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| Photo Credit: Bigstock #86408645 Millennial Teenage Girls through agreement with Smith Durant |
Telling a Millennial that they need to stick to a five to
ten year business model will be met with complete skepticism. Here’s
why.
The reason the business development cycle is
three months out instead of five years is due to several influences:
digital devices, email and big data have given us the power to get more
work done in less time with more accuracy.
Technology has also
given us the ability to work from anywhere we want regardless of
location even on a modest budget. Skype for instance gives a small
business access to international videoconferencing for pennies. This
allows smaller startups to compete for the same low hanging fruit that
well-established behemoths used to ignore.
As Olympian Vince Poscente puts it, like it or not, “
we are in the age of speed.”
And with that said, any coach, regardless of generation who is still clinging to the 20th Century models will not survive the milieu of coaches about to join your ranks.
And besides, Millennial business owners want to move fast.
But
here is where Millennial coaches and business advisers will have the
hardest time; cracking the generational mindset of older established
business professionals. Let me explain, if we go back in time, to the
70s no one was seeking the advice of a 25 year old. Age determined rank
in the boomer world, and that ideology of age+experience=trust is
present to this day.
Inside EVERY Baby Boomer’s head is something I
have labeled the Career Path Paradigm. At 20 a person was to start in
the mail room. Know your place in the organization. Sit down. Shut up and
listen. Hard work and sweat would get you noticed. No one is interested
in what a 20-something has to say. At 30, you might get noticed and
move up in rank. Stability starts at 30. You were supposed to get
married and buy a house and start a family. By 40 you get a middle
management position and 50 gets you the corner office and a title and
keys to the executive washroom.
Although this model is over,
Millennial Coaches will have to overcome this very real belief still
sitting in the nooks and crannies of anyone over 50.
If you are a
Millennial Coach selling to a Boomer, I suggest you enter with a diverse
team made up of Gen X and Boomers. Even if it is just your advisory
team, do it f you want to make the boomer comfortable.
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What about coaching the Millennial-owned startup?
Two
close business associates invited me to a breakfast meeting. The topic?
Could I groom a Millennial business owner? Although the young man was a
genius at 28—his entire business centered around a multi-million dollar
app he had developed. His entire business was a digital product. As they
filled me in, I realized the young wunderkind was intelligent, but
sloppy, said inappropriate things and was inexperienced at business
structure.
My job is to groom this young man for the C-Suite. I have one year to get him ready.
Since I have a deep understanding of Millennials, my job will be simple. For the rest of you, here are a few tips;
1) Millennials are friends with their parents.
Use that to your advantage.
What
that means is as children they were privy to conversations that
previous generations never had with their parents. This included getting
career advice and mentorship lessons since they were 5. In other words,
Millennials weren’t raised by parents, they were raised by advisers.
The hierarchy in the household was flattened in favor of collaboration.
To
work with this generation, become a partner in their success. Sounds
exhausting but a Millennial will need far more "hands on" than other
clients. Why you may ask? Well, although they had deep relationships
with their parents and teachers growing up, they may not have the same
business polish that was expected of Gen X and Boomers at the same age.
Huge
chunks of knowledge is missing from their experience. And you as a
consultant, a coach, (or mentor), will need to explain why things need to get done in
a certain way in a particular order.
2) Harness their innovation before they get cynical.
Because
Millennials are not trained in traditional business methodologies they
break the rules. BUT, they don’t know they are breaking the rules. This
is a good thing because like any breakthrough entrepreneur, innovation
is what wins the day.
But show them that creating cool products
can also go hand-in-hand with traditional business structures. A
Results Only Work Environment is best for creating an environment that
Millennials respect, but at the same time, celebrate the importance of
deadlines and systems. In a ROWE environment output is 32% higher than
traditional business hierarchies.
Celebrate Innovation and counter intuitive solutions. THAT is what Millennials do best.
The
new
Holacracy trend is great and all, but unless you have money to burn
through before that first product takes root, I suggest sticking to a
ROWE model.
3) Build Fast and Sell…BUT, Prepare them for the Long Haul as well.
While
you show the Digital Native that you aren’t their grandfather’s
business coach, build a rapport that is based on results. Building a
start-up into a viable company for acquisition is every entrepreneur’s
dream. And it is a hot trend. BUT, teaching valuable business lessons
that create a lasting legacy is far more important for the future of
your business as well as theirs.
You see, we all work in the One
Off environment. But how would you like to be rehired years later
when
that young entrepreneur is a leader at another company? Or creating a
deep dive array of coaching services that grow as the organization
grows?
For myself I’ve had to add 9 month and one year programs to my
consulting simply because I realized one workshop, a keynote or a 6 week
engagement weren’t really enough to create a sea change. For a broad
transformation that is felt throughout the organization, I needed a
team, and my team needs to get inside the organization for 9 months
minimum.
Long term, versus short term.
Which do you think is better?
Also,
don’t wear a tie. Millennials like to be comfortable at work, and so
should you. I wear a Hugo Boss suit with a fitted dress shirt and a silk
handkerchief with expensive sunglasses. Even Millennials in flip-flops
appreciate casual elegance.
So get in there. There’s money to be made, and companies to help build.
Brad Szollose
Global Business Adviser and Consultant
on Millennials and Workforce Performance Strategies
This Blog Post originally appeared on the Smith Durant Blog:
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Brad Szollose is a global business adviser and the foremost authority on
Generational Issues and
Workforce Engagement Strategies.
Author of the award-winning, bestseller
Liquid Leadership: From Woodstock to Wikipedia,
Brad is a former C-level executive of a publicly traded company that he
cofounded that went from entrepreneurial start-up to IPO in three
years; the first Dot Com Agency to go public on NASDAQ. His
company K2 Design, experienced 425% hyper-growth, due in part to a
unique management style that won his company the
Arthur Andersen NY Enterprise Award for Best Practices in Fostering Innovation.
Known for his humorous and thought-provoking presentations, Brad’s keynotes and workshops are
highly interactive, heart-warming,
and
filled with high-content information that challenge
assumptions and help leaders and managers
create a better work
environment for innovation to thrive.
Today,
Brad helps smart companies like Dell and MasterCard, understand just how much
technology has transformed a new generation, and how that
impacts corporate culture, management interaction, expectations, productivity and
sales in The Information Age.
* 2011 Axiom Business Book silver medal winner in the leadership
* #1 Amazon Best-Selling Author
"I just had my mind blown..." - A.S., Vistage, New York
Liquid Leadership by Brad Szollose is available at all major bookstores
and for Kindle, Nook, iPad and Sony ereaders. Internationally published
in India and S. Korea.
Who is David Burkus?
