Formulating Leadership Part I
Learning Team C
LDR / 300
June 19, 2017
Bob Armbrust, PhD
Introduction
With respect to increasing millennial leadership with the organization needs to be given a higher priority. This gap in leadership is not an issue in our organization only, but it is a worrying trend across the board. On this trend, by the year 2025, around 75% of the employees will comprise of the millennials. This creates the need to determine the ideal practice for leadership, and also development on this group. With so, it will be important to determine and also gain a close understanding of the differences between the millennials and how the organization is being led today, and the changes which have been brought along. It will be important to makes efforts to do this so as to ensure that the teams do not face extreme effects of skills gap.
Best Practices
The Millennial generation makes up the largest demographic currently in the workplace, and is only expected to increase. With previous generations of leadership now entering retirement age, how do companies develop and groom the Millennial generation into Leaders? We have seen a trend with Millennials where they are becoming more and more loyal to the companies they currently work for. “Their intended longevity comes with conditions. It appears their loyalty depends on compensation, promotion, development, work-life balance and a sense of belonging to a community” (Williams & Spector, 2017). Companies need to take these conditions into consideration when developing these Millennials for leadership roles. If they feel these boxes are not being checked with their current employer, there is a possibility they will be looking elsewhere. This generations also tends to have high expectations and goals, and they do look towards those top tier positions as something to aim for. Their mentors and leaders need to inquire as to the goals they have and work on a developmental plan that will help them reach those goals. Coaching goes hand in hand with providing that developmental piece. Millennials will tend to want to receive that constructive criticism because it helps them learn and grow on their journey towards the top.
Presenting to Senior Management
Now that we’ve considered the possibilities of best practices in creating more Millennial leaders in the future of the company, it’s now time to pitch the ideas to senior management.
Senior Management can be some of the toughest people to present ideas to, to get upper management to care about the ideas your pitching. Some ways of getting an executives attention is, focus your attention on four major ideas:
One is the customer and will they like it and in this case the customer is the company and its standing in the current markets, what the current problems the company face at this point in time , and how the future could look with some changes made like the addition of new millennial management on staff, the second idea to present is the business model, how will this idea effect the company financially, and is it profitable. So, with that it’s important for the executives to realize how much it will cost to hire new leaders to the company, but to also to point out the benefits they will accrue from further focusing on the current generation and realizing their potential as leaders. The Third focus is the technology, or in other words, do we have the means to make this plan work? like aligning the company values and focuses with that of a millennial employee, is the company technically prepared to get the message out (i.e social media, and any digital way of getting their message across) , Lastly the executives need to understand the risks involved in making these changes , there’s a good chance of loss in funds but there could be great results associated with the increase in millennial leaders. Knowing these risks can have great weight on their decision, and it’s the executives job to understand if the change is worth the risk. With these four focuses presented to the executives and or senior management you will most likely have their attention and they can see that you see the potential of what this company could be with these new changes, exactly what company executives like to hear!
Conclusion
To sum up, millennial leadership is important. Hence, organizations should ensure that this leadership style is adopted to fill the existing gap in management. In the contemporary world, most organizations have millennial employees. The high possibility of increased number of such employee in the future requires organizations to embrace an ideal form of leadership and group. The existence of millennials in organizations encourages changes. Millennial workers tend to stick to one organization provided they are assured of better compensation, promotions, sense of belonging as well as work life balance. Therefore, there is the need for organizations to consider the conditions that should be met to make workers remain loyal. The creation of a mentorship program Mentorship program should be created, and this would help in determining the goals and objectives of each employee so as to develop a viable development plan.
A careful approach is necessary when it comes communication of the idea regarding coming up with millennial leaders. There should be effective communication between lower-management and the top management level. The four ways that can be considered when one needs to draw the attention of the executive include, the problems faced by the organization as well as the position of the organization in the market, the cost involved in hiring different or new leaders and whether it would beneficial to mentor potential leaders, the existing technology and the risk associated with organizational change. When the top management is informed about these four issues, there are high chances that the executives will consider the idea and make a decision.
References
Williams, R. & Spector, J. (2017). How to Groom Millennial Leaders to be Your Next CEO. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2017/01/10/millennial-leaders-ceo/
Reference
van Wulfen, G. (2016). Innovation Excellence. Retrieved from http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2014/08/16/how-to-present-your-idea-to-top-management/
References