when I was six years old my parents were
teaching me about self discipline
especially around food serving sizes and
making sure that I only took what I
could eat on my plate and so they gave
me an idiom to help me remember what
that would be like say they would say
anytime that I would take more than I
could eat and I couldn’t finish it they
would say hmm your eyes are bigger than
your stomach now at six years old I
really didn’t get that but it stuck with
me so one day my parents take me to an
all-you-can-eat buffet style restaurant
now I’m in line and I’m putting the food
on my plate and I look down and there it
is right next to the rolls a whole bin
full of vanilla ice cream complete with
a little scooper right next to it
I’m thinking I hit the jackpot this is
all you can eat
no single serving scoops signs for a
little Jeffrey no I get out as much as I
want so I go down there one scoop two
scoops three scoops and I take my very
full plate back to the table and I look
at it and I could hear my parents voice
inside my head saying your eyes are
bigger than your stomach and I thought
hmm I’m probably not gonna be able to
finish this I should start with dessert
first make sense to a six-year-old so I
did I took the spoon and I grabbed that
vanilla ice cream and I know it wasn’t
and I learned my second very important
idiom that day you can’t judge a book by
it’s cover well we use idioms and
phrases and words to describe all kinds
of things that we experience in life
don’t we we use them to describe whole
people groups take the generations for
example we’ve got the baby boomers
they’re known as the me generation right
then we’ve got my generation Generation
X we’re just angry and cynical then you
have the Millennials and the media’s
inundated us with all kinds of great
words and descriptions for that
generation right they call them entitled
unreliable uncommitted they’ve got one
foot in the company and the other foot
right out the door
they’re like little bunnies they hop
from job to job to job right well is
there really any truth to that is there
any hard research data to back up the
hype well in 2017 the Bureau of Labor
Statistics released a longitudinal study
with nearly 10,000 participants and the
in it they were asking okay how many
jobs does a person have by the time
they’re 18 to 28 years old when they
enter the labor force and by the time
you’re 28 this group they studied 7.3
okay there you have it there’s the
research Millennials I guess you really
do move from job to job you guys have
you really unreliable it oh wait a
minute
don’t judge a book by its cover this
report is not talking about Millennials
it’s talking about baby boomers that’s
right
it’s about grandpa you know grandpa
mister when I was your age eight one job
feeding pig feed all the animals and old
man Johnson’s farm and I did it every
day till my fingers bled and I kept that
job for 40 years
yeah well grandpa lied
so what’s the real step for millenials
almost the same so do millennials move
from job to job yeah but apparently so
do Baby Boomers and there’s a good
reason for both groups to do so well I
wanted to narrow this down a little bit
to just leaders because in any
generation that we talk about it’s
always a subset that’s different than
the rest of the group and certainly
leaders are different
I mean leaders are always growing
they’re always learning they were always
looking for that next hill to climb or
conquer there’s a yearning deep inside
us as leaders isn’t that that moves us
toward a goal toward achievement
Millennial leaders are no different in
fact according to Gallup Analytics
Millennials rank the opportunity to
learn and grow as more important job
considerations than just about anything
else last year and those same analytics
also showed that most Millennials didn’t
get the opportunities to learn and grow
in their jobs so I asked all of us above
the age of 35 if you had a job and
you’re a leader you didn’t have a chance
to learn or grow in your job or lead in
your job how long would you stick with
it think about this every generation has
some expectation as to how long it
should take before you move into a
leadership position where you get
promoted so for the baby boomers that
process and expectation went like this
work real hard in a company and in 10
years maybe you might find a spot in
leadership for Gen Xers that expectation
was five years for Millennials it’s now
one to two years now maybe that
expectation is not very realistic in
your organization but you have to
recognize the cultural reality that this
generation is living in and engage them
at that level or you’re just gonna lose
them to the competition who will engage
them oh but Millennials don’t stick
around they’re gonna leave anyway so why
bother developing them that’s actually a
view that many older leaders have but we
need to change that perspective the
latest research with 15
Plus Millennials suggest that if
organizations just engaged this young
workforce within the first 90 days of
employment they’re more likely to stick
around in this case about six years
instead of two or three here’s why they
want a seat at the table
these young millennial leaders want to
know that they’ve got a future in your
organization yes they like the artisan
lunches and they like the gym in the
office but they want to know they’ve got
a future where they can learn and grow
and achieve and lead and they want to
know that that future is relatively soon
these millennial leaders are your
competitive edge they’re sitting in your
workforce right now how can you engage
them well I’m gonna give you three
specific ways to engage them in just a
minute but first I want to talk about
one of the challenges I see with this
group one of the major challenges I see
with millennial leaders quite frankly
they just don’t have much patience all
right so it’s my fault my generations
fault we’ll take responsibility
after all we created the Millennials
right we put we put rubber mats
something at their playgrounds and stuck
a helmet on their head and wrap them in
bubble wrap so they wouldn’t get hurt
then we created technology that made
information plentiful an instant and we
created a world where if you can’t get
what you’re looking for in 30 seconds
it’s just too long we have an
environment where faster is better you
can learn just about anything you need
from a video and then we sensationalized
a few young entrepreneurs who go from
zero to billionaire seemingly overnight
and then we wonder why millennial
leaders expect to be promoted in one to
two years we created the expectation
Millennials millennial leaders in
particular have a plan a a plan B and a
Plan C and if plan a doesn’t work fast
enough form with your organization
they’ll just move to the next
organization that will work for them and
if plan a falls apart all together do
you smoove to plan B and reinvent
themselves if that falls apart hmm just
go to Plan C reinvent again this
generations ability to reinvent
themselves quickly is a strength
it really is a strength but it’s also a
weakness and thus the challenge that
weakness is just not enough patience and
they need the wisdom and the mentoring
of older leaders to come alongside to
help them stick around long enough to
see the fruit of their leadership the
fruit of the projects that they’re
working on personally I think every
college student should have to plant a
garden and harvest it in a year in order
to graduate it’s delayed gratification
nothing teaches it like planting a
garden I remember when my wife and I
lived in western New York State we had a
small house but fairly large backyard
and she grew up gardening so one day she
says to me hey we should plant a garden
now if you’ve been married longer than
an hour guys you know that when your
wife says we should do anything really
means you need to do this I’m gonna
supervise so we planted a garden
this wasn’t a box garden okay since I’m
having to do some of this this is a
man’s garden okay big vision so I plot
out 12 foot by 18 foot section I’m
clearing out the dirt and yes we did
plant the garden and so we’re tilling it
telling us always she plants or seeds or
tomato seeds or sunflower seeds and then
green beans and pumpkins and I’m
watering it all in I think this is gonna
be great and I’m watering and watering
and after three days of watering I look
down I don’t see anything growing how
long is this gonna take before I can
have a tomato I should ask the master
gardener so I go inside and say master
gardener I don’t see anything wrong how
long will it take before I can have a
tomato and my wife looks at me shakes
her head gives me that look that said oh
I love you but you’re an idiot here’s
the here’s the packet of tomato seeds
and I look at the packet and it says
harvest in 110 days a hundred in ten
days that’s nearly four months that’s
what they make grocery stores for you
just go down the grocery store and you
get a tomato ten minutes you’re eating
it you’re happy
but this is what we do in business isn’t
it we plant seeds we water those seeds
we nurture those relationships and in
time we harvest now yes I know we live
in a very fast-paced world there’s times
that we have to be flexible and
adaptable and move quickly to take
advantage of some of these opportunities
but there are certain leadership
principles certain relationship
principles that take time you cannot
shortcut them and millennial leaders
need the wisdom and life experience of
older leaders to come alongside so that
they can become great leaders so how do
we engage our millennial leaders well we
know from the research that they want to
lead and learn and grow so the first
thing you can do is let them lead what
are you doing to let them lead something
to lead a project to lead a team now
granted you have to work within the
confines of your organization and your
staff and and how its structured maybe
you could have them co-lead a team
co-lead a project is there an older
leader that can take a younger leader
under their wing some of the larger
organizations are doing something
similar to this idea where they’re
they’re creating smaller team like
divisions that are replicating a
start-up scenario and what’s happening
is these millennial leaders are having a
great opportunity to see the impact of
their leadership decisions and the
result is that these leaders are feeling
like their opinion really matters that
they are contributing significantly to
moving that organization forward now
maybe your organization is smaller and
no doubt you’ve got any number of
challenges facing you each and every day
well why not give one of those
challenges to the one of your young
leaders tell them hey you do the
research you build a team you put
together the plan if that plan makes
sense implement it the point here is
don’t wait for somebody or someone else
to lead and engage your leaders you do
it do it now lead them and then resource
them give them the time in the talent
and the budget to do that all right
second way we can engage our leaders
invest in their continued learning
have them do the research find two or
three really great leadership learning
opportunities and and have them pick one
tell them you’ll pay to send them to go
do it nothing says you’re a valued
employee like a week-long leadership
retreat to the Bahamas work with your
leaders find out what skills they need
to learn and develop and then resource
them to develop make it part of your
leadership culture leaders are always
growing I mean you look for ways to grow
your leadership look for ways to grow
their leadership it will speak volumes
to them on how much you value them as a
team member and it will demonstrate that
they have a future with your
organization all right third way that we
can engage our millennial leaders
incorporate their aspiration those goals
into the conversation talk to them about
it don’t wait for the performance review
that’s too late do it often do it now as
a matter of fact here’s your assignment
tomorrow or the next day that you go
into the office sit down with your
millennial leaders and ask them what
their aspirations and goals are you
might discover some hidden talents and
skills that weren’t there before
because he never asked you might have
hired a young leader to be part of your
sales team and by having this
conversation you might discover that she
has a talent and skill and passion and
technology that could revolutionize how
you sell and market your business ask
them and then incorporate those
aspirations and goals into their
leadership development be proactive in
their development well I’ve learned a
lot since us being a six year old in a
restaurant especially when it comes to
not judging a book by it’s cover
I certainly know the difference between
vanilla ice cream and butter so as you
look at the buffet of your workforce and
see all the Millennials there don’t
judge a book by it’s cover millennial
leaders may look like other Millennials
on the outside but they’re very
different I’ve found that they’re
focused they’re driven they’re
optimistic
they’re innovative don’t miss out on
this very valuable resource by not
identifying who they are and engaging
them leadership doesn’t say hey lead
your team if you think they’re worth it
if you think they’ll stick around you’ve
been given the gift of leadership it’s
an awesome privilege and responsibility
so lead lead make your team worth it
your organization needs millennial
leaders the success of your organization
depends on it you need their creativity
you need their unique view on the world
but there’s something more something
personal for you as a leader yes these
young leaders need you but you need them
millenials they’ve got an energy that
will energize you their hope is
infectious their optimism will inspire
you and as you pour into these leaders
to help them be all that they can be you
will become the leader you were meant to
be it’s been a privilege and an honor to
speak with you tonight thank you [Applause]