The Relationship Between Millenials, Managers, and Leaders

Guest Post | Oct 19, 2021

Have you been wondering about the differences between managers and leaders? What makes a great manager and a great leader? Do most managers have valuable leadership skills? How about teams and employees who are being managed? Even though expanding businesses need to hire managers, people don’t like to be managed. Especially Millennials who were born from the early 1980s until roughly the end of the 1990s. This doesn’t make managers’ work-life any easier.

These youngsters adapt to changes much faster than the members of their former generations. They have also been raised and socialized in an environment that approves of job-hopping. But before they change the workplace, chances are, a boss or a significant coworker thought they were self-centered, uninspired, entitled, stubborn, lazy, and disloyal. Even if they did their work a bit faster and more effectively than others. But if you think about it, generation Y is taking up half of the entire world’s workforce today. And they are raised to be fast-thinkers, independent, go-getters, and game-changers. This mix of characteristics often makes them move on.

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If you are a Millennial, you could feel like being managed by a 9-5 factory, even though your resources differ from working in that way. Perhaps, you don’t need an office but can work anywhere with a good Wi-Fi connection.

You don’t only serve one employer, but instead, you have many clients. You don’t only specialize in one field but many. You don’t stay at one place all the time, you are on the move frequently. So why are so many of us still being managed like most of our former generations, who worked in plants?

The answer lies in our history.

Management History and Current Needs 

The idea of making organizations work effectively can be traced back to the time of the Industrial Revolution. Most of us are familiar with the theory of dividing our 24-hour day into three equal parts: 8-hour work, 8-hour recreation, and 8-hour relaxation. Up until the early 1900s management had gained momentum, by the 1950’s we polished management theories. Then, a major shift happened. We started recognizing the fact that focusing on the advancement of products and services isn’t enough anymore. We recognized that knowledge, information, and productivity is the key to our future success.

What does this mean? It means that the old model doesn’t work anymore, and we need to adjust. It’s enough to think in terms of the modern digital workspace, startups, think thanks, and any forms of new ventures today. Where does this path lead? It seems like the next generation will solely rely on knowledge-based entrepreneurial or creative work. So why do some of us still stick to our 9-5 office jobs? Because it is routine, and routine is comfortable. But does it inspire innovation, and getting out of our comfort zone? Not truly.

Changing Work Trends and Adjusted Management Style for our Future Generations

So how could you adjust your management style to our modern work environment? You should start leading by example. Trusting your employees 100 %, providing your team members adequate responsibilities, and resources to meet their targets and deadlines should be the foundation of your business. Inspiring them, and giving them a chance to deliver higher performance, even if you need additional help on your side of management. Give them enough space to breathe, do their best, time to rest, and work from home if they want to.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Especially since the pandemic enabled working from home or in a hybrid set-up, we can see more clearly that employees can perform well even working from home if they so wish, as long as they perform quality work in due time. There’s no need to track them closely every hour or day, it would only show our distrust in them. Another crucial thing to consider is letting your employees work out very difficult situations alone. When they need support. It is time to think of ourselves as collaborative elements of business success. Therefore, you should always provide help in times of hardship, or with any issues. The more considerate you can be toward your employees, the better chances you have for growth.

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People perhaps prefer to go into workplaces more frequently that don’t have a strict feeling, rather they feel like going to a community. Somewhere, their being is appreciated. So what could happen, if you provided your employees’ these conditions to excel? They would probably make you more proud through their work. They should get more motivated, more creative, and be able to produce higher quality work with less effort. And change is only possible if we shift our focus from outputs to results.

How To Become A Successful Leader?

You should be focusing on individuals and their unique strengths before any other processes. People can reach big goals with their talents and ambitions if you provide them with the right platform to flourish. Try to learn about the dreams and goals of people in your team, to know who you are working with! This kind of investment can return tenfold. It is possible to get a management position without outstanding leadership skills. However, if you want to become a great leader, you need to develop certain skills. Sometimes the importance of emotional intelligence can be underestimated. This entails self-awareness and self-mastery, having consistency, discipline, thinking long-term, being outgoing, and thriving under pressure.

If you have all these characteristics, great, but it is equally essential to manage and inspire everyone’s emotions, empathy, motivation, and social skills after you manage all these in yourself! Finally, you must understand that you as a leader should make changes to serve your employees’ needs to the best you can, and not vice versa! You can only become a true leader that others want to follow by adapting your ways to fit them and not on the contrary! Only by bringing out the best within, can you bring out the best from your team! Best of luck!!

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