Generation Y Millennials have their own ideas about what leadership is...and...it's not their father's leadership style.
Today's generation of employees grew up with direct, instantaneous access to information. They will search online to verify your message, as you speak, and challenge you with any contradictory information they find--no matter who you are. They've been conditioned by society to respond in this way. All their lives, they've been bombarded with trickery in advertising, media slants and political persuasions. And they can name many top-level managers who've gone to prison for unethical behavior--so titles and positions don't impress them.
And this new generation doesn't buy into the old idea of leadership as "the ability to get others to do what you want them to do." In fact, they don't buy into any popular leadership theories because they have their own. They want leaders who they can form a relationship with and if they don't respect and trust a leader, they won't follow him or her.
A new book has been written by J. Kevin Sheehan to illustrate how "A Leader Becomes a Leader" by documenting inspirational stories of leadership for this new generation coming into the workplace. We have all been moved at some point in our lives by unexpected great leadership and Gen Y doesn't know it's coming in their life, too. Just like us, they won't forget its impact. That's why this book's collection of stories about the development of great leaders can inform the millennial generation while celebrating those moments in time that have moved and inspired people around the world.
Sheehan captures leaders' stories to record their inner triumphs....like that of Abraham Lincoln rising from desperate poverty to educate himself and become the grand statesman that he was. Lincoln had not become the 16th president of the United States to lose the union that he held so dear. He recognized the historic moment for what it was, and battled back against the forces of anarchy that were threatening the country's survival with every talent he possessed and in every moment that would be his. In the face of what seemed insurmountable conflict, he wrote with the power of Jefferson, stood with the force of Washington, and thought with the precision of Franklin.
The Gen Y Millennials will watch their own new leaders emerge ready to face a different type of a national challenge caused by a global economy competing for limited natural resources that result in an increased warming of the planet.
