YPLS 2 | The Foundation For Leading Millennials

A quick recap…

In the first post of this series we talked about why there’s so much confusion when it comes to the millennial generation.

One of the reasons being that there’s a lot of content out there telling us that the key to leading millennials comes down to creating a “fun” work environment and culture. The idea being that when we implement simple tactics like providing millennials with free food, movie outings, and team building activities they’ll become happy and more productive.

As you already know this type of advice just isn’t true. Yet there are “millennial leadership experts” out there who are teaching these exact tactics.

That’s why we created the YoungPro Leadership Series (YPLS). It’s purpose:

Provide leaders with the insights and strategies that have proven to help companies attract, develop and retain the top young talent in their respective industries. 

I also mentioned in the first post that they key to leading millennials all comes down to one simple component:

Ensuring that millennials are consistently experiencing a specific set of core needs.

I bring this up again because throughout this series we’ll be covering these needs in more depth along with providing you with strategies on how to leverage them.

That being said, the strategies shared throughout this series will never be maximized to their full effect if our beliefs about the millennial generation are working against us.

Here’s what I mean.

There’s a concept in psychology called the Rosenthal Effect (also known as the Pygmalion Effect). It’s a phenomenon whereby the expectations and standards we hold others to oftentimes has an impact on their performance.

For example: If we hold someone to a higher standard oftentimes it leads to an increase in their performance. The same can be said when we hold someone to a lower standard.

Well, we need to take this same principle and apply it to millennials.

I say this because of the impact that our beliefs (conscious and subconscious) have on our environment and our ability to lead.

Case in point, our beliefs not only drive our behaviors but they influence the behaviors of others as well.

This is important to recognize because it’s a leaders behaviors that ultimately drives culture and it’s culture that determines a company’s effectiveness when it comes to attracting, developing and retaining millennials.

Thus the reason why we need to bring clarity to our beliefs about millennials before we do anything else.

So, the question we now have to address is:

How do we leverage the Rosenthal Effect ensuring that we attract, develop and retain the top young talent in our respective industries?

The answer comes down to two simple components…

1. Create clarity around our current beliefs about millennials.
2. Give millennials a Model of Excellence (MOE).

Now from here on out this isn’t going to be your typical blog post. If anything, it’s going to be more like an online workshop where I’ll be walking you step by step through the YoungPro Leadership Tool below.

So, for those of you who are interested you can download the YPLS Tool here and then we’ll get into it.

Component #1 – Creating Clarity Around Beliefs

Once you’ve downloaded the tool turn to page two where the title reads, “Millennial Beliefs Clarifier”.

Now it’s this part of the tool that’s going to help you leverage the Rosenthal Effect by creating clarity of your current beliefs about millennials.

So here’s what you’re going to do…

First, you’re going to identify the top three beliefs you have about millennials. You’ll understand the importance of this simple exercise once we run through an example.

Second, you’re going to label these beliefs as being either positive or negative.

Third, you’re going to determine the impact of this belief.

If it’s a positive belief, you’ll answer the question…

How has this belief positively impacted your behaviors when leading millennials?

If it’s a negative belief, you’ll answer the question…

How has this belief negatively impacted your behaviors when leading millennials?

So let’s run through a quick example by saying that one of our beliefs about millennials is:

They’re disloyal and only looking out for their best interests.

This being a negative belief we’d answer the question:

How has this belief negatively impacted your behaviors when leading millennials?

And a possible answer could be:

By having this belief it has made us very skeptical and hesitant to hire millennials. In fact, we’re always looking for reasons not to hire them. I mean why would we want to invest in them if they’re only going to leave our company within a couple of years. That being said, by not hiring millennials this has led to uncertainty about the future of our company. It has negatively impacted our ability to hit our growth goals and we don’t have the young talent for a successful perpetuation.

You’d take a similar approach when answering the question about a positive belief.

Again, it’s our beliefs that drive behaviors. It’s our behaviors that drive culture and it’s our culture that determines how effective we are when it comes to attracting, developing and retaining millennials.

That’s why we need to bring clarity to our beliefs before we do anything else.

Component #2 – Model of Excellence (MOE)

The second component that will help us leverage the Rosenthal Effect is by giving millennials a MOE.

However, before we get into it I need to make sure I’m making myself clear on three things.

First, when we give millennials a MOE, I’m not saying that we should try to make them someone they’re not. If that was the case we would never have any success in attracting, developing and retaining them.

What I am saying though is that we need to hold them to a higher standard.

We do this in the following way:

Give them clarity of the beliefs and behaviors they need to develop in order to excel their careers; specifically, as it relates to their position within our companies. Then we must hold them accountable to displaying these beliefs and behaviors on a consistent basis.

In other words, we need to provide them with the guidance and structure on how to become the best version of themselves that they can become.

Second, the MOE should be used with every millennial in your company (no matter their position).

Third, you’ll get the best results when you complete the MOE with your millennials.

That being said, here’s an example of how this tool can be filled out.

Let’s say that we just hired a new millennial salesperson. So, in the field titled “Position”, we’d type in “Salesperson”.

Next, we’re going to work together with our millennial salesperson to create a compelling vision of what their career will look like when they excel in this position.

Now the vision needs to be compelling because we want to give them the leverage they need that will drive them to produce at optimal levels early on in their career.

So the first thing we must do when helping our millennial salesperson create their vision is to effectively communicate all the benefits that come with their position.

These benefits could include:

• Having the freedom and flexibility to control their schedule as their success will ultimately be determined by their ability to produce and not the number of hours they work.
• Having the opportunity to sell a product that makes a significant impact in their clients’ businesses.
• Not having a cap on the level of income that they can produce.

By communicating these benefits beforehand it will help us give the millennial salesperson the foundation needed to build their compelling vision.

If you’d like a reference of a vision that might be compelling to a millennial, here’s an example of what it might like to a young salesperson:

Every day I wake up eager and excited for my job because I work for a company that gives me complete autonomy. They give me the freedom and flexibility to work in ways that allow me to produce at my best. However, they also give me the structure, training and support to ensure that I’m always experiencing new levels of growth.

I also sell a product that is making a significant impact in our clients’ businesses. Because of my belief in this product it has helped me become one of the top salespeople in the company.

This has led to a couple things.

First it has helped me create an incredible quality of life for me and my family. We go on weekend trips at least once a month and it has given me the freedom to create my own schedule, which allows me to leave work early so I can coach my kids little league team.

Second, it has put me in a position to acquire ownership in the company. With the potential of being an owner, there’s going to be another level of responsibility and variety to my career.

Third, I’m now the Director of Sales giving me the opportunity to train our newest salespeople. Teaching others has turned into one of my greatest passions in life.

Again the purpose of this part of the tool is to help our millennial salesperson create a vision of what their career will look like when they excel in their position. A vision that is so compelling that it will drive them to produce at optimal levels early on in their career.

Now that we’ve created the compelling vision we need to help the millennial salesperson define their outcomes. Outcomes that when achieved will lead them to realizing this vision.

Since we’re using the example of the millennial salesperson, their outcomes will come down to their ability to produce revenue.

So on page four in the “Annual Outcome” field we’ll work with them to determine their annual production goal. This will be followed by creating their monthly production goals, which we’ll type in the “Monthly Outcomes” fields.

Next up is one of the most important sections of the MOE.

The reason being that this is where we’ll be helping them create clarity around the type of person they need to become in order to excel in their position.

To put it another way, this is where we’ll be helping them define the beliefs and behaviors they need to adopt in order to achieve their monthly and annual outcome(s).

So turn to page five of the tool and you’ll see that we’ve included fields for beliefs and behaviors.

As mentioned above, these beliefs and behaviors will need to be in alignment with the outcomes(s) that the millennial salesperson created on page four.

Here are a few examples:

Beliefs

1. What I have to offer is so valuable that it’s unethical of me not to give an all out effort when selling my company’s product.
2. Every rejection I face is meant to test my level of commitment. Therefore, I will persist until I succeed. Then I will persist again. I will not be denied. 
3. If I’m not able to sell what I have to offer then I will be hurting my prospects, their companies and their families. 
4. My prospects absolutely need what I have to offer. In fact, this is their only option because there is no better option. They just don’t know it yet and it’s on me to make sure that they do.
5. I will be in the top percent of all salespeople in my industry. For one of the greatest skills that one can acquire in life is the ability to sell, influence and effectively communicate with others. 

Behaviors

1. I will make 50+ calls a day. 
2. I will deliver at least 8 prospect sales presentations a week. 
3. I will attend at least 3 events that my prospects and clients will be at every month. 
4. I will reach out to at least 7 clients a week with resources, connections, etc. that will advance their top initiatives for the year. 
5. I will schedule at least 10 minutes every morning to practice my sales presentation, role play, etc. 
6. I will consistently follow up with prospects (even when they say no) until they become clients. 
7. I will read at least one book and/or attend one conference a month that will advance my skills and build my business acumen.
8. I will hold myself to a higher standard than anyone else ever could while also making sure that I’m always exceeding the expectations of my prospects, clients and colleagues.

Having now gone through those examples that brings us to the end of the tool.

Once completed, we’ll want to make sure that we both have a copy of it.

There are a couple of reasons for this.

First, our millennials need to know exactly what’s expected of them.

That’s why we designed the MOE in the way that we did.

It’s a highly effective resource that will provide our millennials with the clarity and structure that they need to excel early on in their careers.

Second, we must stress the importance and purpose to our millennials that they review their MOE at least two times a day throughout the first six weeks on the job.

The reason being that they need to be consistently conditioning their minds to display these new beliefs and behaviors.

Third, we must always be speaking to them as the type of person they need to become in order to become a top performer in their position. This tool will play an instrumental role in making this happen.

Recap & Key Takeaways

So that brings us back to the question that was asked earlier:

How do we leverage the Rosenthal Effect ensuring that we attract, develop and retain the top young talent in our respective industries?

Well as we just covered the answer comes down to the two components:

1. Create clarity of our current beliefs about millennials.
2. Give millennials a Model of Excellence (MOE).

With that being said, if there’s one principle you can take away from this post that will deliver immediate results in your company and in the lives of your millennials it would be this:

The beliefs and perceptions that we have about others influences and shapes their behavior. 

While it’s a simple principle to understand it’s one that few take advantage of. It’s also one of the reasons why many are still looking for answers when it comes to leading millennials.

The fact of the matter is that we can implement the most effective strategies out there when it comes to attracting, developing and retaining millennials (which, I’ll be giving you throughout this series). However, we’ll never create the results we desire if we focus on the negative stereotypes and perceived limitations that are associated with the millennial generation.

Instead, we must see millennials as each being unique in their own ways. We must focus on their strengths and capabilities. We must see the good in them. Then we must speak to them as the type of person we know they’re capable of becoming.

For those that take what you’ve learned here today and fully commit to implementing it, you’ll experience a level of loyalty and performance from your millennials that has never been experienced before.