Misunderstood Millennial Talent. Joan Snyder Kuhl

that insight into the creative process has helped me a lot in my main role as an account manager,” she says. “I can speak the language on the creative side better now. That makes it much easier to communicate our ideas to the client. That would never have happened at my former agency.”

      Intent on Understanding People Unlike Themselves

      Another aspect of intellectual growth and challenge that employees—and employers, as noted in Chapter Three—identify as important to their careers is acquiring knowledge of different people and cultures. Many of our interviewees attest to the importance of language skills in bridging divides on their globally dispersed teams. Talent specialists at multinational employers have likewise stressed they won’t even consider a candidate who is not willing to be posted internationally. But both qualitative and quantitative evidence points to this aspect of intellectual growth being the least developed: a whopping 73 percent—nearly three out of four—of Millennials without financial privilege say they are not acquiring knowledge of different people and cultures on the job.

      One financial services professional lamented that he could not access language training through his employer, even though further expansion of his current responsibilities as an analyst covering Latin America would demand knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese. Another points out that his global employer is so siloed that it’s nearly impossible for requests for international assignment from Millennials like himself to be matched up with vacancies from offices abroad. “My employer pays lip service to the geographic preferences that we voice,” says this financial services professional, “but there’s a fundamental disconnect between requests posted through HR and different parts of the business.”

      The loss to the business that such underinvestment represents isn’t easily quantified, but stories from interviewees like Chris,* a financial analysis manager based in Dubai at a global pharmaceutical company, make clear the extent of the toll. Chris recognized early in his career that in order to have meaningful and sustainable progression, he’d need to have international experience. “Without firsthand exposure to local markets, how can you understand how the price of oil impacts local government or the economy?” he observes. “Terrorism, war, currency devaluation, economic shocks…you may see these topics discussed in a report, but if you didn’t experience them you can’t manage your business around them.” In other ways, too, being in Dubai has given Chris vital insight. “I have much greater appreciation for the difficulties introduced by time zones and cultures. In the Middle East, we work Sunday to Thursday. I am sensitized to religious holidays in a way I might not have been before. Once you live it, you really get it: during Ramadan, for example, people work on a modified work schedule because they’re fasting. For thirty days, they’re supposed to be working only five to six hours, but they’ll be there for eight to ten hours because they are dedicated to their jobs—and they haven’t eaten!”

      Chris perceives the value of gaining such cultural insights firsthand: “Certainly my experience in Dubai is a big piece of what I will take back when I return to the US and step into a global management role,” he says. But he’s not at all confident that senior leaders appreciate how important international experience is for global team members, let alone global team leaders. “When I speak to managers back in the States,” he says, “most of them aren’t looking far enough down the line to see that the future of our company lies outside the US, in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. That’s a pretty big oversight, one that’s going to cost them a lot more in the long run than what they’re reluctant to spend on their people now.”

      5

      Rewarding Professional Relationships

      While growing up in New York, Veronica* had always imagined a future for herself in local government. Her parents both worked for the city, and she planned to follow in their footsteps. “Everyone thought I was crazy for limiting myself,” she says, recalling her friends’ reactions when, upon graduating from Lafayette College in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in economics, she made the unpopular decision to apply for a position at the mayor’s office. It turned out to be a great move: when the global recession hit in 2008, Veronica held onto her job. She spent the next four years working for various agencies in city government before pursuing a master’s degree in urban policy. Upon graduation, she was offered a prestigious internship at a federal agency.

      It seemed like a dream come true. “It was one of the most intellectually stimulating environments I’d ever had the opportunity to work in,” she remembers. “I was focused on economic policy, an area I’m passionate about. I was on the front lines, getting this insider’s view of our legislative system.” But something was missing.

      “The big problem was that I didn’t connect with the people,” Veronica explains. The workplace culture was competitive, rather than team-oriented. Coworkers were jockeying for visibility since, as is typical with bureaucracies, the only way to leapfrog the hierarchy was to cultivate a leader’s advocacy and protection.

      Today, Veronica works for a global financial services firm at which she intends to stay precisely because its culture provides the relationships that she both hungered for and knows will prove critical to her advancement.

      “I was very straightforward about what I was looking for,” she says, recalling her first interview with the firm. “I wanted to continue working with local governments and policy; I wanted a career where I could grow and advance; and, most importantly, I wanted to be able to build close relationships with senior leaders and coworkers,” Veronica explains. And the firm has more than delivered on that promise: Veronica says she can count on her current manager to help her access the development opportunities she needs to grow in her career. “If I want to try something different, to build new skills, I bring my case directly to her,” she reflects. “She’s in my corner, because she knows I deliver.”

      What Makes Relationships Matter

      Few would question Veronica’s priorities. Relationships are critical to our satisfaction and engagement at work, and also to our success. We look to coworkers for friendship, but also support in getting our work done. We look to superiors to inspire and motivate us, but also to provide guidance as we navigate the organization. On some level, we realize our journey upward will be that much easier if we can win the backing of someone powerful, someone who believes in our potential and is willing to go out on a limb to help us stretch and grow into positions of leadership.