Why Don’t Millennials Do the Next Thing on the List?

One of the biggest complaints against the Millennial generation is they do whatever thing we ask them, but then they come back to us and ask for their next assignment. If we tell them to go do A, we expect them to do B, C and D without needing us to tell them it needs to be done.

Well let’s think about this. We raised Millennials in very scheduled environments. At this time, you go to this event. Then check in with us by text, then go to your next event, and check in with us. In essence, we trained them to come back to us for feedback between each step.

It’s not that Millennials aren’t smart. They are. I’d say they are quite brilliant. The issue is us. We raised a generation of folks on regular feedback, and then we expect them to take action based one something contrary to our 18 years of parenting.

Rather than view this as a negative thing about Millennials, we need to reframe it. First, if I think about why a Millennial checks in with me for feedback, it’s ultimately so the Millennial does the task I’ve asked of her correctly. That’s a good thing. It’s a great thing! She wants to make sure she’s on task and doing things the way I want.

Second, this keeps any mistakes or errors in an easily correctable situation. If something is off the mark, the entire project doesn’t fail, we only need to tweak the one thing to bring things back into alignment. That’s another win for us.

And last, Millennials are happy to complete projects on their own without feedback, however, they would like our permission to do so, and often they’d like to run through things once with us to make sure they have it correct before doing it completely independently. Again, not a bad thing. We have to be aware that our feedback now creates less corrective measure later. It’s actually a time saver for us.

So the next time you tell a Millennial to go do A, remember they are happy to do B, C and D, but they’ll likely come back at each step, and it’s truly a win for both of you.

 

Keynote speaker, trainer, and consultant, Sarah Gibson, helps organizations leverage the power of communication, teamwork and diversity to improve engagement and transform teams. To buy her book or inquire about her speaking programs, please visit www.sarahjgibson.com.