Millennials and Groups: Leadership Coaching’s New Frontier
A basic principle for selling a particular product or service is demand, one half of the economic business model equation. It’s also necessary for a receptive target market to be defined and in place. Which goes to say that if leadership coaching is looking to expand its reach, it should look no further than Millennials and Groups, a new frontier full of opportunity.
80 million strong and fond of collective learning, Millennials make up nearly half of the existing workforce, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics. Leadership coaching, long viewed as a perk reserved for the C-suite level of executives, appears to have two new worlds to conquer.
To understand this largely untapped market for leadership coaching, one must understand the Millennial target market—while also dispelling a few inaccuracies of their workplace style and preferences.
Millennial Myths
Over the past decade or so, you’ve no doubt been exposed to narratives about this group, born between the years of 1980-1999. They’ve been unceremoniously described in countless articles as lazy, entitled, disloyal, needy, and overly idealistic, to name a few. But real scientific studies and surveys reveal these characterizations are often misguided. Empirical evidence shows they’re actually quite a receptive and motivated bunch. They crave advancement, training and development programs, and—you guessed it, leadership coaching.
The Right Fit
It may be the altruistic nature of Millennials that drives their interest in coaching and mentoring. In survey after survey, they’ve been known to choose opportunity over salary, workplace flexibility over rigidity, and empowering others in a group setting over individual recognition. How might they respond to leadership coaching? They’ll see it as loyalty and an investment in their worth. And here’s the best part—it’s in their nature to return the same loyalty and investment back into their organization.
According to Al Fragnoli, a Master-Certified Intelligent Leadership Executive Coach, this younger generation of Millennials is hungry for leadership coaching and the opportunity for self-improvement in the workplace. “How best to sum up Millennials in the workforce and how they might respond to leadership coaching? First and foremost, they want to feel that they are making a difference in all that they do. They want to make an impact and leave a lasting legacy in the world. Millennials are ambitious, competitive and want to grow in all aspects of their life. They want a healthy work-life balance, while feeling respected and valued by their employer. This is a generation in need of leadership coaches, to help them sharpen their skills and work with them to help them foster growth in all aspects of their desired style of life.”
The Center for Creative Leadership commissioned a recent study, “7 Emerging Trends for Transformative Leaders”. The authors of this study emphasized the important role of coaching and mentoring for this generation, as they found this audience was clearly receptive to any opportunity for face-to-face personal growth. In less than five years, we expect Millennials in the labor market to represent up to 75% of the global workforce. How we invest in their success now will likely pay many dividends in the future.
For over a decade, the Intelligent Leadership coaching methodology has helped thousands of employees reach their full potential through a proven process and tools which empower their abilities to learn, grow, and become effective executive leaders. For a detailed look at how leadership coaching can transform your workforce and help your employees reach next-level productivity benchmarks, visit www.intelligentleadershipec.com.