Leading and Managing Gen Y - is it still an issue?

The evidence suggests “yes”.

Take the government sector as an example. We have been chosen (and we’re honoured!) to partner with the Australian Public Service Commission to deliver a full day program called: Leading, engaging and retaining generation Y graduates and emerging talent.

The first program has sold out. Seven major federal government departments are involving their graduate managers and supervisors because the issue is very real.

And the corporate sector has shown similar signs.

In fact, even approaching the height of the global downturn in late 2008, 61% of CEOs reported still having enormous difficulty in attracting and retaining Generation Y graduates (“Millennials at work: Perspectives from a new generation” PwC).

As the Australian economy improves and our relatively low unemployment rate of 5% stabilises, power will shift back towards the employee and young people will regain confidence, high expectations and new choices between jobs and careers. Educated graduates will again lead the charge and leadership will continue to matter.

From over 100 surveys of more than 40,000 participants conducted by McCrindle Research, 42% of Generation Y respondents reported that poor leadership and management was the main reason for leaving their previous role. (Mark McCrindle, The ABC of XYZ – Understanding Global Generations).

So is the solution to teach your leaders and managers the “Generation Y” mindset to better lead, manage and retain your graduates?

I don’t think so. Generational segmentation was designed (and is very useful) for things like marketing and workforce planning. Not for leadership. It’s all about how to lead and manage the individual.

One part of the solution is to help your leaders and managers to adopt the Multi-Generational Mindset.

The Multi-Generational Mindset appreciates generational influences but cuts through generational paradigms and assumptions by focusing on the individual’s needs.

The Multi-Generational Mindset:
* Inspires you to appreciate external influences on generational groups;
* Challenges you to rethink generational paradigms when leading and managing people;
* Develops 'behavioural flexibility' as a key still of the multi-generational leader;
* Equips you to tap into the values, styles and motivators of individuals, not their generations;
* Empowers you to better appreciate, lead and inspire people of any generation.

The more keynote talks I give to leaders and managers about the Multi-Generational Mindset and the more our team works with them in leadership development programs, the more evidence we find of this.

Helping leaders reframe their thinking about generations to adopt a Multi-Generational Mindset leads to stronger relationships, stronger coaching and mentoring and increased on-the-job development of their people.

And with this, everybody wins. The business wins because they get more bang for their buck from their people. The program manager wins because senior leadership sees they’re adding even more value to the business.

People win because they now find themselves working with more managers who are better leaders, more of the time.

So is leading and managing Generation Y still an issue? Yes. Adopting the Multi-Generational Mindset is a big part of the solution.

How could your leaders and managers also benefit from developing the Multi-Generational Mindset?


Warm Regards,

Josh Mackenzie
Keynote Speaker
Director, Development Beyond Learning