Managing the Millennials Discover the Core Competencies for Managing Today's Workforce

The Builders, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials—all make up workforces in every type of industry all over the world. The generational gaps are numerous and distinctly different between each age group, and Millennials have gotten a reputation for being particularly unique and often challenging. In this updated and expanded Second Edition of the popular guidebook Managing the Millennials, you'll see how Millennial traits are the same around the globe.

In fact, Millennials are more alike than any other generation before them due in large part to rapid advances in technology that let us share more experiences together. These same rapid advances are also redefining the fundamental ways businesses operate, and this revised edition includes the international perspective today's valuable leadership needs to attract and retain these high-performing workers with very different values and expectations. With fresh research and new real-world examples, the powerhouse authorial team reexamines the differences between how different generations work today in businesses around the world, with insightful exploration into what makes the Millennial generation so different from the ones that came before. The authors reveal nine specific points of tension commonly arising from clashing value systems among generations and prescribe nine proven solutions to resolve conflict and build communication, nurture collaborative teams, and create long-lasting relationships among colleagues of every age. A wealth of informative tables and convenient end-of-chapter summaries make this an invaluable everyday reference to support you:

• Making the most informed decisions with up-to-date, research-based guidance on getting the most from twenty-something employees
• Executing solutions to the most common obstacles to younger workers engaging and learning from the people who manage them
• Enhancing your skills as a job coach with practical tips and hands-on tools for coaching Millennials, including concrete action steps for overcoming roadblocks

Complete with case studies of real managers and employees interacting in every area of business, enlightening analysis of performance and behavioral patterns across generations, and easy-to-use techniques you can use right away to improve your organization, Managing the Millennials, Second Edition gives you everything you need to inspire your entire workforce to new levels of productivity.

CHIP ESPINOZA , PHD, is author of Millennials Who Manage and Millennials@Work. He is academic director of Organizational Psychology and Nonprofit Leadership at Concordia University Irvine. Economic Times recently named him a top 15 thought leader on the future of work.

MICK UKLEJA, PHD, is the founder and President of LeadershipTraQ, a leadership consulting firm. He co-authored Managing The Millennials, Who Are You? What Do You Want? and The Ethics Challenge. Mick is an adjunct professor in the MBA program at Concordia University and keynotes across the country on issues relating to generational diversity, leadership and personal productivity. He has been featured on Fox News, CNN, Fox Business Network, NBC and in numerous publications.

Foreword Gabrielle Jackson Bosché xv

Introduction Close Encounters with a Different Kind xix

Part I The Millennial Phenomenon 1

Chapter 1 The Millennials and You 3

The Generations at Work 4

What in the World is Happening? 8

The Coming Job Gap 12

You’re So Special 13

Bridging the Gap 15

Chapter 2 Aren’t We All Just the Same? 17

So What? isn’t Every Generation the Same? 17

Who Gets to Do the Sense-Making and Set the Rules? 24

Chapter 3 The Effective Managers versus the

Challenged Managers 27

Mind-Set 30

Following Up with Human Resources 33

Chapter 4 The Points of Tension between Managers and Millennials 35

Perceptual Positioning 37

The Consequence of Inexperience40

Part II Discover the Core Competencies for Managing Today’s Workforce 53

Chapter 5 Be Flexible: When Letting Them Have It Their Way Makes Sense 55

Flexing with the Autonomous

The Millennial Intrinsic Value: Work-Life Blending 56

The Bias of Experience 57

Psychological Contract 60

Learning from Our Success 61

Learning from Our Failure 62

Best Practice 62

Chapter 6 Create the Right Rewards: Rewarding the Right Things in the Right Ways 65

Incenting the Entitled

The Millennial Intrinsic Value: Reward 66

The Bias of Experience 66

Rewarding the Right Way 68

Rewarding the Right Things 69

Keeping Them Informed 70

Learning from Our Success 71

In a Nutshell 73

Chapter 7 Put Their Imagination to Work: They are at the Head of the Creative Class 75

Cultivating the Imaginative

The Millennial Intrinsic Value: Self-Expression 76

The Bias of Experience 76

Creativity and Competitive Advantage 78

Managerial Best Practices 79

Let Them Know What Happened with Their Ideas 80

Let Them Have Fun 81

In a Nutshell 82

Chapter 8 Build a Relationship: First Them, Then You 85

Engaging the Self-Absorbed

The Millennial Intrinsic Value: Attention 86

The Bias of Experience 88

Best Practices 88

So What are Some Barriers to Engaging? 91

Something to Think About 95

The Transfer of Tacit Knowledge Will Not Happen without Building a Relationship 95

Chapter 9 Be Positive When Correcting: Fragile, Handle with Care 99

Disarming the Defensive

The Millennial Intrinsic Value: Achievement 100

The Bias of Experience 103

Best Practices 104

Learning from Success 106

In a Nutshell 110

Chapter 10 Don’t Take Things Personally: It is Not Always about You 113

Self-Differentiating from the Abrasive

The Millennial Intrinsic Value: Informality 114

The Bias of Experience 115

Self-Differentiating Is about You 117

Know Where They End and You Begin 118

Separateness and Togetherness 119

Know the Difference between Your Role and Your Person 119

Beware of Triangulating 119

Think about Your Presence 120

Confessions 121

In a Nutshell 122

Chapter 11 Show Them the Big Picture: The Big Picture Does Not Exist Until You Help Them See It 125

Broadening the Myopic

The Millennial Intrinsic Value: Simplicity 126

The Bias of Experience 127

Learning from Success 128

Learning from Failures 128

Start with Something Easy 129

The Consequential Thinking Model 130

The Five Whys 131

Please, Do Share 132

In a Nutshell 134

Chapter 12 Include the Details: Ambiguity is Their Kryptonite 137

Directing the Unfocused

The Millennial Intrinsic Value: Multitasking 138

The Bias of Experience 139

Directing? I Thought They Wanted Autonomy 140

Giving Direction 141

Learning from Success 142

Learning from Our Failures 143

In a Nutshell 145

Chapter 13 Make It Matter to Them: They Want to Know “Why” before “What” 147

Motivating the Indifferent

The Millennial Intrinsic Value: Meaning 148

The Bias of Experience 150

Hierarchy of Capabilities 152

Learning from Success 155

Learning from Our Failures 156

In a Nutshell 157

Part III Your Competitive Advantage 159

Chapter 14 Building a Millennial-Friendly Culture 161

Identify Your All-Stars and Give Them a Platform 161

Involve Your Managers in the Conversation 163

Ask Millennials 163

Suspend Organizational Bias 164

Promote the Core Competencies for Managing Today’s Workforce 165

The Generational Rapport Inventory 166

Chapter 15 Mentoring Millennials 169

Challenges Millennials Face in the Workplace 171

Strategies for Overcoming Roadblocks at Work 172

The Seven Skills for Overcoming Roadblocks 177

In the End 179

Acknowledgments 181

Notes 183

Index 191

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