Posted on 11/29/2017 10:20:25 AM PST by EBH
"Simon Sinek speaking about Millennials in the workplace of today, and social media addiction. IT IS ONE OF THE BEST SPEECHES THAT I’VE EVER HEARD."
This youtube video is about 18 minutes long and is full of insightful observations regarding the challenges business has when managing the Millennial generation.
Much of what he talks about many HR people and business managers have experienced and are trying to come to not only terms with this generation, but having to teach them a lot about how the world really works.
I encourage anyone who cares to watch it...watch until the very end. Corporate America isn't set up to babysit this generation and yet, we're the one that is being tapped to fill in those psychological/relationship pieces. That really is a huge societal expectation and in a way explains these kids crying about 'fascism' how they are expected to go to work and why they are so confused by a Great America.
bfl
I get the bad feeling that so many are unprepared for productive work.
Horror story I heard this morning:
Manager asked his Millenial employee to stay late to deal with a crisis. Employee did so and took care of the situation. Next morning the manager approached employee to express gratitude, and instead of a gracious acceptance the employee snapped “I don’t want your thanks, just make sure it doesn’t happen again!”
bfl
Sad thing is that your story is not at all surprising or unique.
I shut it off when he started blaming the corporations.
Just more feel-good anti-business leftism. He was pretty much on-point for the first half of his spiel.
Actually you missed a good point he was making. Getting past the part of blaming the corporations is recognizing it is the corporations that are stuck fixing it. You missed the point where he admits...it sucks to be a corporation/boss. Shame your bias got in the way...it has little to do with being ‘anti-business’
I have hired about a dozen millennial over the past 5-6 years. The interview process saw 3-4 times that number. There are plenty of millennials willing to work and they do an outstanding job of catching on very quickly. None of those I hired have shown any expectation of ‘getting into management’ within 3 years, etc.
2 had masters, the rest all bachelors - all engineering related.
I typically paired 2 with 1 senior person in my groups in order to provide mentoring (as well as provide the senior members a chance to demonstrate some leadership). Each of the 3 had their own set of specific work to do, but the tasks were similar. Within 6 months of putting the teams together they were outperforming the other functions and we were asking how we could help in other areas.
It’s about leadership, structure, and giving them a chance to do what they think is right once they’ve been trained. I can’t tell you how many times frustrated folks from other depts (junior and senior alike) came to me asking how to deal with micromanagement because some manager wasn’t willing to let anything out of their grasp. Micromanagement is 100% due to fear - afraid to trust their people because they might get blamed.
Not to say I let young talent run off alone. I gave them mentors, monitored their metrics, and spot checked their records.
There isn’t anything wrong with the millennial generation - it’s specific to millennial individuals. The same as any other generation. Propensity may be higher I suppose, but as a hiring manager - that’s my job to figure out.
I believe the colleges are failing in this regard. In my interview process one of the things I ask is for them to find a flaw in an engineering drawing. The drawing in question has several. Some easy, some difficult.
I don’t expect them to find all the issues. I’m looking for one thing. Will they admit they don’t know everything and say so. I do tell them the number to look for. Most can find 1 or 2.
The point on the colleges I draw from this is they are taught how to use fancy CAD programs, but none of the fundamentals of drafting or geometric dimensioning & tolerancing. Without the fundamentals there is no need for the advanced fancy programs because they will still only get crap.
Your situation is different and better obviously. Certainly people with STEM degrees are better off than feminists study majors. My field requires a great deal of technical knowledge and expertise as well but we hardly see any Millennials Because by the time they get qualified for the job they’re passed that age bracket.
I just get tired of a whole generation getting painted with one brush. In my mind it is no different then saying all white people are racist, all hispanics are illegal, or all blacks are crooks. It’s a ridiculous stereotype.
bkmk
I would agree with that.
I’m fortunate to have a job that we expect the best out of everyone for many reasons. We have 2 millennials working with the rest of us, and they do a great job! Smart, and ready to show and share what they know, but listen when told what to do.
I firmly believe that if there is a strong structure in place, the other employees will help keep the youngsters in line until they grow up.
I have a up on E.I.T. on my staff who you described to a tee. And don’t get me started on his smarter than though attitude!
I forgot to mention but I’m new in my position as his manager, but my manager already advised me that the kid is on a pretty short leash before I hired on.
Not all Millenials are a problem (I have two Millenial kids who are great). But in general there is a high propensity of problems with this generation. On a 1-10 scale too many have their Self Esteem setting at 11 while the achievement setting is a 2.
Liberal indoctrination schooling and helicopter parenting are largely to blame.
Thank you for your insights.
I own a business that isn’t tech/engineer related and sometimes it is really hard ...spending months...trying to find the right person in a ‘gig’ job market.
I agree as even Sinek points out what he is talking about doesn’t apply to all of them, but those that fit the 4 factors. And there seems to be quite a few of them.
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