It is no secret that many Gen Y folks are very entrepreneurial and have ventured out on their own to develop a career path. While some of this has slowed with the economic downturn, it is still a career option for many folks in Generation Y. While we may see a slowdown in many folks’ bootstrapping their way during an entrepreneurial venture, I don’t think that Gen Y will lose their entrepreneurial spirit. They will simply figure out another way to get it done.

One of those ways to get it done is creating a 5-9 business.

I find it fascinating that one of the myths about Gen Y is that they are spoiled and lazy, yet many of this cohort maintain one or two jobs while balancing volunteer time and activities. One of the ways that Gen Y will achieve their entrepreneurial dreams is to start with a 5-9 business. Once that business is up and running, Gen Y will turn it into full employment.

I think that many business leaders will think that they are doing well with their talent retention during this time. What these business leaders will fail to see is how Gen Y is splitting their energy between 9-5 and 5-9. I’ve talked in the past about how Gen Y may keep a less than desirable job in order to pay the bills. One of the consequences of poor leadership will be Gen Y’s diminished energy and commitment to their 9-5 job. Their energy and commitment may well be targeted to their 5-9 job. I truly believe this is an inevitable consequence of poor leadership within their “day job.”

Gen Y will find an outlet for their creative juices and entrepreneurial spirit. If someone will not provide them with meaningful and interesting work during the day, then they will find it on their own. Many will turn these ventures into full-time employment.

Daniel seemed to have a real interest in the topic and really connected with the point about “timeless leadership”. I simply do not believe Gen Y is unreasonable with their expectations of leadership. Gen Y simply demands what every generation wants from their managers and leaders. When we are working with our clients we try to stress that in no way, shape, or form are we asking for accommodations to be made for Gen Y. We are simply asking for the implementation of timeless leadership.

Back to Daniel. During our discussion we were talking about the need to “explain the why” to Gen Y. Managers cannot simply assign work and move on. If Gen Y has questions, managers need to be available. Also, if managers take 30 seconds and explain why the task is relevant, Gen Y will dive into it with all of the commitment you could ever want. The equation is simple. Interesting + meaningful work = commitment. This point resonated with Daniel. It seems that he has always exhibited timeless leadership.

Years ago Daniel was an executive for Shell International. In his role, he had many opportunities to hire new talent. These new folks were highly educated engineers and sought after talent. What he would do, was give these new folks very meaningful and strategic assignments right out of the gate. These assignments would be parts of the overall strategy, not just projects to keep the new hires busy. He would carve out time to follow up and he always had a 90 day review of the progress.

In other parts of the organization, he often witnessed a different process for new hires. Daniel said, “people would assign the engineers the task of counting nuts and bolts instead of trusting them with meaningful work. Then they would wonder why these new people were not working hard. I never had that issue. All of my new folks were working hard….and contributing.” It is not a coincidence that his folks also tended to go on to great success.

“Back in the day”, Daniel was working with Baby Boomers and Traditionalists, not Gen Y. However, he would have had the same success with Gen Y that he did with the other generations. The reason is simple, timeless leadership.

As already mentioned, Gen Y can be slackers when they are given meaningless work. They know that some dull work has to be done, and they are willing to do it – as long as it is connected to a worthwhile goal. Gen Y is capable of creating their own meaningful work, but you’ll be better off helping them do it, so that your work will be in the mix. Lay out the options and ask Gen Y if they’d be interested in trying various tasks. You can do this during the job interviews. They’ll tell you what they do and don’t want to do, and their choices will often surprise you.