How Millennials will ignite an institutional revolution?
The millennials are coming. Within a decade, 75% of the workforce would have been born between 1980 and 1996. Diverse, digital savvy and allergic to hierarchy, millennials seems tailored made for the start-up world.
However, our world is made of humbler clay. Big institutions still dominate our lives. The government, corporations, and organizations all have grown over time. Hierarchical, stable and impersonal, changing them can be glacial.
How will these big institutions cope with the millennial revolution? I believe Gen Y’s pent up energy will shake-up our old systems. Acting as a generational catalyst, they will level hierarchy, built collaboration over control and reinvents our institutions. Here are three reasons why?
1. Leaders Make Decision, Followers Just Do!
Bureaucracies live to create order. The higher the office, the greater the power. Authority and decisions cascade downward. Built as a pyramid, this model is the spine of almost every institution. It is a 20th-century template.
But the model is corroding from the inside and out.
Millennials don’t want to work for an organization where decisions are the privilege of the few. The days are gone when talented young people are willing to spend years toiling in a beige cubicle, in the hope of making it to the corner office.
Millennials have different expectations about how big organizations will act, the values they will hold and a workplace culture that fosters collaboration and creativity.
Gen Y’s expectations are to be involved. Decision made by someone else are non-binding. What this will mean is more than just being transparent about the decision. How you make decisions will count. Being porous and open to divergent views will be the new norm. Collaboration will be the starting point.
2. Going back to Founding Purpose
Significance matters for millennials. In studies, 80 percent said that they strive to work for an organization aligned with their values. If they are working for you, it is because they are working for the sense of contribution you give others.
Many big institutions can offer a sense of purpose. Their founding mandates may have a positive social good. However, over time, these mandates may have become obscured. While many institutions talk about being “customer focused”, a vast gulf has grown between the service providers and clients’ needs.
Millennials can reenergize and telescope down this distance. More than just online services. As digital natives, millennials can find new creative ways of interacting with citizens or customers. In part, because it is how they want to be served by big organizations.
3. Leaders, not Bosses
People do not leave companies. They leave people. Bad bosses are organizational poison. In talent scarce job market, millennials will not stick around and work for a bad boss or any boss.
With the average millennials with having multiple careers across their working life, loyalty will depend on not just how you treat them but how your engage them. Boss based leadership models that seek to control through positional authority will become boardroom dinosaurs.
Big institutions that have tolerated weak and bureaucratic leadership styles will face talent wall. Workplace cultures are no longer a closed world. Sites like Glassdoor give (potential) employees insights into the reality of work in any organization. Millenials will exercise their choice and go elsewhere.
This shift in workplace transparency and a generation’s desire to work more collaboratively will drive a rethink of leadership norms, behaviors, and incentives. Corporations that embrace a leadership model that inspires and enables their people, to reach the summit of their talents will thrive.
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About the Author
Simon Trevarthen is Founder and Chief Inspiration Officer of Elevate Your Greatness (EYG). EYG helps individuals, teams and organizations unpack the secrets of success by becoming even better versions of themselves through dynamic keynotes, seminars and workshops on innovation, inspiration and presentation excellence.
Learn more about Elevate Your Greatness see www.elevateyourgreatness.com
Follow EYG on twitter: @Simon Trevarthen
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