Leadership development one leader at a time

Fill in the blank. “Young people today aren’t as _____________ we were.”

That’s the kind of discussion we were having. Of course not one of us would be counted as a “young person” these days. People our age have always had these discussions about young people. I’m guessing that the hunters around the fire in prehistoric times complained that those young people couldn’t be trusted on a mastodon hunt.

Anyway, Tim had just fired off a statement that “Millennials just aren’t ready for leadership” when Jim started laughing. He wiped his eyes, took another sip of his beer, and leaned forward.

“Tim, there are about 80 million Millennials. Do really think that not one of them is ready to lead anything?”

Leadership development is not about generations

There’s an important truth hidden in that exchange. It’s easy and it can be fun to talk about how generations differ from each other. But you don’t develop generations as leaders. You develop individuals and you do it one at a time.

Leadership development is about selecting the willing

Leadership development starts by selecting the willing. Some people want to make leadership a career and some don’t. Some are willing to lead project teams and task forces and some aren’t. Your first task is to find the willing.

Leadership development is providing information, experience, and feedback

Once you’ve got a willing person you help them develop as a leader. That means giving them information about what works and what doesn’t. It means putting them in developmental assignments. It means helping them learn from their experience.

If you select well and your process works you wind up with leaders. One leader at a time.

Wally Bock

Wally Bock is a coach, a writer and President of Three Star Leadership.