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In today’s episode, Allan welcomes Dr. Philip Zimmerman, an expert in executive leadership. Dr. Zimmerman is the author of the book Unleash the Millennials and Save the World. Allan and Dr. Zimmerman discuss the positive impact that millennials can have on your business and what you can do to recruit top-level talent. Dr. Phillip Zimmerman can be reached at philip@engineeringleadershipdesign.com or via his webpage at https://engineeringleadershipdesign.com/about
Unleash the Millennials and Save the World is now available on Amazon both in paperback and eBook format
https://unleashthemillennials.com/
Allan has started and grown several multi million dollar businesses, his mission is to help you do the same. Welcome to the Business Growth Pod, building the future, one entrepreneur at a time!
Hey, everyone, welcome to the show. I’m Allan. I’m a family man and attorney and an entrepreneur. Each week, we provide resources and advice to help build your business. Are you ready? Then let’s go.
Hey, everyone, welcome to our show. I’m excited to welcome Dr. Phillip Zimmerman to our show, Dr. Zimmerman has over 22 years in executive leadership. He’s also the author of the book, Unleash the Millennials and Save the World, an entrepreneur at heart and very successful businessman, excited to have him today. Welcome to the show, Dr. Zimmerman. Thank you, Allan, it’s a great pleasure to be on the Business Growth Podcast. And really looking forward to our conversation today. Well, great, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself a little bit about your upbringing, we just kind of want to hear your story. Well, the you know, the longer I live, the longer the story gets. So let me try to break it into pieces. I was graduated from college, and civil engineering, bachelor’s and master’s degree, started in a company that was a one person, company, that individual just started about six months before he hired me. And we were in the very infancy of what’s this whole environmental movement back in 19, factories in 1981, that I joined this company. And we grew from the two of us to 64 people, we had four different offices in four different states. And the day he had hired me, he said that, as soon as you get registered as an engineer, I want you to go out and open your own company. And as we continue to grow, he would continue to encourage me in that and the larger we got, the less the encouragement became, but he was still every once a while. So he felt whenever you want to do this, let me know. So six and a half years into the run, I said, I would like to try this. And so he gave me his blessing and and showed me the door, which was really kind of a shock to me, because I wasn’t expecting it to happen that quickly. But it was the best thing he could have done for me. He taught me everything there was to know about business, and how to run a successful consulting company. So I started my on my own within three years, I had built up to 50 people, we had three offices in three different states. And I sold the company for years to the day I started it to a publicly traded company, they made me one of those cash offers, I just wasn’t going to refuse. And that that put me into the multi millionaire status, debt free paid off all my debts, which I’m I still am today. Dr. Zimmerman, let me let me kind of backtrack a little bit. Let’s talk about I think there’s different definitions of what a millennial is. And so to kind of set the stage, who are we talking about? What age group are we even talking about? You can you can say born in 1980, to 1998 to be the age group that range somewhere around there, or you can say 1982 to 2000.
You know, and in my kind of lay person understanding with my lay person understanding, I always think of millennials as being kind of the smaller group, right, five or six years span. But that’s, that’s interesting. And so, and with your background, you know, kind of studying millennials and things like that you, you wrote a book? And what are some things that that you kind of focus on in your book, and just to kind of, you know, let you know what a lot of my listeners are, you know, they’re business owners, they are very busy individuals that they’re, they’re trying to, you know, to grab a bit of information here, you know, they’re, they’re on the road heading to a meeting or whatever the case might be. And so they’re, they’re listening to figure out, what what can I do with millennials? How do I help them succeed in my business so that my business succeeds? Right? That’s a perfect question. That’s a perfect question. I’ll give you the I’ll give you the quick answer. There’s two questions millennials typically asked when their first day on the job and this is the two questions that usually cause them the greatest thanks. First, they would ask the person what they’re what they’re working on, and the person will be offended that they were asking to head of the company what they’re working on, but that but they felt entitled to do that. And they weren’t entitled to that based on their
Educated because they were taught an education system to go because they have access to the internet. So they go to the best source possible find out your information. So they go all the way to the top of the organization to ask them what they’re doing what what am I doing here on the job? Then the next question, what’s the person got over the offensive said, Well, this is what we’re doing. This is what I’ve asked you to do. They’re going to ask why this is the key to it. Why are we doing this? And that shock on the employers face is typically because I told you so sit in your chair, go do this. Why are you objecting to this, and it’s because they were trained in it all the way through college. Because the idea was that Jobs had not yet been invented. They have been trained to invent new jobs. They have been trained to do things that have not yet been done. And so when they’re asking why something is being done, they’re trying to find out the foundational reason why this is being done, not because the client, they know the client hired you to do this. They know you’re we’re being paid to do this, that that’s that’s a no brainer. They want to know, why is this actually being done to begin with? Isn’t there some some truth, Dr. Zimmerman to this idea that millennials, they’re more purpose driven? And I’m on board with you? 100%? Yeah, yeah. But isn’t there some truth that there are a lot of times, you know, more concerned about doing something of value than how much necessarily they’re bringing home?
That would be that would be a credit. They’re, they’re, they’re looking for purpose. I’m a boomer, I can tell you in my life, and my entirety of my career, until I was probably started talking to millennials who were talking about purpose, I had never thought about the purpose of my life at all, ever. You know, I was trade, you grow up, you go to college, you get a job, you get married, you have kids, you make money, you save for retirement, and hopefully live to retirement and have enough saved up that you can spend it. But as far as anything in my life, having a purpose that was never emphasized, well, for millennials, it was totally emphasized. Because remember, there is no wrong way to live. And for me, as a boomer, there was a right way to live. And that path was laid out for me by for ages before me for a minute, there is no wrong way to live. And so they’re, they’re lost. Really, they’re lost in regards to trying to find their purpose, what’s my purpose, if I can do anything if I can live any way I want? What, what’s my purpose of doing this? And so I would say that from a perspective of,
if you have a millennial talent on on hand, give them the why. So when you’re asking them to do something, give them the foundation of why this is being done, this is being done, because there was a regulation passed and 19th, cloud gave the Clean Water Act, clean water act in 1962, was passed to protect the waterways in the United States. And so therefore, they they limit the discharge of what you could put into waterways, to protect the environment. So then I’m on who’s gonna go. So that’s why we’re doing all this, yes, that’s why we’re doing it, then they’re gonna ask you The second important question and let them ask this question and answer it. How are you doing this? And you say, well, we fill out permit applications, or whatever it is you’re doing in your business, this is how we do the business. This is how we do answer this need. The reason why they’re asking that is because I just encourage business owners out there, if you if you’d let your millennials do this, it’ll absolutely blow you away, it’s gonna scare you to death, because you realize that they’re gonna be the difference, they’re gonna invent the disrupter, that’s gonna put you out of business as well. But when you tell them how you’re doing it, they’ve been trained to find the latest technology, not the technology that was available in high school, not the technology that was available to them in college, they have been trained to find the best technology in the world period that currently available to them today, or what’s coming up next. And so they’re going to try to find how they can use that technology, this cutting edge technology to solve this, how you do this problem to answer the initial why it’s being done. And so I, when I coach, business leaders on this, I typically tell us to find the something that you’re working on that you that you’d like to get straight for whatever reason, I’m really having an issue with this, calling two or three millennials, tell me that they’re on a team and put them on a team, and say your job is this is why I’m doing this and to give them the why this is how we’re doing this, here’s all the paperwork, the manuals and everything. This is why this is how we’re doing it, I want you to come up with a different way to do this. Now, if this is the best way to do it, fantastic. I’m so glad we’re on the cutting edge of technology. But there’s got to be a better way to do this. And within that, I gave you a week to do it. And I tell them I said usually within two or three days, the team will come back to you. And they will not only have a superior solution to whatever it is that you’re doing, they will probably have an app that they’re going to show you on the phone a dummy app that they have developed, of how the your your customers can access this service online. So what are some things about millennials that we should as business owners and entrepreneurs that we should kind of encourage and accept about that generation about that culture? And what are some things that we should say? No, we actually cuz surely this this generation has
some downsides, right? There’s got to be some things that we’re like, Okay. This will help my company
This, these attributes that are not necessarily true of everybody, but that that are common amongst the group. What are some of those things that we need to kind of help them work out? Okay, here’s the biggie is, Do not underestimate them whatsoever. They are the most educated generation globally, not just the United States school, but the most educated generation in human history. They know their stuff. They know how to do stuff that they’ve been taught how to, they’ve been taught how to think in this in this regard, they’ve been taught how to think technologically. And to use technology where an older generation Should we just haven’t been, we were taught that we it’s not in our we, we’ve been forced to use it. But we haven’t been taught how to do that. They’ve been taught that. The next one is, and so that’s why I say give them complex problems to solve with technology. And that will solve it. Here’s the, when you’re saying what to watch out for, is that they have not been taught two major things. What is truth? And what is justice, and this is where the beginning of the Western philosophy started, which is no longer in our it’s no longer in the minds of millennials. And this is a global phenomenon. It’s no longer in the minds of millennials, globally, in Western philosophy, ruled the world until, until World War Two.
They do not know what truth is. And they do not know what justice is, and how to reconcile those two. And so at the workplace, I tell them, I say use your core values, everybody has core values that they’re using it the organization, and use those core values to help establish communication within the workplace. I have a four C’s, communicate, cooperate, collaborate and co create. That’s what millennials, that’s what that’s what we all want to do. But Millennials are really good at communicate, cooperate, collaborate, and co create. And
use your core values we all have core values excellence are. So you have to define what excellence is and give them an example. This is what we mean by excellence. And then once you have that defined, then as you go through your team meetings, and you’re communicating, you’re cooperating collaborator cookery is always bring that back into the conversation, are we applying the truths behind excellence in this in this particular project? And then where justice comes in? If they say, Well, no, we’re not then we then you have to say, well, is that just for the customer? Who’s paying us to do this? Are we doing the just thing? Are we doing the right thing? Dr. Zimmerman, let’s talk a little bit about onboarding and getting millennials interested and trying to recruit and attract the top talent. What are some things and let’s get let’s get granular about it. Let’s talk about even in a job posting, what in the first communication, this you know, phone screen, whatever the process is, for a particular company? What are some things that business owners can do to attract what are the top millennials what is going to attract them to a company? Okay, the top drivers for millennial talent. It’s been the same since 2010. And they had a Gallup survey that came out in 2020. It was the same top three, the top three were opportunities for development in their career path
to be developed in their career path, opportunities for advancement in their career path, and work life balance. Those three things are identified in the Harvard Business study in their Harvard Business Journal, are you seeing that those three things are above pay? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Pay pay is that they’re not working. I look, everybody’s after money. I’m not saying I’m not saying that pays are important. But what they’re looking for, is, their top one is they want to be developed in their career path. Because again, they’re trying to discover their purpose in life. And so they need development in order to do that. They want to have advancement opportunities, they want to know that they’re going to move up the ladder, the millennials are going to move up so fast in the boomers where we have been perfect. I can’t say proud, I think we have been purposely holding the back because we’re afraid of them of what they’re going to do. Not just technologically but sociologically, and because of this, this philosophical difference. So to attract them, say we have on our normal mode of business, we’re going to get you development along your career path, we will provide you opportunities for advancement based upon your skill level that that you have. And then with that, we’ll come to this idea of work life balance, and of course, remote working in my book, I talked about the idea that work life balance and remote working and it’s something that they really wanted, and the pandemic forced on everybody. And I’ve got business owners that I’ve worked work with for years that I can contact in the middle of pandemic finding out how is this remote working going? And they said, you know, the most surprising thing to us was that we expected our productivity to fall off. And they’ve all said, five of them. I’ve talked to five of them. All five said In fact, our productivity increased. All five of them said we’ve had our best year ever during this pandemic, when you would think
it would be the worst year ever now of course if there have no idea how they would how are they going to come out of this pandemic what they’re gonna do but they all have said that remote working and staying they’re gonna keep this remote working thing for people who want to choose to work remotely so that’s the idea of work life balance so in my book what i what i talk about is this idea of alignment development and advancement as those are three things if you’re if you’re a business owner you want to have in your material somewhere this idea of alignment development and advancement alignment is to make sure that the jobs that they’re going to occupy align that they align with their personality profile in their in their temperament and there’s testing tools there’s tools you can use to help them determine that but have them take a personality profile test and a temperament test not because you’re trying to figure out who they are but just so that you can say these are the types of jobs that most identify with the person that did you would fit this profile is this of interest for you ended so you would look in your organization to find out where those jobs are so are you recommending that you know we may hire a millennial a millennial without knowing exactly what position we’re hiring them for that’s a great question no i used to hire people when when i was in the hiring business i would hire people that were really great and i may not even have a job number i might have a job in mind that i had to i was gonna hire i needed to put somebody on this chair but i would hire him just because of who they are it’s kind of like college athletes you know that and pro athletes you’ll see these all performance players i feel they’ll a college will recruit a quarterback unbelievable quarterback and have no they have no plans to use that individual as a quarterback because of the talents they can use them in so many different positions and so i say when you hire talent hire people who are good you know are you familiar with taysom hill dr zimmerman he taysom hill taysom hill yeah he plays for the new orleans saints saints yeah yeah so he went to my alma mater byu and he was a quarterback there but he’s super fast super talented but if you look at what the saints have used him as a quarterback as a receiver as a running back on the kickoff team punt return as a tight end fullback like across the board so that definitely makes sense what you’re saying and i love this concept of just always hiring good people right and just once you get them in the door then you find a place for him and i think for a business owner the scary part is man i have all these spots that these specific spots that i need filled right now i’m a little nervous about just hiring people and i you know what i mean well you would hire them to actually do the job that you need filled right i guess it’s kind of like the when the saints recruiting for quarterback well we might need you for quarterback but by the way while you’re waiting for that drew brees to retire we we’d like you to try this right he would do it so the same thing so the so once you get them aligned to this educate them in the door that’s a whole alignment development advancement in alignment once they get aligned they will engage in their work this is this this directly affects engagement what’s their what’s their comfortable doing it for the fits their personality their temperament and everything else and then that provides their life meaning is this is just so cool that’s where they discover what their meaning what meaning what the meaning of life is i’m actually doing something i like i’m this is this is really cool i’m enjoying going to work it gives their life meaning as they have development in that alignment and engagement they develop their to where they really get good at what they’re doing when they get developed it increases their productivity because now they know what they’re doing but now they’re discovering how to do it even in a different way and so their productivity increases and they develop mastery in their position and that’s what defines purpose for them because then after five years of doing this particular job or eight years they realize that they have they are really made to do this whatever this is this is this gives them purpose in their productivity just shoots to anybody’s productivity it’s not just remodels anybody’s product it just shoots through the roof and then once you start advancing to the members alignment development imagine once you start advancing that will develop the loyalty for them because then they recognize that they’ve done a good job you’ve recognized that they’re doing a good job why would they ever leave they’re getting a promotion and they’re and they’re getting more responsibility that breeds loyalty and once that loyalty is extended they and they continue to work on this vocational path that they’re on they will develop to become a recognized authority on this subject matter whatever it is whether they’re turning working on washing machines and dryers you know the people who come and do your service in your home or a plumber or whatever air conditioner repairman or in the c suite of some big corporation or some corporation that advancement produces loyalty and they recognize once they become a subject matter authority that this was their calling in life this is what they were born to do so it answers all the philosophical questions that they have that that bother them that they’re trying to search for in it’s all done in the workplace it’s so cool so dr zimmerman i have quite a large contingency of listeners that have blue collar workers okay and i own several home service
As businesses and a lot of times, you just need to get the job done. And there’s a lot more kind of entry level positions that are needed. What are some things that a company like that could do to get creative to encourage and advance these millennial workers without necessarily promoting them? We’re a position doesn’t exist, or should we create kind of this assistant assistant assistant manager position for them to learn to run after the chair. They’re just after more opportunities to be able to do what they were, what they were made for what they’re educated for, which is to invent these jobs that haven’t been invented. So my thing is that if you see your HBC contractor, and HPC, business is unbelievable. And now you have yourself in your in these homes, right. So now you can say, look, we want to do plumbing, we want to do electrical work. And so you know, you’re expanding all your services, and you’re hiring these front end workers to come into who are apprentices initially, because you’d be able to be apprentices in order to get the certifications is to provide them their opportunities to get developed, what you need is you need a certification in XYZ, whatever that is, dressing a 240 volt, electrical box, how to close that electrical box, if you get certified in that if you get the certification, we will give you an opportunity to be that person that call that go to person when we have this this job, and identify where they can get that certification and let them do it. They’ll do it on their own time. They don’t necessarily want to necessarily have to do it on work time. There’s so many internet resources for, especially in technical areas, where education and certifications that you provide them as opportunity as certified pay for them to get certified because they’re and again, this is going to build loyalty as is they’re not going to get certified then leave. If you get them their certification and you jack them around. Well, yeah, you would leave, you know, right? Oh, is as long as you treat them. Right? And the big thing again, what is truth? And what is justice? If you’ve told them, you’re going to do something? And they believe you that you’re going to do something and you don’t do it? Well, that’s not just you’re not you’re operating injustice, remember, you’re trying to teach her employees? Because they don’t know what those are? They don’t. They haven’t been taught culturally educational, anything, what is true, and what is just demonstrate to the Oneness justice. I’ve told you, if you get the certification, I’m going to make you that go to person, well, maybe they couldn’t be the go to person because you just hired Bob and Bob’s got 10 more years experience in this person of Bob’s to go to person,
then you have to do something that’s just I told you, you are going to be that. So how can I’m going to make you Bob’s assistant, your Bob’s right hand man or whatever, in that. We’re going to now expand the business so that once you get trained under Bob, we’re going to you’re going to go to do it on your end, expand the business, the whole idea that entrepreneurial is, is you get to hire more people to do more work and make more money. Yeah, so Dr. Same way it works. What What would you think about and I’ve heard of other companies doing this, but I’ve never really connected the dots. Until now you’re talking about the certification programs? What What would you think about a company creating like an internal certification program where it actually has meaning, right? It’s not just for, you know, for fluff or whatever, to make them feel warm and fuzzy inside, but they actually have to complete certain, you know, steps and they have to obtain certain levels of knowledge. But it’s, it’s an internal certification. This is this is something that is really come online, really, I would say in the last five years. And it’s because of the internet. And it’s because LMS learning management systems are now unbelievably out there. And it’s because technology has provided us the opportunity to do exactly what you’re talking about developing in house training. Video, I’m outcoming, my cell phone home studio, where I do video recording, I had an academy online to Coaching Academy online. And you could do all this yourself. They have software systems, learning management systems that allow you to track you can give people tests, you can they can watch a video, they can answer questions, all this gets recorded in the LMS. And all that data can be can be tracked and so that they can go at home when they go home and they say look, part of coaching I’m also a coach, is that you first offer the person is this something you want to do? And they say yes, I definitely want to get the certification, then have them make an agreement. When will you get the certification? Well, I get the certification within the next six months. Okay, cool. Well, then you’re able to track them doing that. And they’ve said that they’re going to get it within six months. So again, this is true trust, what is truth and what is justice? So at the end of six months, actually two months into it, you’re saying hey, I noticed that you haven’t been on the LMS and you’re not getting your your work done. This is a pretty hard certification to try to get you need to get to it. And to remind them that this is really something you want to accomplish that has to be done and they they will eventually get on it and they will do it. So yes, those LMS systems are just going to go online and type in LMS learning management system and see what’s available. It’s unbelievable what’s in it. You don’t have to buy anything while you buy the service but they have
It’s kind of like buying a website and you get to host your own website, somebody else host a website, but you make your own website, these LMS systems are the same thing as a tool or something you can customize it to fit your unbelievable, unbelievable, super easy to use. How does this resonate with? So if I, you know, created one of these programs, and in a business, how does this resonate with the older group, we’re focusing on millennials, but we’re talking about creating these these kind of systemic changes, right, where we’re talking about creating kind of a movement, within a within a company, if we were to focus on something like this certification program, how are my 50 year olds gonna feel about that my 60 year olds, they’re there. There’ll be 100% behind it. And it’s called institutional knowledge transfer. Something I’ve been working on with the organizations I work with is something called the next generation leader initiative. How do you train The Next Gen these millennial talent and z talent coming up? to occupy some of your management positions, high senior level management positions, one of the
big, big things, it’s unknown in our country, because nobody talks about it. It’s called the missing x generation. boomers, 80 million boomers, demographically in the United States. And there’s 80 to 100 million millennials demographically depends upon the dates to the date range. And there’s about 40 million actors. So when Xers are being born, there’s there’s lots of reasons why but it’s also a global thing. We had birth control pill came in 1974, I think or 75. And birth, abortion was was legalized in the early 1970s. Also, so some people think it was that just abortion alone. And then the pill really reduced our our birth rate during that during that season, we also had the Vietnam war going on. But all I have to say is it for 40 million boomers have already retired,
give or take a couple of million. That means there’s 40 million boomers left in the workforce. If there’s only 40 million actors, then the 40 million actors who are currently working already are already occupying a boomer vacated position. So for the next 40 million boomers to retire, there’s no more extras to take their place. Now, they kind of like, they may move from one Boomer position to another, but somebody’s going to fill that position they just left. And it’s going to be millennial talent. And so that’s why I worked with companies to try to get their millennial talent who was 38 to 40 years old today, to be able to occupy a job in two years, that they really need to be 55 for the experience that they need the business, the institutional knowledge they need to have in order to occupy that job. They need to be 55 years old with all that experience in but they don’t have it because they’re only 40. How do you get them there? Well, you do these initiatives. And it’s doing exactly what you’re talking about establishing these online academies, where they’re able to have this institutional knowledge transfer, and the older generation wants to give it to them. Because they know internally that they there is nobody to hire, this is why all these v one B one visas, or whatever we keep talking about all these foreigners come into our country, and we’ve taken all these technology jobs, some of it is bad, but a lot of it’s because there are no extras there. They were never born. It’s not like they didn’t go into technology or business stages were never born. So but we have jobs available that need that level of expertise and that level of experience. So we have to import it. Soon as credible. I really liked this concept, because a lot of certifications that are out there. And I’m in a couple of industries where they’re, they’re pretty heavily regulated, and they have to have certain licenses to you know, service homes, or whatever. But a lot of the information, and a lot of the content that they have to master is completely useless. They’ll never use it right? There’s a lot of that in school, too. I haven’t used geometry since I was 12, or something like that, but maybe have just didn’t know it. But with an internal certification program. The cool thing about it, and I’m just this concept is fairly is new to me, I’m just thinking of this as we go here. But you get to control it, you get to control. And somebody that has time that understands the business can say, hey, these are the practical aspects of what you need to know to in order to get to the next level. And so that information is just a lot more applicable. I’ll give you the perfect fix for just one exact what you’re talking about Alan, is to find three millennials on your in your organization that are really sharp. And that we’re really good at what they were really good at what they do. And they’re really indispensable. You really can’t replace them in what they’re doing. But you’re going to do replacement what they’re doing. And this is what you’re going to give them assignment to do is you’re going to allow them to select three or four people within your organization to build this thing for you.
And they will, I mean, I’m just telling you within, you know, you’ll you’ll have it up and running within three months and Academy within your organization, doing everything that you’re talking about. We want them to train on how we want them to be trained on these areas that we find to be important. Now, of course it has to meet all the regulatory requirements and that’s where the older generation comes in, is that they can say, you know, Fred, and Susan, you know, you’re doing this great that you’re doing it but it’s not going to meet the standard that we have to meet that so that’s what that person’s job is. These are the standards we need to meet at silho make it meet the state
but that’s just that’s that’s why i’m saying that in regards to what they could do is unbelievable what they can do to your organization if you unleash them and let them do what they’ve been trained to do and educated to do then they will take your company to an entirely new level and this was a conversation i was i was having with with with your assistant becky before before we actually started this conversation is his idea of entrepreneurial ism what we what millennials are our center because of their because of where they are in business right now if they are not provided that opportunity to advance they’re going to open shop right next door to wherever they’re working or around the corner from wherever they’re working and they’re going to open up their own shop and they’re going to do it their way and they’re going to blow away wherever they were working so if you’re a millennial out there and you listen to this program and you have an idea man i
know what i’m doing i just need an opportunity to do it well opportunities today and so within organizations who have sharp millennials that are unbelievably valuable to you let them do what they know how to do and let them transform your business to unbelievable proportions i like this concept because i think a lot of entrepreneurs a lot of business owners are worried like hey if i give all this control to somebody or if i allow this person to to attain this level or obtain this amount of information whatever then they’re just going to leave me right if i pay for their certifications if i allow them to advance or if i and i think this is a great context for talking about this but that is just the wrong mindset because what you’re doing is you’re hamstringing your own business by not allowing the most talented people to do what they’re the most talented at doing see what happens is that is they think that they’re protecting their business and saying they nobody in their business actually leaves and so they’re protecting their business or they’re not gonna let you be somebody who’s going to do it somebody in their generation is going to start the disrupter around the corner from where you’re working and so you might as well start the disrupter within your own business and so that you get to disrupt everybody else and the idea of loyalty they are not disloyal they this gallup survey that came out in i think it was 2020 like february of 2020 so that 92% now this was i was blown away
this saw a survey millennial it was like 92% of millennials said that they wanted to complete their career continue working for their employer for their entire career now when would have you ever heard that i’m going like are you kidding me 92% so they want to finish out their their careers in this job the company they’re working for that’s unbelievable well that’s because they don’t have this idea of just wanting to switch jobs nobody really does in their right mind you know some people switch jobs all the time but it’s not because they got other issues so dr zimmerman is a generation x individual more likely to have jobs
generation x was was was definitely hopping jobs when they were a little bit younger when they were about the age the millennials are coming up to right now about 40 when they were 40 they were definitely having jobs and the reason why they were hopping jobs is because there were so many boomers there there’s double the number of boomers ahead of them they were never going to get promoted ever i mean it just wasn’t gonna happen so they started their own businesses and look at some of the businesses that were stopped started by extras and they’re unbelievably incredible why were they unbelievably incredible why they were so successful because they were doing things it’s just like if you started your own business today if you just stopped and said okay i’m going to start a business doing a lot of
hpac i’m not going to start with technology in the hv ac business from 2006 or 2008 i’m going to go out and borrow from the bank and buy the latest technology 2021 technology for the hv ac business all my measurement instruments gonna be brand new everything’s gonna be brand new i’m gonna borrow from the bank to do that you have a lot of businesses out there they just don’t want to make that investment and they have this stuff it still works why would i go to invest in brand new technology well because you’re the key your competitor is going to invest in that brand new technology and blow your way in every it so that’s i’m saying allow your millennials access yeah that you got to do this and from an engagement productivity and loyalty perspective in that development stage that’s going to develop their productivity and part of that productivity growth is for them to use technology to encourage them to use technology and everything that they do because there’s so much information you can capture with technology today’s it’s it’s you know right now in the industrial sector maintenance is a big deal so if you run an industrial plant you have an a compressor that that if this compressor goes down or this pump goes down it’s gonna be you know $10 million a day in lost revenue and you’re gonna flare a bunch of stuff because your processes gone down so they’re building into these plants today is smart systems that model the whole thing while it’s while it’s online it’s operating they have stuff that’s modeling this whole thing that says you know your compressor needs to be checked right about now because it’s served
Life on it, it’s got a service at 80% of its service life, you need to check it. And so then then they have people go, don’t check the compressor to make sure it doesn’t go out. Same thing. And any business that you’re operating in a small, especially in small business is to provide those opportunities for people to do that use technology to your advantage. So Dr. Zimmerman, we have just a few minutes left. And one thing that I’m really wanting to know, and mostly for purposes of my own businesses, is how do I help the managers with this concept of treating millennials the way they needed to be treated in order to kind of spread their wings and add the most value to our companies? I, my older managers are, you know, they’re having a tough time they think, you know, they’re young whippersnappers, or whatever, and, and that they’re just wrong, as opposed to different.
Well, first, is to encourage them that they’re, they think they’re thinking differently. But they’re also educated differently. From a technological perspective. Here’s the deal. When boomers enter the workforce, just remind your Boomer, you’re older, you’re 55 and older, in your workplace, workplace, when just ask them to remember, what was their responsibility, they had their job when they were 30 years old. And they’re gonna laugh, and they’re gonna say, Man, the people that we hire who are 30 years old today aren’t doing anything like I was doing when I was 30. Why was that? Well, because the generation that was above the boomers was called the senior generation, a lot of them got killed in World War Two. So he had 80 million boomers competing against about 4035 to 40 million seniors in that generation. So when we were entering the workforce, and we were growing out of the war, all these job opportunities were open, unbelievable opportunities. Well, there was nobody else except for a boomer to fill it, there was no seniors to fill it. So boomers started getting promoted. I mean, I have friends of mine that they went up so many levels, including myself went from
being a part of a business to starting a business to owning businesses to running business as unbelievable. And but we as we got older, we just kept the jobs and helping us we were at the top, there was no place to go. So we’ve been in this top for 20 years. Just remind them of where they were when they were 30 years old and what they were responsible. And that’s what gives them that encouragement that that’s what you want them to pour back into the let the millennials do that. Well, they won’t don’t want to do that. They’re lazy. They’re not lazy, weren’t we, when they gave you the responsibility when you were 30? Are you lazy? Well, no, I wouldn’t did it? Well, what do you think they’re going to do?
Now this, that’s where it comes into work life balance, when you were 30 in your dog tired, when you got home at the end of the day, and you were working so hard, hard work 14 hours a day, I can’t imagine being an H hv AC person, or plumber, during the during the heavy seasons, when they’re working 18 hours a day, 16 hours a day, it’s tough. But in those situations, that is to remind themselves what they were doing. And then allow the millennials the same opportunity because they have the same problem. They have an extra ration above and it’s not very big. And so you need to let them know that you’re going to be we’re going to give you a lot of responsibility really quick and give it to them. They can handle it. Right. They’re not gonna mess it up. I love it. That’s awesome. I have quite a few takeaways from this conversation. And there’s actionable items that you know, you you’ve been able to, to help me with. I mean, my mind’s kind of just just ideas everywhere with how to kind of create this environment where millennials can thrive within my companies, because that’s how my companies are going to thrive. This is the hand that we’re dealt, for better or worse, it sounds like it’s not as bad as people, as the stigma makes us think, you know, Millennials almost a bad word. But I think if just like in a lot of cases with a business, you can look at something as a problem, or you can look at it as an opportunity. And so, yeah, this has been great. Dr. Zimmerman, where can people find you if they want more information?
By for my book, it’s unleashed the millennials calm, it’s got a website, unleash the millennials calm. And then my business is Engineering Leadership. design.com, engineering, leadership, design, calm, I’ve got links on both sites to my thing, get in contact with me if they liked it. I’d love to talk to them always love to communicate, cooperate, and collaborate and co create with others. So give me a holler. And let me help you. Love it. Appreciate you. Appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us today. Alan, it’s been a pleasure being on your show today. And I hope that the conversation we’ve had today is beneficial to your audience and that they they remember a thing is to align, develop and advance your talent. fields are where every time
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