Wendy ChettyIf organizations want their investment in leadership development to more fully pay off, it is essential that they prioritize mindset development — specifically by targeting growth, learning, deliberative, and promotion leader mindsets.
Leaders with a growth mindset tend to focus more on the process rather than just the outcome. On the opposite end, we have a fixed mindset. This mindset believes that people’s basic qualities, such as intelligence and talent, are fixed traits that can’t be changed or developed. Leaders with a fixed mindset are results-oriented to the extreme.
Taking Leadership Beyond Fixed And Growth Mindsets
Leaders who believe in the growth mindset are more likely to hire millennials, establish open work environments that promote teamwork and give their employees autonomy. They’ll also offer comprehensive training programs so workers can continuously develop new skill sets.
When you have a growth mindset, it actually stimulates your brain to learn new things with the help of neuroplasticity—a process where neural connections rewire themselves when they’re used repeatedly for particular tasks or functions over an extended period of time.
While the fixed mindset locks people into patterns, the growth mindset unlocks hidden potential. For leaders looking to gain a competitive edge by tapping into their employees’ full potential, embracing the growth-oriented philosophy is definitely worth exploring further.
Why Is It Important To Have Millennials Working For Your Company?
As you can see, millennials are becoming more and more indispensable for companies around the world. Millennials will comprise 75% of the global workforce by 2025, and will work for the organizations that foster innovative thinking, develop their skills, and make a positive contribution to society.
Having millennials working for your company allows you to embrace change while staying competitive at the same time. Armed with fresh ideas and perspectives, these employees help your organization remain relevant amidst today’s rapidly evolving consumer market.
While not all millennial workers may be prepared to take on serious leadership roles right off the bat, it’s essential that managers train them accordingly so they become valuable assets down the line.
What Kinds Of Jobs Do Millennials Prefer?
Surveys conducted by Deloitte and Goldman Sachs revealed that millennials prefer jobs that let them make a positive contribution to society. They also seek meaning in the work they do and appreciate employers who allow them to balance their professional and personal lives so they can live healthy and fulfilling lives. In fact, 57% of the millennial generation want to be allowed time for naps so they can reduce their stress levels.
Millennials are not fans of mundane tasks. How do you overcome a challenge like this in a Logistics environment when you are drowning in processes and paperwork.
Many corporations find that millennial employees are a challenge to their well-oiled systems. Punching a time clock, performing mundane tasks and doing things “the way they’ve always been done” don’t work for millennials. They don’t fit into this sort of corporate climate!
In order to attract millennials, you need to offer competitive salaries, benefits and perks like flexible hours or opportunities for advancement so your organization can stand out against its rivals. Investing in digital tools that can take away the mundane tasks will help your business increase productivity and save operating costs.
Use your workforce to build revenue streams rather than manual do processes that can be automated.
How Can You Adjust To The Needs Of Millennial Employees?
How To Set Boundaries With Millenials Without Being Too Stern?
Even though they are no longer newbies in the workforce, millennials still need some guidance to excel at their jobs. Here are a few ways you can motivate them:
Give them opportunities to grow. Don’t just place millennial workers in entry-level positions and leave it at that. Offer them challenging roles so they can continuously learn and improve on their skillset. Make sure they have all the resources necessary to take on bigger responsibilities as well.
Let them know that their input is important. For example, if your company is planning major changes, hold an open forum with employees where everyone’s ideas are welcome. Find ways to make work fun for your millennial employees by organizing team outings or incorporating their suggestions into your business plan.
Give them ownership over certain projects. Millennials are natural-born leaders, so set them up to take charge of something they feel passionate about and watch them flourish right before your eyes.
When millennials first enter the workforce, they need direction. Here’s how you can set boundaries for them without being too stern:
- Have an open-door policy. Let employees know they can speak to you about anything under the sun (as long as it’s related to work).
- Offer them opportunities to learn. For instance, if you have an employee who’s interested in becoming a project manager, assign her tasks that include taking the lead on certain projects.
- Let them know that there are consequences for their actions. Explain to them why your proposed policies would benefit the company and offer personalized examples of how each rule could ultimately affect their lives or those of other employees around them.
- Perhaps one of the best ways to encourage millennials is by offering incentives like flexible work hours or perks like gym memberships at your workplace. But make sure they get their job done in time.
The Implications Of Leadership Mindsets
Recent research conducted by Gallup Inc. revealed that employees who feel that their managers encourage them to experiment, take risks and learn from failure are more productive, engaged and loyal towards their workplace. The study also showed that millennials are twice as likely as other age groups to leave an organization if they don’t believe the company encourages risk-taking behaviour among its workers.
How to help the labour shortage crisis in the Supply Chain Industry
The Supply Chain Industry is lacking skills in the industry. We see many countries where labour shortages are one of the major challenges in the industry.
“There is no question that staffing is definitely a big issue this time around,” said Stephanie Martz, the chief administrative officer and general counsel of the National Retail Federation. “It was maybe less measurable when we were at a point in the pandemic when so much was closed and everything was so scaled down.”
“I don’t know if I would go as far as to say that we have an unprecedented number not being able to work, but it’s high,” she said. “It’s really high.”
Unfortunately, however, many young professionals don’t consider supply chain as a career option. Many don’t even know it exists!
Some of the options available to combat the labour shortage challenge:-
- Offer Holiday or Part Time work for students
- Offer paid apprenticeships programs for graduates with no experience
- Don’t only employ based on academia but also on skill.
- Offer the options to work and study within the organisation.
- Upskill your current staff and allow space for internal growth
How some Countries benefit from hiring young people
In Cameroon, to improve and promote youth employment, the government came up with a tax incentive for businesses employing youths.An update of this law was made in the 2021 Finance Law for Cameroon. The measure which took effect from January 1, 2016, concerned only businesses under the actual earnings tax system.
Employers in Italy can benefit from a number of schemes aimed at the sustainable inclusion of young people in the employment market as well as at supporting employment in the “less-developed” regions. While youth unemployment reportedly declined in the country to 37.9% in January from 39.2%, the rate remains among the highest in the Eurozone.
In the US Work Opportunity Tax credit by the IRS – The Employers must apply for and receive a certification verifying the new hire is a member of a targeted group before they can claim the tax credit. After the required certification is secured, taxable employers claim the WOTC as a general business credit against their income taxes, and tax-exempt employers claim the WOTC against their payroll taxes.
The program encourages the hire of unemployed, disadvantaged youth. Businesses may earn tax credits of up to $7,500 per youth for full-time employment, and up to $3,750 per youth for part-time employment. To qualify, both businesses and youth must be certified by the New York State Department of Labor.
A circular released by the Greek Finance Ministry, which activates a recent legal clause concerning incentives for enterprises that hire young or long-term unemployed people, offers tax incentives to employers who hire unemployed workers on top of their existing staff up until 2023, ekathimerini.com reports.
In South Africa the current lack of skills and experience as well as perceptions regarding the restrictiveness of labour regulations make some prospective employers reluctant to hire the youth.As a South African employer, you now have a great opportunity to boost the employment of young work seekers. The ETI is an incentive aimed at encouraging employers to hire young work seekers. It was implemented with effect from 1 January 2014.
Prepare yourself for a workforce that’s evolving at breakneck speed by learning more about the people you’re looking to hire — namely, millennials. Being able to adjust your employees’ needs can be challenging because these individuals are often difficult to read. But if you can get in touch with what makes this generation tick, it’ll undoubtedly inspire you to rethink how you run your business today and help prepare for its future success.
SFL
