"They" Are Not Millennials

By David Brown

"They" Are Not Millennials addresses the issues facing organizational leaders coping with a rapidly evolving workplace culture.  This book provides an understanding of the differences in the youngest employees entering the workforce.  It includes leadership insights and strategies to lead, motivate, and inspire a young workfo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Culture of Command
• Release date: Nov 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781733300711

David Brown

David William Brown, FRSE, FBA is an Anglican priest and British scholar of philosophy, theology, religion, and the arts. He has taught at the universities of Oxford, Durham, and St. Andrews.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

AS WITH ANY leadership book, this book exists to give the reader the tools to successfully lead a group of people. It explicitly intends to examine and understand the next generation of employees and future leaders in the post-Millennial generation, or what researchers are starting to call Generation Z.

One of the first things you may have noticed about this book is its length. In today’s fast-paced, technologically-enhanced environment, the need to quickly disseminate information is more important than ever before. As you read through this book, you will learn that the younger generation values speed of information sharing more than any prior generation. As the world gets faster and faster, we must lead by example and tailor our messages to facilitate brief information sharing. We must be concise and say more with less. Think of the world we live in as a series of tweets—limited to 140 characters per statement. But only nine percent of tweets ever hit the 140-character count, with an average tweet length of 34 characters. When Twitter expanded their character limit to 280 characters per tweet, the average tweet length decreased to 33 characters.¹

This illustrates Generation Z’s preference for quick-hitting information dissemination.

This book also exists because of personal experience. I have seen many leaders and managers crumble while trying to find a solution to lead, motivate, and inspire an increasingly young workforce.

As I was sitting in a leadership class, I started noticing trends in my classmates. Everyone in the room was already in a leadership position; these were considered the best and brightest of their organizations, the up-and-comers. As the class settled in, the instructor displayed a slide from his PowerPoint presentation. We were instructed to stand up and introduce ourselves to one another by following the displayed prompts:

⁃ What is your name?

⁃ How long have you been in a leadership position?

⁃ What are your hobbies?

⁃ What do you most want to get out of this class?

As I sat back and listened to my new classmates share their leadership experiences, I began to notice a trend. My classmates were a collective group of go-getters, put into formal leadership positions to guide the next generation of workers. The average age of the class was 42 years old. Soon, another trend arose. Each classmate began to answer the last question in a very familiar way:

I don’t know how to deal with these kids.

Millennials only seem to want to take vacations. I can’t seem to get them to put in the hours.

They don’t respond to my emails or texts.

These Millennials want instant gratification. They don’t want to be here. They don’t value working hard for what they want.

The gripes and complaints continued. Even the instructor joined in. The instructor spoke about how Millennials confuse him and how he doesn’t understand what their issues are. He then reassured the class his course would offer insight on how to deal with Millennials.

Aside from the fact that as a leader, you do not deal with a group of people, an even more glaring issue