61: Managing Millennials in the Workplace with Lee Caraher

Ah, Millennials. This generation may be the most broadly stereotyped, yet often misunderstood. As managers, we may be Millennials ourselves trying to figure out how to manage and build relationships with older peers, or we may be struggling with how to manage this unusual cohort which seems to “know everything,” and “demand autonomy.” What is really going on with Millennials and what does it mean for managing every generation in the workplace? This week’s guest is Lee Caraher is the CEO of Double Forte PR & Digital Marketing; she’s known for her practical solutions to big problems. Lee’s the author of Millennials & Management based on her experience with failing and then succeeding at retaining Millennials. Her second book, The Boomerang Principle: Inspire lifetime loyalty from your employees, was published in April 2017. Lee and I talk about various cohorts of Millenials, the experiences of Gen-Xers and Boomers in the workplace, how to manage new graduates who are just entering the workforce, and management practices that work for everyone, whether you’re a young manager with older team members or an older team member with a younger manager.   Read the related blog article: Successfully Manage Millennials and Other Generations in the Workplace   Join the Modern Manager community (www.mamieks.com/join) by August 12th to win one of five copies of Lee’s book The Boomerang Principle: Inspire Lifetime Loyalty from Your Employees.   Subscribe to my newsletter to get episodes, articles and mini-guides delivered to your inbox.      KEY TAKEAWAYS: The term Millennial technically only tells you what age cohort they belong to. Pew Research says that a millennial was born between 1980 and 1997. There are three cohorts of Millennials that are grouped based on what was happening in the world when they were young. (1) The oldest group which joined the workforce shortly after 9/11 and grew up with minimal technology; (2) The middle group which entered the workforce in the late 2000s which was the same time that work was becoming digital; and (3) The youngest group which learned with iPads in the classrooms and grew up as digital natives. One challenge recent graduates face in the workplace is the experience, often for the first time, of being told their work isn’t “A+” and that they have to do it again. In a schooling environment, the directions are typically very clear on how to get an A+ and rarely do you re-do work once it’s done, even if it’s only B+ work. Set expectations for a new hire right from the start. Be clear that you want them to spend the first 30-60 days getting to know the job and doing the work “your way” and then you want to hear their ideas for how to improve it.