Last night I had a conversation with two Gen Y (also known as “Millennial”) friends of mine. Two important topics came up that have me thinking. After working through these mentally, I feel light years ahead in my understanding of the problem that so many Millennials struggle with; finding happiness. Ultimately, happiness is the primary goal of every human including Generation Y. But millennials n’t just seeking monetary happiness like some people think. Money and the “happiness” it buys eventually fade. What they are searching for is a way to do something they can be passionate about for a living.

The first topic we discussed was that Generation Y should be subdivided into stages. The span of a Millennial, around 20 years (1977-1997) by most estimates, is a large span of time. While they all have very similar traits as a generation, they can be in different stages of their life. For instance, consider the difference of a 29 year old entrepreneur versus a 13 year old who is just entering their freshman year of high school. The two are drastically different, yet strangely similar. So we break Gen Y into three sub-categories; pre-professionals, workforce newbies (those just entering the workforce), and “veteran” professionals (with as many as 10 years of work experience).

My focus, because my expertise is in this area, is the veteran professional Gen Y’s. This category can be further broken down into three sub categories or veteran professionals; singles, married, and married with children. The first sub category, singles, is the most commonly studied group of Millennials. This group is commonly written about and most often referred to as the individuals who are most willing to turn down a lucrative corporate position for a job they are more passionate about. They are also more likely to relocate for a position, be it in the US or abroad. Millennials in the second group, married, are very similar to the singles because their mobility and income floor are still fairly flexible. They, however, are also enjoying the company of a permanent best friend. The last group, married with children, is the newest section of Millennials simply because the generation as a whole is still young and they’re just getting around to starting a family. This group is studied the least, if at all. Because of this, less is known about them and how their new found state in life affects their decisions, career path, and ultimately – their happiness.

Millennials that are married and have children are a generation in a psychological and emotional transition. These individuals have traded in their once “free spirits” for the traditional desires of family life and are working to combine the two. It’s not as if their rapid-fire thumbs can’t text “c u l8r” just as fast as before, but it’s much more difficult with a baby in one arm. The married with children Millennials have less mobility (though not “no mobility”) than they once had. They are now considering issues such as proximity to their family, long-term career planning, and retirement in their decision making processes. Instead of finding a downtown condo close to the local hot spots, they’re considering moving to a subdivision with a good school system or possibly homeschooling in a smaller town. They’re still mobile, but in a much different way. They still find joy in trying new things even if it means a new town, state, or job. But at the end of the day, they just want their decisions to lead to their happiness.

The second topic we discussed was Millennials in the workforce shouldn’t be viewed as a liability, but as a huge asset whose potential for contribution in the workforce has hardly scratched the surface. As more of them enter the workforce every year corporations will have to begin to adapt with them or risk becoming outdated and fall by the wayside. Baby boomers are leaving the workforce at just as quick a pace as Millennials are entering, though some boomers are working menial jobs out of necessity so they can retain their healthcare insurance and scrape by monetarily. The primary reasons for Millennials remaining untapped are understanding and communication. Corporations and management have yet to fully (or even partially) understand the vast resources sitting in the desks of their own buildings. They haven’t figured out how to motivate and incentivize Millennials or to study and learn from their out-of-the-box style of thinking. Millennials have less pre-conceived notions than previous generations about how things should be done. They would rather ask “what needs to be done and how can it be done better?”  And the best part of them asking that question is that they’ll figure out the answer.

How Millennials find solutions is a new phenomenon I call “rapid collaboration”. In the past few years I have encountered a number of Millennials in the workforce who have requested Instant Messaging (IM) at their workstation. The initial reaction of the employer has always been “I don’t want them chatting with their friends on my dime!” However, this is how Millennials have collaborated since as far back as they can recall. At the touch of a button, they have an army of like-minded Millennials’ knowledge and skill sets at their fingertips. Rather than research for an entire morning how to do a particular task, a quick IM or text message blast can return a customized answer or a link to an answer somewhere on the Web.  Another example of rapid collaborative efforts from Millennials is found in software development. The old school of thought is that a marketing team comes up with what should be created. The business team decides if it will make enough money and sends requirements to the programming team. They, in turn, program the end product and it gets pushed to market for the real test. The Generation Y trend has turned this on its head. Now, cutting-edge software development trends are a real-time collaborative effort with community-based beta testers and on-the-fly adjustment of processes and features.  It adapts and is fluid, just like the Millennials. No longer do they wait for the software’s launch for feedback. Instead, they open up the development to the users and other industry-specific groups that will aid in the creation and the function of the software. The open-source community is a good example of this. These developers, like Millennials, aren’t looking for something in return. They give because they can, and it helps them to feel like they contribute – that they’re a meaningful part of something bigger than them.

So we know Generation Y is diverse and we know they are a virtually untapped resource in corporate America. How companies adapt, how we guide them and work with them will determine our ability to “change with the times” and become industry leaders. In this regard, maybe we can learn something from Gen Y. Their goal is to focus on their passion, then find a way to money from it. Most statistics show that Millennials are more apt to becoming entrepreneurs and starting their own companies than that of generations before. This is because they are more confident in their own abilities, understand rapid collaboration, and know how to use technology to accomplish more work – faster. One day soon, if we haven’t already, we may find ourselves working for and learning from them.

My intent is to create a roadmap that will guide Generation Y into the workforce and also to their destination of happiness. I will teach them how the two can co-exist. This plan has no bias toward entry, yet it has a concretely defined exit path that leads to individual happiness.It doesn’t matter where you are in your current journey toward finding happiness. This challenge has not been undertaken in this manner for Generation Y until now. My desire is to offer this proven roadmap to help Generation Y achieve true happiness, no matter how they define or redefine it throughout their lifetime.

I hear a lot of members of this generation saying they want to be a manager in a business and posess leadership skills.  While its hard to say if generations before ours had the same desire to get to the top, I don’t think as many expected to do so as quickly.  People still in their 20’s (myself included) are not looking for entry level positions in a company that they can use to climb the corporate ladder and eventually inherit a position of leadership.  For some reason we feel more entitled to management positions and feel that we deserve to get them without the years of service that those ahead of us have.  So the question is, do we deserve that or should we wait in line like everyone else?

I think the first thing that needs to be looked at is what exactly is a leader?  When I think of management and leadership, it brings up two different definitions for me.  A manager does just that…they manage.  They maintain the status quo, take no big risks and in doing that make no big gains, but are unlikely to cause a huge failure.  It really is the same as a supervisor.  I see it as a person there to watch out for the employees, they probably know a lot about the product or service that they’re offering and can answer questions when needed, and they maintain the balance of workers.  A leader on the other hand, is willing to take charge, look for the areas that need to be changed and implement changes that have a chance at failure, but if successful will be very rewarding.  Leadership is a harder role to fill than most people are willing to accept because they don’t want the risk of failing, the chance of being fired for taking a risk, or the idea of not accomplishing what they set out to do. 

So what makes a good leader?  Well, as mentioned, they need to be willing to implement change, even when it isn’t the most popular path.  They have to be able to accept failure when it comes (and it will come).  They also have to have the vision to be able to correct the failures they have, and know that they need to be right more often than they are wrong (or at least be more right as far as profit goes).  Another thing that is important, maybe even more important, is for a leader to look at the tools they have and find answers in them.  A business can not run with the idea of spending money as the only way of meeting needs.  A good leader will look at the strengths of each employee, the tools they have to work with, and determine if meeting those needs is possible.  A lot of times this is not a point A to point B method of solving the problem, and it can take time to implement changes, but when there isn’t time to wait, the leader has to set the example, explain the situation and get their employees to see the vision, or at least the end result of what the employees task is.

So why does Gen-Y feel they have this ability better than others, even to the extent of being able to jump over people that have been in their industry for years?  Well, the quick answer is “I don’t know”.  I am willing to explore it a little further than that though.

I think one thing that really sticks out is the amount of pressure on Gen-Y to continue education past high school.  While it has always been an option for previous generations, the expecation for Gen-Y was to choose a career, go to college, then enter the workforce and be successful.  We were thrown stats about how much more a college grad could expect to make over a career, told what jobs would not be available to us without a degree, and really sold on the fact that if we wanted to be successful, we needed to get that degree.  Those things are all true, but we weren’t sold on the idea of going to college, working our asses off to get the degree, then entering the workforce and finding ourselves on the bottom of the corporate ladder needing to work our asses off just to get one wrung up.  We may feel that the degree promised us an easier future, when really it only put us in the position to work harder to maybe earn a better future.  (In saying all of that, I’m not selling the idea that college is bad!  All I’m saying is that there may have been a misunderstanding on what happens after we get out.)

So does Gen-Y have what it takes to be leaders?  Again, I don’t know, but this might be an area where some of the strengths become weaknesses.  More than generations before them, Gen-Y learned to be self reliant and self motivators.  That’s kind of the point of a lot of this writing.  We learned how to use computers and other tools to make our work easier and more efficient, we grew up with cell phones and PDA’s and we grow with the advancements of them quickly.  With that, we’ve also become the generation that’s learned to text, instant message and email our communications.  The idea of having readily available communication devices has caused us to be less capable communicators.  Can a leader lead from behind a screen?  No, true motivation is going to come from the hands on experience.  An example of this would be Rudy Guilliani during 9/11.  It would have been safer and easier for him to take cover in a secure location and plan strategy from there.  Instead, he walked through the streets of NY to the site of the WTC and assessed his situation, made a statement and helped plan on how to start the recovery process.  Did he make better decisions because he was infront of the people he was leading?  Who knows.  Was it more effective?  Absolutely.  They saw him as a figure that they could rise up with and complete the task even in the face of danger and tragedy.  While most leaders/workers aren’t going to have tasks anywhere in comparison with the example, it shows how human touch can add to motivation.

So while Gen-Y may be able to increase productivity in the short term, make things more efficient and effectively manage after that, I’m not sure if we’ve seen how effectively they can lead.  I’m also not sure how well they will be taken as leaders.  People are slow to accept change because they don’t always see it as progress.  It will be interesting to see how people vote this year for president, and then the reasons they give for voting that way.  Will they vote for the young up-and-comer who promises change?  Remember, we’ve done that with the last two presidents.  Clinton was the first Boomer president and was a very polarizing figure.  GWB, again, was relatively new in politics and a Washington outsider, and even more polarizing than Clinton.  Are people going to be willing to go younger still?  Or will they turn to the guy that fought in Vietnam, looks to Reagan as an example as to what a president should be, and would probably have more in common with a Gen-Yer’s grandparents?  Maybe America feels the need to let an elder statesman take charge again, not try to be friends with the world and just tell people how things are going to be done.  After all, the United States is a big workplace looking for a leader…