I hear a lot of members of this generation saying they want to be a manager in a business and posess leadership skills.  While its hard to say if generations before ours had the same desire to get to the top, I don’t think as many expected to do so as quickly.  People still in their 20’s (myself included) are not looking for entry level positions in a company that they can use to climb the corporate ladder and eventually inherit a position of leadership.  For some reason we feel more entitled to management positions and feel that we deserve to get them without the years of service that those ahead of us have.  So the question is, do we deserve that or should we wait in line like everyone else?

I think the first thing that needs to be looked at is what exactly is a leader?  When I think of management and leadership, it brings up two different definitions for me.  A manager does just that…they manage.  They maintain the status quo, take no big risks and in doing that make no big gains, but are unlikely to cause a huge failure.  It really is the same as a supervisor.  I see it as a person there to watch out for the employees, they probably know a lot about the product or service that they’re offering and can answer questions when needed, and they maintain the balance of workers.  A leader on the other hand, is willing to take charge, look for the areas that need to be changed and implement changes that have a chance at failure, but if successful will be very rewarding.  Leadership is a harder role to fill than most people are willing to accept because they don’t want the risk of failing, the chance of being fired for taking a risk, or the idea of not accomplishing what they set out to do. 

So what makes a good leader?  Well, as mentioned, they need to be willing to implement change, even when it isn’t the most popular path.  They have to be able to accept failure when it comes (and it will come).  They also have to have the vision to be able to correct the failures they have, and know that they need to be right more often than they are wrong (or at least be more right as far as profit goes).  Another thing that is important, maybe even more important, is for a leader to look at the tools they have and find answers in them.  A business can not run with the idea of spending money as the only way of meeting needs.  A good leader will look at the strengths of each employee, the tools they have to work with, and determine if meeting those needs is possible.  A lot of times this is not a point A to point B method of solving the problem, and it can take time to implement changes, but when there isn’t time to wait, the leader has to set the example, explain the situation and get their employees to see the vision, or at least the end result of what the employees task is.

So why does Gen-Y feel they have this ability better than others, even to the extent of being able to jump over people that have been in their industry for years?  Well, the quick answer is “I don’t know”.  I am willing to explore it a little further than that though.

I think one thing that really sticks out is the amount of pressure on Gen-Y to continue education past high school.  While it has always been an option for previous generations, the expecation for Gen-Y was to choose a career, go to college, then enter the workforce and be successful.  We were thrown stats about how much more a college grad could expect to make over a career, told what jobs would not be available to us without a degree, and really sold on the fact that if we wanted to be successful, we needed to get that degree.  Those things are all true, but we weren’t sold on the idea of going to college, working our asses off to get the degree, then entering the workforce and finding ourselves on the bottom of the corporate ladder needing to work our asses off just to get one wrung up.  We may feel that the degree promised us an easier future, when really it only put us in the position to work harder to maybe earn a better future.  (In saying all of that, I’m not selling the idea that college is bad!  All I’m saying is that there may have been a misunderstanding on what happens after we get out.)

So does Gen-Y have what it takes to be leaders?  Again, I don’t know, but this might be an area where some of the strengths become weaknesses.  More than generations before them, Gen-Y learned to be self reliant and self motivators.  That’s kind of the point of a lot of this writing.  We learned how to use computers and other tools to make our work easier and more efficient, we grew up with cell phones and PDA’s and we grow with the advancements of them quickly.  With that, we’ve also become the generation that’s learned to text, instant message and email our communications.  The idea of having readily available communication devices has caused us to be less capable communicators.  Can a leader lead from behind a screen?  No, true motivation is going to come from the hands on experience.  An example of this would be Rudy Guilliani during 9/11.  It would have been safer and easier for him to take cover in a secure location and plan strategy from there.  Instead, he walked through the streets of NY to the site of the WTC and assessed his situation, made a statement and helped plan on how to start the recovery process.  Did he make better decisions because he was infront of the people he was leading?  Who knows.  Was it more effective?  Absolutely.  They saw him as a figure that they could rise up with and complete the task even in the face of danger and tragedy.  While most leaders/workers aren’t going to have tasks anywhere in comparison with the example, it shows how human touch can add to motivation.

So while Gen-Y may be able to increase productivity in the short term, make things more efficient and effectively manage after that, I’m not sure if we’ve seen how effectively they can lead.  I’m also not sure how well they will be taken as leaders.  People are slow to accept change because they don’t always see it as progress.  It will be interesting to see how people vote this year for president, and then the reasons they give for voting that way.  Will they vote for the young up-and-comer who promises change?  Remember, we’ve done that with the last two presidents.  Clinton was the first Boomer president and was a very polarizing figure.  GWB, again, was relatively new in politics and a Washington outsider, and even more polarizing than Clinton.  Are people going to be willing to go younger still?  Or will they turn to the guy that fought in Vietnam, looks to Reagan as an example as to what a president should be, and would probably have more in common with a Gen-Yer’s grandparents?  Maybe America feels the need to let an elder statesman take charge again, not try to be friends with the world and just tell people how things are going to be done.  After all, the United States is a big workplace looking for a leader…