Clarity of Purpose

I think it is time to start writing about the things I wish I'd known at the start of my career. So from now on I want to pass on insights gained along the way;  I hope these will help you forge ahead purposefully,  more so than I ever did in my youth.


So, my top insight is, be clear what:

•  your purpose is within a project
• organizational goal your project contributes to
• aspect of your organization's mission is being advanced by your project 

In so doing, you will be able to evaluate whether what you are doing is purposeful. The skill I want you to develop is strategic thinking.

Finding the Courage to Listen

Judy Chartrand and Bonnie Hagemann's article: Next Generation of Leaders: competency deficits and the bridge to success continues to give food for thought.

Specifically, their comment that "successful strategic leadership will include both critical thinking skills, a keen social intelligence and level of empathy that empowers and energizes healthy momentum and change".

I think these attributes are inextricably linked. It requires leaders to become a subtle listener, creating a quiet presence which allows powerful leaps of the imagination to occur. 


But first, leaders must explore their own limiting assumption and why they feel the urge to control the level and direction of thinking in others.  Unless this is understood, leaders will continue to gag ideas and queries - with no possibility for energizing a "healthy momentum and change"; or critical thinking.

Perhaps, we experience Gen Y as 'loud' and 'brash' because they react openly to not being listened to with full attention?


When was the last time you were listened to without interruption and with full attention; what impact did it have on your ability to critically think or be creative?


Alternatively, think back to an incident where you were interrupted when talking through a problem; what impact did it have on your ability to think, let alone critically?

"Tell me, I forget; Show me, I remember; Involve me, I understand" Confucius

I've recently reconnected with someone whom I admire for her unceasing quest for solutions to social problems.

At the end of her email she added the oft quoted saying of Confucius: 

"Tell me - I forget,

Show me - I remember,

Involve me - I understand."

It prompts me to think about how we achieve a higher level of consciousness? Then it struck me - as generations, we are shaped by different experiences and therefore, see and experience the world in different ways.

What if in involving Gen Y in the task of leading, we were to explore these different perspectives  and combine it with thoughtful questioning, designed to facilitate self-examination and self-discovery as leaders? Perhaps together, Boomer and Gen Y leaders could illuminate what is known, what can be, and how it can be achieved. 

Moreover, the level of consciousness gained is more likely to go beyond the accumulation of information toward knowledge.


If this were to happen, what level of creativity would be unleashed?

What Is Leadership?

Is it a bit late to stop and ponder what is meant by 'leadership'?


It appears there is "no widely accepted definition of leadership... and remarkably little evidence of the impact of leadership or leadership development on performance and productivity; [furthermore] most initiatives appear to actively avoid addressing these issues [opting] for doing something about it… whatever ‘it’ may be!".(1)


Maybe an audit of leadership performance in using more than 30% of talent is a good place to start? How about clarifying leadership styles most beneficial in optimizing performance and understanding why, through critical reflection? Only then will it be possible to create a template of traits and skills upon which to create a meaningful leadership development framework.


Or, maybe it should start with envisioning what 'impact' all this effort might have in the world. Maybe then, leadership will come to be an alignment of values with talents in pursuit of goals that are meaningful and worthwhile. What mosaic of possibilities could we recreate?


In knowing what 'impact' means, growing Gen Y leaders at a service and team level will have a focus and provide a filter by which they can work out where and how they are most effective. 


In time the 'growing' may take them to a place of  operational or strategic oversight or it may mean extending their purview to maximise their contribution and impact upon performance. At all levels the process demands an educative relationship based on trust and mutual respect. Only then, will we get away from "doing something... whatever 'it' may be!"

Richard Bolden (p.4), What is Leadership? Research Report, Centre for Leadership Studies, University of Exeter and The Windsor Leadership Trust (2004)

Rediscovering the Art of Conversation

Why it is so challenging to engage with the Gen Y?

One element is that we have lost the art of conversation. How often do we ask: "How are you?", not expecting a honest answer.

It is a pity, because it is a lost opportunity to connect and begin to discover talents waiting to be mined. Shockingly, it is believed that "organizations are running on a fraction of their human potential....less than one-third".(1) 


How can this make business sense?

Moreover, when we ask "What do you think?" but fail listen intently - why should we expect an honest and thoughtful answer?

Good conversation is like an exchange of goods - finely balanced and of equivalent worth. Yet, how often do we leave a conversation feeling a little cheated by the exchange? And what is the cost in terms of relations and future transactions of effort?

Now more than ever, it is beholden upon us to make time to converse with Gen Y; revisit our deeply held beliefs and expand our thinking through an engagement with their perspective.


Why did exchanging of perspectives become absent from organizational  culture?






(1) Curt Coffman and Gabriel Gonzales-Molina, PhD (p. 19), Follow This Path: how the world's greatest organizations drive growth by unleashing human potential (2002)

Drilling Beyond the Surface

I suppose the challenge of Gen-Y leadership development is, where to start?


For me, the starting point was borne of necessity. I had found I'd inherited of a failing organization and confronted by an apathetic incumbent team, I looked to students from Gen-Y to help me turn things around.


Originally, we began by drilling beyond the surface of our core values to re-conceive what Quality would look and feel like. It soon led us to an understanding how these values must be expressed through the behaviors and traits of everyone in the organization and eventually to how all systems and processes should support and facilitate them too. It was a eureka moment!


Armed with  this insight, our ability to recruit the 'right' people transformed; and we quickly found ourselves moving from being a 'cornered' leadership into an engaged leadership - confident in our team's ability to overcome any obstacle.

It leads me to ask, how often do we take the time to audit the vibrancy of core values in the life of our organizations?


And, what is the consequence to performance and effectiveness?

From Challenge to Triumph

I am always intrigued by those organizations/companies that exhibit a certain flair - Apple, Pixar and Google come to mind. All seem at ease with being unique. However, drill below the surface and it is alway a story of struggle.


And always, at the heart, is a group of people who worked hard to create an environment where people could make an emotional investment in the success of their company. To achieve this, I believe that these leaders have led with authenticity and consistency - creating a sense of security and a bedrock for their people to perform to the best of their abilities.


So, how do we enable Gen-Y leaders to arrive at a place where they too can inspire commitment and an energetic pursuit of ambitious goals? For me, the starting point was a peeling away of the illusions of certainty. By going below the surface of conditioned assumptions of oneself, the world and others, young leaders engaged with the substance of their beliefs.


Consequently, mentoring involved facilitating an engagement with core values and aptitudes to develop patterns of behavior in a conscious way. Very soon, they became critical thinkers, reflecting on what authentic leadership meant for them; and in time, they fashioned their own approach.


In so doing, they were better placed to arrive at an integrated understanding of leadership and one which was accommodating of uncertainty. More than ever, it will become a defining trait of leadership in an era of monumental social, cultural and economic shifts. 


All this remind me of encounters with good and great teachers. The former strive to ensure students meet current standards; the latter create stepping stones towards each student's potential.


Embedded in the latter's approach is a knowledge that the future is an unknown land. Therefore, it is beholden upon us to facilitate the next generation of leaders by creating stepping stones for them.

Catching the First Followers

The demand for Gen-Y skills are set to outstrip supply in the next 15 years. The organizations that learn to work with the Gen-Y will have a market lead in attracting the brightest and the best.


In 2007, Fortune characterized Gen-Y as: "self-absorbed, gregarious, multitasking, loud [and] optimistic....exactly what the boomers raised them to be." 


If this is so, being perceived as upstarts won't inspire commitment among this generation who, more than any other in history, feels that the world really is their oyster?  


More fruitful would be to deem them as self-assured rather than 'self-absorbed'; or vocal instead of 'loud'?


Of course, it will mean standing outside of the prevailing view but what impact will such a shift in thinking have to the  quality of relationships between Gen-Y and the Boomer generation of leaders?


No doubt it will feel awkward to begin with but get it right with the first Gen-Y leaders and the others will want to follow.

Adding Value Through Partnerships

As I reflect upon the scale of the challenge in attracting strong Gen-Y leaders to the sector, I recall my daughter's primary school was named after the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen: the relentless pursuit of excellence through small but continuous acts of improvement.


The thinking clearly has its merit. So much so that a friend told me recently that the approach has come to the attention of some in the pharmaceutical industry as a means of improving sales.


So, it got me thinking. What if the not-for-profit sector were to look further afield and allow their thinking to be challenged in new ways? 


What if practitioners of Kaizen were to work with inspiring organizations in our sector to develop an approach fitting the culture and values of our sector? 


What added-value would this kind of cross-sector partnership provide to Gen-Y leaders as they cut their teeth as change agents and beyond?


The Kaizen Way

A New Kind of Leadership

The global crisis of leadership of recent years is an opportunity to rethink what kind of leaders we want to see in the second decade of the 21st century.

So I want to ask you, the young generation, to envision yourself as a leader. I want to know:

"If you knew you were going to be successful as a leader in the next ten years, what kind of help and advice would you ask of today's inspirational leaders?"

I want to know because there is much talk about mentoring or coaching as an effective approach in leadership development. However, there doesn't seem to be any clarity as to the purpose of either.

I think it should be about anticipating future challenges and working together to take what is useful from the past and combining it with new and innovative ideas to create something new.

What do you think?

Welcome to Gen-Y Leaders

This is the first post of the Gen-Y Leaders blog.

Now, what is Gen-Y Leaders?

Well, it is my way of thinking about the next generation of leaders who will inherit the opportunities, and problems created by my generation.

So, as I turn 50, I can't help but think about the people from my childhood who shaped me with their wisdom. I realize now that as the generation that faced 2 World Wars, their acts of kindness were also a testament to hope for a better future.

It leaves me thinking about my responsibility to the next generation. What problems will they be facing as my generation begins its journey into history?

What is possible if the wisdom of experience is fused with the audacity of youth?