- Email: [email protected]
A Millennial Leader's Views on the Millennial Workforce
A Millennial Leader’s Views on the Millennial Workforce Brian Weirich, DHA, MHA, RN, CENP
M
illennials…pick a derogatory term to describe
them: entitled, narcissistic, self-interested, unfocused, or lazy. The list can go on forever, but it’s irrelevant how this generation came to be this way. We are here and we’re not going anywhere. In fact, as baby boomers retire, they will continue to be replaced by younger generations. Like a scene out of “The Walking Dead,” millennials are going to come from all directions and rise to dominate the workforce, becoming a generational cohort in nursing even larger than the baby boomers. According to a 2016 study from the Advisory Board, nearly one-third of all current nursing staff are millennials (under the age of 35), and the number will continue to grow into the next decade.1 This workforce shift has caught the attention of leaders in every industry, both nationwide and globally. Studies are being done, books are being written. On the cover of the November issue of Harvard
Business Review is the title of an article, “What Really Keeps CEO’s up at Night?”2 Among the major challenges discussed in the article, one is managing and retaining the millennial workforce.
M
uch of what I read about my generation rings true to me. There is, however, one key characteristic that I find this generation missing time and again, and that is true mentorship. It is an expert taking a youth under their wing and showing them the ropes. This concept goes back thousands of years. Alexander the Great had Aristotle, Nikola Tesla had Thomas Edison, Warren Buffet had Ben Graham, and Bill Gates had Paul Allen. The greatest world leaders and innovators have frequently credited their mentors with their successes. Somewhere along the way between the generational shifts, this art of mentorship was lost. It was traded in for a formalized, watered-down product. The millennials have suffered because of it. www.nurseleader.com
MY OWN EXPERIENCE I was born in 1986, 34 days after the Challenger Space shuttle exploded over the Atlantic Ocean. This makes me a millennial. There’s a lot that is said about millennials and being the “generation of participation awards” and of “helicopter parents.” Say what you will, my parents put my brothers and me in every sports camp they could. They drove us all over the state of Ohio and the Midwest, competing in tournaments and travel leagues. They never missed a game. My best memories of those days were the attention to detail that I received from my coaches, instant feedback after every game and event. I remember going to a baseball camp at our local high school when I was in elementary school. It
Nurse Leader
137
was a Marc Wilkins baseball camp. Marc was a former graduate of our high school who had spent several years in the big leagues playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He taught me how to hold the ball, and how to go through the motion of pitching a fastball. He watched me pitch and provided immediate critique, until it was perfect. In 8th grade, I went to the Ohio State Buckeyes football camp. Then head football coach John Cooper was leading the camp. I met all sorts of current and former Buckeye players. Once again, they started with the basics and advanced from there. Those players taught me the fundamentals again and again and again until it was perfect. There, I was learning new skills and being taught one on one with professionals. I can reflect back on those early years and recall many of these individual coaching sessions. For every activity I excelled in and loved, there was an expert who inspired me and showed me the path. This is not unique to just me. There are several famous photos out there of current professional athletes at the camps of their heroes learning the tricks of the trade from them. Growing up, I had the perfect role models for everything I was passionate about or set goals to achieve. They had done it before; they could walk me though scenarios and develop clear expectations and establish a certain comfort level, allowing me to remain calm in the storm. These coaches were there to counsel me constantly. Like many in my generation, these were the coaching experiences we had as we worked to perfect our skills and master our craft. When the time came to enter the workforce, the pendulum swung and the landscape changed. The coaching and mentoring that we had come to expect was not there. Without it, we leave the skills and abilities of this new generation of employees a commodity that is largely untapped. We don’t need our hands held, but in too many workplaces, there is nobody to show us the way. Work assignments are handed out nonchalantly without consideration of our lack of experience, and as coworkers leave, more responsibility is added. Many experienced nursing staff today are disengaged and just going through the motions. New millennial nurses are expected to just go along and get along, often without any real coaching. The onboarding process has been largely unchanged over time, and yet the work is more complex. Consideration is often not given to the new generations’ inexperience and lack of skill sets. These inadequacies immediately widen the many gaps that exist between the generations.
WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU The late president Ronald Reagan observed “Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation.You will have opportunities beyond anything we’ve ever known.”3 It’s ok to ask us what we want to be when we grow up. Seek that answer and then show us the way. We want you to. We grew up meeting our idols, saying, I want to be just like them. We still feel that way. We like to talk through problems, we like when mentors share stories of their successes and failures. Give us advice, caution us about the inevitable pitfalls that lie ahead. Pick us up when we fall down. Give us constant feedback.
138
Nurse Leader
Many organizations attempt to start a formal mentor program that includes individual and group classes, maybe an assigned mentor for a period of time. This just doesn’t yield the results of a true mentorship where the mentor and mentee are both emotionally invested in the growth, development, and accomplishment of the developing leader. Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. described this phenomena well: “The value of a mentor…I don’t know what value you can place on it, but the right words spoken at the right time from a person that’s been through it before…can make all the difference.”4 The mentorship I’m referring to requires frequent discussions where a safe environment is created. Worries and weaknesses can be addressed freely, and the mentee is constantly learning. This is better than any class offered through any leadership program. This relationship should be deep and continue to grow stronger over time. When faced with big decisions, solutions can be formulated jointly. Smaller decisions can be discussed after. Walk us through our thought process, explain to us what we missed and the consequences certain decisions will inevitably have. Present us with scenarios you face, and let us stumble through the correct solution. Let us watch you work. This guidance with our futuristic abilities can unleash an entire new generation of effective leaders.
WHY YOU NEED US In the past, youth was a handicap to professional success. Getting older meant more resources, more knowledge, more money, but this is not true anymore. Technology has flipped ideas about expertise. Millennials grew up in the tech age and have way bigger ambitions. We are perfectly suited to the dynamic, entrepreneurial, and impatient digital world we grew up in. If you want to change the world, being under 30 is now an advantage.5 Our industry is health care. I can’t think of another industry that is changing so rapidly. The headlines are dominated by system merger and acquisitions, federal mandates, new technology, and challenges with access to care. It is safe to say that every health care system will look very different 2 years from now, with unexpected new challenges. How can we possibly keep up, adapt, and engage the workforce? I believe the sooner we quit thinking of health systems like fortune 500 companies and start treating them like Silicon Valley start-ups, the better off we’ll be. Millennials who are stereotyped as disloyal and change jobs every 2 years are perfectly programed to openly accept and embrace a changing landscape. Millennials grew up in a time where they got the newest handheld technology every 2 years. We’ve never picked up the phone to book a flight, call a cab, or make a reservation. We’ve always utilized the newest technology to our advantage. Gone are the days of high school woodshop. Students today learn computer imaging and 3D printing before they enter the workforce. All are skills that will be crucial for the future of health care.
WHERE WE GO FROM HERE In 2015, I heard Doris Kearns Goodwin speak at the American Hospital Association conference. She briefly discussed her
April 2017
book, Team of Rivals, on which the 2014 movie, Lincoln, was based.6 The name Team of Rivals came from how Lincoln built his cabinet. He didn’t elect his friends or those of similar minds, but instead, he chose a variety of personalities and individuals with different personal values. Three of his cabinet members had previously run against Lincoln in the 1860 election: Attorney General Edward Bates, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, and Secretary of State William H. Seward. The book focuses on Lincoln’s mostly successful attempts to reconcile conflicting personalities and political factions on the path to abolition and victory in the American Civil War. It is an interesting leadership approach that had a world-changing outcome. We often utilize the phrase interdisciplinary care in today’s health care environment. We use this in the context of getting all the caregivers, i.e., nurses, doctors, techs, respiratory therapists, etc., working on the same page: towards a common goal. But why aren’t we discussing the intergenerational workforce? There are 4 generations currently working together in health care, with different independent motivational factors. We need all generations at the table making big decisions, but too often this doesn’t happen. Brainstorming sessions around future planning should always include those who will be managing the consequences of those decisions. Two things need to be done to engage the millennials and get us working to our full potential. The first step is to help us find true mentors where there is a relationship and investment on both sides. The second step is to level the playing field. Author Ron Carucci7 recently published an article titled, “Six Things Millennial Leaders Need to Perform at Their Best”; 1 of his 6 recommendations is to “level the playing field.” The author contends that “between millennials and those they lead with, rank can’t have privileges if you want to engage tomorrow’s leaders. Neutralize hierarchy and the trappings of status associated with it, and approach work on equal footing. Mutual respect will emerge from being equals, not because of the authority one has.”7(p 2) All generations need to be working collaboratively when facing barriers to success. Engaging millennials in committee work doesn’t yield the same results that would happen if millennial leaders had skin in the game and had to face the consequences of their decisions. The shift to value-based care is going to require new and unique delivery models, ones that may not even exist yet. Enter the millennials, who are uniquely qualified to solve problems that are largely new to the industry. Health care today is tumultuous, and the uncertain future can even be described as scary. It doesn’t have to be. We have executives with years of experience to lean on and learn from. We have young leaders eager to face the challenges ahead. There’s a mutual need, and there needs to be a mutual respect. Together, we will accomplish great things. NL
3. Clipper B. The Nurse Manager's Guide to an Inter-Generational Workforce. Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International; 2013. 4. Cruell GL. The Leaders Competencies. Raleigh, NC: Lulu Publishing Services; 2016. 5. Howard C. 30 Under 30 2016: Today's Brightest Young Stars and the Future Leaders of Everything. January 4, 2016. Forbes.com. http://www.forbes.com/ sites/carolinehoward/2016/01/04/30-under-30-2016-todays-brightest-youngstars-and-the-future-leaders-of-everything/#399abfbf32f2. Accessed October 2016. 6. Goodwin DK. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster; 2005. 7. Carucci R. Six Things Millennial Leaders Need to Perform at Their Best. July 12, 2016. Forbes.com. http://www.forbes.com/sites/roncarucci/2016/07/ 12/six-things-millennials-need-to-perform-at-their-best/#715e43bb442e. Accessed October 2016.
Brian Weirich, DHA, MHA, RN, CENP, is vice president and chief nursing officer at Indiana University Health–Arnett Hospital, in West Lafayette, Indiana. He can be reached at [email protected] 1541-4612/2017/ $ See front matter Copyright 2017 by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2016.12.003
References 1. Vonderhaar K. Stop Turnover in the First Three Years: Best Practices for Retaining Millennial staff. October 3, 2016. Advisory Board HR Advancement Center. https://www.advisory.com/research/hr-advancementcenter/studies/2016/stop-turnover-in-the-first-three-years. Accessed October 2016. 2. Ignatius A. The best-performing CEOs in the world. Harv Bus Rev. 2016;94(10):52-57.
www.nurseleader.com
Nurse Leader
139
M
illennials…pick a derogatory term to describe
them: entitled, narcissistic, self-interested, unfocused, or lazy. The list can go on forever, but it’s irrelevant how this generation came to be this way. We are here and we’re not going anywhere. In fact, as baby boomers retire, they will continue to be replaced by younger generations. Like a scene out of “The Walking Dead,” millennials are going to come from all directions and rise to dominate the workforce, becoming a generational cohort in nursing even larger than the baby boomers. According to a 2016 study from the Advisory Board, nearly one-third of all current nursing staff are millennials (under the age of 35), and the number will continue to grow into the next decade.1 This workforce shift has caught the attention of leaders in every industry, both nationwide and globally. Studies are being done, books are being written. On the cover of the November issue of Harvard
Business Review is the title of an article, “What Really Keeps CEO’s up at Night?”2 Among the major challenges discussed in the article, one is managing and retaining the millennial workforce.
M
uch of what I read about my generation rings true to me. There is, however, one key characteristic that I find this generation missing time and again, and that is true mentorship. It is an expert taking a youth under their wing and showing them the ropes. This concept goes back thousands of years. Alexander the Great had Aristotle, Nikola Tesla had Thomas Edison, Warren Buffet had Ben Graham, and Bill Gates had Paul Allen. The greatest world leaders and innovators have frequently credited their mentors with their successes. Somewhere along the way between the generational shifts, this art of mentorship was lost. It was traded in for a formalized, watered-down product. The millennials have suffered because of it. www.nurseleader.com
MY OWN EXPERIENCE I was born in 1986, 34 days after the Challenger Space shuttle exploded over the Atlantic Ocean. This makes me a millennial. There’s a lot that is said about millennials and being the “generation of participation awards” and of “helicopter parents.” Say what you will, my parents put my brothers and me in every sports camp they could. They drove us all over the state of Ohio and the Midwest, competing in tournaments and travel leagues. They never missed a game. My best memories of those days were the attention to detail that I received from my coaches, instant feedback after every game and event. I remember going to a baseball camp at our local high school when I was in elementary school. It
Nurse Leader
137
was a Marc Wilkins baseball camp. Marc was a former graduate of our high school who had spent several years in the big leagues playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He taught me how to hold the ball, and how to go through the motion of pitching a fastball. He watched me pitch and provided immediate critique, until it was perfect. In 8th grade, I went to the Ohio State Buckeyes football camp. Then head football coach John Cooper was leading the camp. I met all sorts of current and former Buckeye players. Once again, they started with the basics and advanced from there. Those players taught me the fundamentals again and again and again until it was perfect. There, I was learning new skills and being taught one on one with professionals. I can reflect back on those early years and recall many of these individual coaching sessions. For every activity I excelled in and loved, there was an expert who inspired me and showed me the path. This is not unique to just me. There are several famous photos out there of current professional athletes at the camps of their heroes learning the tricks of the trade from them. Growing up, I had the perfect role models for everything I was passionate about or set goals to achieve. They had done it before; they could walk me though scenarios and develop clear expectations and establish a certain comfort level, allowing me to remain calm in the storm. These coaches were there to counsel me constantly. Like many in my generation, these were the coaching experiences we had as we worked to perfect our skills and master our craft. When the time came to enter the workforce, the pendulum swung and the landscape changed. The coaching and mentoring that we had come to expect was not there. Without it, we leave the skills and abilities of this new generation of employees a commodity that is largely untapped. We don’t need our hands held, but in too many workplaces, there is nobody to show us the way. Work assignments are handed out nonchalantly without consideration of our lack of experience, and as coworkers leave, more responsibility is added. Many experienced nursing staff today are disengaged and just going through the motions. New millennial nurses are expected to just go along and get along, often without any real coaching. The onboarding process has been largely unchanged over time, and yet the work is more complex. Consideration is often not given to the new generations’ inexperience and lack of skill sets. These inadequacies immediately widen the many gaps that exist between the generations.
WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU The late president Ronald Reagan observed “Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation.You will have opportunities beyond anything we’ve ever known.”3 It’s ok to ask us what we want to be when we grow up. Seek that answer and then show us the way. We want you to. We grew up meeting our idols, saying, I want to be just like them. We still feel that way. We like to talk through problems, we like when mentors share stories of their successes and failures. Give us advice, caution us about the inevitable pitfalls that lie ahead. Pick us up when we fall down. Give us constant feedback.
138
Nurse Leader
Many organizations attempt to start a formal mentor program that includes individual and group classes, maybe an assigned mentor for a period of time. This just doesn’t yield the results of a true mentorship where the mentor and mentee are both emotionally invested in the growth, development, and accomplishment of the developing leader. Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. described this phenomena well: “The value of a mentor…I don’t know what value you can place on it, but the right words spoken at the right time from a person that’s been through it before…can make all the difference.”4 The mentorship I’m referring to requires frequent discussions where a safe environment is created. Worries and weaknesses can be addressed freely, and the mentee is constantly learning. This is better than any class offered through any leadership program. This relationship should be deep and continue to grow stronger over time. When faced with big decisions, solutions can be formulated jointly. Smaller decisions can be discussed after. Walk us through our thought process, explain to us what we missed and the consequences certain decisions will inevitably have. Present us with scenarios you face, and let us stumble through the correct solution. Let us watch you work. This guidance with our futuristic abilities can unleash an entire new generation of effective leaders.
WHY YOU NEED US In the past, youth was a handicap to professional success. Getting older meant more resources, more knowledge, more money, but this is not true anymore. Technology has flipped ideas about expertise. Millennials grew up in the tech age and have way bigger ambitions. We are perfectly suited to the dynamic, entrepreneurial, and impatient digital world we grew up in. If you want to change the world, being under 30 is now an advantage.5 Our industry is health care. I can’t think of another industry that is changing so rapidly. The headlines are dominated by system merger and acquisitions, federal mandates, new technology, and challenges with access to care. It is safe to say that every health care system will look very different 2 years from now, with unexpected new challenges. How can we possibly keep up, adapt, and engage the workforce? I believe the sooner we quit thinking of health systems like fortune 500 companies and start treating them like Silicon Valley start-ups, the better off we’ll be. Millennials who are stereotyped as disloyal and change jobs every 2 years are perfectly programed to openly accept and embrace a changing landscape. Millennials grew up in a time where they got the newest handheld technology every 2 years. We’ve never picked up the phone to book a flight, call a cab, or make a reservation. We’ve always utilized the newest technology to our advantage. Gone are the days of high school woodshop. Students today learn computer imaging and 3D printing before they enter the workforce. All are skills that will be crucial for the future of health care.
WHERE WE GO FROM HERE In 2015, I heard Doris Kearns Goodwin speak at the American Hospital Association conference. She briefly discussed her
April 2017
book, Team of Rivals, on which the 2014 movie, Lincoln, was based.6 The name Team of Rivals came from how Lincoln built his cabinet. He didn’t elect his friends or those of similar minds, but instead, he chose a variety of personalities and individuals with different personal values. Three of his cabinet members had previously run against Lincoln in the 1860 election: Attorney General Edward Bates, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, and Secretary of State William H. Seward. The book focuses on Lincoln’s mostly successful attempts to reconcile conflicting personalities and political factions on the path to abolition and victory in the American Civil War. It is an interesting leadership approach that had a world-changing outcome. We often utilize the phrase interdisciplinary care in today’s health care environment. We use this in the context of getting all the caregivers, i.e., nurses, doctors, techs, respiratory therapists, etc., working on the same page: towards a common goal. But why aren’t we discussing the intergenerational workforce? There are 4 generations currently working together in health care, with different independent motivational factors. We need all generations at the table making big decisions, but too often this doesn’t happen. Brainstorming sessions around future planning should always include those who will be managing the consequences of those decisions. Two things need to be done to engage the millennials and get us working to our full potential. The first step is to help us find true mentors where there is a relationship and investment on both sides. The second step is to level the playing field. Author Ron Carucci7 recently published an article titled, “Six Things Millennial Leaders Need to Perform at Their Best”; 1 of his 6 recommendations is to “level the playing field.” The author contends that “between millennials and those they lead with, rank can’t have privileges if you want to engage tomorrow’s leaders. Neutralize hierarchy and the trappings of status associated with it, and approach work on equal footing. Mutual respect will emerge from being equals, not because of the authority one has.”7(p 2) All generations need to be working collaboratively when facing barriers to success. Engaging millennials in committee work doesn’t yield the same results that would happen if millennial leaders had skin in the game and had to face the consequences of their decisions. The shift to value-based care is going to require new and unique delivery models, ones that may not even exist yet. Enter the millennials, who are uniquely qualified to solve problems that are largely new to the industry. Health care today is tumultuous, and the uncertain future can even be described as scary. It doesn’t have to be. We have executives with years of experience to lean on and learn from. We have young leaders eager to face the challenges ahead. There’s a mutual need, and there needs to be a mutual respect. Together, we will accomplish great things. NL
3. Clipper B. The Nurse Manager's Guide to an Inter-Generational Workforce. Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International; 2013. 4. Cruell GL. The Leaders Competencies. Raleigh, NC: Lulu Publishing Services; 2016. 5. Howard C. 30 Under 30 2016: Today's Brightest Young Stars and the Future Leaders of Everything. January 4, 2016. Forbes.com. http://www.forbes.com/ sites/carolinehoward/2016/01/04/30-under-30-2016-todays-brightest-youngstars-and-the-future-leaders-of-everything/#399abfbf32f2. Accessed October 2016. 6. Goodwin DK. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster; 2005. 7. Carucci R. Six Things Millennial Leaders Need to Perform at Their Best. July 12, 2016. Forbes.com. http://www.forbes.com/sites/roncarucci/2016/07/ 12/six-things-millennials-need-to-perform-at-their-best/#715e43bb442e. Accessed October 2016.
Brian Weirich, DHA, MHA, RN, CENP, is vice president and chief nursing officer at Indiana University Health–Arnett Hospital, in West Lafayette, Indiana. He can be reached at [email protected] 1541-4612/2017/ $ See front matter Copyright 2017 by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2016.12.003
References 1. Vonderhaar K. Stop Turnover in the First Three Years: Best Practices for Retaining Millennial staff. October 3, 2016. Advisory Board HR Advancement Center. https://www.advisory.com/research/hr-advancementcenter/studies/2016/stop-turnover-in-the-first-three-years. Accessed October 2016. 2. Ignatius A. The best-performing CEOs in the world. Harv Bus Rev. 2016;94(10):52-57.
www.nurseleader.com
Nurse Leader
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