YPLS #1 — Millennials, Leadership and $20k an Hour
What one factor do you think is underrated when it comes to determining whether a business will fail or succeed?
I don’t know if there’s a right answer but from my perspective it’s a company’s ability to attract, develop and retain today’s young professionals, millennials.
Here’s why I say this:
- Approximately 10,000 Millennials turn 21 every day in America making them the largest generation in the workforce. [TIME]
- The average tenure for Millennials working at a company is 2 years (compared to 5 years for Gen X and 7 years for Baby Boomers). [PayScale / Millennial Branding]
- In the last 5 years 87% of Millennial workers took on management roles (Gen X — 38% / Boomers — 19%). [EY]
- 3% of U.S. executives will be eligible to retire in the next 5 years. [PWC]
- 75% of Millennials believe that their organizations could do more to develop future leaders. [Deloitte]
- 30% of millennials are already in management positions and their spending will climb to $200 billion by 2017. [Salesforce]
In other words, millennials are playing bigger and bigger roles every day as it relates to the future success of our businesses.
But I’m willing to bet that you already knew that.
That being said, the fact remains that most companies continue to struggle when it comes to successfully attracting, developing and retaining today’s young professionals.
Now there are a number of reasons for this.
One of which, consists of the quality of information being taught when it comes to leading millennials.
Here’s what I mean.
This past May Fortune published an article titled:
“Companies Are Paying ‘Experts’ $20,000 An Hour To Figure Out Millennials”
I highly recommend you go check it out. It will take you less than 60 seconds to read so click on the link above and then come back here.
Now, after reading this article what stood out to you?
To me is it was the fact that these “experts” (who apparently are being paid $20,000 an hour) are teaching that simple tactics such as food, movie outings, and team building activities are key to making millennials happy and more productive.
In addition, I found it interesting that an organization could pay an extra $5,000 to see one of these “experts” interact with a real-life millennial, her 23 year old daughter.
Really? They can’t be serious… Can they?
Unfortunately, they are.
I bring this up because it sheds light on the fact that there are many millennial “experts” out there who are delivering poor advice. Not only that but they’re being paid a pretty decent amount of money to do it.
So let’s take a moment and just think about this…
How many articles have you read in the past six months that said something along the lines of millennials want work-life balance and/or millennials are lazy and entitled?
How many?
I hope it’s fair of me to assume it was a lot.
Now the question we might need to address in response to this is: Do all millennials want these things and act these ways?
How about this question…
Do you know of any baby boomers and gen xers who want work-life balance? Do you know of any baby boomers and gen xers who are lazy and entitled?
This makes me think of the saying, “Knowledge is power.”
Well, what if the knowledge we’re getting is the wrong type of knowledge. If this is the case, is knowledge still power?
I mean it’s no wonder why there are so many companies still looking for solutions when it comes to attracting, developing and retaining millennials.
Here they are paying thousands of dollars an hour just to hear that the key to making millennials happy and more productive is through food, movie outings, and team building activities.
Look, I’ll be the first to tell you that I don’t have all the answers. I also don’t have the audacity to call myself an “expert”.
But I can tell you a couple things with absolute certainty.
First, I am a millennial.
Second (and much more importantly), I’ve had the privilege of leading over a thousand of my peers thus far in my career.
Third, I run a company that is responsible for leading and training millennials all around North America.
I tell you this because I’ve come to learn that leading millennials is not as complex and/or frustrating as most make it out to be.
From my experience, our level of effectiveness when leading millennials really comes down to two simple components.
The first is to ensure that millennials are consistently experiencing six core values.
The second involves successfully executing specific strategies that have proven to deliver results when it comes to attracting, developing and retaining millennials.
It’s really that simple.
But I’m not just going to tell you. I’m going to show you.
That’s why we’ve created YoungPro Leadership Series (YPLS).
The purpose of YPLS is:
To give business owners the insights and strategies that have proven to help companies attract, develop and retain the top young talent in their respective industries.
The good news…
We’re not just going to tell you that the key to making millennials happy and more productive is food, movie outings and team building activities. It’s not.
More good news…
We’re not going charge you $20,000 an hour.
In fact, it will cost you nothing. Except your time.
However, we both know that your time is still valuable.
That being the case, should you make the decision to invest the 5–10 minutes that it will take to read these posts along with following that up by fully committing to the principles being taught, you’ll be impressed with the results.
But I don’t want you to take my word for it. Only you can determine that for yourself.
So, if you’re truly committed to improving your abilities when it comes to leading millennials you’re going to want to take your first action right now.
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The future success or failure of one’s company comes down to their ability to attract, develop and retain young pros. What actions are you taking today to ensure that this is happening?
