I have invited several business leaders to NYU SPS for the leadership series talk in the past. Recently, we invited Michael Nyenhuis, president and CEO of UNICEF, USA for the Future Forward Speakers Series. This fireside chat was unlike previous discussions with other business leaders and marketing mavens. The interest from the students during the Q&A session and students lining up for a private moment with Michael was far more engaging than previous leaders from iconic companies. In hindsight it seems like our next generation is far more interested in social and servant leadership.

NYU is in the heart of the world’s financial capital and mecca of realizing dreams to work for wall street, investment banks, hedge funds, fintech, financial services and other similar career paths. If capitalism had a capital, it would be New York.

Michael did an amazing job sharing his career journey from being a journalist to a socially responsible leader. More importantly, his storytelling awed the students and some faculty members. Michael emphasized the importance of giving back and doing more meaningful work. He shared his trips when he was able to take his donors to countries often ignored but not forgotten once visited. Indeed, it was an indulgent conversation and made many of us reflect on our own contribution, or lack of towards giving back to the society.

Although it was an unstructured fireside chat as I have done with my past speakers, this conversation felt more like a chat with a leader who demonstrated a lot more gratification through his work. The student participation and interest further validated my feelings. After the class and the succeeding weeks thereafter, the student’s inquiry about working for UNICEF has been overwhelming. Today’s students are a bit more fearless in career choice than during my college days. At times, they prefer promising startups over iconic conglomerates. Even working for large organizations, they prefer a company that supports the cause they believe in. The advent of connection and access to information through social media and unconventional channels provides our next generation information through multiple lenses, not only through a provider’s angle, as it did in the past.

Answering a question about career advice, Michael emphasized 3P’s (Performance, Perspective, and Personality). He talked about the importance of delivering through performance and having an inclusive and diverse perspective while making yourself adaptable and flexible throughout your career. This was music to the ears of our students and me. I have always believed that every next generation is smarter than the previous generation because of access to information and resources available to them. Today, they prefer happiness over success when it comes to career and life

Our next generation embraces diversity by default, many are mostly free of unconscious and conscious biases that some of the previous generations may have had. Also, our next generation is far more adaptable and flexible with a whiteboard career path. Today’s great entrepreneurs are creating problems that didn’t exist and they are solving it with innovative approaches. While it is hard to predict tomorrow’s career paths, I see a workplace (not necessarily an office) with promising inventions through innovation. The world hopefully will see these young professionals giving back a lot sooner and focus on social responsibility. They may leave this world better than they found it.