Speaker 1: These are my incredible millennial children, Denae, Brittany, and Weston. Weston, 23 years at the time, had announced that he was going to be attending a premier global leadership conference, and I confess, as a leadership coach, I was jazzed. I mean, 23-year-old, premier leadership conference? And so when he called me at the end of the two days to debrief with me, I was on it. Hey, Weston, what did you think about the conference? Wasn't it amazing? And his response was flatlined. And I was confused. I mean, these were the best of the best, and he didn't get anything? Was he even sleeping? Paying too much attention to his iPhone? And that's when everything changed. I heard him take a deep breath, and his voice, it had a gravitas that I hadn't heard before. Mom, I have a message for you. It was like the air changed. It was like every cell in my body stood at attention. Have you had a time like that where you just knew you had to pay attention? Mom, you must prioritize passing your leadership wisdom and insight to the next generation. This was my son. It wasn't a leadership guru. It wasn't an executive coach. This was my son. What was I supposed to do with a message like that? What would you do if you'd gotten a message like that? What will you do? As I processed this conversation with him, I realized that this was not just a message from my son to me, but it is in fact a message from all of our sons and daughters. It's a message from all of our employees and colleagues and neighbors It's a message from this emerging generation of leaders to all of us who are character-based, wise, seasoned leaders. It's a cry to us to say, stop complaining and start coaching. Now, the news has been brutal to this generation. They generate all 83 million of them as narcissistic and entitled. Ridiculous. Here's the truth, the real news. For Millennials Matter, we invited a team of millennials to review and critique the entire manuscript. Anything that popped into their heads, I wanted to know about it. One reviewer put it this way, just because we are born in a certain year does not mean we're automatically lazy. It's true, isn't it? Here's some real news. In our research, we've surveyed over 300 leaders. And yes, 60% of them have said that they have some concerns in figuring out how to work with them. And they all, they all have been extremely hopeful, asking for help on how to tap the brilliance of this generation. So what are some things that we might be able to do? One of the results that, or one of the comments in our survey was that we should be more open-minded and one of the comments in our survey that popped out to me was from Linda. And Linda asked this question. How might I coach and mentor my millennials and make a domino difference? Well, there were two things that popped out in her comment. The first was coach and mentor. Millennials say 79% of millennials want a coach or mentor. They don't want a boss, but they want a coach or a mentor. So Linda's right on track. The next thing she asked about was domino difference. And I had no idea what she was asking about. She pointed me to her favorite video. You may have seen it. It's the physicist who's talking about the energy of the domino and that one domino can knock over another domino one and a half times its size. So he demonstrates that in 29 moves, a micro domino that's five millimeters high, less than a quarter of an inch, not a professional domino, a tournament domino, a micro domino, in 29 moves can knock over another domino the size of the Empire State Building. That's amazing, isn't it? So what Linda was really asking is what are the coaching and mentoring micro moves that I can make that will have a major lifetime Empire State Building impact on my millennial? And that's a great question for all of us to ask, isn't it? A great question for parents, grandparents, coaches, leaders, mentors, neighbors, employers, for all of us. What are the small moves, the micro moves that we can make that will have a major impact on someone's life? And then will we do them? Here's a couple of ideas. Start spotlighting a talent. Start coaching your millennial, your emerging leader to use and identify their talents, their core competencies to serve others. Why? Because it's in serving others that this talent becomes a strength that can solve some of the insurmountable problems it seems in our world today. I think of Sarah. Sarah, smart, articulate, high character, ideal employee, and she calls me upset. She wanted the promotion, messed up the interview, wants help on her resume because she knows her career is over. Been there? So as we sat over coffee, we began to shine the light on her talents, her core competencies. Those things that she does well all the time, those things that just ooze out of her. And then we also looked at her core passions, those things that she cares about all the time. And as we synced up her core competencies and her core passions, she began to get a vision for her life's core purpose and she got so re-energized she decided to go re-interview for the position. Amazing, huh? Here's what one millennial reviewer said. We can get a million likes and still feel discouraged. We need real affirmations from real people in real time about real talents. Who spotlighted your gifts and talents? Who walked alongside you and helped you to develop those into strengths? Who's the young leader in your life who needs your light to be able to shine? For Sarah, it was a cup of coffee. It's a five millimeter micro move, micro moment that can have a huge impact on the trajectory of someone's life. Will you be that domino difference? Here's another idea. Set the cell phone aside. Set the cell phone aside, turn the technology, connect with people, feel them, with people face-to-face. People matter, millennials matter. I think of one of my sales managers at Xerox Corporation, Don. When I had a sales coaching meeting with Don, I knew, I knew that I was the most important on the planet at that time. He set all the reports aside, all the papers, he zeroed in, he asked questions, he listened, he was intentional. I mattered. When was the last time you had a conversation like that? Where you knew that you mattered? Here's how one of our millennial reviewers said it. When I feel listened to and respected, I will flourish in the workplace and in life. This is a tough one for us, isn't it? This is my family at the Minnesota State Fair. We are on a family event and we're all tethered to our technology. Has anybody else had that experience? This is a tough one for all of us, isn't it? And yet, we are the leaders, we are the managers, we are the coaches, we are the mentors, we are the educators. We can do this. We can set down our cell phones. We can turn the technology aside. We can connect with people. It's a five millimeter, micro move, micro moment that could have a major impact on someone's life. It was about six weeks or so after my initial conversation with Weston and I gave him a call because I needed his advice. You see, I'd been bouncing this millennial idea around with my colleagues. I'd been getting quite a bit of pushback. One said, well, Danita, let's be real. You are an aging baby boomer. Yes, they told me that. Another one said, well, Danita, you're really nice and you're thoughtful and you're a great leader. You're really nice and you're talented, but be real. In a world of big time leadership gurus, you're nobody. What do you do with that? Weston listened, he pondered, and then he said, your colleagues are right, mom. 24 seven, we can access brilliant talking heads, but that's not what we need. What we need are people who love us, who care us, who know us, who will walk alongside us. We need coaches and mentors. That's what we need, mom. Millennials matter. This is not just a call from my son Weston to me. This is a cry from this generation of emerging leaders to all of us, begging us to stop complaining and to start coaching, to start mentoring, to start spotlighting their talents so that they can turn those into strength and address the real world problems, to start setting aside the technology and connecting human to human to let them know that they matter. These are five millimeter micro moves, micro moments that can shift someone's life forever. We can make the domino difference. Will you? I trust that on behalf of this generation of millennials and for the sake of our world that you will take up the challenge. Thank you. Thank you. Audience applause Music