Name: Simon Sinek on Millennials in the Workplace
Uploaded: 2024-10-07T13:04:15.000Z
Duration: 15 min 1 s
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To-infinitive

Apparently, millennials as a generation, which is a group of people who were born approximately 1984 and after, are tough to manage.

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And they're accused of being entitled, and narcissistic, and self-interested, unfocused, lazy, but entitled is the big one.

And because they confound leadership so much, what's happening is leaders are asking the millennials, what do you want?

And millennials are saying, we want to work in a place with purpose, love that.

We want to make an impact, whatever that means.

And so, somebody articulates some sort of purpose, there's lots of free food and there's bean bags, and yet for some reason, they're still not happy.

And that's because there's a missing piece.

What I've learned is that there, I can break it down into four pieces, right?

There are four things, four characteristics.

One is parenting, the other one is technology, the third is impatience, and the fourth is the environment.

The generation that we call the millennials, too many of them grew up subject to, not my words, failed parenting strategies, where, for example, they were told that they were special all the time.

They were told that they could have anything they want in life, just because they want it.

They were told, some of them got into honors classes, not because they deserved it, but because their parents complained.

And some of them got A's, not because they earned them, but because the teachers didn't want to deal with the parents.

Some kids got participation medals, they got a medal for coming in last, right?

Which the science we know is pretty clear, which is it devalues the medal and the reward for those who actually work hard, and that actually makes the person who comes in last feel embarrassed, because they know they didn't deserve it, so it actually makes them feel worse, right?

So you take this group of people, and they graduate school and they get a job, and they're find out they're not special, their moms can't get them a promotion, that you get nothing for coming in last, and by the way, you can't just have it, because you want it, right?

And in an instant, their entire self-image is shattered, and so you have an entire generation that's growing up with lower self-esteem than previous generations.

The other problem to compound it is, we're growing up in a Facebook, Instagram world, in other words, we're good at putting filters on things.

We're good at showing people that life is amazing, even though I'm depressed, right?

And so everybody sounds tough, and everybody sounds like they got it all figured out, and the reality is, there's very little toughness, and most people don't have it figured out.

And so when the more senior people say, well, what should we do?

They sound like, this is what you gotta do, and they have no clue, right?

So you have an entire generation growing up with lower self-esteem than previous generations, right?

Through no fault of their own, through no fault of their own, right?

We know that engagement with social media and our cell phones releases a chemical called dopamine.

That's why when you get a text, it feels good, right?

So we've all had it, where you're feeling a little bit down or feeling a bit lonely, and so you send out 10 texts to 10 friends, you know, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, because it feels good when you get a response, right?

It's why we count the likes, it's why we go back 10 times to see if, and if it's going, if my Instagram is growing slower, did I do something wrong, do they not like me anymore, right?

The trauma for young kids to be unfriended, right?

Because we know when you get it, you get a hit of dopamine, which feels good.

It's why we like it, it's why we keep going back to it.

Dopamine is the exact same chemical that makes us feel good when we smoke, when we drink, and when we gamble.

In other words, it's highly, highly addictive, right?

We have age restrictions on smoking, gambling, and alcohol, and we have no age restrictions on social media and cell phones, which is the equivalent of opening up the liquor cabinet and saying to our teenagers, hey, by the way, this adolescence thing, if it gets you down, but that's basically what's happening, that's basically what's happening, right?

You have an entire generation that has access to an addictive, numbing chemical called dopamine through social media and cell phones as they're going through the high stress of adolescence.

Almost every alcoholic discovered alcohol when they were teenagers.

When we're very, very young, the only approval we need is the approval of our parents.

And as we go through adolescence, we make this transition where we now need the approval of our peers.

Very frustrating for our parents, very important for us, it allows us to acculturate outside of our immediate families into the broader tribe, right?

It's a highly, highly stressful and anxious period of our lives, and we're supposed to learn to rely on our friends.

Some people, quite by accident, discover alcohol and numbing effects of dopamine to help them cope with the stresses and anxieties of adolescence.

Unfortunately, that becomes hardwired in their brains, and for the rest of their lives, when they suffer significant stress, they will not turn to a person, they will turn to the bottle.

Social stress, financial stress, career stress, that's pretty much the primary reasons why they don't consume alcoholic drinks, right?

What's happening is because we're allowing unfettered access to these dopamine-producing devices and media, basically it's becoming hardwired, and what we're seeing is as they grow older, too many kids don't know how to form deep, meaningful relationships.

They will admit that many of their friendships are superficial.

They will admit that their friends, that they don't count on their friends, they don't rely on their friends, they have fun with their friends, but they also know that their friends will cancel on them if something better comes along.

Deep, meaningful relationships are not there because they never practice the skill set, and worse, they don't have the coping mechanisms to deal with stress.

So when significant stress starts to show up in their lives, they're not turning to a person, they're turning to a device, they're turning to social media, they're turning to these things which offer temporary relief.

We know, the science is clear, we know that people who spend more time on Facebook suffer higher rates of depression than people who spend less time on Facebook, right?

There's nothing wrong with social media and cell phones.

If you're sitting at dinner with your friends and you're texting somebody who's not there, that's a problem.

If you're sitting in a meeting with people you're supposed to be listening to and speaking and you put your phone on the table, face up or face down, I don't care, that sends a subconscious message to the room that you're just not that important to me right now, right?

And the fact that you cannot put it away is because you are addicted, right?

If you wake up and you check your phone before you say good morning to your girlfriend, boyfriend or spouse, you have an addiction.

And like all addiction, in time it'll destroy relationships, it'll cost time and it'll cost money and it'll make your life worse, right?

So you have a generation growing up with lower self-esteem that doesn't have the coping mechanisms to deal with stress, right?

Now you add in the sense of impatience, right?

They've grown up in a world of instant gratification.

You go on Amazon, it arrives the next day.

You don't even have to wait week to week to week, right?

I know people who skip seasons just so they can binge at the end of the season, right?

You don't even have to learn how to be like, hey.

You don't even have to learn and practice that skill.

You don't have to be the uncomfortable one who says yes when you mean no and says no when you mean no but yes when you...

You don't even have to learn the social coping mechanisms, right?

Everything you want, you can have instantaneously.

Everything you want, instant gratification except job satisfaction and strength of relationships.

They are slow, meandering, uncomfortable, messy processes.

And so I keep meeting these wonderful, fantastic, idealistic, hardworking, smart kids.

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Simon Sinek on Millennials in the Workplace

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