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FROM INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTOR TO MANAGER

“Millennials have a great opportunity to change the way leaders lead, from the old school of command and control to the new school of trust and track.”

Paul Spiegelman, CEO of The Beryl Companies and author of Why Is Everyone Smiling?

Now in the red corner, we have the millennials at more than 75 million strong; in the blue corner, we have a tag team of Xers and Boomers weighing over 15 billion pounds!

Although it’s not a battle and I’m not pitting people against one another, I often see the quick, verbal jabs among the generations. I have worked with tens of thousands of senior leaders across the country, and they express a little—okay, a lot of frustration—with the millennial perspective. As you become a manager, you will begin thinking less about your individual performance and more about the performance of your team. Admittedly, millennial manager Cheryl Ryan was surprised with how difficult this transition was. “It’s a big shift to go from knowing the work to leading the work,” shared Ryan, Director, Human Resources at Centro. “It took several months to feel comfortable delegating and taking a step back. It’s hard to let go and no longer own what you were truly great at.”

To help you make this transition, we’re going to look at what I hear from your elders as being a dichotomy in viewpoints. This review of “millennials vs. older generations” will help you see where some of the struggles come into play as you go from individual contributor to manager. It’s important to note that these are just perceptions, but as a manager, perceptions make a big difference. Additionally, as a millennial manager, you probably still have a boss and your own job responsibilities. This information will give you insights on how your boss may see you and how you can manage up and be an even better employee.

Our team has even written “manifestos” that capture the viewpoint of a millennial just starting work and that of older generations with more work experience. This way you can understand each perspective and where they’re coming from. Let’s take a look.

MILLENNIAL MANIFESTO

I am a millennial. Hear me roar.

Hear me roar. Seriously, will you listen up? I have big ideas. I have big aspirations, and I am ready to put them to work. I have prepared my whole life for this job, for this chance. My entire life, everyone has told me that I can do whatever I want to do and be whoever I want to be. “The sky is the limit. If you put your mind to it, you can change the world” everyone said. “You are special.”

Well, here I am, a part of your company. I want to be a part of something great—and to contribute to something special—every day. I want to make a contribution, and I want to move up.

But I don’t feel like I fit in your system. It’s hard for me to get inspired by climbing the corporate ladder and increasing shareholder value. It’s not even my job duties really—it’s all those things that surround the job. Working with my boss, having to prove myself, and understanding all those unwritten rules that just don’t make sense to me—it’s all so different.

What can I do to succeed? How do I navigate this career path? How do I make my mark? I like to achieve. So what can I do? What can we do? It wasn’t so long ago that you were in my position.

Let’s figure this out together. Let’s work together. I am ready to listen. I am a millennial.

XER/BOOMER MANIFESTO

I am your manager. I am tired of hearing you roar.

Listen up. I am trying to understand you—really, I am. I am trying to be patient, but we have so much to do. You are not in school anymore. Your parents can’t solve your problems anymore. What you need to learn at work wasn’t covered in your college textbooks.

Changing the world takes hard work. And it doesn’t happen on your first day, your first month, or even your first year.

Here we are. I’m ready for you to contribute, but you have a lot to learn. Around here, if you want to be special, you have to earn it. Do you know anything about paying your dues?

I want to teach you, and I want you to succeed, but you’ve got to meet me halfway. It’s hard to be understanding when you give off the air that you know it all. Don’t you think that my experiences are valuable? I get it. You want it all—don’t we all? But you can’t have it all right away.

What can you do to succeed? You have to think less about “me, me, me” when it comes to your career. You’ll make your mark by asking, “what can I do for you?”

Let’s figure this out together. Let’s work together. I am ready to talk. I am ready to listen.

I am your manager.

This gives you an inkling of the two perspectives that I will discuss—both well intended, but both coming from very different places. In many ways, based on much of what I have covered, the way that your generation has been raised and shaped by society, culture, technology, and parenting is fundamentally different from other generations. What I will address now is how on four separate measures the perspective of a millennial manager will be just the opposite of other generations. I’m not saying that once you’re a manager, you have to “sell out” and go to the “other side,” but it is helpful to see these ideas from different viewpoints.

Millennials Versus Older Generations

Entitlement vs. Duty

Equality vs. Hierarchy

Explanation vs. Action

Partnership vs. Ownership

ENTITLEMENT VERSUS DUTY

When I conduct our workshop and ask older generations about millennials, the number one issue that I hear is—entitlement. You want to get promoted instantly, or you believe you have a college degree so you shouldn’t have to do any menial tasks. I hear that millennials complain that the computer they’ve been issued is two years old or the variety of beverage choices being provided for free at the meeting is not nearly diverse enough. “How dare they serve us simply Coke and Sprite. Would it kill them to offer some Dr. Pepper? What are we, heathens?” That’s an extreme example, and you may have been raised very differently than what I’m describing, but it’s important to recognize some of the perceptions of your generation.

The Downfall of Menial Summer Jobs

Now, let’s talk about two specific things that contribute to the perceived entitlement in the millennial generation. First an interesting statistic: “Fewer than three in ten American teenagers now hold summer jobs—jobs such as running cash registers, mowing lawns or busing restaurant tables. The decline has been particularly sharp since 2000, with employment for 16-to-19-year olds falling to the lowest level since World War II.”¹ Even though in recent years, there are more experienced workers taking jobs that teens would normally hold, there is an even more important reason for this phenomenon.

If most teenagers aren’t working, what are they doing? Activities are a big one: You grew up with tennis camp, soccer camp, baseball camp, space adventure camp, LEGO camp, and more. You name it, and there’s a camp for it. Teenagers are also taking more summer school classes or unpaid internships to help with college admissions. Perhaps you spent your summers playing video games or hanging out at the pool, or you may have been traveling. Possibly you and your family toured the great sites of Northern Europe. A couple of summers ago my 16-year-old niece went on a teen tour. A bunch of kids her age took a chaperoned trip to the Pacific Northwest where they went white water rafting, camping, and hiking for eight weeks.

Now what has permitted all of this? Because, let’s be honest: The thought of a “teen tour” when I was 16 would have sounded pretty amazing. The fact is, money prevented those of us my age from doing all those great things. Millennials are part of the richest generation in the history of the world. Let’s hand it to your parents!

The important thing is that many of you were not working. When I do my workshops, I ask for a show of hands to see who worked in fast food as a teenager. With older generations, 50 to 60 percent of people raise their hands. With millennials, that number is about 5 to 10 percent—and occasionally zero!

Let me tell you something. If you spend your summers pulling fries out of a vat of boiling oil, you learn a sense of duty. You don’t learn a sense of duty touring the great sites of Northern Europe with your family. I’m not saying it’s better or worse; it’s just different.

Additionally, for many millennials, the first job they have out of college is the first “real” job they’ve ever held. If you spent four years working in a fry vat and you start a new job in which someone says, “Pull the numbers for the spreadsheet.” you’re likely to say, “Cool, I get to work on a spreadsheet instead of immersing myself in boiling oil, which runs the risk of scalding my body.”

Conversely, if you’ve spent the previous few summers on a teen tour, at soccer camp, and visiting the Eiffel Tower, when someone says pull the numbers for the spreadsheet, your response may not be so positive.

Successful Business Icons Who Are … Young

There is another reason for a strong sense of entitlement among millennials, and it has to do with how business has changed on some profound levels. I graduated college in 1987. When I began my career and looked up in the corporate world at the titans of American industry, I saw folks like Warren Buffet, Lee Iacocca, Jack Welch, and Louis Gerstner. Let’s think about these business icons. What do they all have in common—in addition to being rich, white, men (remember this is decades ago)? They were all old! At the time, they were in their 50s and 60s. When you’re a 22-yearold who just started working, fifty and sixty seem old. I remember thinking, if I bust my butt, if I work incredibly hard, and if I’m in the right place at the right time, MAYBE in thirty-five or forty years, that can be me.

In the 1980s, did I know any 25-year-old, self-made billionaires? No. Nobody did. In those days, if you wanted to become a corporate icon, you had to work at it for decades. How about today? It’s pretty different. We all know several self-made millionaires and billionaires who are incredibly young! The people who started Facebook, Napster, YouTube, and Twitter—many of them were in their twenties or early thirties when they made their millions. Now, I can see how you might be thinking:

“Mark Zuckerberg is smart. Mark Zuckerberg had a good idea. Mark Zuckerberg is young. Mark Zuckerberg is a billionaire.”

“I am smart. I have good ideas. I am young. By the transitive property....”

Now, maybe you don’t expect to be a billionaire, but why can’t you be a vice president or at least run that big project? In your head you think, “People, the rules have changed. You don’t need to be sixty to run the show.” To some extent, you’re right. However, in addition to all being young and being in the tech field, these modern-day corporate icons share another thing in common—they started their own companies. In other words, at age 22, GE didn’t approach Mark Zuckerberg and ask him to run the company. Zuckerberg, and others like him, became 20-something CEOs by doing their own thing. While to some extent the rules have changed, you need to understand that there’s still something to be said for experience.

Let’s think about it this way. Fast-forward to 2037, Mark Zuckerberg is in his 50s, and he decides it’s time to retire. Facebook is worth a trillion dollars, and he wants to hang out at the beach in his golden years. When Zuckerberg goes to select his successor, do you think he will pick a 22-year-old to run Facebook? I doubt it. Chances are his successor will have more work experience and be older, even though Mark was twenty when he started the company.

Based on the downfall of summer jobs as well as the business icons of the day, you can see how your generation might act more entitled than other generations. Many professionals say they have learned critical skills through their sense of duty—working their way up and gaining experiences along the way.

This section is not meant to squander your hopes, dreams, and goals, but it is a valuable reminder to be appreciative of the experiences of those around you and to learn from them. Instead of trying to skip steps one through five, focus on learning, growing, and developing during these beginning stages of management. As you become a more seasoned manager, this idea of “entitlement versus duty” is an important aspect to be aware of and monitor. When you’re entitled and an individual contributor, you’re very concerned about yourself and your future. As a manager, it’s more about stepping outside of yourself and upholding your duty to your team to help them grow, succeed, and achieve results.

EQUALITY VERSUS HIERARCHY

Our next dichotomy in “millennials versus older generations” is equality versus hierarchy. As you take the first step into management, this one is important to understand. It can be difficult to wrap your head around, and it’s especially hard for those new to the workforce. As a student, everyone is equal. You are all charged the same tuition. You start and end classes on the same day. You have the same academic requirements and follow the same rules. Think about growing up. As a kid, did you ever say “That’s not fair!,” as it related to a sibling? If your sister got a car when she was 16, you got a car when you were 16. If she stayed out until 10:30 PM, you could stay out until 10:30 PM. Everything was perfectly equal growing up.

Now, at work, there is hierarchy. You have a boss. Your boss’s boss has a boss, and so it goes all the way up the line. There is a hierarchy; there is a leader; and everything isn’t always equal.

This situation may sound familiar. Your boss tells you that you should practice your presentation at least three times. You always do your due diligence and practice the presentation out loud at least three times. The next time your boss has to deliver a presentation, he walks into the room and delivers it—seemingly without any practice at all. You say to yourself, “That’s not fair!” You’re right, it’s not fair, but in your manager’s mind, it’s perfectly fine for him to do that. He has delivered so many presentations that he doesn’t need to practice as diligently or specifically as you. As you enter the ranks of management, you may have done similar things—even though you probably hated that as you started your career.

It can be hard to understand that it is not fair up and down, but it’s also not fair across. For example, a company may hire 100 entry-level employees on the same day. Are they all going to get promoted or receive raises on the same day? No. They may work different hours a week, at different locations, and for different types of people. Some people may get to travel while others are stuck at their desks all day; some get promoted quickly while others get a larger raise or an opportunity to work from home a couple days a month. All of these things can be absolutely fair even though they aren’t equal. It may sound harsh, but in the working world, fair does not always mean equal. As you begin to manage a team, this idea may make more sense to you. Why shouldn’t your high-performer who goes above and beyond get to work on that cool project or get a little extra perk? It’s absolutely fair that your high performer is rewarded. It’s fair but not equal.

EXPLANATION VERSUS ACTION

The next difference I would like to discuss is explanation versus action. To me, this is the biggest and most profound difference between the generations, and it’s very important to recognize as you enter a management role.

No More “Because I Said So.”

First, let’s talk about the disappearance of the term “Because I said so.” When my father gave me a menial task to do when I was growing up, he just said, “Bradley, go cut the grass.” If I asked “Why?,” what do you think he said? If you guessed, “Because I said so,” you are correct. In fact, my father uttered that phrase to me a minimum of 5,000 times during my youth. At some point, once you’ve heard that 5,000 times, you stop asking and just do it. As a kid, when I looked up at an authority figure, it was my father. Then as an employee, when I looked up at an authority figure, it was my boss. When I got to work and my manager gave me a menial assignment to do, I never thought to ask why, assuming if I did, my boss would say, “Because I said so.”

What I have learned is that the phrase, “Because I said so” is vanishing from the vernacular of the millennial parent. If you read a parenting book these days, there isn’t a chapter on “The Power of Because I Said So.” Parents are taught to answer their children with real explanations to their questions. When you asked your parents why you had to cut the grass, they likely gave you an elaborate answer. Dad might say, “Son, you are a part of this family, and everyone in this family has a responsibility. Your mom is at the office working, I’m cooking dinner, your sister is cleaning the kitchen, and it’s your job to cut the grass.” Interestingly, upon hearing that explanation, most millennials growing up would say, “Okay.”

Now that millennial comes to work. His manager gives him a menial assignment to do—“Go pull the numbers for the spreadsheet.” That millennial—accustomed to asking questions and getting real answers—asks, “Why?” How do you think his Xer or boomer boss takes that question? Not very well. The boss is thinking, “How dare you, you little punk, because I said so.” In actuality, the millennial isn’t asking “why” out of arrogance or distaste for the work but because he legitimately wants to know why. If you tell a millennial why he needs to pull the numbers for the spreadsheet, then he’s usually okay with it. Your generation likes to see how your duties connect and contribute to meaningful work or a purpose.

Understanding why, having structure, and knowing the destination are all traits that millennials have grown up with. I serve as an executive coach to many millennials—helping them make the successful transition to the workplace and into management—and one of them said something quite profound to me. He said, “I deal much better with adversity than with uncertainty.” When pointed in the right direction and given specific expectations and parameters, millennials work exceptionally hard. When unsure about what to do or how to do it, millennials often will resort to inactivity.

“I Heart Structure”

Let’s look at another example. From generation X to millennials, free time—as a kid growing up—is down 37 percent.² That’s big. The lives of young people are absolutely packed. They go from school to soccer practice to lacrosse practice to piano lessons to play date to math tutor to hip-hop class to bed.

Play dates are always a fun one to discuss. Essentially a play date is a 90-minute time period in which one child plays a supervised set of activities with another child, all the while supervised by an adult. Play dates are new. They didn’t exist in my day. Here’s how I “played.” My mom would open up the front door, stick her foot in my back, and say, “Get out of the house!” In terms of structure, I always had two rules:

1. Be home by dinner.

2. Don’t die.

Growing up, millennials had more activities, more sports, more clubs, and more of everything. It means that during their entire lives, millennials have looked up—at a coach, a teacher, an instructor, a volunteer, a tutor, a chaperone, a parent—and someone has told them EXACTLY what to do. As a result, when they come to work, they look up and they expect their boss to tell them exactly what to do. While that may sound just fine to you as a millennial manager, it is just the opposite of what older generations feel. Boomers and Xers dislike authority figures telling them what to do, and they have an extreme distaste for structure. Here’s how I see it play out.

An older manager tells her millennial employee, “Here’s a project, Ashley, and it’s due in two weeks. I know you’ve never worked on anything like this before, but here’s your chance to put your own stamp on the project. I’m not going to give you a lot of direction. Just figure it out and let me know what you come up with. See you in two weeks.” Xer or boomer managers think they are the best bosses in the world, because to them, a direction-less assignment is the greatest gift ever! They get to work independently and figure it out on their own—with no one bothering them!

On the flip side, how would a millennial feel about this assignment? What would you do if your manager gave you that assignment?

You might freak out! In fact, that’s the response I get from about four out of five millennials in my sessions. In two hours, Ashley is in her manager’s office with twenty questions: How long should the report be? Has this ever been done before? Can I look at last year’s report? Where should I start? How in-depth should my research be? Should I write in bullet form or full sentences? Is it okay if I use Helvetica font and put it on light blue paper? Can we chat tomorrow if I have more questions? The manager thinks, I don’t care! Just figure it out!

You may be laughing right now because I am certain you have encountered this at some point during your career. The interesting thing is to understand both sides of the generational debate. First, here’s what millennials say. In this particular case, here’s Ashley’s take:

“Fine, boss, I’ll ‘figure it out,’ whatever that means,” and then Ashley goes off and works on it for two weeks. She spends considerable time, gives it her best effort, and then hands it to her manager on the due date. Her manager looks at it and says, “This is not what I wanted.” Millennials I work with make a pretty good point. They say, “Why do we play this game? Why do we play the game of ‘guess what’s going on in my boss’s brain’? Wouldn’t it be more efficient if my manager just told me what she wanted, and then I could go do it?”

In some ways, it’s very difficult to argue that point. However, I do argue the point because there are a couple reasons bosses don’t say exactly what they want. Reason one is that part of the process of figuring it out is part of the process of learning. However, this explanation is sometimes hard for millennials to grasp.

You are a high-achieving generation. You’re used to getting good grades, you’re used to succeeding. When your manager says, “This is not what I wanted,” in your mind you haven’t done a good job. You’ve failed. You got the bad grade. Truly, it’s been a valuable learning experience. Xers and boomers were taught that if you face a barrier, you go around it, over it, or break through it. Millennials were taught that if you face a barrier, ask someone.

That’s the first reason bosses don’t tell you exactly what they want. The second reason is because they don’t know exactly what they want. I understand at this point in your career that may make sense, but think back to your early years on the job. Before you started working, you spent virtually your entire life in school. At school you have someone above you—a teacher—who always knows the right answer. In fact, this teacher grades you on getting the right answer. When you start working, the new person above you is a boss, and in your mind, they know the right answer. They’re just not telling you what it is because they are mean!

This entire scenario of explanation versus action speaks to probably the biggest disconnect between the generations. This may sound counterintuitive, but due to the way you were raised, your generation almost needs to be taught to think on its own. As a millennial manager, you will have to think and act on your own, and you can teach your millennial employees to follow your lead. Having this insight on your generation will help you move toward looking internally to provide your own structure for yourself instead of looking outside for someone else to provide it for you.

PARTNERSHIP VERSUS OWNERSHIP

The final difference in perspective between millennials and older generations is partnership versus ownership. Remember our opening story about interviewing a candidate who worked on a group project with no leader? That’s what this point is all about.

Due to all of the group work in school, the clubs you’ve been involved in, and the team sports you have played, the tendency is to think in terms of shared responsibility versus ownership.

In addition to corporate training, our company does a fair bit of individual coaching. We work with senior executives and newer employees, and we even help individuals or teams that are having trouble working together. We were engaged in one of those scenarios where a boomer was working with a millennial, and they were having some issues.

MILLENNIAL: I’ve been working at this company for a year and a half, and my manager won’t let me send a single e-mail to the client without approving it first.

BRAD: That seems odd. At this point, you should be able to do that.

BOOMER: That’s correct; Zach is not allowed to send anything to the client without my approval because every e-mail he sends to me, intended for the client, has at least one error in it.

MILLENNIAL: Well, there may be a typo somewhere, but since my boss is looking at it anyway, he’ll catch it.

BRAD: Sticky.

That example may sound a bit simplistic, but it illustrates the partnership versus ownership issue. Remember mom proofreading that college paper?

Now, when you get to work, it’s all about ownership. Of course, at work, you’re working on a team and you’re partnering with colleagues, clients, and bosses. Your boss will work with you to advise you and lend support when needed, but the bottom line is, you have specific responsibilities. Success or failure is up to you. I often hear senior leaders complain that millennials don’t see projects through from start to finish. The perception is that millennials think their boss will make the final touches and correct any problems. Of course, there will be collaboration, but millennials also need to have ownership over their responsibilities.

From Individual Contributor to Manager

You can see the perceived dichotomy between the two perspectives. Especially as you enter a management role, you must start thinking more in terms of what can I do for my team and my company instead of what can the company do for me. I’m not saying that millennial managers need to cast away their values or compromise their uniqueness to be just like those managers who have come before them. I think you will bring your own personality and breathe new life into the responsibility, but you must also recognize that entitled managers who don’t take ownership often don’t make it very far.

Furthermore, if you look at the big picture, as a millennial manager, you are somewhat of a “middle manager.” You are a manager, but you probably have a boss and your own job responsibilities. Being a millennial and understanding this perspective is also helpful when you think of managing up and working more productively with your boss. I have found that being a manager usually helps you be a better employee for your manager as well. The first few months of management is likely filled with thoughts similar to “Now, I understand why my boss always says that” or “I see how frustrating it can be when an employee doesn’t...” or “Well, I get where my boss is coming from now.” There is no need to leave what makes you, you, in the dust, but as you grow in your career, thinking on your own more and taking ownership of your responsibilities will help you bridge the gap among the generations and move from an individual contributor to a positive and influential manager.