Let’s Give The Kiddies A Chance

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: Values and Visions

Competency: visionary leadership

Who benefits: primarily employees in leadership positions, secondarily anyone with an interest in the future of work

Consultant Usage: should be on every organizational consultant’s reading list … this is where your clients are going

What’s it about? January is an optimistic month.  Everything is new and fresh.  We still believe this year will be better than last year.  (Well, despite efforts to the contrary, most of us aren’t ready to acknowledge that it is one of those awful and gloomy election years. Why can’t we do elections in September through early November and not ruin a perfectly good summer?)

Back to a new and fresh January.  Might be a good time to look at some new and fresh ideas from the upcoming generation.  How about a newly published book on what is on the minds of young leaders today?  The book cover summarizes it this way: “Globalization. Sustainability. Technology. Diversity. Learning. Convergence of the public and private sectors.  These are the big issues on the minds of young leaders today—the challenges they most want to, and must, pursue.”

I am old.  There are several generations chasing me.  No generation yet has solved the biggest problems facing countries and industries.  I keep hoping there will be a generation that “gets it”.  I want to know what the youngest working generation is thinking.  I tried to catch a young executive recently, but I was too slow and he slipped away.  I guess he figured my generation had its chance he wasn’t going to be slowed down by an old codger.  (Oh yeah, just wait till Clint Eastwood gets a hold of him!)

Fortunately I don’t have to continue to run in futility.  Three distinguished recent Harvard MBA grads, along with some very well-known and impressive advisors have written Passion and Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders.  They write from their own passions and insights gained from a survey of 500 students from top U.S. business schools. 

Those young’uns sure are an optimistic bunch.  They seem to think they have what it takes to make the world a better place.  I get the feeling they don’t waste too much time watching the nightly news or listening to the talking heads.  The media does an excellent job of telling us what is wrong.  These young folks seem a lot more interested in showing us what is right. 

Well bless their pointy little heads and I hope they are right.  It’s January, the optimistic month.  Give a read to what these 20-something optimists have to say.  Wouldn’t hurt if our older generations would get behind them.  Just maybe they can fix what we didn’t.

Catch you later.

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.