Johanna Tse was a student at Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, Manitoba, when she gave this speech at the 2016 conference, Leading into the common good: An Anabaptist Perspective. We will be publishing additional speeches from college students reflecting on Anabaptist identity and leadership later this month.

Everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to help mom with the dishes. Especially millennials. Especially on lasagna night.

A lot of people seem to think that millennials are a pain. Just a couple years ago, Time Magazine released an article titled, “Millennials, the Me Me Me Generation,” which called millennials lazy, entitled, self-obsessed narcissists.

That might be true, but you’re stuck with us. By 2025, millennials will make up 75% of the workforce. It’s no secret that millennials are slowly becoming the dominant generation, so the question should be, “how do we prepare them for the future?” Current models of leadership and decision-making will not remain effective without taking into account the characteristics of this rising generation. How do we get millennials to care about doing the dishes?

As a millennial myself, I can tell you that there are also many positive traits of this generation. The same Time Magazine article calls us pragmatic idealists, tinkerers and life hackers. We are the most educated generation yet. We are connected and tech-savvy, living in a world permeated with social media. We are great multi-taskers. We have a strong sense of community both locally and globally, and gather around causes that we are passionate about. We want meaning in our work, rather than just being another gear in the machine. We are team-oriented and crave collaboration. We like to surround ourselves with those who are like-minded and have similar interests and beliefs, while we’re also more accepting of differences. And, we have a certain approach to control, power, and influence; we see the world in a particular way, and that guides how all our decisions are made.

Millennials grew up with constant praise, and so we often feel overqualified for the jobs that we have or look for. Though we are able to multi-task, this also means that we are easily distracted. We want instant gratification and recognition, seeking purpose in our tasks and needing constant feedback. We also want work-life balance and flexibility.

We are not as willing as former generations to sacrifice our personal lives. We appreciate transparency, and so we want people to be upfront about expectations and goals. We also value opportunities to advance.

This means that autocratic styles of leadership and hierarchies are less accepted by millennials, whereas emotional leadership styles such as visionary, coaching and democratic leadership styles are more attractive. A visionary style appeals to millennials being pragmatic idealists, giving focus to a tendency to strive for innovation and change. Coaching allows millennials the independence that they seek while supporting them to succeed. And a democratic style fits the need for participation as millennials want to be a part of the decision making process. We value participatory decision making: wanting full participation, mutual understanding, inclusive solutions and shared responsibilities. We also want flatter organizational structures and crave chances to try things on our own.

It’s one thing for millennials to want certain things in leadership and decision making, but it’s another for them to work under these structures well.

What happens when professors put us into group projects? In my experience, often we sit around and stare at one another until someone takes the lead. We still need a leader, someone who will take initiative. In practice, there’s still a hierarchy in place. Though millennials want flatter organizations, perhaps what we really want is just to feel as though we are equal, to be given attention, in response to how our culture has shaped us. Or perhaps we simply don’t like titles. What we are asking for and what we want seems to be at odds. And so just because millennials are asking for certain things, it doesn’t mean that these things are good for us.

What is necessary then is to compensate for the strengths and weaknesses of the millennial generation. While being arrogant about our place in the world, glued to technology, and easily distracted, millennials are also an optimistic, driven and creative generation whose strengths need to be harnessed. We need a model that takes into account the people that are being led.

So, Baby Boomer managers, entrepreneurs and leaders should re-evaluate what it means to be a millennial and empower millennials to take more initiative.

The ideal is to structure organizations for initiatives. We need leaders who will give millennials a stake in the project, who will help us to set goals to give direction and focus, and who will help us to be more self-aware by building our emotional intelligence competencies. Leaders who will also teach millennials to work for long term causes rather than jumping from one cause to another or spreading ourselves too thin with too many causes to care about. We need mentors who share their experiences with us and support us in our work and passions.

As many current leaders are baby boomers, they must recognize that there are many strengths to be leveraged from millennials, and millennials can learn from the experience of generations before it. For this to happen, it is important to understand where millennials are coming from. We grew up in a world of abundance, which can make us seem entitled. Because many options exist to us, we are more likely to postpone decisions. Because of globalization and increased communication, we are constantly on social media and have a fear of missing out. But we can learn to use these things to our advantage.

Millennials challenge conventions and are eager to find new and better ways of doing things, and so along with the knowledge and experience the boomers bring, this makes for a winning combination.

Millennials have a fear of missing out, so we want to participate. We are informed and we need to be rallied together for causes and pushed to think critically about practical solutions.

We want to be involved and we want to change the world, but sometimes we don’t know what steps to take. We can dream the big dreams, but we might not know how to get there.

We need to be shown that the dishes are worth doing; that little things lead to big things.

We need to be given platforms and structures that push us and support us to make the changes we want to see, because we’re going to make changes, for better or for worse.

We don’t need each generation to mirror the ones before it, we just need each generation to succeed. We don’t necessarily need new models of leadership and decision-making, we will become them.

At the present, we still have a chance to shape the future that we want. So next time it’s lasagna night, you wash, we’ll dry.