Back by popular demand, here’s a wake-up call from the millennials<\/em> in our midst.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been working in the professional world for almost 30 years now and I find myself thinking a lot about how things have changed. One thing that is clearly different is the availability of information \u2013 data, analyses, reports, etc\u2026 Overall, I think we would all agree that this is good because being well-informed will help us perform better. Launching a couple of quick internet searches or purchasing a book that is immediately accessible allows us to close knowledge gaps in a fraction of the time it would otherwise take.<\/p>\n One challenge related to easy access to information is the volume and the sometimes contradictory nature of it. It forces us to decide what we are willing to believe. I\u2019ve found myself in that situation related to a topic that has received much attention in the professional community \u2013 generational differences. Specifically, the commentary related to Millennials and the thematically negative portrayal of that group.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not buying it. Not for a minute. I\u2019m not willing to paint a broad brush and characterize these 20 to 35 year olds as being \u201cnecessary evils\u201d like some studies suggest. I simply have seen too many of these young folks who are smart, committed, courageous, purpose-focused, and broad in their thinking to sign up for that viewpoint. I really think they are going to change the world for the better and I hope I\u2019m around long enough to see what they are able to accomplish. It may just be more magnificent that we could ever have imagined.<\/p>\n I know that everyone doesn\u2019t share my view. There are certainly enough examples of irresponsibility to fuel that perspective. But does the Millennial generation have the corner market on imprudence?<\/p>\n Yes, they are disrupting in the workplace. They often have different expectations and behaviors. But rather than see this disruption as negative, I view it as a wake-up call to those of us who are pre-disposed to the status quo.<\/p>\n And here\u2019s the wake-up call. Our leadership style needs to be agile. We need to adapt to the workforce we are managing\u2026 not vice versa.<\/strong> This doesn\u2019t just apply to the Millennials. Although their emergence has triggered the importance of agile and responsive leadership, the need is really driven by the overall diversity of the workplace related to race, gender, experience, and a variety of other factors. As time goes on, it is likely that our workplace will become even more diverse, making agile leadership even more important.<\/p>\n What does it mean to have an agile and responsive leadership style? Fair question.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t these points sound like solid leadership characteristics anyway, regardless of the makeup of the workforce? Absolutely. But my contention is that agile leadership is becoming a pre-requisite for success. <\/strong>The good news is that there are a few common competencies that will serve you well in being an agile leader and you may already exhibit some or all of these today.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t blame the Millennials, thank them. Their emergence has caused us to ask the question about how to be more agile leaders, but it\u2019s a question we should have been asking anyway. Given the pace of change and the diversity of the workplace, a strong argument can be made that the agile leader will win. To what degree does your style convey the characteristics of agile leadership? Take some time to think about that. Victory may depend on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Don\u2019t blame the Millennials. Thank them! Their emergence has caused us to re-examine our leadership styles. Much has been written about their arrival into the workforce and how difficult they are to manage. The rhetoric typically has a negative theme. Frankly, I\u2019m not buying it. I see way too much potential among them to have a doom and gloom viewpoint. In fact, I think their emergence causes us to focus on an aspect of our leadership style that we should already have been talking about. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[32,30,16,20,10,29,31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1175"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1177,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175\/revisions\/1177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Here are 5 of the key characteristics of agile leadership:<\/h3>\n
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Common core competencies for agility in leadership:<\/h3>\n
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