70% of the workforce at some organizations including ours is millennial. Over the last 3 years we have learnt a lot around what the millennials are looking for.
An eye opener for me personally is an interview I took of a girl, Nish, who had recently graduated out of college. She was being interviewed for the role of business development. Nish was from a top college and had graduated in Computer Sciences. She knew one thing for sure, she could not see herself becoming a code jock. She wanted to try out the world of marketing and digital sales.
Duly impressed by her people smarts and general abilities, I asked her what was her dream company. She mentioned a competitors name. Why would you want to join that company?
She said the company allows me to be me. It finds opportunities and gives me space to be myself. What exactly does being myself mean to you? Well they don’t enforce artificial expectations, structures and mores.
What sort of expectations are you talking about? Can you give me an example?
Well, I can wear what I like, shorts, T-Shirts, sandals to work. I am a late riser, I can meet deadlines but let me work the way I want. Don’t judge me and keep my work refreshing. Mentor me to learn, give me space to try out and let me gain confidence from my successes. Give me tough challenges to overcome, I want to learn but craft learning for me, personalize it, give me opportunities to have fun, stay excited about what I achieve, what impact I bring to the organization. Craft an experience for me so that I feel it to be personalized and special. Give me the opportunities to interact with the world and give me direction on possibilities. Don’t put me on a steep curve to adjust to the organization, since this will be my first job, transition me in. Let me fail and learn but don’t micromanage me. Guide and mentor me instead.
Wow — was blown away by the clarity of thought and the maturity in a 21 year old. She was telling me exactly how we should setup the organization. If I had an open and learning mind, we could create a culture to win, and win with millenials.
What did I do? I came back to work and started wearing shorts to work. Had not realized that though I dressed casually in jeans and T-shirts, I had not messaged to the organization that it was cool to be yourself. And shorts were cool (literally). Sandals were the in-thing, stuck up was out. It took some weeks but people started observing — sometimes teasing.
Setting the action up worked much better than guidelines and policy. The action of wearing shorts in a management position got others going too. A couple of weeks down, a few appeared wearing shorts to work. Then on a Friday a whole group showed up in shorts and sandals. Cool — we had momentum and acceptance. We have used the same principles to change a lot of things on how we work, explore opportunities and have fun.
Nish accepted our offer and has been with us for more than a year now and is leading the charge on business development. The ideas and hunger she gets to close on sales and spreading the brand is infectious. Others have picked up on it. The seed we sowed keeping an open mind, listening and choosing to fit in with our primary constituency rather than expecting them to fit in some stoic notion of hierarchy and traditional command and control is working wonders.
Lessons learnt at the right time that will hold steady in the long term as we redefine how innovation is driving growth at Coviam. We changed by listening and transformed our culture, a simple act picked up and practiced became a trend and a state of mind. Our open environment is flourishing. Thanks Nish and godspeed.
The Hummer @peopleHum
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