I also believe the importance of finding people with a good match to these characteristics will become even more pronounced over the next few years.  Take a look at how about.com described the latest group of people who are now beginning to play significant roles in the work force, often referred to as the “Millennials” or “Generation Y”:

 

“Millennials are individualistic, innovative, creative, celebrators of diversity, multi-taskers, and write their own rules. They appreciate a structured, supportive work environment with personalized assignments and interactive relationships with their supervisors. Millennials work well in a team environment and prefer to have close relationships with their supervisors to help them feel more confident and supported.

 

Millennials also strive for balance in their work and personal lives and are unwilling to commit to jobs requiring long hours, evening, or weekend work."

 

"This may seem like a lack of commitment to those who have given their heart and soul to an organization but Millennials do value achievement and are confident in their abilities to produce within the confines of a regular work week. Millennials look to work in meaningful jobs where they can make an overall contribution to the bottom line of the organization, while feeling like they are really helping them meet their overall objectives and goals.”

 

Only time will tell, but I believe that the Millennials described above will respond quite well to managers and leaders who demonstrate the characteristics of my Pyramid of Business Success on a daily basis.

 

Regardless of the “generation” being considered, it will always be up to the hiring team at any organization to find the right people who are a good match to the attributes in this book. Sadly, my experience tells me that not many organizations spend a lot of time uncovering this type of information. Time and time again I have seen companies focus the efforts of their interview process on skill sets and previous experience, while spending little time (if any) uncovering the truth about the candidate’s basic characteristics and the type of person that they are at their very core.  

 

If at some point you come to the conclusion that the attributes in this book are important, then it is up to you as a business owner/manager to find the right people that match these characteristics as closely as possible. It is also up to you to try and continually develop these characteristics in your team members on a day to day basis. 

 

As a tool, this book not only clearly defines these important characteristics, but it also provides a lot of ideas and techniques to develop the attributes throughout your entire organization, including any “Millennials” that you may have already hired.