Did you know that in just four short years, millennials have gone from making up approximately one-third of the American working population to one-half of it? Within the next five years, millennials will represent three-quarters of the workforce. Translation: our time has arrived. Millennials are, indeed, the largest generation in the workplace and contrary to popular belief, we championed this position in 2016. Sorry, not sorry.
As a millennial myself, as a part-time MBA student, and as a business owner, I spend a fair amount of time thinking about my generation and our role in business. Millennials are uniquely positioned in the workplace as our experiences are wide-ranging. There are millennials who are just beginning their careers (24- to 30- years old) and others who are already firmly established (35- to 39- years old).
If you didn’t catch that…yes, it’s true. Next year, the oldest millennials will turn 40 years old.
No matter our age, millennials want to lead. A leadership survey from the Hartford found that 69 percent of the those polled want to become leaders over the next five years, even though 80 percent have already held leadership positions. If there is one key takeaway from this finding, it is that millennials consider themselves not only to be leaders right now, but they also aspire to ascend into higher leadership roles in future. This may be perceived as a sense of entitlement for many outsiders. However, I am speaking as a millennial when I say that it is not. I agree with a 2016 Gallup article that explains it is, instead, empowerment. We consider our jobs to be “opportunities to learn and grow”. We are fueled by a strong desire to develop and evolve, expand our knowledge, improve our skills, and grow as professionals.
However, as with all good stories, there is a problem and defining issues that we must overcome and resolve. I recently found a 2012 article from Harvard Business Review and although it is eight years old, it still provides valuable and relevant insights. The article explains that the average age of a first-time manager is 30 years old, meaning that the oldest millennials have now been in leadership positions as supervisors for the last five to nine years. What’s truly remarkable, however, is when the article points out that those in leadership roles are somehow not provided with leadership training until they are, on average, 42 years old. In other words, supervisors often first receive formal leadership training more than a decade after they first began managing people.
When millennials were asked in the Hartford survey about the type of training they’d like to receive from their employers, 60 percent said “Leadership Skills.” Despite this generation’s eagerness for our employers to invest in our development, to help us refine our skills, and to coach us towards success, the current structure and standards of many organizations still inherently emphasize the ideology that we live in an era of do-it-yourself leadership. In other words, if you haven’t “earned your right” to engage in development opportunities, you are on your own. The struggle is real.
Millennials, it’s time for us to do it for ourselves.
Do not wait for a new title or a formal program to start improving your abilities as a leader. Your training has already begun. You have previously and continue to form habits, develop skills, and lead people every day. Never forget that you are the leader on your team, and thereby operate in a low-risk, high-reward space in which you can experiment daily. You are presented with the opportunity to practice your skills on the inside so that you can showcase your skills to those outside of it. In other words, you are leading from the inside out.
Onward and Upward
Over the next three months, The Leadership Perspective will be shifting directions to a Special Edition Series called, “Leading from the Inside Out.” The goal of this series is to address the gap(s) in formal leadership training by providing millennial leaders with the information and resources they will need in order to most effectively build the qualities and skills required of highly successful leaders.
Each article will follow a specific format so that emerging leaders can independently and effectively practice and improve on fundamental leadership skills. The articles will include:
- One topic, or fundamental quality, which every first-time leader should master in order to start thinking like a leader.
- Commentary from your high-performing peers and newly emerged leaders to enable and inspire you to start speaking like a leader.
- Targeted and effective coaching strategies from established professionals to encourage you to start being a leader.
Together, these articles will form a framework for you to practice your skills both today and tomorrow as a leader in your organization. In other words, you will become the leader on your team so that you are best positioned to become the leader of your team. Are you ready to start leading from the inside out? Let’s goooo!!
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