The 'F' word young leaders are often missing
Photos by: @victoriousstl
AS I’VE TALKED WITH EXECUTIVES AND CEOS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND WORLD MANY HAVE ENCOURAGED, ADVOCATED, AND SUPPORTED MY CAREER. SINCE THE AGE OF 14 I KEPT HEARING THE WORDS, “DAVID YOU’RE DIFFERENT.”
I never understood it until a recent conversation with one of my clients who happens to have had a background in HR with an accomplished 30+ year career in a multi-billion dollar corporation. I am helping her promote her next book that is slated to be a national best seller and I reached out to an influencer with an audience reach of 700K plus followers to write an endorsement. It was a win / win situation. I love supporting women entrepreneurs and the match had additional opportunities that I was excited to explore. However, there was a problem. At some point the communication broke down. The younger leader I reached out with the “influence” didn’t follow instructions and didn’t reach out. My client told me later she was ghosted.
I was naturally embarrassed and befuddled. I simply couldn’t understand it. My client as an HR authority was un-phased and said. “David, it’s no worries. I’m not surprised. She’s a millennial. It’s typical. You’re different. That’s why I like you.”
Wow. I was flattered and yet also disheartened at the same time. I began thinking about my own frustrations with communications personally and professionally with leaders that are in my age category and realized she was right.
In an instant message age we have missed:
Basic Relationship Building
Basic Follow Up
Basic Consistency
The long and the short of it is that many young leaders are missing the ingredient of faithfulness.
Don’t get me wrong I’ve found some great young leaders that are making strides in this area but overall there’s a lot of work yet to be done.
There’s an old biblical passage that says “he who is faithful in little will abound with much.” Have you ever noticed the people that get promoted typically are the individuals that were faithful in the little things?
A couple of weeks ago I was talking with a collaborator and friend that mentioned an intern she use to have named Dave Peacock. He ended up rising from the ranks to become the CEO of one of the largest beer companies in America.
He built relationships, he followed up, and he was consistent.
I had a few great interns that were very faithful. Not surprisingly I recommended them to roles across the country and they’re thriving. Why? Because they were faithful in the little things.
