top of page
Search

Management in the Age of Millennials

Updated: Jul 24

As of 2017 thirty-five percent of the American workforce was made up of millenials (or as I like to call them, adults under 40). At the same time an estimated forty percent of lawyers were millennials. These numbers will only grow over the next few years so odds are good that if you’re looking to expand any time soon you’ll be hiring a millennial. So what does that mean for your firm? Personally I tend to find the concept of generation generalizations to be utterly satirical but they can be helpful for recognizing cultural trends. In doing so these concepts provide an opportunity for law firm managers to assess how their practices line up with current best practices so that they can hire, train, and retain top talent. So in this article I wanted to lay out everything you need to know about the millennial generation and how to get the most out of the millennials in your firm. Without further ado, here’s everything you need to know about management in the millennial age.

ree

What Defines the Millennial Age?

 

Innovation Minded

 

Millennials were raised in a start-up tech culture that constantly seeks to improve and simplify every aspect of human life. So “That’s how it has always been done” will not be a valid explanation for anything that happens in your office. I don’t care that law is a profession built on precedent. Precedent matters in court arguments but it does not justify rigid adherence to business practices that are quite literally killing our industry.[1] For Millennials this is not a scary problem it’s an exciting opportunity. We are always open to a better way to do things and are unafraid to try and fail multiple times.

 

For some attorneys this probably sounds like a nightmare, but I think it is the greatest asset that new lawyers have. Whether it’s a fresh look at old case law or a revised system for gathering and reviewing your clients’ medical records it never hurts to be thinking about improvements. This does not mean that millennials will constantly be breaking procedure and disrupting your office flow (both of which are valid reasons for following an old procedure) it just means that the millennials in your firm will be open to and excited about changes when the firm has the time and resources to implement them.

 

Value Driven

 

Millennials care about the values of a company. Almost 70% of millennials say that they consider a company’s values when making a purchase.[2] We have been nicknamed “The Purpose Generation” for our high interest in doing purpose-driven work. Money matters but is not the key driver and please do not imagine that there is a genuine mass desire for office foosball tables, coffee bars, and beanbag chairs.[3] What millennials want is to do valuable work and be valued for it.

 

Lawyers often think that simply by the nature of our profession their firm is value driven. That is simply untrue and if you have doubts about that look no further than the prevailing firm business model of the billable hour which pits the firm’s financial interests against the legal consumer’s interests of efficiency and security. Being value driven is more than just advocating for causes in individual cases. It’s about building a business (your firm) that exists for a cause and makes business decisions with that cause in mind. That purpose needs to extend beyond the success of the firm and think about your impact on the broader community and the future. At Palace Law our mission is to ensure justice for the injured in every community and our management team makes decisions with that mission in mind and in line with our values which consider both our firm and our community now and in the future.[4]

 

Flexible

 

Let me be abundantly clear, millennials are not lazy or entitled. I think much of what has led to that stereotype comes from millennials’ reasonable belief that work should not be the dominant force in one’s life. Millennials are fine with working hard and paying our dues, but we’re not fine with useless grunt work and a toxic expectation that your employer should have any influence on your life after work hours end. Millennials reasonably expect that if their work is done well and on time then their employer really has no room to complain. This has led to a push (even pre-pandemic) for more flexible work environments including working from home and adjustable hours.

 

In my firm “Live Well” is one of our core values we talk a lot about work life fit. The point is that your work and your life should not be competing forces tugging you in different directions as you struggle for balance. Work as a part of your life should fit into and around the rest of your life like a puzzle. As much as possible we strive to ensure that employees are able to work whatever hours are best for them (client needs and court dates are perhaps our biggest barriers). People are encouraged to take time off and no one bats an eye when I decide to spend the morning fishing and show up to the office at 10:00 in sandals with scales on my fingers.

 

Guidance for Managing Millennials

 

It’s not that millennials “need” to be managed differently than previous generations, it’s that today we know a lot more about good management than we used to and millennials are attuned to which work environments have adapted to these advances in knowledge. Good management, as any modern business advisor or bestselling book will tell you, is not about enforcing strict rules with a heavy hand. Good management is all about getting people to feel ownership over their work and giving them the support and guidance they need to succeed. Below are some tips that have worked well for me over the years both as a millennial employee and a millennial manager.

 

Assume Millennials are Hard Working and Dedicated

 

I know I already mentioned this but it bears repeating: don’t assume millennials are lazy and entitled. Millennials want to do valuable work and feel valued. Nothing will keep them from that more than a manager who treats them like they are lazy and don’t care. Yes you will see a millennial attorney on their phone, they will look at instagram or tiktok during work, and they may take a long lunch. But if they see value in the work they are doing then their is a very good chance that 1) they are doing work on their phone (that’s how I wrote half this article); 2) that tiktok account could be huge for firm marketing (or they just need a break in which case, chill out); and 3) they’ll be working late feeling reinvigorated after lunch with a good friend. You get the point.

 

Take the Time to Teach

 

Telling someone what to do in a specific circumstance is easy but it only solves the immediate problem. Explaining to someone why they should do something a certain way takes longer but it enables them to solve their own problems later. It’s the difference between teaching a man how to catch brown trout in spring on the bighorn river with a fly rod and teaching a man the art of fishing. One is much easier but the other is much more valuable. All too often I hear of senior attorneys telling associates what they did wrong or simply editing their briefs without offering feedback. If you don’t take the time to explain the reasoning behind each edit or correction then you are failing to adequately teach and the similar mistakes will inevitably be made again. When I edit the work of associates I often do so with them in the room (or zoom) with me so that I can explain my reasoning for every single edit as I go.

 

Be Flexible

 

I assume the reader saw this one coming, but what does it mean for a legal employer to be flexible? It does not mean that you don’t set expectations and monitor productivity. It does not mean that associates should be allowed to work whenever they want.  It means that a good manager should 1) outline the work that an associate must do, 2) establish reasonable deadlines, 3) identify any necessary constraints on how and when the work should be done, and 4) leave it to the associate to decide the rest. Allow me to give to contrasting examples.

 

Example A: Any associate in my office needs to take their share of calls from potential clients. Potential clients call between 8:00 and 5:00 and our intake form (that the attorney must fill out) is in the cloud. The only necessary constraints are that an associate needs to be reasonably available with access to a phone and internet from 8:00-5:00 PST. I have no right to care if they are on a beach in Hawaii so long as those constraints are met.

 

Example B: I have assigned an associate to write the first draft of a brief in one of my cases. I would like to have the brief on my desk one week before it is due and I would like them to not spend more than twenty hours on it. The only necessary constraint is that it must be done in the timeframes I have given. Beyond that I have no right to care when or how the brief is done.

 

Give Them Ownership and Autonomy

 

This one follows from the above and plays into the millennial innovation and value driven mindsets. It’s also widely accepted at this point that giving employees autonomy and ownership over their work is one of the greatest ways to increase motivation and productivity.[5] If you want to get the most out of your millennial employees don’t micromanage them. Don’t just hand them all of your discovery depositions, assign the whole case to them. Trust them, only constrain them in necessary ways, and let them do what you have taught them to do so well.

 

Take Responsibility for Their Success

 

When I was in college I had the pleasure of meeting Gary Maynard who at the time was Secretary of Maryland’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and he said something that has stuck with me since; “If you take responsibility for something you gain power over it.” If you take responsibility for the success of the millennials you hire into your firm then you will have some power over their success. That doesn’t mean that every hire will work out perfectly but it does set you up for success. Recently I had an associate leave my office. It was the first departure from my team since I started managing and he was one of my first hires. While I obviously disagree with his decision I also chose to take responsibility for it. What that means is that I fully believe his departure was at least in part my fault and I am determined to investigate and correct that mistake in the future.

 

I think that last bit of advice is the most important. And by reading this far into the article I think it’s safe to assume that you are already taking responsibility for the good management of the people in your office. Much like work and life managers and employees should not be opposing forces. The best management is about doing everything within your power to ensure that your employees (regardless of their age) are successful. I’ll leave you with one more question the managers in my office regularly ask each of our team members “What do you want or need from me or Palace Law in order to be successful?”


[3] Admittedly the author of this article does have a beanbag chair in his office but it has been primarily co opted by the office pets. See https://www.instagram.com/palace_paw/

[4] This definition of value known as “bentoism” comes from Yancey Strickler’s “This Could Be Our Future.”

 
 
 

Comments

bottom of page