Leadership in 2017 - through the eyes of Gen Z's!
Martin Bould
★ Chief Executive | CCO | NED | Board Advisor | Trustee ★ Telecoms, Technology, Transport, BPO, Gaming ★ Salesforce, Vodafone, O2, First Group, FEG ★ Available immediately
Leadership is clearly a topic far too large to cover in one LinkedIn post although a recent post from a good friend and colleague did provide some inspiration: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/best-leader-i-worked-why-jonathan-earle. Following a number of ‘meetings’ with some of the young leaders and mentees here in Cayman partaking in Digicel's 'Young Leader’s' programme (plus one with my 11 year-old son) I thought I'd share the insights.
We live in complex, challenging, yet incredibly opportune times where being a great leader is tough but rewarding. There is, of course, no one ‘silver bullet’ – the many books and seminars on leadership cover multiple traits and behaviours. So what did I learn from this sample of 11-24 year old’s and their view on leadership.
Firstly, I’m getting old – early 40’s definitely equals old. But beyond that the start point for the Young Leaders was actually the definition of success – no longer just about financials, customer numbers or the title of your job.
Thereafter, and unsurprisingly many of the traits they look for in modern leaders would be the same traits that have always been required by leaders, perhaps in different measures in the past:
- Offering guidance, help and support
- Striving to make a difference, particularly in your community,
- Making an effort to be caring, human & to be approachable all came out as strong suggestions. I personally think humility and authenticity are more important than ever.
The more traditional necessities still stand:
- Someone with a plan or vision, who can get a team of people excited and bought into an idea. Strong, clear communication skills combined with passion is clearly important.
- The energy to motivate, and someone who can pick a team up when the chips are down; with a fighting spirit yet remain calm under pressure.
- Knowledge; if you lead the business you should understand it.
The list goes on and like I said there is no ‘silver bullet.’ All the great leaders I have worked with had some of the above traits.
Sometimes leadership is about not overcomplicating things. With that I’ll leave you with the thoughts of my 11 year-old, to whom I asked “what does leadership mean to you?” this morning.
“Be nice, don’t be too strict, let people make mistakes and make the right decisions!”, was his insightful response. If only it was that simple.
?????? Global Brand Strategy ?? AI-powered brand ?? Brand Marketing @Builder.ai ???? Gen-Z Mentor ?? Neurodiversity Champion ?? I brand + represent the underrepresented in Tech
7 年Martin, your son's just nailed it. In it's simplest form, that is what leadership consists of. Clever cookie. ?? thanks for sharing.
Senior Product Manager | Digital, telco, eCommerce, & financial services | Product and CX leadership across Alexa, Amazon Consumer, O2 UK, Vodafone and IBM
7 年Martin - interesting read your post and hear that you learnt from the young mentees as much as they did (hopefully!) from you. Having worked in your team, and a few teams since then, I absolutely agree about the need to be able to lead and invigorate a team in tough times. Thanks for leading by example, and showing me how to do this. Best wishes to the Cayman team!
Commercially minded Digital Marketing Lead / Head of Digital Marketing ?? MBA (Henley Business School)
7 年What a wise son you have at such a young age! Martin, although I was never fortunate to work directly for you, I could see a lot of the qualities you describe in your post in the way you led your teams at O2. You describe the importance of 'authenticity' in a leader and in leadership, and I agree, it's an attribute which is paramount in my mind, and one which is crucial in building trust. Keep the posts coming!
Chief Operating Officer - Pinergy | Sales | Operations | Product | IT
7 年Some interesting insights Martin Bould and so important for us to understand the changing dynamic of the next generation on both a personal and commercial basis......