A leadership coach provides advice on how to engage and give feedback to millennials while keeping them accountable. A leadership coach provides advice on how to engage and give feedback to millennials while keeping them accountable.Always give millennials accountability structures so they know what you expect of them, what the success metrics are, and how you will track their performance. Millennials thrive in a high-transparency culture where it’s clear what each member of the team accomplishes. This promotes a feeling of fairness, which further engages millennials.Sometimes you’ll need to give difficult feedback. Begin with a supportive, collaborative approach. State observable data and behavior (“Here’s what I saw or heard,” or “The deadline was missed”), then describe how what happened affected you and the team. Ask, “Is this what you think happened?” The idea is to get their perception and listen to and acknowledge their point of view–you don’t have to agree.Next, ask for or make suggestions about how to resolve the issue. Describe what you want in terms of specific behaviors. Don’t say, “You need to be friendlier to disgruntled customers.” Instead, give examples of words to say or actions they can take when an interaction turns tense or confrontational. Get acknowledgement by saying, “What did you hear me say to you? I just want to be sure you understand.” Finally, build small agreements. What is the millennial’s plan for changing their behavior? How will you monitor your agreements? Remember, vagueness creates anxiety. Specificity brings peace of mind.Never miss an opportunity to inquire versus give orders. Asking questions enables millennials to solve their own problems, find solutions and rise up as leaders. Christine Comaford is a neuroscience-based leadership and culture coach who helps executives navigate growth and change. Related content feature Expedia poised to take flight with generative AI CTO Rathi Murthy sees the online travel service’s vast troves of data and AI expertise fueling a two-pronged transformation strategy aimed at growing the company by bringing more of the travel industry online. By Paula Rooney Jun 02, 2023 7 mins Travel and Hospitality Industry Digital Transformation Artificial Intelligence case study Deoleo doubles down on sustainability through digital transformation The Spanish multinational olive oil processing company is immersed in a digital transformation journey to achieve operational efficiency and contribute to the company's sustainability strategy. By Nuria Cordon Jun 02, 2023 6 mins CIO Supply Chain Digital Transformation brandpost Resilient data backup and recovery is critical to enterprise success As global data volumes rise, business must prioritize their resiliency strategies. By Neal Weinberg Jun 01, 2023 4 mins Security brandpost Democratizing HPC with multicloud to accelerate engineering innovations Cloud for HPC is facilitating broader access to high performance computing and accelerating innovations and opportunities for all types of organizations. By Tanya O'Hara Jun 01, 2023 6 mins Multi Cloud Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe