"Why is more important than what or how"

Every month Morgan walks over to my desk and drops off a copy of Inc. Magazine. She started doing this initially because it had “young people” on the cover (even though Morgan is really only a few years older than me), but now I find myself reading it every month.

This past month there was a great article called “Lessons from a blue-collar millionaire,” about Nick Sarillo the owner of Nick’s Pizza and Pub. I started reading the article because I love pizza, but I kept reading the article because Sarillo manages a ton of Millennials in his restaurants! Almost all of his employees are high-school students, with a few college students thrown in. While most managers complain about managing Millennials, Sarillo has tapped into how Millennials work and he has made their style work for him.

Image from Inc. Magazine

Instead of ordering around his high-school workers, Sarillo has designed a system that gives them more ownership and responsibility at work. “Today’s teens are as strong and as good as any previous generation of workers, but you need to share the ‘why’ with them,” said Sarillo. “The days of ‘do what I tell you’ are gone. You simply won’t be successful.”

“Sarillo has built his company’s culture by using a form of management best characterized as ‘trust and track.’ It involves educating employees about what it takes for the company to be successful, then trusting them to act accordingly.”

Sarillo calls what he is doing at Nicks Pizza and Pub “creating a culture,” but I really think it all has to do with him adjusting his management skills to make his employees feel like they have a stake in the success of his business. Millennials have to feel like they can make their own success and be valuable to a business. The “why is more important than what or how” at Nicks Pizza and Pub, which is what makes it a great place for Millennials to work.