Brace yourself. This may not be easy.
Where do I start? Hmmm…Oh! I know. Let’s start here:
They’re lazy! They don’t want to work!
They think they’re entitled!
They have no work ethic!
They won’t ‘pay their dues!’
They’ve got no loyalty!
Sound familiar? That’s the popular mantra about the millennials these days, and I hear it CONSTANTLY. Now, to be fair, there is some truth in these complaints;the millennial generation is made up of humans, and humans are notoriously diverse, ranging from monomaniacal tyrants to heroes to stoners. The fact is, however, that you’ll easily find that range in all generations (including, by the way, The Greatest Generation). But what is so often ignored, and here is where the lesson begins, is the fact that millennials didn’t spring up out of nowhere. What’s more, those who usually complain about millennials almost always fail to take responsibility for creating them. We act as if the millennials just showed up one day with zero experience of the world they were born into and chose in isolation their collective behavior. But they didn’t just show up; they are a product of the world that came before them. (And for the record, as hard as it may seem to believe, I am a boomer myself!)
One of the greatest responsibilities of leadership is recognizing the role we play in the challenges we face. It is a sign of great weakness to simply blame circumstances, or the environment you’re in, or other people, for whatever you’re facing — as though nothing comes from you at all. The generation that raised millennials, Gens X&Y, had their heyday in the 80’s. Can you think of anything else that came out of the 80’s?
Let’s see…hyperinflation? In 1987 the movie Wall Street proclaims “Greed is Good.” The Berlin Wall comes down and America becomes the only standing and unchallenged Super Power. We were coming out of the Iranian hostage crisis at the turn of the decade and the gas wars of the 70’s, just like the Greatest Generation was coming out of the great depression of the 30’s. By 1991 Michael Jackson signs the largest EVER record deal with Sony, worth potentially $1billion some estimated. There was a lot going on creating a cultural, social and moral shift in our nation. Our millennials were raised in an era that showed no loyalty, some of the greatest political, party line divides ever in the 90’s, and just about the time they hit maturity — 9/11. But let’s be honest, human beings aren’t generally defined by our good things–we’re defined by the bad. We learn our greatest lessons from what goes wrong in our lives, not what goes right. These aren’t excuses, but rather a reality we as leaders need to recognize.
It’s time for leaders to own up. We would all benefit from the lesson that eliminates labels, foregoes judgment and pursues a stance of understanding and reality. The millennials were created by their parents and grandparents, by the culture and politics, and the attitudes they experienced during their “formative years.” They are neither right nor wrong. Are some as described above? Sure, but many others are so much more. The question isn’t: “What’s wrong with those millennials?” The question is what is missing? And how do you as the leader bring that to the table? Ghandi famously said to be the change you most want to see. So, If you want more commitment from millennials, bring more commitment to them. If you want more loyalty or compassion, bring more loyalty and compassion to them. And here lies the most challenging lesson:
Our job as leaders isn’t just to name the problem. Our job as leaders is to bring what’s missing.
