Todays managers blew it with Millennials, professor says

Todays managers blew it with Millennials, professor saysTodays managers blew it with Millennials, professor saysWe blew it with the Millennials.They were confident, bold, very educated, and startlingly different from any generation we had seen before. But when they entered ur classrooms and ur boardrooms ready to contribute with a new perspective on how things could be done, we had to make a choice to welcome them as partners in navigating our changing world or resist them, viewing them as a threat to the way things had always been. We most definitely chose the latter. We took them to task - interpreting their boldness as narcissism and their proactive approaches as an entitlement. We spent years developing the potential of our Millennials, and now we are squandering it.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreMore than a decade ago, 60 Minutes introduced Millennials to the world with a news segment positioning them as a plague we must survive. This negative framing has endured despite evidence that Millennials tend to have shared values with previous generations and have an even greater interest in social responsibility. Research shows Millennials desiremeaningful workand are committed to learning and development, but weve instead created a narrative thattheyre entitled, self-centered, and lazy. Weve blamed them for everything fromkilling American cheeseto thedisappearance of bar soap.While the term Millennials has become a catchall for young people, its no longer an accurate label. The oldest Millennials will be turning 38 years old in 2019, meaning many of them are approaching middle age and obtaining positions in middle management. The youngest Millennials are 22 years old and graduated from college last spring. That means your youngest employees most likely belong to an entirely new generation - Generation Z.Lets do better with this next generation, shall we ?Speculation abounds about Gen Z Will growing up in the shadow of the recession make them financially conservative? Will the novelty of career hopping be lost on them, prompting a return to careers with more longevity, or will they continue to embrace the gig economy and radically reshape what it actually means to have a career at all? None of this is certain, but one thing is We cannot treat them as adversaries like we did with Millennials.Why? Quite simply, we cannot afford the continued loss of menschenfreundlich potential. The rate of change in every industry in our business world is unprecedented, and to survive, we need everyone fully invested in their work. As Einstein once said, We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. The challenges we face will not be overcome using old ways of thinking, and they will not be solved by one generation, young or old.Our contentious view of Millennials has contributed to a fundamental misunderstanding o f how to productively motivate and lead this vital part of our workforce.Only 29 % of Millennials report being engaged in their work. This low level of engagement has implications for organizational productivity, absenteeism, turnover, and commitment. In other words, our largest generation in the workplace is our most disengaged, leading to a loss in vital talent and energy.What we desperately need is a gentelligent approach to working together. Gentelligence is an organizational strategy that views the perspectives and talents of different generations as an opportunity, not a threat. This approach paves the road both for younger employees to use their unique insights to innovate and solve problems, and for older generations to work with them to provide context and guidance for how to help those ideas get needed traction within our organizations.There are a few organizations out there that have begun to crack the code on how to engage their essential Millennial employees and illustr ate the power of a gentelligent approach, but not nearly enough. Fortunes list of thebest workplaces for Millennials showcases a few model examples. A Millennial employee at Kimley Horn, No. 4 on the list, said, Its amazingly powerful to know that not only does our management find value in making sure we understand why we do things the way we do, but that they value the knowledge we bring to the table.Evidence of the potential of gentelligence can be found at places such asPapa.com, where young people are seen as valuable partners and companions in a grandkids-on-demand business model, or at companies such as SoulCycle,where even the CEO has a Millennial mentor.We now have a new generation entering our workplace. This time, it will be the Millennials meeting Gen Z at the door, serving as their supervisors and showing them the ropes. This is their opportunity to lay out the welcome mat that was not given to their generation when they arrived and to do what Millennials do best show us a new way of doing things.This article first appeared on Business Insider.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people