It's About Time We Stop Shaming Millennials | Lindsey Pollak | TEDxStLouisWomen

Millennials if you're like most people I'm gonna guess that you've heard a lot about this generation also known as Gen Y those who are about age 18 to 34 today maybe you're a millennial yourself hi maybe you're the parent of a millennial the sibling of a millennial the boss of a millennial of the colleague of a millennial and I can also guess that a lot of what you read has been somewhat negative raise your hand if you've read an article or seen a story or a blog post about Millennials being entitled narcissistic lazy living in their parents basements expecting trophies for participation so much of what we read about Millennials is negative now this is nothing new right Gen Xers like me and many of you we were called the slackers baby boomers were called the hippies the original Me Generation take a look at this quotation I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today what do you think 1950s 30s civil war-era revolutionary times so this is from the 8th century BC we have literally been shaming our young people for all of human history now this never made any sense to me and I felt it acutely when I was in this position I was pretty successful in high school and college I received a scholarship to grab at school but when I finished grad school and was in the real world and needed to go out and get a job I felt lost and abandoned and I moved back home in my parents house into my childhood bedroom with the cutesy redheart wallpaper and the pictures of my prom on the wall and I promptly got under the covers and pretty much ate frozen yogurt non-stop for three months because I couldn't figure out how to move forward read a little what color is your parachute started looking on this brand new website at the time with my dial-up internet called monster calm and what I learned is that staying under the covers and eating plant after pint of frozen yogurt is not a good early career strategy but I didn't know what else to do until finally one day an old internship manager of mine called me and invited me lunch and she said I so remember being in your shoes it is so hard to start out and she offered advice and guidance and she made some introductions for me and that led to an opportunity a job offer from a website that helped people launch their careers and ever since that experience over 15 years ago I've spent my career helping young people succeed as they're just starting out in the workplace I speak on college campuses and to entry-level employees and I also work with companies to help them attract and retain the younger generation and I'm here today to say I think it's about time we stop shaming Millennials and all the generations to come after them what would happen to our companies our communities our country if we supported young people instead of shaming them and I think this is more important today than ever Millennials today's youngest generation in the workplace is now also the largest Millennials are also the largest generation in our country overall by 2020 Millennials will be about 50% of our workforce and by 2025 less than 10 years away Millennials may make up 75% of our workforce I get asked a lot why are you so supportive of Millennials why are you so bullish on this generation my answer is often we don't have a choice there is no other generation waiting in the wings in case this one doesn't work out we need to understand and support this generation now now fortunately we have a lot of guidance on this and ideas from the world of marketing marketers have been studying the millennial generation ever since they came on the scene and I love marketers because marketers want to sell to this generation right they want to sell them products and services so marketers say ok we understand that Millennials like trophies ok so how big how shiny how many do they want let's have a hashtag for trophies but in the workplace when we say Millennials respond well to trophies we say oh no one gave me trophies when I was just starting out isn't that a little entitled wouldn't that send the wrong message but when I talk about trophies in the workplace I'm talking about something very different I don't want to argue that every millennial wants the same thing all 80 million young adults in this country do not have the same preferences there's tremendous diversity but in my work I've found three key areas where I think we can move the needle on supporting the millennial generation the first of these is in the area of coaching and development back in 2012 PricewaterhouseCoopers fielded a survey and they asked Millennials what is the most important factor to you in deciding to take a job and the number one answer by far was the opportunity for personal development I want to grow I want to learn I want to better myself while I'm contributing to an organization the last answer the least common response 21% of Millennials said that money was most important now money is critical this is not about underpaying Millennials and so many young people today have crushing student debt and for those 21 percent money is the most important factor but coaching and development for most Millennials matters more so what smart companies are doing is they're offering more feedback more guidance to young people one of the trends is that big companies are eliminating the age-old annual review it's negative people don't like to it it's backwards looking and they're replacing it they're replacing it with feedback by app in real time using the technology that is so comfortable for Millennials to give guidance and feedback and support and mentoring in real time and not surprisingly it's not just Millennials who like this all generations are responding and becoming more effective and productive when they receive more feedback the second trophy is flexibility we all know that 9:00 to 5:00 at a desk in the same office for 40 years until you retire with the gold watch is over and Millennials know that more acutely than anyone Millennials want to use the technology we have to work flexibly asking a millennial why are you always working on your device why are you always looking at your phone kind of like asking a baby boomer why are you so into electricity why do you plug things in all the time you always need an outlet when you've come of age with that technology you want to make use of it Millennials are also our first generation to grow up with a large percentage of working mothers they lived in families where both parents had to work and balance Millennials also have seen many of their parents or their friends parents or their neighbors lose their jobs in the great recession after sacrificing so much family time to build their careers and build their nest egg they lost it anyway because of the economy I think Millennials are so aware that nobody says on their deathbed they wish they had spent more time at work isn't it a good thing that we have a young generation who learns that in their 20s rather than later in life and finally transparency and purpose when you've grown up with social media you expect that you will know everything that's going on that you will have all the information at your fingertips but one of the biggest complaints I hear in the workplace is from employers who say you know this generation they don't want to do grunt work they don't want to pay their dues and what a lot of young people say to me is well I'm willing to do anything but not because it's always been done or because someone says I told you to do it I want to know why so when we take the time to explain to young people this is why this work matters this is why I'm giving you this assignment this is why this project takes a certain amount of time that resonates with the millennial generation now I have a feeling some of you may be feeling a little bit resistant to some of these suggestions especially Xers and boomers who didn't get this kind of treatment when we started out in the workplace so I want to tell you a story from the world of football I read an article a few years ago with the coach of a college football team who made it all the to the championships and the Wall Street Journal did an article asking him about his leadership style what had made him a successful coach and he said I've been in football my whole life my whole career but I realized that this generation of players Millennials they seem to be different they don't respond to yelling they don't respond to punishment and he said I realized I had to change my style in order to get the results I wanted he said the fundamentals did not change the hard work the stamina the physical drills the weightlifting the importance of being on time of being an ethical player a good sport that never changed but he said we changed our coaching style we implemented a no yelling rule we gave every player a mentor so they could discuss their challenges with someone they trusted we shortened player meetings so that the players would have more time to check their phones or account their Instagram followers and not surprisingly the football establishment reacted very strongly and said are you kidding you're coddling them you're gonna make them soft this is football and the coach said we're winning so the question in any organization is do you want to do what's effective what works what helps you win or do you want to get revenge on how you yourself were managed when you first started out in your career I think we want to do what's effective what's effective is coaching and development flexibility for all not just those at the top transparency and a sense of purpose in the work that we do and if it strikes you that these are things everybody wants you're exactly right I think Millennials want what we all but they're willing to ask for it earlier in their careers and they will leave organizations that don't provide these things so what would happen if each of us did for today's young people our future leaders what my internship manager did for me all those years ago what would happen if we supported Millennials instead of shaming them if we supported them wholeheartedly unabashedly enthusiastically let's find out thank you very much

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 164,429

Rating: 4.8718519 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Business, Behavior

Id: kaCQ-giZOxg

Length: 13min 56sec (836 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 15 2016