Millennials! They have being called many names, like stubborn, impatient, feeling entitled and dopamine addicts! These are the people that are now joining our workforce, and were born between the years 1981 and 2000. Millennials’ work characteristics have be shaped by a number of factors, ranging from devoted parents, the structured lives they live, the evolving technologies they use, and also being in contact with a diverse group of people. Today, the discussion on managing the Millenials at the workplace argues how difficult is to handle this group. However, in a recent video interview, Simon Sinek shared his research findings that had a powerful message: Millennials are critically misunderstood!
Understand your Millennials:
Why they are allegedly not living in the “real world”?
The average tenure of millennial employees is two years! They are the most connected generation and will network their way out if their needs are not met.
They have a “can do” attitude about tasks, but look for feedback frequently. They seek a variety of tasks and expect that they will accomplish every one of them.
They want to make an impact. They’re looking for a leader who is communicative and able to share with them the company’s vision, mission and values and tie in with the work that they’re doing. However, they expect their ideas to be welcomed and respected instantly.
They seek challenges and they do not want to experience boredom, but expect flexibility and paid vacations.
They are very entrepreneurial, but expect work-life balance and job security.
Are they really different?
It is important to understand ourselves and others within a workplace. After all, it was not that long ago when Gen X (born mid 1960’s to early 1980’s) entered the workforce and their elder ‘boomers’ were equally irritated and portrayed as aspirational slackers, infantile and distrustful. The following chart compares rankings of work elements and makes a good example of similar styles of thinking throughout the generations. (The colours correspond with the different thinking preference quadrants of the Whole Brain® Model.)
When you understand your people, you understand your business! By using the Whole Brain® Model, all generations can gain insights into how different generations are defined and how they can leverage their differences at work for better results by exploring their core values and communication styles.
According to a Gallup survey only 29% of Millennials are engaged at work. Managers need to plan and spend more time with millennials – by coaching them and providing frequent feedback sessions.
Taken into consideration that only 29% of millennials are engaged at work, then these findings suggest that managers should double the prospect of engaging millennial employees by doing something many would consider simple and intuitive: holding them accountable.
Studies show that ‘reverse mentoring’ is proving to be more beneficial than formal training. The younger generation that grew up with the internet can help the older generation to understand the power of social media and utilize it to drive business results. At the same time, the more experienced employee share institutional knowledge with the younger worker.
Mixed-age work teams are another way to promote cross-generational mentoring. BT, the British Telecommunications company, offers a peer-to-peer learning program called Dare2share, a social collaboration platform that allows employees to pass on their knowledge and insights to their colleagues through short audio and video podcasts, RSS feeds and discussion threads, as well as through traditional training documents. BT employees can view content on Dare2share and rate each learning module according to its relevance and quality.
Managers can take advantage of the Millennial’s comfort level with diversity in order to encourage collaboration among teams. The U.S. Marine Corps routinely puts 22-year-old lieutenants in charge of 45-year-old sergeants. The mind-set is to make that person your partner and involve them in everything you do. All employees want to feel valued, empowered and engaged at work. It is a fundamental need, not a generational issue.
Final Thoughts
The rise of this most populous – not–so-popular workforce will have a major influence on the workplace for decades to come. They are the largest demographic group yet. Leaders need to learn how to attract and engage them. Leaders need to really comprehend that these millennials, due to the environment they grew up in, they come armed holding high expectations from their managers and co-workers, and they expect continuous learning opportunities with a high drive for career development. Understanding these qualities and addressing them won’t just make their managers’ life easier but will actually make the millennials more productive. Just take a glance at Forbes 30 under 30, be amazed and embrace the future!
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Raya Khayat
Co-founder, Impact Lebanon
Raya is a tech professional working in business development & strategy at Apple, based out of London. She previously held two roles at Facebook; the first in Austin, Texas where she managed $80M/year of advertising sales for small and medium businesses; the second as a partner manager for media creators and sports partners in London.
In parallel to her work, Raya is a co-founder and one of partnerships lead of Impact Lebanon, a non-profit organisation that spearheads various initiatives, from socio-economical to welfare to environmental, in order to drive real impact in Lebanon. Raya is passionate about all things tech, innovation, & women empowerment, and is a strong believer of ‘leaning into the question mark’ – stretching boundaries and jumping into the unknown.
Ope Taiwo
Channel Manager, Qlearsite
Ope Taiwo began her career at Gartner, witnessing first-hand the potential for Qlearsite to impact the working lives of clients. Following Qlearsite’s receipt of the Gartner Cool Vendor award for their impressive work in the Employee Engagement space. Ope joined the team with a determination to raise awareness for Qlearsite, who developed an analytics platform that analyses free-text comments in addition to quantitative feedback.
As Channel Manager, Ope is responsible for building and managing a strategic partner network that will take Qlearsite’s offering to market. Thus, enabling leaders to look beyond the quantitative metrics traditionally associated with Engagement measurements, and listen to the experiences, feelings, and sense of Inclusivity in the workplace.
Mohammad Subuh
Digital Transformation Consultant, TTM Associates
Mohammad Subuh is a Digital Transformation and IT Governance (GRC) Specialist with over 12 years of experience. He has worked in the consulting field for four years with one of the big four consulting firms in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Prior to that he worked as an IT Strategy and Governance Specialist for 8 years at The Housing Bank, Jordan.
During his years of experience, Mohammad contributed in a number of strategic projects derived from the Vision 2030 of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where he participated in the establishment of the Vision Realisation Offices (VROs) in many government entities within Saudi. There he played different roles within Strategic Alignment, Project Management, Performance Management and Quality Management.
He also participated in a number of projects related to e-Government Transformation and IT consulting. He led the IT Governance Stream to implement the IT Governance Framework as part of the e-Government Transformation project as well as in leading the process of preparing and delivering the necessary materials for an eGovernment Transformation Audit. Additionally, he led an IT Policies and Processes Standardization project according to best practices of ITIL, COBIT and CMMI and IT Benchmarking.
Moreover, Mohammad participated in several projects related to automation and performance enhancement, where he participated in a Change Management Project to implement an ITIL based automated Service Management System. He was also responsible for the IT Vendors Management and IT Financial Management, as well as managing the IT policies and procedures governance.
His experience is focused on the Public Sector, Banking & Finance, Retail, Transportation and Logistics sectors.
He has an MSc. Digital innovation (UK), MBA (UK), BSc. IT (Jordan), and he is also certified in Certified Business Analysis Practice (CBAP).
Bonnie Hagemann
CEO,EDA,Inc.(USA)
Bonnie Hagemann is the CEO of EDA, Inc., a top-of-the-house consulting firm known around the world for its C-Suite capabilities in executive development and research. Shifting to advancing the state of the industry rather than one company at a time, EDA is currently taking its’ 37-year history as a thought leader in the space and using it to create a powerful HR Tech platform called SurveySaurus, designed to make culture visible to the leaders, the board and the investors. Bonnie, personally, is a published and well-known leadership strategist who advises public and large company CEOs and is often called upon as a subject matter expert for the media including Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, US News and World Report and many more.
Ellen Robinson
President,TEAM Performance Inc.
Ellen Robinson, President of TEAM Performance, works with forward-thinking leaders who want to bring their best selves to work and life. Her focus is on creating workplace programs that get results by improving productivity, trust, teamwork, communication effectiveness, and productive conflict. For the last 33 years she has worked with small business owners, Fortune 500 companies, non-profit organizations, consultants, governmental agencies, and utility companies. Ellen holds a marketing degree from The University of Texas at Austin. She has numerous certifications around trust-building, Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team, culture change and leadership development.
As a Certified Barrett Consultant and Trainer, Ellen has certified over 450 individuals globally since 2005 and is the longest-tenured consultant in the virtual platform.
Thomas Orths
Consultant,TTM Associates
Thomas Orths is an expert in Leadership Effectiveness, Holistic Change and Emotional Intelligence. As a high-performance coach, trainer and speaker, he enables individuals, teams and organizations to grow. His ability to initiate Mind-set Change is in demand to create High Performing Teams in the competitive business arena.
With the experience of Thomas, growth becomes possible by using successful strategies that enable you to increase sales, to optimize productivity, improve customer service and work more efficiently. His core competencies include leadership & management effectiveness, holistic change, emotional intelligence & mind-set change and high performing individuals & teams.
Thomas has previous industry experience in Aerospace, Chemicals, Communications, Creative Industries, Electronics, Financial Services, Food and Drink, IT, Manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology and Finance.
His qualifications include accreditation for DISC behaviour related assessment tools focusing on leadership & team development and assessment instruments of emotional intelligence on the individual, team and organizational level through JCA, Cheltenham UK.(John Cooper &Associates)
Thomas has worked with many international clients. Some of these are Bayer, British Airways, Gen Re Reinsurance, Goodyear Dunlop Europe, Hilton Hotels, Hitachi, Holiday Inn Hotels, Janssen Cilag, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s. He has also worked with Saudi General Entertainment Authority, Takamol Holdings, Saudi Telecom Company and Bank Al Bilad just to name a few.
Rob Hamblin
Consultant ,TTM Associates
A professionally qualified and experienced HR specialist with extensive knowledge and skills in management and organisational development. I have more than 20 years’ experience in managing human resource and development projects in large commercial and public sector organisations, in the United Kingdom and abroad. In addition, I have experience of chairing a successful charitable trust for more than twelve years.
KEYSKILLS
Providing an HRD consultancy service to Directors and Senior Executives across a range of UK and International companies.
Working on areas of change and development need that relate to the achievement of the organisation’s strategic goals.
Enabling the design, development and implementation of HR Strategies in support of corporate objectives.
Managing teams of specialists to deliver organisational development, leadership and culture change initiatives.
Promoting development through the use of executive coaching & mentoring
Setting up and chairing a charitable trust, providing strategic vision, direction and leadership: ensuring compliance and due diligence at all levels.
PROFESSIONALQUALIFICATIONSANDINSTITUTEMEMBERSHIP
Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
P.G.C.E. – Post graduate Certificate in Education – University of London
I.P.D. – Certificate in Training and Development
British Psychological Society – Accredited in the use of Psychometric Testing Levels A & B.
SHL – Qualified in the use of OPQ, MQ, IMC, PMC & MAS
Licensed in the use of Myers Briggs. Firo B, S & F and Hogan DHS
Certified NLP Practitioner & Hypno-therapist
Jean-Luc Kastner
Managing Partner Europe,TTM Associates
Jean-Luc Kastner, PhD, is a focused Consultant in Strategic Management Marketing, Sales and he has developed and structured a network of International Consultants specialized in business management and reengineering. Jean-Luc is currently a TTM Managing partner based in France. He has developed a comprehensive Sales and Marketing Management Model based on more then 25 years of Industrial research with the Herrmann Institute.
Within the last five years, he has been instrumental in large skill development programs with companies such as: Reuters and Philip Morris Kazakhstan amongst other organizations. Tyco Healthcare, Data logic, Bayer and Vodafone Greece have all redesigned their sales approach with Jean-Luc’s advice and support.
Jean-Luc is a typical “non-academic”; his experience was gained “on the job” in several management roles in blue chip organisations such as HP, Boston Scientific and Fresenius where he managed the International Sales and Marketing Operations and had to lead a crucial change management program: the shift from transactional product focused Sales to Consultative, Value based Sales. Jean-Luc is currently involved in One to One management coaching projects at General Manager and VP level in the B2B Industry, and works in English, German and French. In the last three years he has been focusing on the EMEA market and has a good understanding of the Middle East & Gulf cultures. His Academic titles ( Engineering PhD – ENIM) enables him to teach within a number of Governmental programs in France and abroad. Jean-Luc is and accredited FFCP Professional Coach and Herrmann International.
Abdullah Gareth Hood
General Manager, Solutions & Operations Senior Consultant,TTM Associates
Abdullah is an expert in developing and implementing Human Capital Strategy and Talent Management activities in complex environments with diverse individuals.
Originally from the UK, Abdullah began his career working in British Telecom on customer retention and sales programs before being promoted into sales management. Abdullah transitioned into People Development & Training leading the development and implementation of front line and people management training across 1,500 employees.
His career then moved into a start-up telecoms business before accepting a new position in Savola Group in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. During his career in Savola, Abdullah held a number of senior HR roles across talent management, recruitment, organizational design, compensation and employee relations. In addition he worked across Saudi, Egypt, North West Africa and Turkey. Abdullah was appointed as GM of HR for a large industrial conglomerate before being headhunted as the Director of HR for a multi-national pharmaceutical company.
Consequently, Abdullah has unique ‘hands on’ experience of building and delivering results in multinational and family owned companies in the sectors of Construction, Engineering, Retail, Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical, Telecoms and Transportation.
He has a Diploma in Business Admin and in Strategic Management & Leadership and he is certified in Strategic Human Resources Management.
Dr. Magdi A.Ismail
Principal Consultant, Director MENA & Turkey,TTM Associates
Dr. Magdi Ismail currently lives in Cyprus where he manages the TTM associates MENA & Turkey office and commute between, Dubai, Istanbul and London. Magdi resided in Egypt & Saudi Arabia and works across many countries, including, UK, Belgium, France, Turkey, Greece, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
He studied pharmaceuticals sciences and commenced his entrepreneurship adventures in the early 90s, while he was still studying in the Faculty of Pharmacy. Magdi started his practical life early when still a student he opened his retail pharmacy in order to secure a good future for himself.
Magdi’s career thereafter focused on the fields of strategy, marketing, sales and customer management in the pharmaceutical industry. For the past 20 years he followed his career development in various international companies, including (Rhone Poulenc (Sanofi-Aventis), and Organon NV in the Middle East. During this period, he got the experience of launching and marketing many products in the Middle East. Also Magdi combines pragmatic knowledge and experience of managing and doing business in the Middle East, while at the same time he has the awareness and understanding of the international business culture. He currently consults global organizations in the Eastern Mediterranean countries on Time to Market, Strategy Formulation and Implementation, Customer Management and Portfolio Management. Magdi is a subject-matter expert and a consultant for TMC and he currently manages the TTM associates regional office in the Middle East.
He holds degrees in Pharmaceutical Sciences and an MBA from Henley Management School, UK. Magdi also is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a certified practitioner for the Herrmann Brain Dominant Instrument, France. Magdi is married and has 4 children, 2 girls and 2 boys. He enjoys reading about history and cultural differences and he likes playing soccer and squash.