What Millennials Want From Work | Book Review

Millennials’ expectations about work are strikingly similar to those
of other generations. In many cases, Millennials are continuing a
decades-long tradition of pushing organizations to change. (p. 8)

Jennifer Deal and Alec Levenson, in a follow up to Deal’s 2007 Retiring the Generation GAP, reaffirm that our perceptions of Millennials (people born between 1980 and 2000), rather than reality, remain a challenge.

Fundamentally, Millennials want what older generations have always wanted: an interesting job that pays well, where they work with people they like and trust, have access to development and the opportunity to advance, are shown appreciation on a regular basis, and don’t have to leave. They are focused on three key areas (p. 9):

• The people
• The work
• The opportunities

This review posits that developing a genuine “Coaching & Connecting” culture is the single best action for creating a win-win environment for Millennials, along with challenging legacy processes and fostering an environment of trust.

Coaching & Connecting

We are living in an age of continuous access to information worldwide and a time when communication and feedback are instantaneous. It should be no surprise that Millennials bring these expectations to the workplace. It is consistent with Millennials’ experience because many of them have grown up in a world where they received frequent feedback about how they were doing (p. 53).

A recurring discovery in Academy Leadership programs is organizational confusion between evaluation and coaching. Let’s use the definition of Performance Coaching in our Coaching to Develop Leaders workshops:

Performance Coaching is the process of equipping people with
the tools, knowledge, and opportunities they need
to develop themselves and become more successful.

Millennials seem to genuinely want and expect this type of coaching. The lack of time for on-the-job development contributes to Millennials perception that the organization is treating them as independent agents, not as valued contributors (p. 151).                      

One of the author’s key findings is that Millennials are highly intrinsically motivated (p. 31). They also would prefer to receive feedback about their performance or their compensation face-to-face (p. 105). The best coaching relationships become two-way over time, a result of increasing relational capacity. Millennials seem to instinctively want this and likewise believe they should be able to say what they think (p. 35).

Part of the role of a leader is to make a connection with others. That’s not enough today since we’re now in a globally connected workplace. Organizations need to structure the workplace environment so Millennials can develop friendships with coworkers and have positive relationships with mentors, team members, and their boss (p. 172).

Challenge the Process

Millennials are both observant and skeptical. About a third of Millennials don’t think they can make use of organizationally sponsored work-life programs or make choices that are in their best interest without substantial negative repercussions for their careers (p. 18). Leaders should be asking where that perception comes from.

In our Academy Leadership Energize2Lead (E2L) workshops, we learn that most of us don’t want to be told what, when and how to do things (yellow, blue expectations profile). Millennials seem more candid than prior generations. Millennials are willing to and do work long hours, but they don’t believe that spending a lot of time in the office indicates they are working hard (p. 15). Time cards measure time, that’s all, and Millennials know that. Nor do they don’t accept a manufacturing mindset that says that it will take a precise amount of time before they have learned everything they need to learn in that position (p. 152).

Millennials are provoking organizations to develop more meaningful metrics. Millennials think that autonomy and flexibility mean working where and when they want to, they can meet their personal needs – as long as they are being productive (p. 64). This is very similar to Lisette Sutherland’s findings in Work together Anywhere. Three years of Covid pandemic experiences have only exacerbated these observations.

Cultivate Trust

Credibility and trust are central to any developing leader, highlighted in our Leader’s Compass workshops. Trust is a critical part of the workplace, but Millennials don’t have unwavering trust in the people above them in the organization (p. 59). Again, leaders should be asking -- why? Does the organization say one thing and do another? At the same time [Millennials] are split on the question of whether the company is really focused on helping the community or is more interested in the good PR the organization can get from it (p. 78).

This is likely at the heart of retention issues. Millennials who don’t have an emotional connection to their organization will seek it elsewhere (p. 117). Making things worse, a large minority of Millennials do not think that their bosses care about their well-being, and more than a quarter don’t feel that their supervisors are supportive (p. 123).

Summary

Altogether, Deal and Levenson’s findings may be summarized in three primary goals for a Millennial talent management strategy (p. 169):

• The people (friends and mentors, team, and boss)
• The work (interesting, meaningful, and balanced)
• Opportunities (feedback and communication, development, and pay)

Millennials will leave if their needs aren’t met. (p. 199)