5 Key Tips to Managing, Mentoring and Motivating Millennials Recruiting, retaining and growing young and new talent is more important than ever before, but the majority of businesses are ill-equipped to do so. Deloitte’s 2014 Millennial survey found it costs $15k-$25k to replace a millennial, and by 2025 70% of the workplace will be millennials.

1. WRITTEN BY CAMERON KAHLER
Training Manager, ProForce
5 KEY TIPS
TO MANAGING, MENTORING AND
MOTIVATING MILLENNIALS

2. From my experience training
and developing millennials on
a daily basis, and working with
their managers to help ensure
their skills are continuously
developed and coached back
in the workplace, bridging this
gap is hugely important and
understanding is the first major
step.
However before we go any
further I feel the need to
stress the difference between
understanding a millennial
mindset and simply being
Recruiting, retaining and growing young and new talent is more important than ever before, but
the majority of businesses are ill-equipped to do so.
Deloitte’s 2014 Millennial survey found it costs $15k-$25k to replace a millennial. and by 2025 70%
of the workplace will be millennials.
So it’s a pretty big deal, right? All of you nodding your head, do read on…
WRITTEN BY CAMERON KAHLER
Director of Training, ProForce
ageist towards young people.
Many individuals hold a grudge
against young people and hide
it behind the ‘millennial mindset’
excuse. Quite frankly it’s
counterproductive behaviour, and
just plain wrong.
“They’re overly ambitious, they’re
lazy, they’re too entitled, they
don’t understand their place”:
these are ageist remarks
from people threatened by the
younger generation, and they’ve
been muttered by crusty old
corporates before the term
millennial or the millennials
themselves were even a twinkle
in their dad’s eye.
What defines a millennial? Well
technically anyone born between
1980-2000 is both a millennial
and a Gen-Y, however the term
has really struck a chord with the
latter half of this group due to its
positive, progressive undertone.
As a result the widely accepted
definition, and the one to which
I am referring, is professionals
from 18-25 years old today.
5 KEY TIPS
TO MANAGING, MENTORING AND
MOTIVATING MILLENNIALS

3. 5 Key Tips to Managing, Mentoring and Motivating Millennials - CAMERON KAHLER
So, with my rant out of the way,
here are 5 key points I personally
believe you need to consider
when working with a millennial
staff member:
1. Embrace Feedback and
Give Clarity
The importance of feedback
in the world of a millennial is
phenomenal compared to other
generations. This is a generation
who has grown up with social
media, and if the picture of their
quinoa berry chia seed pudding
didn’t receive 20 likes, retweets
or pins it wasn’t worth eating
in the first place; a generation
whose helicopter parents and
teachers have encouraged
them from their very first step,
and helped them become their
authentic selves.
This constant recognition has
turned millennials into feedback
junkies, and naturally this
mentality will be taken into the
workplace. Managers need to
be aware of this, and manage it
correctly. Don’t ignore, don’t put
it off until after their quarterly
performance review. Use
this thirst for feedback as an
opportunity for coaching great
behaviours.
“Millennials are too entitled and
want to be CEO next week”…
Ageist! Of course there will
always be millennials who do fit
this description, but you’re telling
me young Gen-Yers, Gen-Xers
and Baby Boomers didn’t have
their own ultra ambitious apples
in the basket?
Most professionals want to climb
the corporate ladder, millennials
are just a little louder and expect
a bit of clarity. Use feedback
as your leverage point. Coach
your staff member to align all
feedback to a clear, concise and
achievable progression plan. This
will help ensure a more motivated
and productive future star.
2. Encourage Collaboration
Another big difference between
millennials and generations past
is the way they have learnt to
learn. Schools, where people
are at their most malleable, have
changed the way they teach
to focus on collaboration and
teamwork.
When I was at school you sat at
your desk, you did your own work,
you got your own grades. This is
not the school millennials know
at all; tables are set up in pods
with everyone facing each other,
discussion and idea sharing
is encouraged, group work is
constant, and collaboration is
king.
Susan Cain points out in her
book and TED talk ‘The Power of
Introverts’ (below) the negative
aspects of this educational
evolution, and she does have a
point. But it’s not all bad.
This millennial thirst for
collaboration pops up in meeting
rooms, conference rooms and
board rooms all around the
world every single day. And
whilst I am not saying every
single meeting should be an
idea-orgy, collaborating on ideas
and looking at problems from a
fresh perspective is something
you should encourage when your
millennial staff member is invited.
Listen, appreciate, and respect
their ideas. Do not squash their
thirst for involvement! The
biggest gripe from delegates I
train isn’t that their ideas aren’t
implemented, but that they
themselves feel ignored. Think
about the repercussions of
getting this wrong.
3. Social Awareness
and the Importance of
Communicating Your Why
Millennials as a generation
are more socially aware than
any group in history. The
interconnectedness of social
media and the subsequent
freedom for people from all
around the world to share ideas,

4. 5 Key Tips to Managing, Mentoring and Motivating Millennials - CAMERON KAHLER
find and engage with like-minded
individuals is the world millennials
certainly live, breathe and feel.
This creates much stronger
sense of community and global
conscience.
And further to this, what are
the topics which have dominated
their formative years? Climate
change, oil spills, terrorism,
debatable wars, GFC’s, corporate
bail outs, the list goes on. As a
result millennials feel far less
aligned with the business world,
certainly less so than their suit
and tie predecessors and new
managers.
So what does this mean for
corporate’s? Again it’s not all
doom and gloom, but you need
to look a little deeper into what
your company actually does and
communicate the greater ‘why’.
Simon Sinek’s brilliant TED talk
on the topic (below) shows the
importance of communicating
in this way from a leadership
perspective, and it is even
more important when leading
millennials.
Stop talking purely around
commission structures and
profit, and look to tap into
the intrinsic motivators.
Communicate what your company
does to help a community and you
will start building a loyal tribe of
motivated millennials.
4. Flexibility and Work/Life
Balance
This is a tricky one to handle if
your company simply forbids it,
but the reality is millennials crave
and expect worklife balance.
These are not the walk in the
door at 8:30 and leave at 5:30,
head down, bum up generation.
If this sounds scary for you and
your company now, I’m sorry but
it’s only going to get worse, so
you best embrace the future.
Millennials are masters at the
very tools which have been
developed for this very purpose:
instant messaging, smartphones,
tablets, video conferencing,
cloud applications. They are also
extremely proficient at multi-
tasking as a result of growing
up in an increasingly disruptive
world. So let them!
In my experience using a WFH
day per fortnight or month
as a carrot for hitting KPIs is
an extremely effective way to
leverage this thirst for balance.
Flexibility and understanding
that your employee’s life is more
important than their work is key.
5. Action in Learning
Millennials are extremely
confident and want to get in and
get things done. They are less
attuned to theory and much
prefer action. For me this is
particularly evident in the training
room.
Running training for millennial
sales professionals, this need
to actually practice what is
learned is crucial. Whether its
learning the more intricate
details of negotiation skills,
advanced questioning techniques,
interpreting eye accessing cues
and body language, presentation
skills and everything in between,
applying the theory in a practical
setting is key to making the
training stick. Role plays,
exercises and the peer feedback
sessions which immediately
follow are in many cases a more
important part than the theory
itself, and the feedback commonly
is that this is where they have
learnt the most.
So what does this mean for
managers?
When training or coaching
millennials it is important to
focus on skills they can put into
practice now, and a blended
approach of theory and practice
will yield the best results.
Coaches should embrace side-
by-siding on sales calls with
a debrief on the positives and
negatives after each call. For
face to face meetings give

5. 5 Key Tips to Managing, Mentoring and Motivating Millennials - CAMERON KAHLER
them bite sized chunks of the
agenda to make their own and
deliver in real life experiences
with customers. If you have
recently sent a staff member on
a presentations skills course get
them to give a presentation to
the management team upon their
return. This stretching out of
the comfort zone is critical, and
millennials embrace it and grow
from it more than most.
Similarly don’t bombard staff
with either too many objectives at
a time, or skills can’t implement
straight away. At this stage of a
millennial’s career it is important
they’re introduction to corporate
learning is uplifting, stretching,
effective and very much based in
the real world.
This is just one opinion based on
my personal experiences working
with millennials every day, and by
no means am I professing I know
it all. But I’m determined not to
stop learning, and hope in some
small way I’ve encouraged you to
do the same.
So finally, whilst Deloitte have
put managed to put a hard cost
on getting it wrong, what do you
think the wider cost really is? To
yourself? To Millennials? To the
wider corporate community?
And for those who get it right,
what about the rewards?

6. Cameron is currently Training
Manager at ProForce and is
responsible for delivering and
helping to develop innovative
ProForce sales modules.
As a successful ProForce
graduate in 2006, Cameron
joined Reed Business Information
(now Cirrus media) and was
initially employed as an online
sales executive. Quickly elevated
to Team Lead Cameron worked
across all levels of sales, both
phone-based and face-to-face,
generating new business as
well as managing and growing
key accounts across the RBI
portfolio.
Cameron was an integral part
of several launch products,
consistently exceeding personal
and team targets as well
as mentoring, coaching and
developing junior staff members.
In 2010 Cameron became
Commercial Manager for Emedia
Australia, a lead generation
business acquired globally
by RBI, and was responsible
for developing, implementing
and overseeing the sales and
commercial strategy of the
business, including managing,
training and coaching the
sales operation. This launch
won numerous RBI Advantage
Awards including Sales Team of
the Year, Product of the Year,
Self Managed Success and Best
Execution.
Working with new technology,
social media, mobile and content
marketing since, Cameron has
a wealth of knowledge in the
innovative digital landscape,
and the skill sets required to be
successful in the commercial
arena.
With a passion for training and
development, Cameron has
joined ProForce to help the
next generation of new sales
executives, sales leaders and
new managers to exceed their
goals and achieve success.
CAMERON KAHLER
Training Manager, ProForce
L & D CREDENTIALS - Cameron Kahler