Posted: September 2nd, 2022

Leadership Assessment

Leadership Assessment
Generation Y is a generation of people who were born between the 1980s and 1990s and they are perceived to be more technology-oriented. Generation Y are the children of baby boomers. They have a unique name since they are regarded as distinct demographic group. The group is unique since they are ready to make sacrifices to attain work-life balance (Crissa, 2014, p. 18). They desire a unique working environment that is different from other generations. Companies have noted the desire for different workplace settings since most of them quit their jobs to find better alternatives. On the other hand, leadership style is a type of method used by a leader to provide direction, motivate people and implement plans (Crissa, 2014, p. 18). Some of the leadership styles include democratic, transformational and servant leadership. It helps a leader to become effective and balanced in leading other people.
Collaboration is the approach of cooperating or working jointly with others for a common goal. It is one of the unique characteristics of Generation Y since they desire to collaborate to produce unique results (Özçelik, 2015, p. 99). Collaboration demands among Generation Y involve the desire to be involved in developing technologies to solve problem and decision-making. They hate staying in the background doing nothing while other people make decisions for them. Additionally, innovative thinking and communication involve creative ways of perceiving the world and using unique tools to exchange information. It involves developing unorthodox solutions to reach out to the collaborators in a workplace to ensure they all get the needed information on time (Özçelik, 2015, p. 99). Generation Y embraces innovativeness in communicating with their colleagues since they are technology-oriented.

A Hunger for Collaboration
Generation Y believes in the non-hierarchical working environment compared to Generation X. They expect that a working environment will have equal footing for all the participants to give their views. It is also their expectations that they will find an opportunity to be listened to and that their ideas will be considered (García, Gonzales-Miranda, Gallo and Roman-Calderon, 2019, p. 375). For example, the hunger for collaboration among Generation Y is evident in the use of social media platforms. The generation cooperates with people from other locations through various platforms. The technological platforms are based on easy access to anyone across the world regardless of their location. It is unlike the previous generations that were hindered by geographical locations (Barbuto Jr and Gottfredson, 2016, p. 60). Additionally, they desire to create networks with other people from different or similar companies. They also encourage collaboration since different people have varying expertise in various fields.
Gen Y is effective when they work together as a group on a specific project. Many organizations have upgraded their projects to provide an online platform to ensure those working on the project can engage each other (Liz, 2019). They also expect to engage their bosses and come up with creative ideas to solve problems. The era of bosses sitting in a boardroom to make a decision for the employees working in cubes are over. Employees want the freedom to give their views to the management before a final decision is determined. The communication platforms involve instant messages that will derive an instant reply (Liz, 2019). Statistics indicate that 38 percent of the millennial expect a modern collaborative approach that involves transparent leadership, constant communication, and engagement. The collaboration is also meant to solve community challenges such as raising funds to support to sick or hungry (Liz, 2019). For example, Food Recovery Network was launched to use the leftovers in campuses to feed the poor. It is a clear representation of how millennial want to cooperate with others to develop solutions.
Solving Problems Creatively
Generation Y has massive knowledge in technology products that can be used to solve problems in a workplace or society. They expect that such solutions should be applied to ensure efficiency (Crissa, 2014, p. 17). The focus of the millennial is to try different approaches compared to sticking to conventional methods of solving problems. They are less resistant to change compared to the previous generations. They grew up at a time when technological platforms such as social media, online games, and mobile technology were evolving. Therefore, they expect to also use unique methods to develop solutions for their companies (Crissa, 2014, p. 16). Millennial are achievement-oriented and they welcome challenges as an avenue to prove their capability. Therefore, they are not afraid of problems since they have diverse methods they can use to solve them. A study by Deloitte and Touche shows that some of the topmost desires of Generation Y are to develop critical thinking and innovativeness. The reason is that they desire to produce different solutions compared to what their parents achieved.
The desire to solve problems is evident among the millennial generation due to the number of young people who are quitting their jobs to start a private practice. Compared to the earlier generation, they feel they have better solutions to offer the world (Özçelik, 2015, p. 100). Therefore, employees must remain careful how they handle the millennial in their companies or else they will quit their jobs. Statistics indicate 21 percent of employed millennials quit their jobs annually while another 43 percent are willing to quit their jobs in two years (García, Gonzales-Miranda, Gallo and Roman-Calderon, 2019, p. 374). The reason for the massive turnover is the belief that the world’s problems can be addressed in different ways. Generation Y believes that going to the office daily is not the only approach to solving problems. A huge percent of companies are allowing their employees today to work from home especially the millennial. In the process of solving problems creatively they also want freedom and flexibility.
The creativity is expressed in the desire to experiment with new applications or computer systems. For example, despite the capability of the conventional adobe software, millennial are ready to try out new systems to derive better solutions from them (Barbuto Jr and Gottfredson, 2016, p. 63). The generation is also based on talents and not education they attained in school. It is evident in the number of software programs, websites, and applications that have been designed to solve problems (García, Gonzales-Miranda, Gallo and Roman-Calderon, 2019, p. 378). Generation Y has the expectation that companies will provide an opportunity to express their talents. The creativity is evident in the desire among young people to learn new skills on video-sharing platforms on how to cook, knit, make an application or dress in a unique way.
Willingness to Share Failures
The millennial generation is proud of their mistakes and weaknesses compared to past generations. Top managers who have worked closely with millennial testify that they desire to be encouraged when they make mistakes compared to being reprimanded (Barbuto Jr and Gottfredson, 2016, p. 60). The millennial is proud of the mistakes they have made. They have embraced failures as part of life and thus they are ready to share the wrongs they have done. Conversely, the past generations were afraid of failures since they believed it was a sign of incompetence. However, today, millennial generation believe that failures are part of the indicators of an outgoing person who is ready to risk (Liz, 2019). A popular statement indicates that those who do not fail never try something new. It is the same slogan that generation Y is riding on that their failures will make them stronger for the future challenges. Additionally, they believe failure is a point of learning something new and emerging stronger.
People who have failed in life are given an opportunity to share their experiences and how they overcame the situation. The millennial generation is attracted testimonies of people who experienced failure since they believe they will also experience it at some point in life (Liz, 2019). Therefore, they love sharing it to help others prepare for the future. The failures are praised since they portray the character of a person who was trying to overcome the status quo. One of the common characteristics of the millennial generation is to do things in a different way (Crissa, 2014, p. 17). They desire to excel better than their parents. In the endeavor to succeed, they embrace failure as part of the process of achieving the best-desired goals.
Conclusion
Generation Y has unique characteristics including the desire to solve problems using creative approaches, freely sharing their failure, and deep hunger for collaboration. It is thus important for employees to design their workplaces to embrace the unique characteristics of the millennial generation. It is also important for society to develop mechanisms of tapping the great potential of the generation to solve problems in the world today.

References
Barbuto Jr(Jay), J.E. and Gottfredson, R.K., 2016. Human capital, the millennial’s reign, and the need for servant leadership. Journal of Leadership Studies, 10(2), pp.59-63.
Crissa, S. 2014. Gen y’s leadership style will be different from anything we’ve seen. Human Resources Magazine. 19(5), pp.13-18.
García, G.A., Gonzales-Miranda, D.R., Gallo, O. and Roman-Calderon, J.P., 2019. Employee involvement and job satisfaction: a tale of the millennial generation. Employee Relations: The International Journal, 41(3), pp.374-388.
Liz, M., 2019. Nick Molnar’s rule for Afterpay staff: ‘Don’t call me boss’. (Online) Updated 11 June 2019. Available at https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/leaders/nick-molnar-s-rule-for-afterpay-staff-don-t-call-me-boss-20190515-p51nkr. Accessed on 28th August 2019.
Özçelik, G., 2015. Engagement and retention of the millennial generation in the workplace through internal branding. International Journal of Business and Management, 10(3), p.99-105.

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