If you have ever wondered how to successfully lead a hardworking and innovative Gen Y’er – you may have given up, thinking they don’t exist!

But there are many exceptions the “typical” onesie-wearing, Facebook addicted, slovenly Gen Y’er.

There are countless 20-something self-made millionaires, entrepreneurs and managers taking the corporate world by storm, and just as many chomping at the bit to learn from the Gen X’ers and Baby Boomers before them. 

Today’s leaders should want their Gen Y team members to look up to them, learn from them, and eventually take the lead (sooner rather than later if you ask any Gen Y). But how can you expect a Gen Y’er to be your new ‘up and coming’, if you treat them like the new kid on the block?

As a Gen Y’er myself, here’s what you can do to win the hearts of your Gen Y team members:

• Watch the off the cuff ‘young people these days’ comments, and stop them. You never know who you might be offending.
• Offer mentorship and opportunities for collaboration, if we feel like we’re contributing to the bigger picture, we’ll be proud to tell our friends, gym buddies, and family just how amazing you are – and we’ll network the hell out of your business.
• Transformational leadership – a big focus for anyone studying HR. We’ve got high expectations of what a leader should be. So you’ll need to be the best leader you can be, then we’ll look up to you, learn from you, and want to be you.
• Let us have our way – sometimes. You never know, we might just be over-confident enough to come up with the best idea your firm has had (even if it is a cat-video-diary – if you don’t believe you can make money from cat videos, look at this)
• Our patience wanes very thin at times, if you get us to do something that seems counter-productive or completely dis-interesting (without explaining why), you’ll lose us.
• Consider adding unusual perks to our employment contract – think premium Spotify accounts, team breakfasts, free time to work on our ‘dream project’ – you never know what we’ll come up with!

So, when you are looking among your Gen Y team members thinking, “Who can I trust to run this place once I’m gone?”, if you've created a learning environment where Gen Y’ers feel challenged, valued and useful, you should have your pick from an amazing bunch of strong minded, skilled and well-connected young adults.