Do you want to take advantage of the most potent workforce
available to you as a business owner? Well, in this video, I'm
going to share with you how to run your business the millennial
way and unlock the power and productivity of running your
business with millennials.
If you're new to this channel, my name is Pete Moriarty. And we
help business owners all over the world get the systems
technology and people organized. So they can play a bigger game.
And we work with literally 10s of 1000s of business owners and
employees all over the world to help them get their tech
organized. And we're looking forward to sharing all of that
knowledge with you on this channel, and through our
businesses that are part of this channel as well.
Now this video is all about how to run your business, the
millennial way. And myself, I'm currently 33 years old, I
started my business when I was about 20. And the average age of
employees across our business of which we've got more than 60
employees across the group is actually around about 30 years
old. And so we've got quite a young workforce, yet we are a
successful business, we're fast growing, we have millions and
millions of dollars in revenue, lots of profit. And we compete
with the big guys in our industry, even though the
average age of employees in most of our competitors will probably
be 10, or even 15 years older than us. So how do we do it, I'm
going to share some of the secrets in how we run our
business. And some of the ways that we approach business as
millennials, both inside the business and also as executives
running the business. First up, it's most important that your
business is mission, vision and values driven. Now Millennials
we have got the you know the beautiful gift of being self
actualized. And you know, there's plenty of videos on how
to manage and how to lead and how to look after millennials
and actually motivate them in your business that Simon Sinek
has done a great job of but it can't be missed that a business
needs to actually have a mission and a vision that is aligned to
those that you want to attract to the business. Now for
business owners, it's important to know what actually motivates
them what's actually going to get your team excited about
working in your business. And I recently recorded another video
on the top four motivators for employees with number four
actually being, how much they're being paid. And so it's really
important for your team. And for you, as a leader of the business
to ensure that you're really clear about what your mission
and vision is in the business. Because you're going to attract
those who are attracted to the mission and the vision. Now, it
can't just be something that you put up on the wall, you know, in
the past values would be posters, like integrity and hard
work, that kind of doesn't work that like 90s version of doing
values doesn't really work. And also, I think we're probably
coming out of the era of like the startup hustle, grind, work,
work, work, work till you die 20 hours a day, I don't think
that's really, you know, positive anymore for businesses.
Now, maybe still, in the Silicon Valley tech scene, there's still
businesses that will have that kind of hustle and that kind of
vibe, but for most businesses, at least those that we consult
their business owners who are not looking to be the next
unicorn, but are at least looking to run a productive team
and have a successful business. And so what's going to be really
useful for you is to really know like, what is the purpose of
your business? What is the mission, what is the vision, and
really clearly articulate that but also share that with your
team. And here's the magic, get your team involved in this
process as well. Now, when we say get the team involved in the
process, it's really important to invite your team in to be a
part and to actually have a voice of how you're developing
where the business is going to go, what the mission is, and
what the vision is. Now, your team probably not going to be
interested in writing that vision, they're probably not
going to be interested in being the sole person responsible for
that vision. But they probably do want to have some input in
actually collaborating in what it actually looks like. And so
for me as the visionary, that's my job as the founder as the
CEO, I'm no longer the CEO of our business, but I am still the
founder, it's my important job role. It's my title to make sure
that I've actually set the vision and set the mission of
where businesses go. And so bring your team into that
process as well. Next up, let's talk about age. And I already
shared that our team are on average, around 2830 years old,
those that we hire, now we are in the tech industry. There's
plenty of people who go through high school do a computer
science degree these days, and will want to get their role
somewhere in the tech or the IT industry. And so we welcome them
with open arms into our business. And we tend to find
that those that we hire obviously you can't discriminate
based on age. And we tend to find that those that we hire are
in the millennial in the younger age group. And that works really
great for us. Because Gen Y and millennials broadly AI really
savvy not only when it comes to tech, but you know when it comes
to tools when it comes to collaboration and when it comes
to the way that they work. Now myself personally,
I grew up with a mobile phone when I was in high school, I
grew up with computers, even when I was in primary school,
and so doing things on the internet doing things online.
Working with technology is a natural way for me, whereas for
many of our customers, they tend to be either in the Gen X or
even the baby boomer age bracket segments. And those demographics
had to learn tech, they didn't go through school and have tech,
my father's generation actually had, you know, like slights that
they would draw on in high school. And so there's a big
difference between someone who had to learn and adopt tech and
someone who naturally grew up with it, literally as the
personality was forming. And so it's really natural for a savvy
tech savvy millennial to just be one with technology. And so when
you're doing things like in a rolling out a new technology
platform, when you're going through change management,
you'll find that millennials are much more adaptable to change.
And so that makes it pretty easy for you if you're running the
business. So my advice there is to err on the side of hiring a
younger team where possible, especially if you have
technology enabled business. Okay, let's talk about the next
one. Radical candor, super important. Now, this is like a
fancy word for, you know, being honest, and actually sharing
exactly what's going on. But radical candor, I believe, not
only applies to just one on ones, and HR, and you know,
personnel performance management, we believe in this
right across the business. And so what that means is actually
fostering a culture where things are not hidden. And so for us,
that means sharing what the financial results are in the
business, that means showing whether we're doing great or not
so great this quarter, or this year, it means actually letting
the team know, you know, when executives are feeling good
about things or you know, when maybe they're a little bit low
on motivation, or running a little over a little bit of
steam, you know, obviously, you don't want to come to work and
say, Oh, my God, I'm really stressed, I'm really worried we
might not have enough to pay wages next week, that's probably
not the kind of thing that's going to go down really great
with the team. But what is important is to be honest about
what's going on in the old ways of doing business. And I've only
had one real job before when I was 19, working for another
business owner when nothing was disclosed to me as an employee.
And you know, all of the numbers were just basically hidden, I
had no idea about how the business was going. And so there
was always that kind of, like lingering fear of, well, I don't
know what I don't know. But also, I didn't feel like I was
connected to the success of the business. And it's really
important to me as a millennial to feel connected to where the
business is going to where the organization is going, that I'm
a part of. And so if I actually have transparency, and I can
actually see where things are going. Not only does it give me
the safety and the comfort that I know if things are good or
bad, it's like, hey, it's good to get the truth no matter what
the story is. But also I feel more motivated to actually
contribute to that. And so for our team, we really love sharing
everything that's going on with the business in a candid way.
Because what that allows is for the team to feel like they are
involved in actually helping solve the challenges of the
business, they're involved in helping to make sure the
business reaches its goals. They're involved in bringing in
more revenue for the business, which creates more success, and
then will filter down to everyone through increased pay
career opportunities, business growth, and the rest. Okay, so
next up is a tip for young leaders. And you know, I started
hiring my first employees when I was 20 years old hired and you
know, let go of as well, hundreds of employees across my
business career over more than 10 years of running it genius.
Now, what I found for me personally, as I was in my 20s,
and a young manager, I found that there was a battle limit of
10 years, either older or younger, for me that I would be
able to effectively manage and connect with someone on a
cultural level, I found that if I'd hired someone who was more
than 10 years older than me, the generation gap would just be too
wide for me to be able to relate and work with them. Now,
obviously, you know, you're unable to discriminate based on
someone's age when you're looking to hire or for someone
who is a newer leader or a newer manager, this might be a metric
that you want to keep tabs on. And so might be important to
you, if you're finding your feet with learning to manage new
teams, that you look for those who will actually match your age
group in some way. Now, that's not to say that there is an
amazing talent that there is an amazing talent outside of age
groups that are within 10 years of your age. And so it may be a
need to kind of bridge or have someone who kind of like sits in
between you and someone who's that
you know, more than 10 years gap and that may able to be helped
to bridge the gap and be able to still have those in your
organization who are a wider age to get to you. Now if you're
someone who is in the senior position, and you've got someone
who's more than 10 years younger than you, well have a think
about how you may find someone to bridge the gap and not
distance yourself from someone who's further than 10 years
apart from you, but ensure that you have let's say a cultural
bridge so you're more likely to be able to work well together.