Today’s workplace is at a generational crossroads.
Thousands of Baby Boomers retire every day and millions of millennials are ready to take their place in the workforce.
Using coaching skills with younger employees can make a big difference in passing the leadership baton to the next generation.
Millennials are a generation pushing new ideas about communication, leadership, and the value of work. Often these ideas go unheard or are minimised due to a lack of understanding and poor intergenerational communication.
Coaching is familiar to millennials raised on sports leagues, lessons and hands-on parenting that helped drive them to find their passion in life.
According to the 2016 ICF Global Coaching Study, newly-released research commissioned by the International Coach Federation (ICF) and conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, coaching for millennials is growing more than any other generation. In total, 23 percent of coach practitioners surveyed reported their clients are age 35 and under.
Work is not simply a means to earning money to millennials. This generation is guided by their values and passions, and seeks out meaningful work experiences with opportunities for growth, balance and contribution to every facet of an organisation.
They challenge the typical “top-down” management style with a need for constant feedback and access to information. As baby boomers leave leadership positions in the workforce, how can one take advantage of high-potential millennial employees and ensure this generation is ready to lead?
1. Communicate often
Millennials are often maligned as the “oversharing” generation. But in the workplace, encouraging open, two-way communication with younger employees can yield deeper engagement with all employees regardless of their generation. It ties in with the ‘Agile’ concepts that many organisations are now adopting.
This goes beyond a standard employee performance review, in fact most millennials will not want to wait until more formal structured reviewed to have conversations about performance. Coaching can help millennials make changes and develop skills to grow within an organisation and importantly it can help them re-act quicker and in a more fleet of foot manner to the changes that their leadership feel they need to make to succeed.
2. Give your managers and leaders tools to coach
Organisations are leveraging managers and leaders within the organisation to build a strong coaching culture. The 2016 ICF Global Coaching Study found that more than half of respondents who self-identify as using coaching skills are managers and leaders within their organisations (54 percent); the remaining 46 percent said they use coaching skills in their roles as human resources or talent development managers or directors.
Equipping employees with the coaching skills to develop high-potential millennials is an investment in long-term business growth. Most organisations recognise that getting more from their people leads to greater improvements in productivity and efficiency as well as improving key stats such as retention and recruitment. By empowering those already working in the organisation to deliver a better working environment for their people, they can achieve all of this.
3. Find relatable role models
Millennials respond strongly to coaches they can identify with as a peer or role model. Pair these employees with the right manager or leader trained to use coaching skills. Unlike baby boomers or GenXers, millennials do not see years of service or a title as “authority” or “expertise.” Often they see those who have many years’ experience as being resistant to change and ‘Stuck in their ways’.
Many millennial icons started their businesses with little experience (think Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook). They see life experiences as a way to find authentic leadership inspiration.
4. Encourage their passions
Millennials have a wide range of personal passions in their lives and rather than being a distraction to their working careers these could be the catalyst for positive developments in their working lives These outside interests can add new skills or competencies to your organisation if properly encouraged. An employee with a love of Instagram could be a future content strategist for your organisation.
ICF defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximise their personal and professional potential. Millennials are natural innovators; they are focused on making meaningful contributions with their work and passions. Using coaching skills with younger employees can make a big difference in passing the leadership baton to the next generation.
