For many fans, the three-point line is without a doubt one of the most exciting places on a basketball court.

It is a place where so many of the game’s most memorable moments have taken place.

So, many fans might find it hard to believe that the three-point shot has not always been a favorable part of the offense.

In fact, when it was first implemented nationally in 1986 (it had been tried in some conferences previously), many coaches were adamantly against the three-point arc — there was no way this was going to become a part of their game, some said.

But for the coaches who chose to apply the long-distance shot as part of their game plans, everything changed.

It was this idea of embracing change, even when it is surrounded by misconceptions, that is the idea behind the book “Gen Y Now: How Generation Y Changes Your Workplace and Why it Requires a New Leadership Style” written by a couple guys who know a thing or two about business and basketball — Herb Sendek and John W. “Buddy” Hobart.

Though their backgrounds are similar — both played at Carnegie Mellon University and share a longtime love for the game of basketball — Hobart and Sendek have taken different roads to get where they are today.

Hobart is the president and founder of a consulting company, Solutions 21, and Sendek is the fourth-year coach of the ASU men’s basketball team.

They are both leaders. They are both authors. And they are both innovators in their fields.

But at one point they both had very different perspectives on the upcoming generation.

“Coach is a curious guy,” Hobart said. “He’s always trying to learn. He was asking me about what we’ve seen in consulting. I said, ‘You know, there is one thing that we’re seeing across the board, and that is that businesses are having a hard time retracting and retaining young talent.’ I started to give him all of these negative prejudices that I had towards Gen Y. When I got done, he looked at me and he said, ‘Well, I completely disagree.’”

So the idea of their book was born.

“Gen Y Now” is a book that uncovers the prejudices that Baby Boomers and the members of Generation X have towards the members of Generation Y, the name given to the young adults of today who are making their way into the workforce.

“On the surface, it may appear to someone that members of Generation Y are lazy,” Sendek said. “That may not be the case at all. In reality, it could simply be that something needs to be really important to them; they want to know how the work is going to make a difference. Whereas, members of other generations might have been more likely just to do it anyway — not that they wouldn’t have loved the work to be meaningful, but they may not have demanded it in the same way that Gen Y does.”

In the book, Hobart and Sendek address these prejudices against the younger generation as myths, stating a very clear difference in the new generation of talent.

“What we’re telling leaders is very simple,” Hobart said. “It’s that Generation Y demands what every generation wants.”

Sendek explains the youth metaphorically, claiming that this younger generation is “more likely to lease than buy,” and acknowledges the likeness that exists between recruiting athletes for a college basketball team and recruiting employees for a company.

“The days are gone when perhaps a person goes to work for a company for 30 years,” he said. “It’s important for leaders to adapt and continue to adjust … that doesn’t mean you forsake your basic principles. We’re not going to forsake our values, but we do have to be flexible and aware so that we can make good decisions as a leader.”

The point the former-basketball-players-turned authors are trying to make in this book, they said, is that every generation wants feedback.

For Sendek, letting his players know how they are doing is one of the most important aspects of his coaching.

“It’s a great mechanism to learn and to work hard at providing our guys with feedback,” he said. “Every generation wants feedback, every generation wants to know how they’re doing. I think the difference is Generation Y is more likely to demand it.”

This idea, and the book that came from it, was meant to inspire generation Y, and encourage generation X. It uncovers the myths that today’s leaders might hold against the upcoming workforce.

“I think Buddy, like many others of the Baby Boomers or Generation X, had some misconceptions of Generation Y,” Sendek said. “The more we talked about it, I think we’ve been able to present a piece of work that highlights some of those misconceptions don’t hold water. They really are misconceptions, they’re myths. It’s important for leaders to take these into account if they’re going to do the best job possible recruiting and retaining Gen Y.”

In support of their book, Hobart and Sendek will be holding a lunch meeting on Oct. 14 at the Fiesta Resort Conference Center, inviting both Tempe and Phoenix business leaders to address the topic of recruiting and retaining the next generation of talent.

Reach the reporter at emiley.darling@asu.edu.