In July, we hosted our Emerging Leaders Initiative with a group of 10 young members, 18-23 years old. They had a diversity of college majors and backgrounds including entrepreneurship, education, youth ministry, military, marketing, and engineering, to name just a few. Our vision was to spend one intense week investing in these motivated young leaders by exposing them to our team of experts as well as site visits to a variety of our clients or connected organizations. It was impressive to watch our team pull this off seamlessly, even during the busiest year in our history. But I was most impressed by the 10 participants. They had a number of traits that caused me to think, “What would leadership look like if leaders who are in their 40’s, 50’s, or 60’s manifested the same traits we saw in this group?” While I know our emerging leaders learned so much from others this week, here is what we can learn from them.
1. Be hungry to learn.
With age can come a bit of coasting and laziness disguised as “positional privilege.” Not with these young leaders. From the first minute of day one to the very end of the last day, they were hungry – motivated to learn from every instructor, conversation, and site visit. It served as a refreshing reminder that leaders who lead well over the long haul never cease learning.
2. Be humble and teachable.
As leaders acquire experience and gather credentials, the first thing to go can be humility – that unpretentious spirit that honestly looks at oneself, sees the gifts and the shortcomings, and seeks to listen and learn. There is something refreshing about seeing a group be so humble – no pretense or desire to prove how much they know and how smart they are. Just a passion to learn!
3. Show appreciation and say “thank you” often.
One of the traits of a poor leader is failing to simply say “thank you.” Again, not with this group of young leaders. They were constantly thanking our team members and guests for hosting this special event and investing in their lives. I must have heard those powerful words a dozen times, if not more. What a valuable reminder to all of us.
4. Ask great questions.
One morning, senior consultant Billy Dunn, who led this exceptional week, asked me to participate in a 15-minute Q&A with the young leaders. And ask them they did including, “What was a mistake you made, and what did you learn from it?” Well, there were far too many to pick from, but what a valuable question to ask – seeking to learn from and avoid the mistakes of others.
5. Be passionate about leading well.
While we had a generous donor pay for a large portion of this week of investing in emerging leaders, each of the participants still had to pay for a small portion of it as well as take a week off from work, travel each day to The Center office, and give up time where they could have been doing other things. In other words, they made sacrifices because they were passionate about leading well – now and in the future.
In many ways, we should always be “emerging” as leaders. We never finish learning or master leadership. Think about what your organization would look like if every member manifested these five behaviors. My guess is the culture would be extraordinary and the performance would be exceptional – just what every organization needs today.
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Jay Desko is the CEO of The Center Consulting Group and brings experience in the areas of organizational assessment, leadership coaching, decision-making, and strategic questioning. Jay’s degrees include an M.Ed. in Instructional Systems Design from Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Leadership from The Union Institute.
