Are Younger Employees Entitled?
Welcome to the #culturedrop. Every Tuesday, Galen Emanuele emails tools to advance leadership skills, team culture, and personal growth. No spam, just great content. Sign up now to get it in your inbox.
There’s this idea that’s permeated the work world in the last few years: that people of younger generations entering the workforce are pretty entitled.
I propose a shift to the general thinking around this, and I challenge you to start with this question:
Are people entitled, or do they want to feel empowered?
There are a number of points that I want to make around this conversation. First of all, yes, younger people are coming in saying that they want a seat at the table, that they want their voices to be heard, to have more autonomy and authority, to not feel micromanaged, etc. They want to feel like they can make an impact with what they do.
When I hear and see those things, all I hear is people wanting to feel empowered and like their voice matters.
I think that most of the pushback against what new employees are asking for comes from the reality that historically, companies have done a marvelous job of making sure that employees don’t feel empowered. And because that is the case, anything that feels like employees asking for their voices to be heard and wanting more feels can be seen and felt as a threat.
Let me put it this way: if you've ever gone to a restaurant, had a terrible experience, and left feedback for the restaurant, that was because of a desire to feel empowered in that situation. That’s you finding a way to say “this was not okay,” and wanting either the person responsible, or the owner, or other potential customers to know about your experience.
I don’t think that’s you feeling entitled, I think it’s you wanting to feel empowered.
That’s the way we’ve always done it.
Another piece to this conversation is that newer employees—whether they’re younger employees or just entering the company—want to ask questions and challenge the status quo. They want to know why your company does things the way that it does.
They want to know why you think that’s the best way to do it, they want to share ideas of how they think it could be done better, and possibly share stories of how they’ve seen other companies do it better.
Those are reasonable questions, and they generally come from a place of wanting to improve systems and processes to the benefit of the company and employees. However, many times they are met with the sentiment of “that's the way we've always done it,” or “you don't understand.”
There's a balance here, of course. Yes, younger employees entering the workforce typically don't have years and years of experience in real world business norms and dynamics. Yes, there are things that they most likely do not understand, but think they do.
Also, sometimes the way things are done by companies is unnecessarily old school or inefficient, or illogical. Even so, companies often hold precious the status quo instead of being willing to be challenged say, “yeah, ok, let's do this a different way.”
Your challenge as a leader.
As a leader, if you want an environment where everybody is being productive and growing, you have to develop the skills both to empower people and to hold them accountable in ways that support their growth.
The first step is to shed the mindset that people feel entitled. Instead, shift to an understanding that people want to feel empowered. Trust that your people want their voices to be heard and are challenging the status quo because they want to do things in the best ways possible.
To bring those people in and keep them, you must encourage and genuinely empower them. Give them opportunities to make their voices heard, and not in a ways that are just for show, but allow them to make real impact where they can. Allow the status quo to be challenged.
At the same time, be willing and prepared to hold people accountable and ensure that avenues are in place to help them grow and learn. From day one of joining your team make sure they know what’s expected of them—how they’re expected to perform and show up. Make sure they know how to go about challenging something and how to give productive feedback about their work experience, the organization, and your organization’s leadership.
Change your skills and mindset, change your impact.
Empowerment, guidance, and accountability are all necessary components of effective mentorship, and producing high-caliber employees. Your job as a leader is to pursue and develop the skills necessary in order for you to do that effectively: emotional intelligence, receptiveness to feedback and the ability to skillfully give and receive it, and the ability to hold people accountable.
True leadership is your willingness to recognize gaps in your own skills, learn new ones, and shore up those you have.
Challenge your thinking whenever you find yourself interpreting that a new or younger employee has an overblown sense of entitlement. See it as their need to feel empowered and look for ways to support their desire to be heard and have an impact, while also guiding and holding a high bar for them.
Not only will it help them, but it’ll help you build an organization where everyone is developing, growing, and learning from each other. When you can achieve that, everyone wins.
Check out Part 2 of this episode with more ideas on how to make employees feel empowered:
Are Younger Employees Entitled? Part II
Want more?
This article was created by Galen Emanuele for the #culturedrop. Free leadership and team culture content in less than 5 minutes a week. Check out the rest of this month's content and subscribe to the Culture Drop at https://bit.ly/culturedrop