With baby boomers and Gen X retiring from leadership roles, millennials seem to be next in line; only, there are major differences between the worldviews of these generations.
It can be said with authority that millennials are like no previous generation. But does that mean that they aren’t ready to lead yet? Maybe.
Even though millennials have the potential to be the best leaders, they might need a little more time and soul searching to get there. Here’s why:
The Real Problem
The millennial generation, also lovingly nicknamed Generation ‘Me,’ or the ‘Peter Pan Generation,’make up 36% of the workforce. By 2020, almost half of the entire working population will be millennials.
The problem? They are being thrust into leadership positions far too early, and without the necessary skills—including soft skills—that are required to deal with many situations that involve people.
The digital generation has grown up in a different world, and they see things differently—mostly from behind screens. This means they lack the exposure and experience to skillfully execute a leadership role.
Let’s take a deeper look at what makes millennials so different from baby boomers and Gen X.
Millennials Have Not Been Allowed To Fail
In 1990, child development researchers Foster Cline and Jim Fray first introduced the word ‘helicopter parents’ to describe the parents of millennials who hovered over their children, protecting them closely and keeping them from making mistakes and failing.
Since then, numerous studies have been conducted that suggest that helicopter parenting is closely tied to an inability to accept and cope with failure and disappointment.
This starkly contrasts with the mindset of more mature employees who developed the gift of hindsight with rigorous experience and learning from failures. This insight and hindsight help mature employees understand people better.
The Lesson For Millennial Managers
Here’s a pro about millennial management: they’re actually very effective when it comes to leading other millennials, because they understand each other. This means that they’re very effective in leadership roles where everyone is under the age of 30, for example, tech startups and most marketing agencies.
But this means their exposure will still be unfit for legacy and multinational companies where it’s the norm to accommodate and deal with people of all age groups.
This is why it’s important for millennials to overcome the mindset that is holding them back. The fear of failure, the expectation of perfectionism, and the fear of making mistakes are attributes that will only hinder the process of progress.
Fortunately, this can be overcome. Since most attributes that hinder growth stem from one or more basic human needs going unsatisfied, the best course of action is to try to find ways to satisfy them.
One tool that can help is NIKU. Working on the ‘reframing of needs’ principle, NIKU makes your unmet needs easier to satisfy in adult life by giving them a brand new perspective. It can set a lot of issues caused by helicopter parenting right.
To try out reframing, you can easily download NIKU, an app available on both the Apple App Store and the Google PlayStore. This app functions as an online psychological counselor or a life coach, helping you look at life with a fresh, new perspective.
