CIO Executive Council —

How can we help the next generation succeed in IT careers?

With my Millennials, the idea I had was to teach them basic business principles to help manage expectations and create a context for communication. As soon as people learn those principles, they can appropriately govern their own careers.

First, they must understand there is no entitlement. You have to earn your way. Even CIOs who feel entitled by virtue of that title must realize that we don't automatically get a seat at the executive table. We have to win those seats.

How? That's where the first principles come into play: trust and business knowledge. No one has both of those coming in the door. Millennials need to build trust and acquire business knowledge.

The next principle is foresight and ambition. Most people, including Millennials, have these on behalf of their own careers. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being internally focused, but in order to be successful, you also need foresight and ambition on behalf of the organization—the drive to help your company succeed.

Apply Strengths

I tell Millennials that as long as you pay attention to these basic principles, you don't have to use them in the same way as earlier generations. You should apply your own background and skills, and leverage your particular strengths.

H.B. Fuller is a global company, and we've struggled with collaborating at that level. Millennials bring experience collaborating and communicating on a global basis every day. When they want to apply foresight and ambition on behalf of the organization, they can help us collaborate better. And from those efforts, they can gain business knowledge and build trust.

Don't Force It

What doesn't work, and usually creates career frustration, is forcing Millennials into a rigid work model. The basic org-chart creates silos, and social context dictates that only the person at the top is allowed to talk across silos.

Millennials don't view the world as silos; they view it as a horizontal, connected network. If we punish them for not working through what we view as proper channels, conflicts arise.

By leveraging this generation's strengths in the context of those basic principles, we can connect them to the corporate environment in a way that encourages them to participate in growing the business and their careers.

Steven John is CIO of H.B. Fuller, a chemicals company, and a mentor in the the CIO Executive Council's Pathways program. E-mail mentor topics to connect@cio.com.

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