I love millennials. I love their energy. Their insights. Their outside-the-box, or even no-box-at-all eagerness and drive. Recently, I was asked by one of my awesome clients, who is always traveling that cutting edge, if I would help them craft a training program for their millennial team members.
Those folks between 20 and 30 in their organization who were moving into mid-level management. He asked, “How can we get their attention in positive ways and KEEP it?” Smart guy-right?
What we did was design a program that was focused on four important areas:
- Communication skills. Millennials are amazing at technology and connection, and those are wonderful things. Your training should complement those presenting skills as well as teach valuable listening skills.
- Leadership. While management is obviously about looking after tasks, leadership is really about understanding strategy. Share that distinction with them so they can bring their uniqueness to their roles. Then help them understand what kind of leader they are now, and help them set their sights on the kind of leader they want to be in the future.
- Delegation skills. Teach your team to understand how to delegate responsibly to others, and also how to be the kind of leader who can be delegated to as well. I like to tell my clients that when you think about delegation, think of it as a pie. 80% of that pie is the work that you have to do yourself. That leaves 20%, of which 10% should be delegated to people who are learning to do YOUR job, and 10% learning to do your BOSS’S job. That way the whole organization continues to GROW in the right direction.
- Productivity. Millennials are famous for being tech-savvy and extraordinary multi-taskers. Accelerating productivity calls for not just learning how to manage time, but to FOLD time. In my book Folding Time, I share hundreds of strategies to do just that. I love what LaSalle Network in Chicago implemented in their organization. Their brilliant mentoring program is called Grandparenting. It’s an ahh-mazing mentoring program where key management leaders look after not only their staff, but the staff level below their staff. It’s a very powerful way to connect everyone. Millennials are so keen to learn and they have so much to share and give. Can you think of some ways you can create that kind of mentorship within your own organization, hospital or credit union?
Lastly, look at all the ways your organization is paying attention to contributing to the community around you. One of the things I really love about this particular generation is how incredibly altruistic they are. They think more globally and they definitely look at the world from a different lens. If you really want to pay attention to this demographic of team members within your organization, create programs that embrace the brilliant uniqueness they offer. Then partner them with people they can learn from who value their contribution – and you’ll have a winning combination that will send productivity through the roof!
Want to know more? Learn to collaborate, coach and communicate millennials by watching this video and learning the following:
– How to get, and keep, the attention of Millennials
– How to focus and improve Millennials communication skills
– How to coach them to become strong leaders in the workplace
When you’re looking for a female motivational keynote speaker with the kind of leadership, sales and productivity strategies that will help your team become more engaged and driven towards their goals? Excited about their part in your organization? Eager to adopt the tools to increase profitability, productivity and accountability? Neen James is the attention expert and speaker to call.
