How millennials will save the economy
By 2030, 75% of the American workforce will be comprised of Millennials, or those who reached young adulthood around 2000. That means big changes, particularly in terms of leadership.
A 2014 study found that 78% of Millennials considered themselves leaders amongst their friends and family and 73% aspired to lead the workplace in the next five years. Something has got to give, either corporations are about to become incredibly top-heavy or Millennials are going to have to settle into non-leadership positions.
Amy Wilkinson, author of “The Creator's Code” and former White House Fellow, thinks the problem is that Millennials aren’t starting their own companies: analysis from The Wall Street Journal found the share of those under the age of 30 who own a private business is at a 24-year low.
“You don't need an MBA or to wait. It doesn't take $1 million dollars and it doesn't take perfect timing,” to start a company says Wilkinson. Millennials need to start small she says-- perhaps by working on the side. Wilkinson points to Sara Blakely, the billionaire founder of Spanx, who began her company with only $5,000 by cutting the feet off of stockings as an example.
For those Millennials who aren’t ready to venture out on their own, “being a creator is not necessarily that you have to create a company,” says Wilkinson-- creating a new idea at an established company can be just as impactful. She points out Doug Dietz, who worked on MRI machines at GE healthcare. He saw that about 80% of young children had to be sedated before going into the machines and so he created a children’s adventure story within the machine, with sticker decals and scripts for machine operators-- with very little funding he was able to bring the number of sedations for MRI machines to nearly zero.
Whether they venture out on their own or try to create within already-established companies, we'll certainly see a change in workplace structure in the coming years to accomidate a new group of people who strive to lead.
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