Millennials are Ruining Everything

By Wesley Middleton

From the sound of it, that's what you would think.  Millennials are ruining everything. At least that’s how they’ve been made to feel. "Experts" focus on how different the Millennials are, how hard they are to understand, to attract and to retain.

After reading the experts, I decided to offer my perspective as a managing partner of a 100-person firm where the average age of our firm is 34.65 and 59 of our people are the age 35 or below.  This experience – along with being a father to a 21 year-old daughter,  an 18 year-old son and a 13 year old son – has given me a different perspective. 

In fact, the differences between the generations are exaggerated. It's funny to see how the older generation always looks at the generation behind them and says they are so different and won’t achieve what we have or that they have some “hard to understand” ideas. They said that about me when I was 25.

I love this generation coming up and here is why:

1. ​Smarter –This generation is so much smarter than we were at their age. They are learning things in middle school that I wasn’t taught until high school and beyond. The intelligence of the kids (as I lovingly call them) coming out of college is incredible. When I came out of college, this is exactly what was being said about my generation. We were smarter at that time, and now the Millennials are stepping it up.
2. Team Players & Social – They are so much more social than any generation before them. They love team work and are team players, but they are aware of and focused on their individual accomplishments and goals as a part of that team. This is incredible because they know at their age what it took me 15 years to figure out! Two heads are better than one. How long has that saying been around? This generation simply “gets it” quicker than most.
3. Want Immediate Feedback– I find that this group is hard working and appreciates the immediate feedback. There is a thirst for knowledge and accomplishment. Don’t “fix” it for them! I appreciate this quality, along with a level of individualism that comes an attitude of self-responsibility.
4. Community not Collaboration – These kids love community, not necessarily collaboration. Again, something that took me years to learn and comprehend. Community in that being able to have a group of people and friends that they work with, socialize with and build a relationship with is important. They do recognize that collaboration gets the right answers and results, but as I mentioned earlier, they are concerned with their individual goals and accomplishments. I believe they want exactly what I wanted when I was their age, the difference is that it comes quicker to them because they are smarter.

Here are the rules we live by and some advice on working with this generation:

1. Time limits on promotions and advancement are out.Promote when ready or before. They love the challenge and will step into the role, if you don’t, they will go somewhere that will. Having a time-based hierarchy doesn’t fit well. You can’t wait and say it takes 12 years to be partner. You may very well have some ready before then.  Weren’t “we” ready before our leaders thought we were? I know I thought I was.
2. Pay them for the role they are at, not based on some percentage increase.If they are operating at a manager level in two years, pay them or someone will. Get over the large increases and look at them at the level they perform at. National averages based on time are out.
3. We have a policy that when a manager reviews a return,they cannot “fix it” no matter how much easier it is or more efficient it is. They must send it back.
4. Be transparent.Truly. Don’t spin it, don’t lie and don’t hide it. Tell them the truth about themselves, the company, the job they are doing and where the company is going. Remember they are smarter! They see it and if you think they don’t, you are fooling yourself.
5. Give them the latest technology.Let them stream music. Craft the office to be employee-centric, not client-centric. They consume information differently; embrace it. It will happen with you or without you.
6. Listen to their ideas.Implement their ideas. They are usually pretty good! We try things even on a “trial basis” just to see how it works. The trial basis gives you a chance to modify the idea if needed.

Overall, there are more similarities than differences. They are who we were 20 years ago, just smarter.

You can’t compare them to who we are today. The primary difference I have personally noticed and have found myself teaching is an entrepreneurial outlook, but then again, not sure I was such an entrepreneur at 23 either.

In the CPA profession these kids don’t want to step in and take over a small CPA firm. They want to be a part of something bigger than they are. It isn’t about dreams and goals, it is a difference in how those dreams and goals are realized.

I believe the CPA profession will see fewer and fewer “smaller firms” of 10 people or less in the near term. Who knows what happens when this particular generation gets older? It could all cycle back around.
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What I do know is that the differences aren’t that vast and that they aren’t ruining anything.

Wesley Middleton is the managing partner at MRZ LLP, a Houston, Texas-based accounting firm voted Best Place to Work by the Houston Business Journal. Wesley is the author of Violent Leadership (Forbes Books, 2017) and is represented by PumpJack Speakers Bureau. To book Wesley for your event, email Wesley.Middleton@PumpJack.me or click here.