I’m a millennial.
The “official” definition, coming from the book Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069, defines us as the phone-toting, selfie-snapping people born from 1982-2004.
So I just make it as an old young person.
But when I look at people several years younger than me, those I consider the core of millennials (born from about ’85-’95, at least for the purposes of this discussion), I admire their energy, their social consciousness, and their collaborative nature.
While many employers are skeptical of this rising generation, I think those things make them tremendously valuable to our emerging workforce, especially within nonprofits and purpose driven companies.
To see how that is, let’s leave aside the monetary challenges the generation has inherited while coming of age during a recession and enormous student debt loads and instead look at millennials as creative and active forces.
They like to be hands-on and in the front lines and will give of their time. They come up with creative ways to share resources and get the word out. Purpose driven companies should tap into millennials as volunteers, employees, and partners.
These and other unique positive leadership traits of millennials are what I plan to explore in the next several posts.
Let’s start with their social consciousness…
The Cause Generation
Live Aid and Farm Aid are causes that make up some of the first media images millennials saw. From there, it was issues like fixing the hole in the ozone layer and fighting global warming, and then Hurricane Katrina.
That helps explain why, according to the Case Foundation’s 2013 Millennial Impact Report, 72% of millennials report a serious desire to join a nonprofit.
Millennials’ social consciousness is the real thing. It’s the cause that matters to them, not just the organization. This is reiterated in the 2014 Millennial Impact Report, and it’s a sentiment I see over and over with many of the young adults with whom I’ve worked over the years. It means that millennials are motivated by the meat of the issue above all else.
It’s the issue itself and not the idea of volunteering that inspires millennials. (click to Tweet)
The Social Generation
Famously, Joel Stein of Time called millennials the “Me Me Me” Generation, with a photo of a girl snapping a selfie on the cover.
Fair enough.
But millennials are also the “us” generation in a way that is so crucial to nonprofits. I’m not going to trot out obvious statistics about who shares what on Facebook how often or how many Twitter followers the average millennial has. We know millennials are connected.
But consider how this is valuable to leaders of high impact companies and movements. The Case Foundation’s 2014 report I mentioned above states “millennials are influenced by the decisions and behaviors of their peers.” What more can a nonprofit ask than this perfect environment for networking?
Millennials like to be influenced, but they prefer to do the influencing. (click to Tweet)
They’re extremely valuable to high growth companies and organizations in coming up with creative ways of forming partnerships, finding that restaurant to donate food for your event or a company to swap services, incorporate your message into theirs, etc.
I recently learned of a public library collecting cans of food for a local food bank in a “Food for Fines” campaign—give a can and take a dollar off your library fines. Connecting disparate ideas like that is what millennials are all about. And they do it with hundreds of their closest friends. They form flash mobs and understand guerrilla marketing not because it’s cool, but because it’s effective.
They think about things in terms of webs and networks, and yes, they’re addicted to sharing rich media. I remember the days of Encyclopedia Brittanica, and while I cherished my days in the library pouring over those volumes I’m excited by the prospect of distributed responsibility across content (e.g. Wikipedia) and the rapidly growing pace of innovation that millennials are helping accelerate.
Stay tuned because over the next few weeks, I’m going to write on this topic more, and take a deeper look into the unique leadership skills of millennials. It’s been on my mind a lot lately, and I’m pretty damn excited about it.
Leave a comment below and let me know what you think? Or, if you have a specific topic you’d like me to further comment on, let me know!
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Thanks Adam for this informative article.
I have been involved for with a project for about one year now called “The Cookstove Project” which helps fund and build clean cookstoves in remote areas of Uganda and Nepal. Half the world still cook over an open 3 stone campfire to cook their meals causing serious health issues and over 4 million deaths each year due to toxic smoke. The environmental issues as a result of cooking this way is also a serious concern.
Obviously we want to bring awareness to this problem and gain as much support as possible to fix all of this as soon as possible.
I am probably older than your parents and find that most of our effort to gain support has come from my peers which is limited. Could you offer any ideas how we can work more closely with the millennial’s so we can expand our important work.
Adam
Will write about that in future posts. But to start I’d say create toolkits that are downloadable PDFs that equip them with ways to contribute that aren’t just through cash donations.
Daniela
Adam, thank you for writing about this subject. It’s inspiring and amazing to know that it’s an entire generation inspired in helping and having a positive impact in those in need.
This has become ever more clear during my summer here working for a tech company. The passions that drive every intern I have had the priveledhe to speak with have the same underlying truth. This idea in working on purposeful projects or companies where our time, creativity and dedication will have a meaningful impact in people’s lives. Especially those who need it most.
Caron
Greetings Adam – thank you for posting this well-written article that deserves discussion and attention. I think you are fantastic and are certainly making a difference in the world!
I am on the cusp of Baby Boomer and Gen X. I agree with what you have written about millennials. I believe that every “generation” has something to share – we all have lessons that we have learned and truths we can share. The problem is when people get stuck in narrow minded thinking and don’t attempt to listen, to understand, empathize, grow and/or change. What I admire about millennials is they are challenging some of the routines, habits, and beliefs from other generations. Some of these things no longer work, are not serving us and are causing a ripple effect of other issues. Look at the number of people who are searching for something else (especially the meaning of life & happiness – another topic altogether, or is it?) The millennials are doers, shakers, movers, and many of them see what the other generations have missed.
You have some great feedback/comments from this article. How inspiring and awesome!
Here’s to learning together, seeking to understand, rethinking/reconnecting/ reviving/refreshing/redoing and making a difference for the benefit of absolutely EVERYONE!
Caron
Adam
Love your feedback as well Caron, thanks for sharing!
Sienna George
Hi Adam,
I’d like to start by saying that you are one of my greatest inspirations and after reading your book, I use it as a guide for many of the events and happenings in my life. Thank you.
I am a millennial and spent the last semester of my freshman year of college gathering research and data to build an argument for the millennials as an inspiring, motivated, and (I believe most importantly), empathetic generation in our workforce and in the world. I compiled much of the research and understanding, as well as the solution I believe our world needs to reach into a website that can be found at this link: http://gen-y-gives.weebly.com. My own personal interests lie in showcasing the kindness and empathy displayed by the millennials which can be found at my website: http://revealingkind.com where I often interview millennials on the positive change they are cultivating in the world. I would love to hear what you have to say about my proposed idea of the “y-solution” which can be found on the first website I linked you to. I am looking forward to further hearing and reading your ideas on this important current event and would love to hear more on the topic from others. I hope your upcoming blog posts will spark a deeper interest in this topic and encourage others (both millennials and those of older and younger generations) to share their voice. I would love for you to write a piece on how to connect generations (i.e. the idea behind the y-solution which is intergenerational learning), and also how millennials can get those who don’t believe in them to do so. (I think a lot of this has to do with a willingness on those who don’t see the millennials as an asset to open their minds and just EXPERIENCE a millennial who cares).
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts. I am looking forward to what’s to come.
With admiration,
Your fan,
Sienna George
Adam
Wow what a note Sienna, love the work you’re doing and I’m so glad to know you’ll be following along for the journey ahead and implementing the lessons learned.
Adam Greenberg
Absolutely. Onward!
Adam
🙂
Rebecca Winthrop
Great piece Adam. As an officially OLD person (born ’74), it is really important to hear the best traits of millennials. A lot of the discussion around millennials with people in my position at work (aka managing teams, often made up of millenials) or in life, is one of befuddlement…(“who are these kids, they are not playing by our rules, I don’t get what to do with them”) or worse lots of eye rolling and dissmisal. I have found many of the millennials I get a chance to work with to be incredible, intense, driven, highly committed to making a difference. This is all good…But I do have one question for you. One thing I have found is that many millennials I have met don’t seem to value the concept of “putting in your time” – it is not feasible, and I would say not even desirable, to promote everyone all the time, after working somewhere for one year or even two or dare I say it 3. I don’t know if the world has just gotten so much quicker and faster that for millennials 2 to 3 years feels like an incredibly long time to work somewhere or what it is exactly. But would love your feedback and thoughtful mind on this.
Keep up great blogs! Looking forward to this series.
Best,
R
Adam
Rebecca you are THE BEST. I hate to say it, but you’re right about the shorter commitment timelines. It’s really frustrating for me as an employer, but it simply is how it is these days. I recently heard a podcast that profiled America’s first great shoe company and in the profile they interviewed a man who worked there for 40 years. My first thought was “I don’t know a single person who nowadays would work at one company (unless maybe they started it) for even 15 years, let alone 40.” We’re living in new times, but we either have to adjust or be left behind. I get the sense we’ll both adjust 🙂
Azhar
Thanks Adam
We moving towards more individualized society and yet at the same time millennials are a for cause generation.
I really do hope organizations understand and adapt to this reality. sadly if they don’t their days are numbered.
Thanks again, its people like you who validate our beliefs and inspire us to be more…
Looking forward to see more on this topic
Keep Rocking…
Adam
Agreed Azhar, hopefully people recognize these realities sooner rather than later.
Alexey
Firmly behind you on this.
We’re the first wave entering the workforce that knows that we can learn any skill online for free, connect with anyone, and contribute to any cause we care about.
It’s fascinating to see how the average millennial lasts 1.5 years at a job. Speaking to many of them, the main reason given is that they would rather work on something that contributes positively to the world. In one of the studies you quote in this article there’s another important stat – 75% of millennials would take a pay-cut to join an organisation that shares their values.
It’s encouraging to think about what this generation will be like once they are in traditional positions of “power and influence” – government, board members etc…
Maybe we will be the saving grace 🙂
Here’s to dreaming.
Adam
Yes! Let’s dream big Alexey.
Stephanie
I love this Adam! Im tired of hearing all the negative sides of our generation. Thank you for pulling out the positive! We are leaders. We are doers. I’m so excited to see where the world is in ten years because of Millenials. The future is so bright!
Adam
YES IT IS
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Heather
Absolutely love this!
There have been so many negative articles about our generation. It’s about time that a Millennial actually writes about living in this moment in time instead of someone from another generation writing it for us.
Thank you for taking the time to do this! I know it *has not* been easy.
Heather
Forgot to mention (since I can’t delete my first comment or edit it):
This Millennial was born in ’88! 🙂
Adam
Awesome, please share onwards Heather.
Matt
Hi Adam –
Thanks for this post. Certainly resonated with me being one of the core-aged millennials (’91).
Our interconnected networks reach far and wide and I am hopeful that we take advantage of this to improve lives in way or another, as you have done in a massive way with PoP.
Certainly some millennials are excited about social causes, but equally, I find that many my age are indifferent, as Ian has mentioned in the above comment. However, thanks to our aforementioned hyper-connectivity within this generation (which is surely a double-edged sword), the masses can be moved one way or another at a rate faster than ever before… which to me, is incredibly exciting.
From one younger millennial to an older one, thank you Adam for being a role model for the rest of us.
Best,
Matt Kohn
Adam
I’m honored that you’d say that Matt, but I agree with you, we need more people like yourself to take that interconnectivity and make magic happen with it.
Celeste Roseberry-McKibbin, Ph.D.
As a university professor who works with Millenials daily, I find your article spot-on. What I especially love about Millenials is that they are actively determined to make a difference in the world. They truly care about those who are poor and oppressed, and will fight for justice. Today, I just collected book # 100,000 in my collection to give to at-risk children in poverty! 🙂 Thousands of the children’s books I’ve collected have been donated by my Millenial university students. Love those guys!!
Adam
100,000 books?! That’s incredible Celeste, congrats on your work and I’m so glad the article felt accurate to you.
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Ian Robinson
Great to read your positive words on Millenials.
There’s this book called Don’t Fade Away. It’s a story in which Peter Barton, a baby boomer, who describes how his generation had the feeling that everything was constantly getting better.
He went on to describe how that feeling isn’t so obvious in our “millennial” generation. When asked why he wanted to do the book, he wrote, “I want to give my 2 cents on the amazing times we’ve been fortunate to live through [the 1960’s and 1970’s]. Not as an exercise in nostalgia, but for what it means now. Young people today [implying millennials as described above] seem passive, less hopeful than we were. That’s a waste. I happen to believe that people can still choose a life they want.”
Though I’ve noticed the feeling of lethargy and apathy in some of my fellow millennials, I find that most of us think this is the best time ever to be alive. The possibilities to do and see great things have never been so close to the fingertips.
Maybe that’s why older generations find it challenging to inspire millennials. While busy building a more flat, technologically advanced time, they didn’t plan that the generation to enjoy it would use that technology to have the freedom to go anywhere and do whatever they wanted.
Hope this adds to the conversation Adam. I always look forward to reading what you’re up to.
Adam
Brilliant insights Ian, really enjoyed reading this. Will check out the story on Barton in detail.
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