The Millennial Manager

Our leadership audiences have a large Millennial contingent these days. (I vividly remember when I was a younger speaker and that was not the case!) With these more Millennial leadership crowds, we're noticing a shift in what they want to learn and how they envision the future. Look no further than social media's multitude of videos tagged #MillennialManager and you'll hear how others think about them too. I'll save you from the research deep-dive and share some highlights and lowlights we're seeing with this Gen Y management takeover. **But first, the ever important caveat: these are trends and not indicative of individuals! Also, every generation has changed organizations as they take the leadership helm, this is simply a reflection of the current impact of Millennials in management.**

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔

🧠 𝘔𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘥. Therapy, well-being, and holistic health are less scary topics for these managers-- partially because they grew up in a time where emotional wellness became a normalized topic, and also in part because they want to show up for Gen Zers who seek a workplace that understands the importance of mental health care.

😊 𝘈𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳. A generation that walked in wanting to befriend the CEO is taking that leveled hierarchy persona with them into leadership. Unafraid to use emojis (...obviously), uncomfortable with strict professionalism in emails and dress, and keen to dip into their love for the latest reality TV series, this generation of leadership wants to embrace the human side of work first.

🗣️ 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. No news is NOT good news to this managerial cohort, so they tend to make it a point to make sure everyone is on the same page all the time. Collaborative documents, shared calendars, Slack pings, and regular 1:1's are a baseline for this group that knows the team goes farther together.

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒖𝒓𝒅𝒍𝒆𝒔

🫠 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘺. While many Millennials learned how to collaborate with teams and group-grade growing up, they didn't obtain as much know-how in the conflict conversations. For many a Millennial (and all gens) manager, this is a growing edge.

🔥 𝘌𝘹𝘩𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. Millennial managers have been nick-named by some publications as "mum-agers." We don't care for the naming, to be clear. The description, however, is because they are very protective of those they manage which can cause them to take on extra work when they shouldn't.

🌐 𝘔𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪-𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘺. A report from Future Workplace found that 83 percent of all employees have seen millennials managing older workers in their offices. It's not always an easy task to manage across generations and it's likely why Millennials often ask us, 'what are good strategies to manage Xers and Boomers?'