In my recent post entitled “Leadership Is A Journey,” I stated my belief that a leader is someone who assumes full responsibility for their journey through life, strives to make their own journey as meaningful and significant as possible, and fully appreciates the opportunity they have to impact the journeys of others they come in contact with along the way.  It’s important to realize that the people you touch at work are not only on unique, individual journeys, but that they are all at different places in their journeys.

For example, that young person that works with/for you is so early in her journey that she is probably totally unaware that she is even on one. If asked, she would probably struggle to describe where she thought she was headed and where she was currently at along the way.

One of the most significant things you could do for her is to help her begin to see how critical it is to develop her potential to lead by first assuming full responsibility for herself. If she is young, new to the organization, and without a title, she most likely does not see herself as a leader. Encouraging her to assume full responsibility for herself and her behavior, pointing out examples of how others she works with are doing so, modeling the behavior yourself, and providing unsolicited positive feedback and more critical feedback if invited to do so are some ways you can help her to discover her nascent potential to lead herself and if someday given the privilege, others as well.

When I was in my early 20’s I’m not sure I saw myself as being on a journey and I’m pretty sure that any description of where I thought I was headed would have been very simplistic and egocentric. Yet by the time I turned 30, I was very clear that I needed to stop making excuses for my results in life and start assuming full responsibility for my behavior. I realize now that some key people in my life – mostly at work – instilled these principles in me in the brief but critical times our paths crossed.

They did not lead me on a journey, but they shared part of what they had learned on their own journeys with me because for whatever reason they cared enough to help. Many of these folks I will never be able to thank, but I can honor them by remembering them in my attempts to replicate and improve upon their efforts.

My own personal journey (I might share that someday) is really only about a few people – my children and the children they will have someday. I didn’t have my first child until I was 33, so you can see that this thing I now see clearly as my journey is relatively new to my life. And I realize that to fully help my children learn what I think they need to learn, I have to learn many important lessons myself first.

I do my best to assume full responsibility for myself and to help others along the way so that I can be better prepared to teach my children and grandchildren how to do the same. If I ever do something for you, know that I am doing it for me, so that ultimately I can do it for them.

Related Posts:

Leadership Is A Journey

C.K. Prahalad: The Responsible Manager

Respectful Engagement

David LaPlante, CEO of online brand marketing technology agency Twelve Horses had a lot of fascinating things to say to my class about entrepreneurship and personal branding when he spoke to us recently.  Something that really caught my attention was his explanation of why he tries very hard to only hire interesting people.  One thing he said that evening was that his customers would be more motivated to spend time with employees they enjoyed.

In a follow-up conversation, David told me what he looks for is remarkable folks.  To be remarkable, by definition, means that people remark or talk about you – a lot!  David thinks remarkable people tend to have larger social networks, engage in more in-depth relationships, and have more “interestingness” to share with others, typically by way of telling stories.  This is important because story-based communication is far more memorable and effective. (Think about it: You can recount most of the movie you watched a week ago but probably can’t recall more than a few bullet points from a PowerPoint presentation you sat through yesterday.)

“If you live a purposeful and content rich life, you stand to benefit more in the conversant web,” David told me. “Social object theory means we tend to converse around objects. Content rich people are often sharing more videos, photos and writing than most. Hence they become more of the conversation.”

David’s an early adopter of using social networking sites. He was on Facebook as soon as it was opened up to the general public and jumped on Twitter in late 2006.  One of his first discoveries was that he was able to connect with potential future employees long before there was an opening. By the time an opening was available, he had a broader range of people to select from. Hence the old adage, “Don’t wait until you’re looking for a job to start networking.”

David also found that connecting online helped him discern if people who wanted to join the Twelve Horses team were interesting or not.  David does not use recruiters, which he sees as paying to find people you don’t know.  Instead, they invest their money in making Twelve Horses’ easier for interesting and talented people to find and pursue a relationship with them.  While they favor people with the whole package, they would typically rather hire someone that is very remarkable with limited experience than an unremarkable expert.

As you might imagine, having a diverse spectrum of remarkable people can and will cause some problems.  So they look for people that also have a high degree of empathy for the perspectives of others. “A homogeneous workforce is boring and people end up looking for inane differences amongst themselves to differentiate which typically means pettiness,” David commented. Diversity is key. It means you’re always learning different perspectives from your peers, and that’s always fun if everyone has the social intelligence to respect that diversity.

As an entrepreneurial leader in this new economy, David sees his most important role as providing vision for the company. Vision in his terms is a very specific and compelling picture of the future for Twelve Horses.  Employees are then allowed (and expected to) find their own way there. “An entrepreneurial workforce doesn’t need to be process managed when they’re all motivated self-learners,” David said. “They just simply need to know where we’re headed.”

If you ever get a chance to meet or talk to David, you will quickly see that he too is extremely remarkable.  Here is a picture of David.

For Bret’s Class from Modite on Vimeo.

Rebecca Thorman is one of my favorite bloggers. I follow her blog Modite, and I’ve written about her previously here. Her content is very good, but it’s not strictly the leadership and management stuff I write about here. What I like about Rebecca’s site is her process, especially how she incorporates video into her articles and how she respects and engages her audience. 

She is the only blogger I follow that I asked to speak to my Entrepreneurial Psychology class. Her schedule did not permit her to talk to us live via OOvOO, but she was kind enough to take the time to make this video especially for my class.  My students are working on creating their personal brands, and blogging is a part of that process as far as I am concerned.  Rebecca’s message adds real value to what we are doing.

Beyond blogging and personal branding, Rebecca’s message is one of authenticity and self-responsibility.  Even if you think you are not interested in blogging or personal branding, I urge to listen to what this remarkable young woman has to say.

Rebecca, you are a class act. I sincerely appreciate your time and effort and I know my students will as well.

A lot is being written these days about Generation Y or Millennial employees.  I have written about them myself briefly here.  In general, I am very skeptical of the sweeping generalizations being made about this group of employees, mainly because despite what the consultants are saying, these generalizations are not supported by a significant and compelling body of scientific research.  It’s mostly opinion surveys and anecdotes.  The most common term used to describe these folks is “entitled.”  My colleagues and I are starting our own research on this issue.

Since 1995, I’ve been interacting with young people in college through my role as a management professor.  This summer, I stepped back into the classroom as a student to study Spanish for three weeks in Spain.

My Spanish teacher, who lives here in Spain but teaches Spanish exclusively to American students studying in Spain, told me that she thinks American students are increasingly different than ones she taught 10 years ago or so.  She did not use the term, but she clearly described them as entitled (give me an A but don’t make me work for it).  She went on to share that she thinks the current generation of Spanish young people, while not as extreme as those from the US, are trending the same way.

Let me add an anecdote and see if you think there is anything in this description that can be generalized to an entire group of young people such that it could be the basis for managerial interventions.  The other day in class we were shooting the breeze and one of the young folks (American, about 23 years old) told this very interesting story (my paraphrasing):

I can’t stand to wear any clothes that someone else owns.  If I see someone wearing something I own, I will never wear it again.  And every year, I totally replace my wardrobe.  But with my old clothes, I don’t just take them and drop them off at a charity.  Instead I load them into the trunk of my car and drive around looking for a homeless person that they might fit.  Then I buy that person a meal and give them my clothes.  I love to be driving around town and see someone wearing my clothes.  I’m like “yea, those are my clothes!”  It’s much better than just giving them away to some charity.

He also shared with us that he owns his own business and has plans to start another one sometime after he returns to the US – impressive.  His friends are an extremely important part of his life, and he is still very much attached to his parents both emotionally and I suspect financially.  He is a very smart guy but attending class and preparing lessons from the book are not high on his list of priorities.  He is friendly, generous, self-confident and ambitious. I think it’s pretty fair to say he is relatively narcissistic.

He is certainly different than me when I was 23.  But does that mean he is significantly different any other 23 year old person of my generation of any other generation?  And is he significantly similar to his other 23 year old peers such that we can draw conclusions on what we think we observe?

What do you think?