This is one of many questions I ask when I meet a new hiring manager. One hiring manager I shared this question with proceeded to tell me that he likes to interact with his team as little as possible.
I asked a few more probing questions and quickly determined that placing people with this particular hiring manager might be a problem.
Is There A Problem Here?
Most of the candidates who would fit this hiring manager’s openings would be at the 7-12 year mark (give or take) in their career. People at this stage in their careers are Millennials.
Most (not all) Millennials prefer regular feedback from their coach. Notice I didn't say manager. Most Millennials would rather have a coach than a manager.
Millennials generally like to know where they stand and they like to know how they’re going to get to the next level.
The problem with the hiring manager’s hands-off; interact as little as possible approach is that his one size fits all approach to managing people would likely not fly with most of his Millennial-aged employees.
This issue is not unique to Millennials. I can’t really think of anyone from any generation who wants to work for a boss who is mostly absent.
A Solution
This hiring manager, he could benefit from coaching that addresses how to manage a multi-generational workforce. He would benefit by learning not his own strengths but also the strengths of each individual on his team.
Beyond simply learning about his strengths and the strengths of those around him, if this manager was willing to adjust his leadership style to match each person's unique needs (based on each person's unique strengths), he would find his leadership results changing significantly.
The benefits to this manager when he learns how to adjust his managerial approach would include the ability to attract more of the right kinds of candidates as well as a higher likelihood of retaining talent.
