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New here? Employee Evolution is a blog written by Ryan Healy. Ryan is a Co-Founder of Brazen Careerist, the webs #1 social network for young professionals. Ryan speaks with organizations on best practices for recruiting and retaining Generation Y and how to effectively use social media to reach your target market. To contact Ryan, please visit our contact page.
This past weekend I went up to Penn State for the annual football game against Ohio State (We’re not going to talk about the score). My brother goes to OSU, so my parents tradition is to rent an RV and drive up to the games. It’s always a blast, and inevitably, I always have some type of philosophical conversation with my father and whichever family friend he brings along.
This year the topic was leadership. More specifically, the difference between what leadership means to Baby Boomers and what leadership means to Gen-Y. My father offered an interesting perspective. I wish I could remember the exact quote, but in effect he said that Baby Boomers look for super-human leaders. They believe one person has all the answers and he can lead single-handedly.
He then said that this whole idea is a bunch of crap and no one can be a super hero. He wondered aloud about what leadership would look like for Gen-Y.
I could not tell him exactly what leadership would look like to us. I mentioned that we certainly don’t believe our leaders are more than human. Just look at our childhoods. We watched high profile leaders cheat on their wives, embezzle money and refuse to take responsibility for terrible decisions.
I was able to offer one piece of insight that was actually a surprise to me when it came out. I said:
The only thing I look for in a leader is someone who can inspire, motivate and connect with whomever they’re leading. Throw all the policies and politics out the window. It takes someone who can inspire a group effort to lead anything.
I truly believe this. Someone like JFK was considered great solely because of his ability to connect and motivate. Reagan had it, Clinton was almost there, and looking at today’s candidates, political affiliations aside, Obama does it better than anyone else. This is probably why he is the most popular candidate among young people.
That being said, this still doesn’t answer the question of what leadership will look like to Gen-Y. And that’s fine because Gen-Y isn’t leading anything; yet. Quite frankly, people our age should be much more concerned about leading their own lives then leading an organization or leading a nation.
In his book, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership, Bill George shares the stories of countless leaders and discusses how to become a great leader. He says, in short, you cannot become a great leader until you have achieved full self awareness.
What are your values and principles? What motivates you? What is your purpose? If you cannot answer these questions, you cannot be an “authentic leader.” And most of us in school or in our early twenties cannot possibly know ourselves in this intimate way.
So, what does this mean?
Young people need to forget about leading others or gaining power. Look at everything as a learning experience and learn how to lead your own life. As you gain true self awareness, your body language will demonstrate your self confidence and people will not be able to help themselves from following.
Luckily, it seems many Gen-Yers inherently understand that discovering your meaning and purpose is the most important thing you can do. Interestingly enough, this new life stage of travel, job hopping and “entitlement,” might just breed a new generation of selfless, authentic leaders. But only time will tell.
Ryan,
You make some good points. I can really agree with your insight into leadership. It takes an ability to really connect to the people you’re leading.
However, don’t short change our generation. There are many Gen Ys who are leading companies and organizations already, and doing so quite well.
I’d be interested to hear more about why your dad feels the way he does. What super-human traits does he think we’re looking for?
(By the way, the score was 37-17. Go Bucks!)
Great post Ryan!
I think your insights on leadership and Gen Y’s role are spot on. Additionally, by taking your twenties to become self-aware, whether that’s through climbing the corporate ladder, traveling, job-hopping, or even bartending, you will gain two things; life experience and wisdom. Those only come with time and Gen Y seems to get this, which puts you ahead of the game.
To Jaqui’s note on Gen Y leading companies already, I’d be curious to know her definition of leadership. True leadership takes time and experience, something that most Gen Y’s don’t have yet.
Having been around a military environment my entire life, having a chance to lead in that respect, and then taking the hop into the corporate world, I can say that my expectations for leadership needed much adjusting. An old saying that I’ve been reminded of pretty much every day since I began my corporate life: “some lead, some follow, the rest just get in the way.”
I think you’re right in that most people just need to find themselves, be led, and be given chances to lead incrementally. Fortunately for me I was thrown into some positions early, and I know I have a definitive head start on others my age, especially those who took the traditional path to the cube. I’d say to anyone still in high school/college, join clubs, etc, and seek leadership roles. You don’t have to try to lead them all, but definitely take part in something, and go through the motions of what it takes to see a task to completion. Plan a press release, plan a banquet, plan something, and then execute. That’s the way you’re going to get the direct experience and exposure that you need.
But back to what I seek in a leader, someone who empowers me, gives me the tools I need to complete the job. Someone who makes their expectations clear, and is able to give direction when needed. I don’t want someone to micromanage each step along the way, I want to be trusted. I want them to know and understand my role, and even if they’re removed from it and unable to answer specific questions, I want them to know where to get the answers. Also, leaders must always be willing to make decisions. If you can do all that, morale is naturally going to remain high, and the team will be a success, it’s really that easy.
That’s really all I want in a leader, and unfortunately, I’m finding out more and more that the corporate world doesn’t really care about a lot of those traits. Managers are promoted on who they know, seniority, the fact that they’ve spent the last 5 years working 60 hour weeks, etc. All too many managers are decent at their job, but don’t know how to manage people, or be a leader. It’s kind of sad that as someone in my low/mid 20s, I was almost immediately thrust into a leadership role months into the job, because I actually made decisions. I didn’t need to sit around asking 8 people if this was the right thing, I didn’t need to get permission on every little task. I had assignments, and I ran with them.
I think your example up top as to why we wouldn’t expect leaders to be superhuman is a little self defeating. Those people were all bad leaders. Just because people aren’t good at something doesn’t mean we lower the expectations. Being a true leader and just being in a leadership role are two very different things, I think that is a very important distinction to make.
Thanks for the comments.
In response to short changing our generation. I don’t think its wrong to say we’re not truly leading things yet, and if we are leading without guidance and help, then we are doomed for failure. Everyone young person I know in a “leadership role” has a great advisor or team of advisors at their back.
We can all do our best to lead in whatever position we are thrust into, but only those who know how to discover their own strengths and seek out wisdom from those who have done things in the past, will develop into genuine leaders.
In response to lowering the bar and not expecting leaders to be superhuman. I think its silly to expect any one person to right a wronged ship. That being said, if someone can inspire others to get things done, then the sum of the individual parts could be interpreted as superhuman. But one man cannot.
“Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”
-Dwight Eisenhower
One more thing.
Nathan - I don’t necessarily think all of those people I mentioned were bad leaders. They just did things that demonstrated that they are human beings and make mistakes.
-Ryan
I like what Nathan says, but have some different views on the evolution of leadership. There were a lot of bad leaders when I came into the corporate ranks in the late 80’s and early 90’s. A number of leaders then were placed in the position for reasons other than being a good leader. I got my opportunity due to a supervisor retiring, but that opportunity thrust me into the world of experiencing what leadership meant, and I made some mistakes along the way, but learned a lot by being in that role. Now 15 to 20 years later, I have a much better idea of what true leadership is. It hits upon what Nathan was pointing to.
A lot of leadership gurus came out in the 80’s and 90’s providing insights into what real leadership was. I always thought that there would be a “changing of the guard”, where all of the old-school managers (the ones who didn’t earn their position, but were placed there for convenience sake) would eventually retire and a new school of managers would take over who had better leadership skills and insights to modernize and improve upon the current role of leadership.
My concern nowadays is that a good deal of the younger generation does not continue this pattern started in the 80’s and 90’s but is now instead challenging the role of leadership (for whatever reason) and are going down a different path that is possibly limiting them in the leadership opportunities that are awaiting them at this time. Believe me, we are in great need of a new generation of leaders, but the distinction must be made to these younger leaders that they do not (and should not) try to invent new ways to lead. The knowledge, wisdom and other characteristics of what makes a good leader are out there already - they do not need to be re-invented. What needs to occur with the younger generations is what Nathan has mentioned above - direct experience and exposure to leadership skills and situations so that the baton can be passed on to the new generation of leaders.
I look forward to retirement some day soon. I also hope that a new generation of leaders can take over who will continue to strive to be better leaders when it comes to leadership vision, ethics, morals, motivation and decision making as well as continuing to pass on leadership principles to the generations that follow. The leaders of today will provide the framework for the leaders of tomorrow, on so on.
Check out the book “The Leadership Challenge” by Kouzes and Posner. It’s an incredible and enjoyable read on leadership - in particular the authors identify five leadership qualities (associated with behaviors) that are essential to being effective, credible and authentic.
Also - for what its worth, many generation experts identify the millennials as the next “great generation” based on the civic leadership qualities we’re displaying (like those of the GI or traditionalist generation). I believe, we have both an opportunity and responsibility to get involved as leaders and follower - but be aware and open to recognize when there is an opportunity to lead and when we need to listen and follow.
Just because you become more self-aware doesn’t mean that you can become a leader. Leadership is a skill-set and if you can learn the skills, no matter the age, you will become a leader.
Nathan was in a different environment than corporate, but the skills of a leader are there: willingness to make decisions, helping clear hurdles out of the way of work, expects performance from those he or she leads, and clear expectations. If you acquire those skills, you can be my leader any day.
Outside of leading others, there is also leadership by the individual contributor. People want to be with people who get things done, people want to be with people who understand and excel at their jobs, and who know the subject that they are talking about. Do this: pick your most current, difficult work situation and ask who that you work with could help you the most in getting it done. You’ve just found a leader.
This article is also written a bit from the view of being the head of an organization or even a company. But leadership can be all about critical projects to a department, leading an effort to improve X within a company or process, or being a lead on one aspect of a bigger project. These are the things that help one develop the skills for all kinds of leadership; so go for it. Practice, as in most anything, can really help the performance for when the time comes to lead managers of other managers.
Ryan, what are you saying? That everyone idolized their leaders before but you and your pals know better?
I heard that the genius of founders of the United States lay in the fact that they did not idolize human beings but understood that human nature is fallible. So they put checks and balances in place to control them.
Of course, the mass of people were less educated before so they were often in awe of the educated. But you and I have had educations. And the leaders we meet are just the guys and girls who sat in class with us so we are less impressed. That’s how Gen Y benefits from being part of ongoing progress.
Of course, you love to whine about the terrible things you’ve seen in your parents’ generation. That’s so much hogwash. Listen, Ryan. Think about highschool. Did you like everybody you went to school with? Did you trust everyone? The answer is almost certainly no. But you know what? Some of those people (or people like them) are going to be your leaders in the next few years. So stop painting the immediate past dark and, the future, by implication at least, white. It just isn’t so.
Ryan,
I think you could make the arguement that ANY good leader has a good advisor or team of advisors at his back. Part of good leadership is surrounding yourself with the right people, no matter how old you are.
I like this note a lot, Ryan. Thank you for this. I often feel at quite a loss when it comes to leaders we can look up to. Bill George’s leadership style and what he writes about in his book are sometimes the only things that inspire me to keep my head up. There are few other people I know personally who do this well.
Also, how does one inspire others? I have inspired others before and it worked well… but later on, as I found my faults and realized how I was contributing to any problems we encountered, I basically stopped trying.
Today, as I continue to take a stance on what I want to do in life (and as I work to inspire others), I feel the mountain is far too large and daunting.
Any advice?
Joe
Just one quick incite I picked up when I was asked to write about law and leadership for a Leadership magazine:
Leadership is often a very abstract concept that makes it difficult to define in a specific way. As a result, many people think like one justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (who talked about the concept of obscenity when he said this): “I can’t describe it, but i know it when i see.”
Although leadership is often vauge, we all know it when we see it. Which is why when we speak of leadership, we often look at examples. We look at people that exemplify leadership, rather than enumerate specific qualities that refer to leadership (although many authors do discuss specific qualities instead).
So even though I do agree with Ryan’s conclusion on how self-awareness may be a characteristic trait necessary for leadership, I believe it may just be the tip of the iceberg. We need more examples or role models of leadership, I think.
Sorry, I meant to say insight… not incite. My bad.
As a troop leader for nearly 30 girls ages 6 to 11, I find that I’m constantly walking that line between being removed enough to have authority and approachable enough to be a friend to my girls. Although I certainly am glad that my stumblings are in front of girls who adore me instead of in front of a board room.
Also Ryan — small grammar comment:
“And that’s fine because Gen-Y isn’t leading anything; yet.”
Should be a comma, not a semi-colon.
Hope all is well!
Hey Ryan,
nice post. The end of it got me thinking about a great book that I’m reading for school at the moment.
Not sure if you’ve read it but John Wooden’s book, Wooden on Leadership, offers an amazing perspective from one of the best leaders of the past 100 years. If you have not read this book, I highly recommend it.
Glad to hear things seem to be going well in WI. See you around xmas?
Enjoy the book if you haven’t already.