Flipping The Downside to Millennial Goal-Orientation

My co-blogger Carol has written in the past about Millennials and their need to achieve.  She writes:

• Millennials are an intelligent, highly educated and achievement-oriented workforce. According to William Strauss in “The Millennials are Coming,” the Millennials have surpassed previous generations in just about any data point that measures achievement, including science fairs, athletics, the arts, even the National Spelling Bee. In the 1940s you had to be able to spell words like promiscuous to win. Today’s winning words are autochthonous and appoggiatura.  They score 15 points higher in terms of raw intelligence than kids 50 years ago (Greenfield, 1998). The emphasis Millennials place on education is of particular importance to employers, because Millennials expect their jobs to be learning experiences and have no hesitation about leaving jobs that aren’t.

Today I’m reading Millennial cover letters for entry-level positions.  And I’ve been struck  by how this need to achieve translates into some hillarious “ask not what I can do for you, but ask what you can do for me” kind of moments.  For example, I really enjoyed the letter that opened:

“I am writing this letter for the opportunity to get hired as an Intern Reporter.  The job is suitable for the career that I am interested in.”

I am sure the employer will be quite happy to find out they are suitable. 

Or how about the young woman who disclosed she’d like this job because it would give her “a lot of experience to go out and find a career.”

My first impulse is to laugh.  But my second impulse, after reading similar letters with statements about how good jobs would be because they would help Millennial applicants to achieve their personal goals was to think about how employers might benefit from recognizing this tendency.

On the one hand, educators, trainers, and managers can address this issue head on.  They can point out to their young employees that all work places pay you to do your job because it is work.  It’s not so fun that people do it for free.  Adjusting expectations and overtly appealing for a different orientation (i.e. how can you, the employee, make yourself valuable to the organization) can pay dividends.

On the other hand, the best managers do care about the ways in which an organization helps members to achieve their own goals.  Fulfilled employees make for the best organizations.  People give their best when they can see how giving their best is a path to personal fulfillment and achievement.  Can you name five ways your department or organization helps young employees to build experiences and prepare themselves for the next level?  If you can’t maybe you’re not as “suitable” as you could be.

Today’s take away tip: ask what you can do for your Millennials to help them achieve their goals in a way that benefits them AND the organization.

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