Posted on Mar 3, 2016
What kind of military leaders do you think Millennials will become or have developed into?
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I remember having to develop a different approach when dealing with Millennials than with some of the older soldiers.
What kind of leaders will emerge from our millennial in the military? What leadership styles have worked best?
What kind of leaders will emerge from our millennial in the military? What leadership styles have worked best?
Posted in these groups: 
Millennials
Millennials
Edited 8 y ago
Posted 8 y ago
Responses: 5
I do not see why Millennials will be any different than those that came before. Each generation faces their own different challenges and approach them based on the surroundings. I believe we will see some great leaders come from the Millennials just as we have seen from other generations.
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Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
It's not that we will see less/more leaders, it's that we'll see leaders who were raised in a culture where different leadership tools were valued more heavily. As such, their "go to" tool is going to be different, and how they respond to the various techniques will affect morale differently.
The availability and familiarity with different tools affect how people approach different problems. As an example, I'm a small guy. I don't try to "muscle" things around. I use "leverage" a lot. Newer leaders are more comfortable in collaborative settings, therefore they will likely use that over directive techniques.
The availability and familiarity with different tools affect how people approach different problems. As an example, I'm a small guy. I don't try to "muscle" things around. I use "leverage" a lot. Newer leaders are more comfortable in collaborative settings, therefore they will likely use that over directive techniques.
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The military uses a transformative leadership process on all leaders, however millennials have been shown to work very well in coalitional settings as opposed to the traditional Command & Control (directive) settings.
It's not that other techniques and tools don't work, just that the "age culture" is more responsive to "committee style" discussions. From a Hierarchical standpoint it is counter to many Junior Leaders, however from a Staff perspective it works very well. It relies on influence (Charismatic) over direction (Machiavellian) elements. Both can be used to accomplish the same task... however morale is effected differently.
But in reality it's not going to change the type of leaders we have. We already have all types. They are just dispersed different, and we tend to incentivize different approaches based on billet, rank, and even location.
It's not that other techniques and tools don't work, just that the "age culture" is more responsive to "committee style" discussions. From a Hierarchical standpoint it is counter to many Junior Leaders, however from a Staff perspective it works very well. It relies on influence (Charismatic) over direction (Machiavellian) elements. Both can be used to accomplish the same task... however morale is effected differently.
But in reality it's not going to change the type of leaders we have. We already have all types. They are just dispersed different, and we tend to incentivize different approaches based on billet, rank, and even location.
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Each successive generation worked less than previous generations. They have cell phone ADD. Many never played sports which pushes individuals to try be the best and win.
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