Alisa Blum Optimizing the Millennials Relationship in Organizations

Hi, how are you today?

Good, how are you, CB?

Great, great. Why don't you introduce yourself to our audience?

All right, I'm Elisa Blum and I'm principal consultant of Elisa Blum and Associates and I'm a longtime specialist in helping businesses and organizations work effectively across the generations.

Terrific. And, you know, this is so important today because we have, unlike in years gone by, where you basically have one generation dominating the workspace, now we have multiple generations working in the same space. So we would like our audience to have some tips and thoughts about how to work better to build a stronger corporate culture. And to increase ROI for the organization and to increase employee satisfaction.

Okay, sounds great.

So why don't we start with defining what is a millennial?

Okay, well, technically millennials are the generation that were born between 1981 and 1986, and they're defined that way because there are just certain experiences that this group has had growing up, certain family structures, societal influences that cause people to have similar work styles and behaviors. It is important to keep in mind that obviously not everybody born between 1981 and 1996 is the same. So there's a lot— this is a 15-year span, so a 23-year-old just starting their first job is going to have some different needs than a 34-year-old with family responsibilities. So keep that in mind. Also keep in mind that we all have different personality styles and we have different cultural influences. And some people are born on the border of one generation and another, so they have influences from both generations. So it's important when we talk about the generations to understand those big influences and those similarities, but But also for people to get to know each other on an individual level so that they can recognize and appreciate the individual differences between them and their similarities also.

So one of the things that occurs to me, I'm not sure if you're in this generation, but how did you become an expert in the generation?

Well, it evolved over time. My background is as a social worker, so I've always been interested in understanding people and the impact of society on people and individual development. And in the late '90s, books started coming out about the different generations. And that was at a time when we had Gen Xers were just getting into the workforce. So for a long time, the workforce was just made up of traditionalists and boomers. And then a 3rd generation was added to the mix, which caused a lot of confusion in the workplace. So I started— this really interested me. So I started doing a lot of reading on this subject, and then I started to develop training programs in this area. And then as new generations have come along, the dynamics have changed in the workforce. So you always have to stay on top of what's new and what's changing, because now the traditionalists are pretty much gone from the workforce, and the millennials are a growing influence in the workforce. As a matter of fact, in 2020, 75% of the workforce is going to be made up of millennials.

You know what I find interesting is that the millennials are very much what we would call in your face, right? And at the same time, people feel like they are a generation that feels like they deserve everything coming their way. At the same time, I'm finding, because I'm getting more involved with this generation through the Association of Corporate Executive Coaches, which I lead, we realize that we— in order for us to have sustainability, we need to be more inviting to the millennial generation.

Mm-hmm.

And so what I'm finding more than any other generation Is that they have a deep-seated respect for the traditionalists, for the baby boomers. They're like sponges just absorbing the information we have, and there is a perception out there that they're sort of pushing away everything that we have to offer. I'm not finding that to be true.

Yeah, and I think that's because your organization is giving them the opportunity to learn and to grow. And they crave that. And organizations that are successful at keeping millennials are giving them those opportunities. But they will quickly leave an organization if they are not having those opportunities to learn and to grow.

So it seems like this, you know, we've talked this before, but now the millennials are putting us to task about Mutual respect.

Mm-hmm.

So that they are really good if they feel like they're being heard, and they then reciprocate by listening well. Do you find that to be true?

Well, I think that that can— it's hard for me to generalize that in that generation because I think there are a lot of personality differences in Mm-hmm. But one of the things I've been thinking about lately is that it seems like movements like the MeToo movement, you know, have been led by this generation. And so I think that they feel more empowered to kind of be out there, you know, and communicate their needs. The other thing that's important, and this is why there's been so much attention paid to them, is because they're so big. Right now they are the biggest generation of adults.

Wow.

And it's always the biggest generation that has the most power. You know, for a long time, we all— we could hear— we heard all about the boomers, you know, and the boomers were dominating the conversation. Well, now it's the millennials dominating the conversation because they're such a large group. And because they're so large, I think they have more power.

Is large defined by the numbers in the generation or the size of their voice?

Well, the numbers in the generation, but I think the numbers in the generation also have to do with the size of their voice.

I think it's amazing how when they, uh, I don't know how to phrase this, but when they appreciate a subject matter, how fast that subject matter goes viral. Oh yeah, unlike anything I have ever seen Black Lives Matter, Me Too movement, you know, it's, it's just fascinating.

Yeah, it's fascinating to me too. And because they are so good at using social media, you know, they— and, and because I'm not part of that generation, it's, it's just— I probably feel the same way you do. It's just amazing to me to see how they're able to tap into this stuff and make things take off. And And create incredible change.

I am trying to figure out how it's done, and I'm looking for a formula. And everyone I ask of this generation says, I don't know, we just do it. What's the formula? Give me the secret sauce.

Yeah, well, I think that's why people— we need to capitalize on the knowledge that this generation has and why it's so important to work together. And for people in older generations to not assume that they have all the answers just because they're older or have more experience, and to recognize the value that these young people can bring and how much they can help us.

So what are the mistakes that employers are making in working more effectively with this generation?

What are the mistakes?

Yes.

One is not realizing, you know, the pace that they want to work at. Sometimes I'll call them the instant gratification generation, right? Because when you think about it, they grew up with microwave ovens, with cable TV, with Google. They never had to wait for anything. So they get in the workforce, they don't want to have to wait for changes to happen. They don't want to have to wait 5 years or more to advance into a supervisory position. So it's important for employers to recognize that. That doesn't mean they have to give them everything that the millennial employee asks for either, but they have to open up the conversation. So I think for the very beginning of someone's employment, it's important for the manager to talk about career development opportunities in the organization and talk about what does that employee want, what are their goals, what are the goals of the organization, and what can they do together to meet those goals. And maybe the— Maybe the millennials' goals will need to be pared down a little bit to keep pace with the organization, and maybe the organization needs to figure out a way to create change a little faster so that both of their needs can be met. And I think that often there just aren't those discussions. People don't realize that this is something that they need to talk about. And if they don't have these discussions, what often happens is that that millennial employee will, after a year or 2 years maybe, they'll say, oh, my needs aren't being met here, I'm going somewhere else.

And then—

and the manager doesn't even know why that employee has left. So that communication is just really essential.

What do you think is getting in the way of employers having that conversation? Is it just lack of knowledge? Is it in terms that it's needed? Is it lack of knowledge about how to have the conversation?

I think both of those things. One is a lack of awareness. You know, we always— our perspective is usually based on what we've experienced, right? So if we came into the work world and our expectation was that you didn't have these conversations or you waited for your manager to give you a promotion, we don't always think that somebody else might need something different. So one of the things I like to do in my trainings is raise that awareness and help people realize, okay, you grew up this way, these are your work styles, but But these other people have different work styles, and you need to go out of your comfort zone so that you can adapt to their work styles and meet their needs.

Can you give us an example of— very concrete example of 3 different work styles?

Of 3 different work styles, you said?

Yes. Or—

so, well, let me— Why don't we talk a little bit about communication because it's easy to—

Sure.

Kind of put it in that context. So, for example, one of the things that I see a lot is with Gen X managers who are very independent, very self-sufficient, and value that in themselves, don't understand the need for millennials to get a lot of positive feedback. because they didn't need that. And because—

Well, we may have needed it, but we didn't get it.

Yeah, yeah, but they perceive that, oh, I did fine without it, right? So why do I have to give that to this person? Why do I have to spend my time doing that? I had a conversation with a client not too long ago about that. He was a Gen X manager, and he said, you know, for the longest time, I just went, what do I need to do this for? You know, and I wasn't doing it. And then he said, when I finally realized that I needed to adapt to them and start giving them that positive feedback, I really saw the value in it and I saw how much it motivated my employees. And now I just do it automatically.

Mm-hmm.

So, so what happens is, is that you, you know, it can be a little hard to go out of your comfort zone, but then once you start doing something new and different, then it starts becoming part of, you know, who you are and how you behave, especially when you see the positive consequences.

Is there a different way that we should be giving millennials feedback? Not compliments, but negative feedback. Well, I guess feedback is not considered negative. Yeah, but, but change-directed feedback.

Yeah, I think it ties in with what you brought up earlier about how you've noticed that this is a generation that wants to learn. So if we give feedback in that context, not you're doing this wrong, but hey, let me teach you how you can maybe do this differently, and this is how taking a different approach or using a different process can help you be more effective here.

Mm-hmm.

So if the manager or supervisor takes that role of a teacher or of a coach, then that can come off in a much more positive way to that millennial employee. And also, it's important to keep in mind, this is a generation in general that is very sensitive to criticism.

Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know if you remember, you know, when these kids were growing up, you know, teachers were taught to just only say positive things. On the playground, you see parents just only saying, you know, always saying you've done a good job for every little thing that they notice their kid doing. That's what they grew up with, so they don't know how to deal with the negatives as well.

They're used to being rewarded constantly, and so my concern is that they do not know what failure is and how to recuperate from failure.

Yeah, and that's where coaches come in, or managers who want to coach employees can come in. Is to recognize this is something that they may not have had a lot of practice with. You know, there's, there's a book out called, you know, I think it's something like Everybody Deserves a Trophy or Everybody Gets a Trophy or something, you know.

Yeah.

And because, you know, in school activities, you know, after-school activities, everybody would get some big reward, you know, whether you deserved it or not. So you take those experiences with you as an adult, and that is an issue that comes up sometimes with people of this generation.

So is there a specific way that we should start a conversation about, this is just not working?

Can you— this is not—

So if you, if you need to communicate to this generation that whatever the issue is is not working, are there Is there specific verbiage that you would suggest we use, or is it just plain straight talk?

I think you need to think carefully about how you present the information. So I would get their perspective first, you know, describe the situation and say, this is what I've noticed. Can you tell me your perspective on that.

Wow.

And then say, well, can I share my perspective? And this is my perspective. And then have a dialogue about, okay, how can we solve this problem? This generation likes to be innovative. You know, so you can use that innovation if there's a problem that needs to be corrected. And you may find that that young person comes up with ideas and solutions that you haven't thought of.

I love that thought. I absolutely love it. You know, we're dealing with that now because we have a major conference coming up. And so we want to encourage the millennial generation to come because we feel that there could be a lot of sharing with the other generations. And so on our task force is a millennial, and she was listening to the dialogue between the older folks yesterday, and I said to her, Mary, you're very quiet. You haven't said anything. And she said, because I don't think that you're considering all the factors. I was like, well, what are you talking about here? And I said, such as? She said, well, you, you all are talking about pricing this at a lower price for us. But you're not pricing it low enough. And I said, why? It's 50% off. She said, yes, but we don't have the income to pay for the transportation, the hotel, and the conference. So it's not priced right, number one. And number two, you haven't identified for us why we should come. You have talked about why Your generation should come, but what specifically is it for us? And I thought, and I said, but isn't that obvious? And she said, no. I thought, okay, now.

But weren't you lucky that you got that feedback from her? That's fantastic feedback.

Yes.

And then you can say to her, so what, how would you, what do you think we need to say? In order to reach out to this generation, because you're not going to intuitively know that.

But, you know, that's really good advice because I was just so stunned. I don't think I came back with that question. I'm going to be calling her after this.

Yeah, and, and really let them know that you really appreciate that input because there is no way you could have known that without her saying something.

You know, it's also very interesting when, when I gave her the charge to build this, what we call, what we're calling the Youngblood Tribe, and it's an organization for millennial coaches. And I said to her, all right, go and build it. And she said, well, what does that mean? What authority do I have? And I said, you have complete authority. It's your project. She said, Well, does that mean I need to check with you? And I said, well, no, but I would say to you that I— it might be a good idea every once in a while, like once a month, to send me a post, send me an email, or just call and say, this is what I'm up to. And she said, that's it? I said, that's it. And she said, I love this, and I can go out and tell people that I am talking directly to the CEO And that just blew me away, that comment right then and there, because first of all, I never tell people who I am or what I am in the, in the organization, right? And I said to her, is that important to you? And she said, oh yes, yes, it gives me status.

Yeah.

With my colleagues. And I thought, okay, well, go for it. And I have to tell you, She has built an incredible committee to work with. People that I would not think to reach out to. She's attracted people to sit on this committee from Google, from LinkedIn. I'm totally blown away. Yeah.

Yeah. And that's a great example of, you know, you empowered her to do this and look what she did. And I've seen that. Many, in many other situations.

Yeah, I want to talk to you about another surprising area for this generation. You know, when I was coming along, I always had 3 jobs, and I've written quite a few articles on having a parallel career path, but that really had to do with the fact that I was a female and I was African American, and I felt that in the corporate world I needed to insulate myself from being terminated. So it was this whole philosophy that I had to always have a backup career. Now what I'm seeing is something called the gig economy. And because I was quite surprised when the same person said to me, okay, I'm an executive coach and I'm in real estate. And I thought, okay, is this reminiscent of what I did? Was this something brand new? And how are employees responding to millennials having more than one job?

Yeah, I can't— in the— with the organizations that I have worked with, I haven't seen that because I've worked with mostly large organizations. But one of the things that's important for employers to keep in mind is That, that gig economy is alive and well. And sometimes people will leave your organization to start their own business. And so that's one of the reasons why it can be hard to retain employees in this generation is because you're not just competing with other organizations, you're competing with that gig economy.

And what's causing the need for the gig economy?

I think there are a lot of reasons for that. One, I think what you said, you know, those of us that have lived through many recessions probably feel a need to have a few different things going on in case one thing doesn't work out. We have something else.

And you think this may have been passed down from their parents to them?

Possibly. But also, I think the, the internet and what that's allowed us to do. And then that sense of freedom that people think that they're going to have in the gig economy, or just the reality of being laid off. And, and I'm seeing that with older people too, not just with young people.

Interesting.

Yeah. Well, there are a lot of older, you know, people, you know, in their 50s and early 60s who aren't ready to retire. But because they may be older, because they may be the higher paying people in an organization, they're getting let go of. And they're having a really hard time finding employment. So they're starting their own businesses, you know, because that's been easier for them to do in some ways than finding employment.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So what, what mistakes do you feel that managers continue to make in working with millennials other than not recognizing their need for feedback positive and accepting them as a colleague? What, you know, what gets in the way of them accepting them as a peer, as a colleague?

Well, when they see differences in work styles, or they may make assumptions that because they're young they may not know as much. You know, when they may not know what that older employee knows, but they may know things You know, like, you know, being tapped into social media or other kinds of things that's important for the organization. And that gets discounted a lot. I had somebody contact me last year because she wanted her— she was a millennial and she wanted a training for this particular training on working across generations for her organization because she, as a millennial, wasn't feeling respected. And she thought that, you know, she— they empowered her, this group of people, and it turned out to be the young people, to plan a training session. And she said, oh, maybe this will help me get more respected in the workplace. So just because someone is 26 or 27 and hasn't been in the work world very long doesn't mean that they don't have a lot of knowledge. The other thing that comes up a lot is And I would imagine you've heard this before, is millennials get called entitled a lot.

Yes.

And they get very annoyed at that label. I mean, you can—

What's the trigger for that annoyance?

Because it's said in a very negative way. I've seen this a lot in the trainings that I've done, you know, that there's a perception, and sometimes it's an accurate perception, you know, but sometimes it's not. You know, there's a perception that, you know, because they want things to happen fast, that they feel like they're entitled to that, that they feel like they're special. Sometimes you just need to harness their ambition, you know. So if we call people ambitious instead of entitled, doesn't that— it frames things in a much more positive way, right?

I love it. Yeah.

And then, and then figure out, well, how do you manage that? So I had— I talked to a Really fantastic manager last year. She worked for quite a while in the Peace Corps, so she worked with a lot of young people. And she said, I noticed in this generation that they just want to jump into things really, really fast, which is great, but they need that structure. So I had to work with them to figure out what structures needed to be put in place so that those goals could be reached realistically. So we, we all need to work together and use our expertise so that we can reach goals, you know, that we all want to reach and do them in a way that works for each organization.

You know, that brings to mind a question that I had with an earlier— with the earlier part of this interview. So putting structure in place and laying out a path Mm-hmm. We went through as a society of having many different job levels to having it peer down to a shorter pyramid to reach the top.

Mm-hmm.

You feel with the millennial generation and them wanting to see steps to get to the top that that will increase the height of the pyramid? So basically, will we need to add more levels?

Yeah, I think it's good to add more rungs so that they can see more quickly how they're advancing. But get their input on it. One of the organizations I've worked with that's doing a great job with millennials has their newer employees involved in their leadership team discussions.

Really?

Yeah, and that has worked really, really well for this organization.

So that the millennials get to frame their future.

They get to frame their future and they get to see what it's like to lead an organization too. So they get to learn and then the organization gets a lot of inputs So that they can stay current and then they can adapt to the needs of this generation.

Do you feel that this generation has a different definition of leadership?

Yes. I think the millennials, and to some extent the Gen Xers who are the generation right above them, and the youngest generation, the Gen Zs that are coming up, all want a flatter organizational structure. And for, for larger organizations, governmental organizations, that can be a challenge because you need— I mean, they've been around a long time. They've been used to a certain type of hierarchy. And there is some kind of hierarchy that's needed in an organization. But they also need to start talking about what can we do to be more collaborative and to be flatter and to make decisions in a faster way. And then that— and they're being challenged with that right now.

So this has been great, and I want to end with one final question. What do they see as the role of the leader?

What do they see as the role of a leader? That's a good question. I mean, I think they— there's a respect, obviously, you know, and you've given examples of that, of, you know, for people that are leading organizations. But what they want is for the leader to reach out to them and to get their input and to be more collaborative and to not feel like they have to jump through 20 hoops to get the attention of that leader.

So have you heard anything when they become leaders?

Mm-hmm.

What would they do differently?

Well, a lot of them are leaders. You know, you look at your, you know, a lot of, especially your young tech organizations.

Sure, that's true.

Yeah, and they are leaders. And, you know, those workplaces are definitely, they're more casual, they're more flexible. There are a lot of people working remotely in those organizations. So there are differences.

And—

but I think, you know, this— I think we're in a kind of a transitional time right now. So I think it can be helpful for young leaders to think about what are some of the ways that people have led in the past that are still viable and that And what are some new and innovative things that we can put in place that will help us?

I think what we're defining as disruptive behavior in the workforce is really a new, new style of leadership. It's more collaborative for sure.

Right.

It's more inviting for social norms to move in from the outside of the workplace to Right.

And people are wanting that, not just work-life balance, but they want that work-life integration so that they can— work isn't just a place for work, but there can be downtime at work. We can bring our dogs to work.

I'm all in favor of that.

Yeah. So I think we just all need to be open to just new and innovative ways of working and try things out and see what works, see what doesn't work. And, but, but being open to change and different ways of, of working together will really help us get to a new place.

This has been terrific. Is there anything you would like to add about your organization specifically and what you do so that our listeners know where to reach when they have problems that they need to solve? Sure.

So I do consulting and I do training in this area that range from, you know, short, you know, short little introductory training sessions to longer sessions to consultations with organizations. I am giving free consultations right now to anybody that wants to Email me at alisa@developtopemployees.com. So just feel free to email me and let me know when you're free for a consultation and let me know what your burning issues are and I'll be happy to help you with them.

That's wonderful. And I love the name of your organization. It says it all.

Thank you. And thank you so much, CB. This has been a lot of fun.

Thank you. Bye now.

Bye.