Customer Reviews

Millennial Leaders: Success Stories from Today's Most Brilliant Generation & Leaders

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was an interesting book to read. Supposedly it was written "to provide Generation Y with over 100 strategies for achieving career and personal success while also inspiring experienced leaders to be more open and receptive to the world views of Generation Y." Some might say it wasn't really written at all. But instead, was a compilation of 25 interviews taped, transcribed, edited, and glued together to make a book with the following five parts:

1. The "What" of the Y
2. The Entrepreneurial Spirit
3. The Digital Divide
4. Gen Y in the Workplace
5. Media Makes a Difference

The tag line to the title says this book provides "success stories from today's most brilliant Generation Y leaders." But I only saw nine of those. Six were included in Part II and three were included in Part IV. Those interviews were the best part of the book for me. I enjoy about reading success stories of people. And the fact that these young adults were still in their 20's was inspiring.

I was not familiar specifically about the time groupings for the various generations that make up our society today. The book informs us that there are basically four generations:

Traditionalists (Pre 1946 babies)
Baby Boomers (people born between 1946 to 1964)
Generation X (people born between 1965 to 1977)
Generation Y (Post 1977 babies)

I thought the book was well researched. And I thought the opinions of the supposed experts interviewed in parts I, III, and IV were somewhat accurate. However, in my humble opinion I think they all were unfair in describing Generation Y people (Y'ers) as "Generation Me." From what I could gather from reading the book Y'ers are into themselves. They don't like to work for others. And they think in the present rather than the long term. I felt the authors thought Y'ers are somehow different than the three generations that precede them.

I vehemently disagree. All four generations go through life the same way. All four generations do things based on incentives that are available to them. In our world today there are the haves and the havenots. The traditionalists and the baby boomers tend to be the haves. Generation X and Generation Y seem to be on the outside looking in. When the traditionalists and baby boomers went to school they did so with the expectation that there would be a good job waiting for them when they got out. And when they took a job with a company they usually correctly believed that the company would help them monetarily move up in their career and financially. There were incentives in place for those generations to be loyal to their employers.

Those same incentives do not exist today. The traditionalists and baby boomers either are at the top of the economic food chain and don't want to give up their financial status - or they are dutiful employees who just want to hang on to the job they have attained and the economic prosperity they enjoy. There is not enough financial prosperity around today for these people to share with the "new recruits," i.e., the X'ers and Y'ers. So the Y'ers see that the only way to get ahead today is to build their skill sets and become entrepreneurs.

There are three reasons for taking a job regardless of who you are: (1) to make money to support yourself, (2) to start a career where you can move up a ladder as an employee, or (3) to broaden your skill set so you can be a successful entrepreneur. People born before 1964 tend to have been in their 20's and faced a world that encouraged them to take a job for reasons 1 and 2. The world today encourages people in their 20's to take a job for reasons 1 and 3. It's just that simple. Y'ers are no different than the earlier generations. It's the world that has changed. And I felt as thought the advice provided by the experts in parts I and IV did not understand this reality. I got the impression that they thought the Y'ers were supposed to sacrifice so the haves could continue to have dutiful employees that won't job hop. I would have liked the book so much more if the message had been that the have's were going to have to accommodate the Y'ers so the Y'ers could eventually start their own businesses and be successful entrepreneurs. 4 stars!

Millennial Leaders is an easy read and quickly illustrates some of the challanges the various age groups in our workforce are running into when coming from a millenial point of view - especially when dealing with the boomer generation, or one of the other two in today's workforce.

Tonight there was a feature on "60 Minutes" about the Millenial generation in the workforce. The authors compiled a wonderful work which exposes us to many young leaders in our society, and many people who have been working with "Gen Y" so that the restu of us can learn from it!

Do not think twice - BIY this book.... it could help you align with someone in your workplace whom you might not have been interested in working with, AND it could help with better understanding in and outside of a business environment.

Gen Y readers - pick this book up because it could be very helpful for your career.

As a sales effectiveness coach and trainer - these are prominent issues and the more understanding we can get, the better.

Millennial Leaders: Success Stories from Today's Most Brilliant Generation Y Leaders is an essential book for anyone who is interested in improving their bottom line by bridging the gap between the Gen-Ys, Gen-Xs, Baby Boomers, and even perhaps the traditionalists. This book is filled with inspiring story after inspiring story with applicable strategies that a business owner, employer, student, college grad, professor, or anyone craving success and better leadership skills can apply immediately.

If you're among the Gen-Ys, for example, you will benefit from Jason Dorsey's advice on how to get the career of your dreams. His story was truly inspiring. Mimic his process (once he got the kick-in-the-pants he needed, that is!), and you can't go wrong.

As a person of color who also faced overt discrimination and racism--particularly in the 90s and earlier, the story of James Sun (former participant on The Apprentice and self-made millionaire) resonates with me on many levels. His drive, tenacity, and wit produced a very compelling rags-to-riches story, and he's a mere 30 years old. He also gives great advice to young adults on how to approach future employers and staying ahead in today's world. He also clears up some misconceptions about what it takes to start a business. These are just a couple of examples.

I had become quite comfortable with my target market as a productivity coach to women at least 35 years old over the past 4 years as a Gen-Xer myself. But I recently began teaching college freshmen for the first time in almost a decade. It's a very different environment now compared to when I was teaching college students closer to my age. The book provided a lot of insight on how to communicate with them and explained behavior and tendencies that I noticed but didn't quite understand until after reading some of the experiences in the book. I really do believe that the Gen-Ys of the world--college educated or not--will make an immense impact on our world. This book has shown examples of those who already have.

All generations alive today have received a moniker and acquired a reputation of sorts. The most famous and numerous of the lot, of course, are the Baby Boomers, those born between 1945 and 1961. The preceding generation was the Silent Generation and the next was Generation X, those born between 1962 and 1976. The latest and perhaps most interesting of the latest generations to receive a moniker are those in Generation Y, those born between 1977 and 1989. Their elders often appear to be somewhat dismayed at them and at times only manage to view them with a little disdain. They walk around with cell phones plastered to the sides of their heads, sport unusual tattoos, have a lot of body jewelry and seem to have no other talents save Nintendo.

Indeed, even a renown caricaturist from the Journal de Quebéc recently portrayed a young person from this generation in a visual portrait with his pants partially lowered revealing the Y in the crack of his buttocks. It was a crack, yes, but an undeserved one. According to Bea Fields, Scott Wilder, Jim Bunch & Rob Newbold in their new book, MILLENNIAL LEADERS: Success Stories From Today's Most Brilliant Generation Y Leaders, this new generation holds great talent, perhaps more than any other generation before it. So, you Baby Boomers, sit up and take notice and look beyond the simple visual effects.

The authors, although acknowledging the great gifts this generation has to offer, have successfully interviewed and portrayed some of the most highly talented young people in Generation Y and their amazing achievements. They may be seen as "generation me," have high expectations and want instant gratification, but also are into social responsibility, are creative, rank high on the entrepreneurship ladder and possess many other sparkling qualities. It's high time to forget about the nose ring and look at the heart and souls of these people.

I was thinking that this book would prove to be another one of those hype type books trying to make a few dollars on the run, but I was mistaken. It was an eye opener and a very captivating read. There were many interesting web sites offered and I took a peek at a few of them with great interest. It helped me as a Baby Boomer obtain some amount of insight and a better understanding of this large group of people and an appreciation of my own parenting skills to another very successful Generation Y young man. This book would be of high interest to the parents of this generation and an excellent tool for prospective employers in their quest to understand just what makes Generation Y'ers tick.

Is 'Generation Y' all that different from the last thousand years of humankind? In most ways, no. That cohort wants success, they want to be taken seriously, they want to make a difference.

In other ways, however, that generation differs from the one that now leads industry and society. Broad generalizations always fail the individual, so any sweeping statements need to be taken cautiously. Still, nearly all of today's twenty-somethings grew up in a wired, media-soaked world unlike any before. As a result, they expect connectivity and immediacy that gray-heads often find startling. There's also a perception, with some reason behind it, that the Ys have an over-developed sense of entitlement and under-developed sense of hierarchy and respect. These authors explore those ideas, using twenty-five of that generation as case studies.

Of course, careful examination both supports and debunks the sweeping stereotypes. It gets past the simplistic slogans, to the elements of fact that led to the stereotypes in the first place. Perhaps there are accommodations that need to be made to these up-and-comers. Compromise must be mutual, though. Perhaps that gets so little attention in this study because it becomes so obvious so fast in practice. Another thing slightly nagged at me, in reading these interviews with the high-achieving elite of this generation. These young adults all excel in their fields already, so I wonder just how accurately they represent the wide majority of their age group?

Still, these case studies show a remarkable range of eager, driven young business men and women. They show how these people think, what they aspire to, and how they operate. Taken with a grain of salt, this can help today's leaders establish rapport with the generation that will some day take the reins.

-- wiredweird, reviewing a complimentary copy

The Y generation is the up and coming leadership and this book brings this to the center line. It shows us all what kind of leadership that we have here with Y and the individuals within these pages. Amazing!

Eric Green - a.k.a. "The Digital Gangster" really hit me with his passion, desire and drive. With these kind of characteristics that defines this Y generation then we're in very good hands, especially with this kind of leadership at the helm.

I recommend this book to anyone and everyone. I'm buying this for my mother who is a baby boomer and will love this:)

The book describes through several interviews how new generation leaders have reached success, and also the interactions between these new generation (gen Y) with the older ones (such as baby boomers, gen x). Easy reading book with motivational statements. It also brings several research websites.