I conducted an experiment during my senior year of college titled The Effects of Positive and Negative Feedback on a Select Population of Group Home Residents. While I was going to school, I worked at a home for at-risk adolescents. These children came from all walks of life: from a state legislator’s daughter to kids who had lived for years on the Seattle streets, from drug addicts to victims of sexual molestation. Those were challenging but incredibly rewarding years.
As part of my senior project, about two-dozen residents agreed to help me with my study. I randomly divided the group into two sections, each of which would tackle a series of equally weighted puzzles. The first random group received less-than-encouraging support from me. Before they began to complete the puzzle, I instructed them to do their best, but cautioned that it would likely be difficult for them. I let them know that I recognized that it had been a tiring day, and that puzzles were not their favorite pastime. The second random group was provided with encouraging instruction. Before they began to complete the puzzles, I complimented them on their intelligence and told them that this exercise would be a breeze for them. After many hours of testing, the randomly selected group that had received encouragement out-performed the group that had received negative support.
Obviously, my senior thesis needed much more work if it were to have undergone a rigorous peer review by the National Academy of Science, but the conclusion of the study, and many more empirically based studies, illustrates an important point for people who seek to lead in a changing world.
That is, on average, most people tend to respond best to positive as opposed to negative feedback. Leaders who practice an encouraging spirit are not immune from offering critique, but their critique is the second-to-the-last word in a motivational intervention, the last word of which should almost always carry a tone of affirmation and support.
Several years ago, when I asked my graduate assistant what was missing from my list of leadership disciplines and virtues, he immediately responded with the need for leaders to embody an empowerment-oriented spirit. It was no surprise to me that my assistant is from the population that demographers refer to as Millennials.
As a subset of North American culture, Millennials were born between 1982 and 2003. According to the Brookings Institute, they will comprise one in three adult Americans by 2020, and will make up as much as 75% of the workforce by 2025. 87.5% of Millennials disagreed with the statement that “money is the best measure of success,” compared to about 78% of the total population, and 64% of Millennials would rather earn $40,000 per year at a job they love than $100,000 per year at a job they think is boring.
Although it is the temptation of every generation to see itself as something distinctive and special, Millennials may well be the canary in the coal mine for leaders in a changing world. Millennials are telling us that they want to be part of the solution to organizations with which they are affiliated.
They are far less concerned with earning a large paycheck than they are with contributing to and investing in the organization’s culture, as long as that culture is about both work and altruism.
They have a passion for service, and what some have referred to as a healthy work/life balance, and their friendships and social relationships are important to them.
Millennials tend not to join traditional service organizations like the Lion’s or Rotary Club, but they are often the first to volunteer at the Food Pantry, Flood Clean-up, or “Run for the Cure.” So what is an empowerment-oriented spirit?
It is a kind of leadership that resists the temptation to be the smartest person in the room, even if he or she may be the most experienced person sitting around the table. Millennials respond best to causes as opposed to cutthroat agendas, and they are sincere and earnest in their desire to make the world a better place.
And don’t underestimate their work ethic. Just because Millennials may sometimes seem to be a little obsessive about work/life balance, doesn’t mean that they’re not fully connected to their jobs. The fact is, in this digital age, they are rarely disconnected.
