Look, Boss, I’m All Grown Up!

One thing I enjoy about leading teams is finding young people with potential and helping them grow into great leaders. Unfortunately, I’ve witnessed a lot of capable young leaders in thriving organizations who eventually become discouraged, disengaged, and leave for other opportunities.

Why? Despite the fact that they’ve grown well beyond their entry-level positions and are knowledgeable and qualified to move into roles with more responsibilities and opportunities, they are stereotyped as the perennial kid. Their leaders will not let them grow up.

Sometimes leaders do it without even realizing it. They refer to their younger teammate as “kiddo” or “sidekick” in front of clients. They shelter them from opportunities to interact with the higher ups. They say things in meetings like, “When we were working on Project XYZ, you were still in diapers!”

Here are some actions to take to support the growth of your young leaders:

• Treat them like you would treat someone your age in the same position.
• When introducing them to clients or business colleagues, use their title or specific area of responsibility rather than “star note taker” or “my helper” or “our new kid.” (Yes, some leaders really do this!)
• Compensation should commensurate with their responsibilities, experience, and performance, not their age or tenure.
• Ask for their opinions on new projects. Give them challenges to tackle.
• When filling an open position, look within first. The modest amount of training a younger leader may need to step in a new role might be a much smaller investment than the costs of hiring a brand-new employee who may or may not stick around.

On the other hand, young leaders, if you want to be viewed as a peer to your senior colleagues, act like it. Here are some tips:

• Take responsibility for your work. Don’t rely on colleagues to clean up your drafts or catch your mistakes. Make everything you do “presentation ready.”
• Read books, articles, and blog posts in your area of expertise. Keep learning so you can keep adding value.
• Act and dress the part. If you act and dress like you’re still in college, you’ll likely be treated as such.
• EQ matters as much as (and often more than) than IQ. Regardless of how intelligent you are, emotional immaturity will hold you back. Your ability to rise above the drama and handle all situations with a level head is essential to your ability take on additional responsibilities.
• Communicate professionally. Don’t send emails using “text speak.” Work on being well-spoken and clearly explaining your ideas without fillers such as “like” or “um.”
• Focus on gaining experience. That experience will open the door to more opportunities. Money is a result and follows your hard work, not the other way around.

Growth opportunities are a reward, not a right. As leaders, we must support the growth of those hungry, hard-working young leaders by helping create opportunities for those who’ve earned them.