Emotional Intelligence Amongst Millennials: Male vs. Female Leaders in the IT and ITES Sectors

Leadership And The Millennial Generation

Leadership is the ability to influence a group of individuals to work so that a common goal can be achieved (Northouse, 2007). The present study mentions that millennial are already in key leadership roles in many organizations and many soon to occupy it, there is a need to understand their leadership traits and styles. This shall help understand the values and perspective which they put forward at work. A leader is required to connect with the followers or team members and it has been found that millennial prefer meaningful relationships with peers and supervisors (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010).

Also, one of the characteristics of the millennial employees is that they freely express their opinions and hence they prefer open communication with their leaders (Chou, 2012). The millennial leaders place importance to socialization and collaboration (Aruna & Anitha, 2015) which is a crucial element for effective leadership. Study has also shown that compared to leaders from other generations, Millennial leaders display more maturity and responsibility while handling relationships (Sriram, 2014). Leaders are required to be resilient. Millennial leaders are found to excel as they have the ability to bounce back from impediments and hindrances (Bargavi et al., 2017). Millennial as compared to any other working generation are more tech savvy and using technological devices for engaging in communication & decision making (Murray,2011). Millennial leaders also display the quality of multitasking which at times is counterproductive, with stress coming in (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010; Murray, 2011).