phone and they tend to be persistent.  They did not grow up with this level of technology, so communicating via e-mail is much more difficult for them than it is for you.  Please understand their needs in this manner and communicate small things to them verbally."  At first glance it may look like the manager is favoring one type of person over the other but this will only be VIEWED as the case if it is done after there is an argument between two employees over this topic.  If the new employee expects this type of climate then the stress of having constant interruptions via phone call will be reduced drastically.  

This is something that I learned after having worked with these types of individuals as an M.  Although I pride myself as being a fairly outgoing and assertive person, it was rough being placed into a management position without any rules or guidelines.  Especially when the flow of communication was inefficient and unproductive.  I was called consistently on the company cell phone, then on the hard line, then on the main office line by the same set of individuals.  This was mainly because they were used to communicating in this manner and it was difficult for them to communicate via e-mail.  I need to mention that these weren’t my subordinates but those either at my tier or above (believe me if I were their supervisor I would have made sure they did not bother me with this type of minutia via phone OR e-mail).  Initially I found it absurd that I would be contacted about minor details in this manner and then after I sent an e-mail answer (so I could continue my more important work without having to converse with anyone longer than necessary) they would call me again to essentially ask me to read my e-mail out loud to them.  Obviously, I started to resent these individuals and I made my aggravation clear to my superior.  He stated that this is the way they were and that I would have to deal with it.  Not a very good answer in my opinion, he is favoring their time over mine.  Once that bad taste is in one’s mouth it becomes very difficult to eliminate.  After a while the phone calls did not really matter anymore because the real issue was that my supervisor 'sided' with their way of communicating even though my argument was valid.  This, in my opinion, is poor management.  Things should be fair within a workplace and if one is judged upon their productivity and efficiency but forced to be inefficient their hands are tide and their true potential will never show to upper management.  However, poor management will be a topic for another day.   

The other side of the communication equation is what I would call time lag frustration.  Essentially what this means is impatience.  The M is used to having instant gratification and a plethora of websites like reddit, imgur, facebook, and pinterest are a testament to that.  We are frustrated by the time it takes to receive information, whether it be an e-mail from a boss about approving PTO or an e-mailed report that you need in order to continue your work.  Timely information flow is going to be important to these individuals and it will be necessary for them to have a rough understanding of how the flow of information works.  

Managers need to create and give this information to members of the Y generation.  This will keep the M from becoming frustrated or impatient, as well as, help them to avoid distractions.  The speed and amount of communication and entertainment today makes it hard for these individuals to concentrate on single tasks for long periods of time or to pick out just the important information from a sea of unimportant information.  The lack of any stimulation also quickly brings boredom because they are used to processing a high level of content.  This predisposition is very important from a communication standpoint. 

If it is not explained to them which communications and tasks take priority over others then they will get lost and distracted on unimportant topics and tasks and waste time until they have gained the experience in that position to be able to differentiate.  It is also the same if there are communication points within a company and the new hire is never told who to contact for what type of information or question.  This person will become bored and frustrated that they do not have anything worthwhile to do because they are waiting on this information.  If the organization and flow of communication is discussed when they are hired it would benefit both the employee and the employer.

The end result is that the Millennial is predisposed to communicating via e-mail and, for many, is adverse to verbal communication being utilized for un-important information transfers.  Having management understand the different perspectives of both the Millennial and those who are predisposed to the contrary, is a must in any company of today.  If this sort of dissonance exists within a company already it is imperative to make the generation Y employee aware of this structure so that they can expect this type of office climate.  If they are thrown into this kind of mix unawares then they will become overly stressed and resentful.  The mentality of “leave me a voicemail” has turned into “shoot me a text” and when we say “We’ll talk again soon” we most likely mean via gchat or text message. 

The other millennial communication variation has to do with boredom, impatience and distraction.  We are prone to being bored when not stimulated and if a job does not involve intriguing subject matter we will most likely become frustrated and believe that the career is leading nowhere.  The way to combat this as a manager is to first give them the understanding of the flow of communication and how their job will work.  When you face a task without knowing what it is usually anyone day-dreams about what they would like it to be.  If reality hits and it isn’t what one expects then it becomes a living drudgery.  However, if you already know what to expect you are usually resigned to the task or already know what can be done to create a more efficient flow of information.  Distraction is just as likely of an enemy to combat if the information workload and communication workload is high.  The M will soak in a small amount of each of the pieces of information but may decide to focus on a task that is not as important or simply wasteful.  A clear explanation of the office climate, information flow and task priorities will develop a better relationship with generation Y employees and help them get past the initial hurdles when first joining the workforce.

In my next post I will discuss how these principles are the foundation to an even larger problem that employers are having with generation Y employees and vice versa. 

Impatience and High Expectations.