Millennials, the generation born between 1980 and 2000, now account for the majority of the workforce, with more than 1.8 million of them globally.

With that transition comes a big challenge in the workplace, as Baby Boomers work to figure out how to tackle the demands of the millennial generation, Paul Angone, speaker and author of All Groan Up, said Tuesday at the FOCUS 15 event in Las Vegas. However, Angone said that challenge also offers an opportunity for business leaders who can change their approach to embrace the up-and-coming generation.  

"This is a really exciting time and there's a lot of opportunities here...to strategically talk about how we work with this generation better," Angone said.

Angone told Intel Security partners at the event that millennials typically say their biggest complaint about their management is being ignored. While millennials sometimes get a bad reputation for always demanding a gold star for their achievements, Angone said that what they want more is to know their leaders on a personal level and perceive them as accessible, aware and authentic.

To help establish that relationship, Angone said leaders should establish themselves not as a manager, but as a mentor, coach, advocate or ally.

"I think you have this opportunity to help millennials co-create their career path ... because millennials ... are driven and they want to know, 'Where is this headed and where can I grow in the company?'" Angone said.

A large part of that conversation should be to convey the company's mission and how that fits into a sense of purpose and meaning. Citing a Deloitte study, Angone said 77 percent of millennials said they chose their place of work because of its sense of purpose. For the security professionals in the audience, Angone said that's an easy conversation to have as their solutions and services help protect companies from bad actors.

"It’s a real opportunity for you to keep couching the work you're doing into that significant why and leveraging that passion that millennials have and saying these tasks and responsibilities are built into this purpose," Angone said.

Some other small changes Angone suggested making included taking time for "just because" drop ins, inviting millennials to shadow top leadership, open continuous feedback loops, share stories of struggle and failure and create times to help further millennials' career growth.