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Developing millennial leaders

Generation Y, the millennials – those born between 1983 and 2000 – are often characterized as tolerant and socially conscious, but also overconfident and entitled. In reality they represent the next stage in our human evolution. They believe businesses should provide fulfilment of purpose, innovation, work-life balance and solutions to the world’s biggest problems. From a 2014 Deloitte survey in which they interviewed 7,800 millennials from 26 countries, it turns out that 75 per cent also believe their organizations could do more to develop future leaders. To find out how we help Brandwatch – the fast-growing social media monitoring company – develop its millennial leaders, see below.

Leadership is changing. Now that almost everyone in the organization has access to the same information, and can process it just as fast, it’s more about setting direction than being the ‘front of all knowledge’. In fact, the younger, tech-savvy employees seem to process information even faster. The question now has become whether they believe in the leader’s direction, and their pace. The Deloitte study also shows that one in four millennials are asking for a chance to show their leadership skills, which points to the next step in corporate evolution: devolved responsibility.

So how do companies maintain the commitment of this tech-savvy, sometimes even described as narcissistic, generation? Employers need to give millennials more opportunity to develop personally and professionally. And, as reported in the survey, if businesses fail to address these concerns, they risk losing skilled professionals in the years ahead as many of the most talented millennials decide to leave large organizations and work for themselves – roughly 70 per cent of these millennials see themselves working independently at some point.

Join one of our webinars to find out more about a coaching leadership style

Google, always perceived to be at cutting edge of innovation and top of the world’s ideal-employer ranking for today’s young talent, has run Project Oxygen to research the attributes of its best managers. After extensive research, it came up with 8 Rules on How to Be a Good Boss. We are delighted to see that Be A Good Coach tops the list. It is clear that these Generation Y professionals need – and want – to learn how to lead, not just from a technical skills perspective but also from an interpersonal perspective.

“One of the biggest missing pieces in the corporate world globally is adequate grooming and development of pipeline talent for succession into the most senior roles. This keeps on coming up in research as one of the most pressing strategic issues for CEOs and companies.”

John Collingwood, Director Global Organization Development, Medtronic

Creating a Coaching Culture at Millennials Employer, Brandwatch

The good news is that Being a Good Coach can be learned. Performance Consultants International is working with the social intelligence software company, Brandwatch, based out of Brighton, UK, with offices in the US and Germany. This Silicon Alley venture is growing very rapidly and has decided to create a supportive and empowering culture to manage the productivity and wellbeing of their existing employees and new hires.

Sebastian Hempstead, EVP The Americas, a forward thinking young leader, chose us after an extensive search for the right coach training company. He wanted to add coaching skills to his management and leadership style with the aim of being a better coach to his teams. After he attended our public course Coaching for Performance, Level 1, in New York with two of his colleagues, each at a different managerial level of the organization, the company decided that this learning should be distributed throughout the organization, which employs mostly millennials. They took advantage of the Corporate Discount Card described below to send additional managers to the Level 1 public course in London and New York. The aim is for them to learn coaching skills to create a coaching culture throughout the company.


“Company culture is very important at Brandwatch. We see ourselves as an innovative, creative, and honest company. We have built an employee roster of brilliant individuals that encompasses all of that. By emphasizing coaching as a managerial strategy, we’re investing in our own team,”

Hempstead

Corporate Discount Card: Flexibility and Cost Savings on Public Courses

The Corporate Discount Card allows companies to receive a substantial group discount for training their managers and leaders without having to organize an in-house group event. Instead, by buying bulk attendance on any of our public courses, the client will not only receive a significant per-head discount but will also be able to choose which of our global public workshops each manager attends and when. This flexibility allows attendees to choose the time and place that best fits their location and schedule, and also means that employees can split up and decide whether or not to be in the same workshops as their managers or direct reports.

If you would like to know more about our Corporate Discount Card, or any of our other coach training and leadership development services, please email our Chief Operating Officer James Neville or call him on +44 (0)20 3903 0011. He will be delighted to talk to you.

meeting your needs

How can you bring coaching into your organization?

Sir John and his colleagues at Performance Consultants were the first to take coaching into the workplace and coined the term “performance coaching” in the early 1980s. We continue to lead the field in performance improvement through coaching leadership training.

Select one of the options shown. Or get in touch and one of our world-class leadership development consultants will work with you to create a tailored programme that meets your specific needs.

  • Attend a Coaching Course – experience the benefits of coaching first hand. See our Global Training Calendar to find the right course for you
  • Transformational Leader Pathway – learn how to be a leader–coach with a coaching leadership style that creates a culture of high performance for you, your team and entire organization
  • Performance Coach Certification – become a coach or take your coaching skills to the next level so that you can practise transformational leadership coaching
  • Individual Coaching (1:1) – take your leadership to the next level with a tailored, fast-track professional development coaching programme
  • Team Development – unlock the next level of potential in your team with team coaching