I'm in the studio with Christopher Watkin and he wants to know how agencies should motivate millennials. He doesn't warm up to it.
"Estate and letting agents are full of millennials. How do we motivate them? Talk to me."
"Ah, the millennial question," I say. "I knew that was going to come at some point."
So I turn it round on him. "Let me ask you a question, Chris. How do I motivate you?"
"You find out what interests me, what floats my boat, what motivates me as a person," he says.
"So what do you think I need to do for a millennial?"
"Do the same."
"Exactly."
That was most of the answer, in about thirty seconds. The rest of that episode of the Letting Agent Podcast, back in August 2019, was us unpacking it.
Take the word millennial out of it
I told Chris you shouldn't treat a younger person the same way you'd treat someone 20 years older. Then I went further and said let's drop the word millennial altogether. "Let's talk about individuals. Because the best way to motivate any individual is to understand that individual."
If you want to motivate millennials, or anyone, find out what fires them up. Why do they want to do the job they do? What are they hoping for in the future, and what lifestyle are they trying to have? What do they actually go to work for? None of that comes with a birth year attached.
Chris asked whether it was down to the older bosses to ask those questions. For me it's down to anyone who leads. At the time I was trying to change what CEO stands for, and my version was printed on the back of my business cards. It came from one belief. "The role of any great leader is to actually get the best out of their people."
Spot their strengths and what drives them, then play to those. If you've got square pegs in round holes, either change the holes to suit the people or find people who fit the holes you've got. "Don't try and force people into something that's not them."
Leaders, not bosses
Chris asked what a millennial should do if their boss isn't even prepared to ask those questions. I was straight with him. "If I was sitting in a business and my boss has no interest in me, I ain't going to stay."
I might hang on for a while because it serves a purpose, or because I might need the pay cheque. But someone who doesn't feel fulfilled will always have "an eye open on the horizon for what's next."
It goes both ways, though. As I said to Chris, "you manage your boss as much as your boss manages you." And I told him I don't like the word boss. To me "a boss is a bit like a bully in a school playground." When I hear it, I think of control.
A leader sets an example. People who want to be great leaders are usually trying to get the best from others and help them become the best version of themselves. That's a really different thing from wanting to be in charge.
Entitlement isn't an age thing
I've managed millennials, and one challenge I found was an expectation of "You should pay me more and then I'll do more." Chris called it chicken and egg. I called it the wrong way round.
The culture I grew up in at work was "You prove what you're capable of, you'll be rewarded for it later."
I was careful to add that "this isn't meant as a criticism of millennials." I do think we've got a bit of an entitlement culture, but "I don't think it's only millennials that have got it." I see it in people in their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. They expect to be treated a certain way instead of going out and making it happen.
That's where a line of mine comes in. "Entitlement is the barrier to enlightenment." By enlightenment I mean understanding yourself at the deepest level. Know your strengths, and be honest about your weaknesses so you can plug them, whether that's with some software or another human being.
Watch the full chat
Start with the mirror
If you're sitting in an organisation, whatever your age, wondering why nobody appreciates you, this is what I told Chris. "Start by looking in the mirror. What's your part in it? How can you take responsibility for that, and how can you show up a different way?"
Show up differently and the people around you might too. They might not. If you've honestly tried everything you can and it still isn't working, you can move on with a clear conscience. But if you switch off and hang around for the pay cheque, "who you got to blame? Yourself." There's more on that in Stop looking for someone to blame.
So if you run a team, forget which generation they're from and find out why each of them actually comes to work. And if you're the one who feels overlooked, have a look at your own part in it before you start looking at the horizon.
First published August 2019 on Christopher Watkin's Letting Agent Podcast.
