Building Millennial Leaders: How to Develop Core Competencies in Young Leaders
Millennials are growing up. They’re moving out of their entry-level positions and into supervisory or leadership roles within their organizations, bringing with them a new management style.
Millennial leaders put more energy toward creating healthy work environments, developing soft skills and building a work-life balance that supports their personal and professional goals. Although many senior leaders may see them as younger employees, this is the up-and-coming generation that’s eager to take the reins and start driving their respective industries.
In this blog, we’ll discuss how millennial leadership styles are different from the traditional model, what that means for your company and some leadership development tips for these emerging professionals.
What Makes Millennials Different?
There have been some great leaders in previous generations that pushed their organizations to the forefront of innovation and service. However, change has been a long time coming. Even before the pandemic shook the globe, millennials have been demanding more from their job.
They have higher expectations of the current leaders, including improved communication, emotional intelligence, empowerment of others and relationship building. Being a good leader, in their eyes, is more than just retention and results. It’s building a company culture that helps people pursue their career path and reach their full potential.
As they fill high-level leadership positions, millennials are bringing these values to their team members. Their leadership styles are guided by four core principles:
Mission-based action
Work-life balance
Focusing on individuals and groups
Encouraging meaning beyond self
Through all of these tenets, these young leaders are attempting to help team members align themselves with the organization’s vision. This is an excellent way to create happier, more loyal employees, but it only works if your company is designed to support this type of leadership.
What This Means For Your Company
No one can predict what future leaders will bring to the table, but you can make your company agile by creating a culture that focuses on employee well-being. To match the millennial leadership style, organizations have to realign their mission and values to focus on something bigger than profits—people.
Millennials want to flip the script when it comes to company culture. They’re tired of seeing the negative effects of hustle culture and are ready to start motivating team members to reach their full potential. They’re here to help drive teams that are happy, empowered and engaged.
Achieving this environment requires three major steps:
More transparency in your communication between leadership and teams, with a focus on educating employees about your organizational vision and how their roles contribute to company success
Developing an intentional approach to fostering diversity and inclusion in the workplace
Investing in leadership development programs for team members who want to grow professionally
Millennials want to make a difference. They have a high potential to completely transform your leadership team and how you relate to and develop your team. As more millennials start looking for management positions, it’s important to continually offer leadership training and hone their natural skills.
How to Develop Millennial Leaders
In addition to meaningful values, millennials bring a host of unique and valuable skills to the table. Developing these competencies as they rise through the ranks will create a powerful young leader in your organization.
There are five things, in particular, you can do to start training millennial leaders.
1.) Feed their Hunger for Success
Most millennial employees were of the first generation to take on student debt to earn their degrees. They worked hard through college and aren’t afraid to earn their keep in professional roles. They know that diligent work and dedication to a goal often reap great rewards in the long run.
This demographic is always striving for that reward. They’re constantly looking for ways to improve themselves and their companies. Use this to your advantage. Feed their hunger for success by rewarding their efforts with a seat at the table. Allow them to bring their ideas and a fresh perspective to new initiatives so you can ensure your organization gets the most out of them.
When possible, put these employees on your shortlist for promotions. The more you can encourage them that there is a next step, a reward, in their future, the harder they’ll work to earn it.
2.) Foster Innovation
One of the core ways millennials can contribute to your organization’s growth is through innovative thinking. These professionals love finding a new approach and are always looking for different, more efficient ways to solve problems.
Challenge them to come up with creative solutions to complex problems, whether that’s with company financials, operations or even building a culture. Millennials value the opportunity to prove themselves and step up when needed. Plus, the more practice they have with decision-making and problem-solving at lower levels, the more adept they’ll be when they reach leadership positions.
3.) Allow Flexibility
Millennials need the space to enjoy life outside of work. In fact, protecting this balance for their teams is one of the generation’s most important leadership skills. Gone are the days when young associates will work day and night just to get ahead in their job. Now, people are looking for roles that allow the flexibility they need to take care of themselves and their careers.
In addition to the work-life balance, millennial leadership can’t be easily confined to one department. These team members like to work cross-functionally. They want to easily move between teams, departments and roles to develop their skills and gain a fuller understanding of how your organization works.
Allow them to easily move between roles and responsibilities if they’re passionate about exploring these. Don’t keep them locked to one place or they might grow bored or stagnant. The more they can learn how everyone works together in your company, the better they can help you innovate your organization.
4.) Encourage Collaboration
Whether it’s with leadership, coworkers or even partner companies, millennials are great at collaborating. They learned early that working together, even in digital spaces, often produces the best results.
It’s important to encourage this natural inclination so they can develop delegation and communication skills. Leading teams is a great way to build both of these competencies. The more chances they have to lead training programs, host webinars, participate in outreach or just lead a small team, the better they’ll become at working from the head of the table.
5.) Embrace technology
Perhaps the most notorious skill of millennials is that they’re tech-savvy. They’re experts at professional social media like LinkedIn, they could launch a podcast in their sleep and they’re fond of automations that make work easier.
Millennials are comfortable working with a variety of different tech. Actively seeking out tech solutions for their organizations is second nature, so don’t be quick to dismiss their insights. Hear them out when they pitch ideas about new software or systems—these can often save you time and money.
Of course, you have to keep the big picture in mind. Implement the ideas that make sense for your company and allow the person who proposed them to run the implementation process. Organizations that can embrace millennials’ penchant for tech will get the most out of this generation.
The Future of Leadership
Whether you’re succession planning or just evaluating in-house talent, don’t overlook your millennials. They’re the future of organizational leadership. As they continue securing higher leadership positions in key industries, they’ll start to turn the tides of how we view the workplace and work itself.
Valuing your millennial employees and developing their skills will give you an edge on the competition. Hone their core competencies and help them find fulfillment in their roles. In return, they’ll help you create a better organization.
Building leaders takes time and a consistent approach. At Building Champions, we can help you work with millennial leaders to develop their skills. Schedule a call with us today to learn how!
