Making the most of your Millennials

NAMM board member and Contemporary Music Center director, Menzie Pittman (left), has some sage words of advice on how to understand and get the best out of those digital natives or “millennials” working in your organisation. You know – young people.

Growing up being a drummer, nothing was cooler than being fast.

Keep in mind, I was weaned on Buddy Rich; oh wait, if you’re a millennial reading this you might not know who that is. Well, that’s okay. Rich was the guy that was always on the Johnny Carson show. Johnny Carson – you know, the guy who helped David Letterman get his job. No, not Jon Stewart, David Letterman… Oh, never mind.

Sound familiar? If it does, you might be a Gen Xer or Baby Boomer, having a conversation with a co-worker Millennial. But there’s good news. There is absolutely nothing to worry about because they’re really fast and know more about technology than any previous group ever to enter the workforce.

But because Google is in their pocket, and of course everything on the web is true, and Millennials have grown up on video games that don’t force them to engage in conversation, there are a few patches necessary to make their software-oriented minds adjust to the human workplace. Here are five steps to understanding how they tick and ways to improve communication with them:

1. Stop fighting the trend.

Millennials, Gen-Xer’s, and Baby Boomers have grown up with tremendously different experiences, so as hard as this is for the bosses (In most cases, the Gen X’ers & Boomers) to grasp, for you to understand your current young and future employees in the workplace, you must strive to stop fighting the generational differences, and instead consistently try to catch up with them. How do you do this? By learning new technologies.

2. There is good news.

The X’ers and Boomers’ tactic should be to engage consistently in conversations with Millennials, but that can be hard since they, in some cases, were raised by parents that “farmed it out,” played with machines that didn’t engage in conversation, and were educated in schools that only cared about standardized testing.

So you see, it’s not their fault. It’s ours. But if you don’t learn how they tick, you will be stifled all the time because there is no going back, and they get faster every day, even if they don’t look up from their phones!

3. Our chance of connection: gaining respect.

The way you win trust with a Millennial is to show curiosity in learning their world and advancing with “their” technology.

As you gain trust from a younger person, my suggestion would be to introduce them to a new computer game called “The Wickedly Clever Owner.” If you are faster at some things than they are, or you can show them creative thinking, and exciting relevant history, you will short circuit the their system. I often refer to this strategy as “seeing around corners.” This strategy completely weirds them out because you are using instinct, and there is no software app for that – other than life’s experience. But don’t get too cocky because tomorrow there will be thirty new software apps and programs that they will know inside out – apps that you won’t know.    

4. The real work.

It is up to us as business owners to reach in and educate the Millennial on the importance of life qualities that matter to us… while we continue to remain self-aware and admit that we know little about their world.

Here’s a tactic of learning I garnered from teaching and something I taught my own daughter. You can use this while contemplating your best strategy and teach it to Millennials.

Teach them to “ask better questions.” Being a millennial, my daughter quickly renamed it “ABQ,” and it is something I teach and review with my staff daily. I also teach them to engage with, and learn more about the customer, and where the customer is emotionally coming from. This is not natural for a Millennial because they are waiting for a command prompt before they take their next action.

Teaching subjects like integrity, social interaction, meaningful history, and the grace of simple things like eye-contact and asking customers questions, are critical to the success of any business. It is the job of X’ers and Boomers to strive to mentor, and if you don’t inspire younger employees, they change the channel.

5. Slow the game down, share what you know, and ask to be taught.

Another tool for grounding the polarity of a Millennial (when they are impatient) is to take the conversation into your expertise. When youth is too quippy, just elevate the conversation to your strength. In my case, it’s silly things like time signatures or music history or making our drum kits sound better than they can. I even have to use this tactic with the folks at our POS tech support.

A closing thought

It is wise for us to respect the tremendous potential in today’s youth. We must understand that the best use of our experience is for us to share it with Millennials and the generations that follow. We must pay great credence to the truth that they are the leaders of tomorrow. To develop true leadership in our youth, we have to be inspiring, and to be inspiring we must accept the shortcomings of all generations, including our own.

Menzie Pittman is the founder and owner of Contemporary Music Center. Since 1989, he remains CMC’s only director of education. Contemporary Music Center has two locations in Virginia – one in Chantilly and one in Haymarket. CMC has won NAMM’s Top 100 Award four consecutive years since 2011. Menzie is a frequent speaker at NAMM’s Idea Center on music education and has been invited to speak at the Whitman School of Business, Syracuse University in N.Y. He serves on the steering committee for the Support-Music Coalition and also serves on the Hylton Center’s Education Committee. Menzie was appointed to NAMM’s Board of Directors and served from 2012-2015.