I was in a coaching session with a prominent speaker once, and he was talking to me about how his wife was doing extensive work as a consultant who specializes in working with millennials. She had landed a very high-profile client who had requested for her to make a video training course for their millennial staff.

I was shocked at what the request was: They were looking for someone to teach their millennials things like how it was rude to stare at your phone when someone is talking to you. They also wanted to teach them that the proper thing to do when being introduced to someone is to make eye contact and shake the person’s hand.

The issue the client was experiencing with the millennial staff had to do with a lack of the softer skills of authentic human interaction.

Authentic Connections

I remember catching up with friends I hadn’t seen in a while. They would update me about a big event in their lives, and I’d respond, “Yeah! I remember seeing that on Facebook.” They would bring something else up to which I replied, “Yeah! I saw that on Facebook, too!”

Was it weird that I was keeping up with what’s going on in people’s lives without having interacted with them? I think what I was doing was technically considered stalking.