May HBR: Mentoring Millennials

“Mentoring Millennials” (by Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd). Here’s an attention getter for you: “The makeup of the global workforce is undergoing a seismic shift: In four (4) years Millennials—the people born between 1977 and 1997—will account for nearly half the employees in the world.” For Millenials, work is a key integrated component in their lives, so they look for personally meaningful and fulfilling employment. They want to meet people, learn skills and have a greater sense of purpose to their work. For example, from their boss they want help navigating their careers, straight feedback, a mentor, and more. From their company they want to develop future skills, to be allowed to blend work-life balance, customized benefits, and more.

Some techniques used to socialize Millenials are “reverse mentoring” where Millenials mentor more senior execs on things like social networking (to help them better connect to each other); group mentoring, where mentors, using social networking software connect with several mentees at a time; and microfeedback, where using anonymous feedback software, mentees can seek and get Twitter sized feedback advice (140 characters) to focus responders and get immediate feedback. This article is a must for anyone who’s managing Millenials—and that’s everyone in the next 4 years!