According to Pew research, for the first time, the millennial generation, those aged 18- 34, are now the largest segment of the workforce.
If you worked with millennials, you might not be surprised to learn that millennials have a reputation for being married to their phone, using them to text, order food, and play games. Some reports estimate a whopping 80% of millennials even sleep with their phones.
Despite access to many modes of communication, many of the reports claim that millennials hesitate when it comes to using their phone to have a verbal conversation with someone.
As with any new survey, you might just scratch your head wondering, “Can I use this information to motivate my team in some way?”
The short answer?
Maybe.
The longer answer?
It’s nature versus nurture.
In the Excellerate Success Institute, my clients learn the distinctions between those factors that influence behavior and a person’s natural wiring.
Understanding natural wiring is more important than ever if you want your business to continue to be profitable and productive.
Why?
Your profitability is in your productivity (and your team’s productivity, too.)
The Nurture Factors
One of the reasons millennials may experience a fear to have a conversation is that their behaviors were influenced by external factors. Some of the external factors that influence behaviors, include technology, education, life experiences, responsibility, age and maturity.
Even though the millennials have had access to more ways of communicating with others, they are often reviewed as lacking social skills. The only way to develop social skills is with verbal interactions that most technology takes away.
While these external factors influence behaviors, you’ll often miss the mark in motivating your team in the long term because behaviors change over time.
Wiring Matters More
What matters more and has a greater influence on your team’s productivity is to understand their natural wiring. Natural wiring is part of a person’s biology and stays with them their entire lifetime.
When you harness the power of each team member’s natural wiring, you’ll spend less energy on employee relations matters and have more time for the important priorities of running the business.
When your team members understand each other – not just behaviors – but how to deliver information the way the other person wants to receive it, they will be more productive and effective. This understanding of natural wiring also enables your team to quickly relate to one another in ways that might otherwise have taken years to accomplish.
The added bonus of knowing about natural wiring?
It bridges the generational divide.
To learn more about the importance of your wiring, I’ll be conducting an interactive session at Authentic Leadership Day on May 20, 2015 either live at Henry Ford College in Dearborn, Michigan or live streamed through PBS. Last year, nearly 3,000 people participated.
This leadership workshop is only $10 thanks to sponsors like Verizon Wireless, Michigan Works! and Ford and benefits the Project: Forgive Foundation.
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