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While research has started to debunk some millennial stereotypes, a gap between this cohort and their predecessors persists. In response, two studies were conducted with matriculating millennials to reveal the expectations they hold regarding typical leader behavior and leader-member relationships. The studies establish millennials' views and communicative and relational expectations of leaders and also help to answer which leader communication behaviors are likely to be valued and potentially most effective with this cohort. This research puts millennial self-report data in conversation with extant research to offer new insight. Suggestions for instructors and managers are included.

A half century of leader-member exchange research suggests that leaders share high- or low-quality relationships with members. However, these binary shortcuts dissolve the complexity of what is actually exchanged between leader and member. Therefore, a communicative view of these special dyadic relationships is forwarded, suggesting that leader-member relationships are a byproduct of, and produced through, concrete and continuous communicative exchanges. This scholarship answers long-standing calls for enhanced theoretical precision in parceling out the literal exchanges that take place between leader and member. Based on the results of focus groups and two self-report surveys, scales are developed to measure various dimensions of leader communicative behavior that may facilitate or hinder relationship development and maintenance. Group-level implications are discussed.

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