Good Leaders Invest in People!!

                     Stop Whining and Start Investing in Someone!

“This is the useless generation” “It’s like we’re dealing with 25 year old children” “The people I hire have no work ethic” “All employees do is sit on their phones”. How often have you heard comments like these lately? If you’re in any kind of a management role, you’ve heard them a lot, and you’ve likely said them before. What’s the issue we’re talking about here? Helicopter parenting – where parents hover over their children to make sure they’re always perfectly safe from even perceived insults? What about the newest term, “snow plow parents” – parents who go in front of their kids to make sure things are as easy as possible, yelling at teachers and employers when their kids fail? Maybe this is the problem. But maybe it’s not the only one.

If you’re a leader, the solution sits on your shoulders. It sits on my shoulders. We can’t control how parents choose to raise their children. As much as we’d like to tell them to let them fail, and in doing so learn that they can fail and learn from it, we usually don’t get the chance to tell them this! We simply deal with the results. Some young adults who can’t handle life, can’t handle it when they’re told to leave their phone in the truck, in the shack, or in the lunchroom. Some young adults who act more like young children than people we can count on to do their job when we’re not looking over their shoulder. Some young adults who are offended when they haven’t reached the heights of their career within a year or two. Some young adults who can’t get themselves to work on time for more than a day or two in a row. Some young adults whose education is paid for by their parents or society, complaining how someone else is privileged.  

As much as I’d like to say those are all exaggerations, they’re not. And that’s unfortunate! It’s doubly unfortunate because there are many young adults who I enjoy working with – a lot!! They are hardworking, smart, determined, careful, fun, conscientious. In other words, they’re great people to be around and work with! And these people are lumped into a generalization of their generation. Why are they different? Often it’s because someone, a parent, a teacher, a supervisor, a boss, invested some time in them, helping them to understand what it means to be a healthy, mature adult. 

When’s the last time you invested in someone in this way? If you can’t remember, then it’s about time you started. We can’t complain if we’re not doing anything to be a part of the solution. Is society going to change? Maybe. But maybe not. But each of us has the opportunity to invest in young people, to help them grow into adults who will contribute to the society they’re a part of rather than whine about where they think they’ve been done wrong. Take a role in building into the lives of the coming generations. That’s what good leaders do.

Todd Reimer    Boots on the Ground Coaching    www.morethanahammerbook.com

www.bootsonthegroundcoaching.com