The Magician's Code on 'What Excites Millennials'

Everyone wants to understand the Magic of “Working with Millennials and What Excites Them”. Are we not looking for a magic wand which will help us to engage and also collaborate effectively with millennials? Millennials are tech-savvy, globally connected, impulsive, believe in social causes, driven by quick results, have a drive for fast-track advancement, are strongly motivated by mutual respect and want to have fun. Yet, most often than not, most of the conversations that we have are focused on millennials as a challenge rather than them being the future. So how can employers adapt to this new generation's preference for a collaborative working environment? Here are few things:

Help them visualize the bigger picture: An important way to manage successful outcomes with millennials starts with communication and by enabling them to visualize the bigger picture. It is essential for them to connect the dots and know that they are making a difference to their customers (internal or external).

Empower them as leaders: Millennials love empowerment. Give them the ownership to drive projects as they proliferate in a culture where expectations are managed in an open and honest manner and where accountability and defined outcomes are driving factors. 

Timely recognition: Millennials need to be appreciated and recognized for their work. Small gestures of appreciation motivate them and also help in pushing their boundaries. Give them the joy of being publicly recognized. 

Constant feed-forward: Boomers have 'My way or the Highway' attitude, rooted in a work ethic that demanded decisiveness in problem-solving. If the older generation believed that they should be left alone to manage a task, millennials prefer feed-forward discussions and are far more accepting of a hands-on manager who can have conversations around how to constantly improve performance. 

Be a coach: How comfortable are we in responding to validating and confirming questions? Not much! But members of this new workforce were raised to believe in seeking several opinions and approaches to a problem. So, be a coach who helps millennials to explore solutions to problems on their own. 

Explore reverse mentoring: There is a lot to learn from millennials. Reverse mentoring will work wonders if senior leaders are getting mentored from younger generation on technology, building social presence, engaging through digital and much more. 

Flexibility and collaboration: Freedom of choice is what describes this generation the best. Millennials want the flexibility to choose what they want in almost every area of life and how they use it — collaborate with them wherever you can — from jobs, to information, to life.

Make work fun: Millennials appreciate fun at work as much as they want it in life in general. Are we making workplace a fun place to be for millennials?

Millennials are an important part of any organization’s success. We need to appreciate and align our thought-processes and approaches to this quote which summarizes millennials generation: 

“We Are Apple and We Do Facebook”
Millennials are the Catalyst for Change.