Who This Book Is About

This book is inspired by the behavior of high-performing millennials, but it applies to modern talent as a whole. To explain what I mean by high-performing or “top talent” millennials, consider that with the advent of digital technology, some millennials (and people in general) are more capable at filtering through the overwhelming amounts of information and leveraging it to take action. Some, however, are instead overwhelmed and let technology drive them. For example, some are sensitive to digital distractions and procrastinate, lack focused attention, and exhibit other problems. While neuroscience research is ongoing to discover the cause for these differences, this book is based on the behavior of those millennials who clearly have adapted successfully. Those who have persevered through college or entrepreneurial gap years post–high school and have made it through the high hurdles of today’s world-class recruiting processes are more likely to have adapted well to technology.

These top talent millennials give us clues for what works well in this digitally enabled society. They have experimented and tuned productive behaviors since childhood. They are truly digital natives, not digital immigrants, and possibly, more fully than most, they exploit and comprehend what it means to be digitally enabled and digitally influenced. Similarly, where these individuals are ineffective (e.g., face-to-face communication) indicates a need to bring forth best practices from previous generations or to create practices to navigate new challenges of the digital world. So, please keep in mind that I’m well aware that every single thing millennials do isn’t an indicator for a best approach, but it is simply outside the scope of this book to address that topic!

The behaviors discussed also lean heavily toward those individuals in jobs and careers that involve highly cognitive, nonroutine work. Some examples of this type of work include project management, customer service, and troubleshooting manufacturing issues. As we will explore in the next chapter, this is a purposeful choice because of the significant increase of nonroutine work (whether in the office or as physical labor). Routine work, even something like serving in a fast-food restaurant, is decreasing. (In the fast-food case, fully automated restaurants, complete with robots, have already been launched!) Therefore, my research has focused more heavily on reinterpreting the drivers, the needs, and behaviors of top talent, high-performing millennials in cognitive, nonroutine roles.

Many of the expectations and cultural changes in this book will resonate with modern-minded gen Z, boomers, traditionalists, and gen Xers as well; a group that we will refer to as modern talent. As you read this book, you may find a millennial behavior and think, “That’s not just millennial! That is how I am too!” That’s great! Regardless of generation, many of us have adapted well to digital technology. If you identify with a particular millennial behavior, all that means is that you identify strongly with modern perceptions of work. The caveat to keep in mind is that for older generations, many “millennial” expectations for the workplace were wants, not needs. Millennials and generation Z are often redefining needs—and with good reason, as I’ll demonstrate in many cases.