Learning to Be a Young Leader

I have already written a few blogs about being a leader, but I never talked about ways to be a leader even when you’re young and may not have an authoritative position. Recently, our company made a Young Professionals Group, and our first meeting was about Leadership. It was a very nice meeting to be a part of as it put a lot of things in perspective. One being that leaders have a lot more that they need to pay attention to than just how their business is doing, but also how important it is to pay attention to the people that help make the business thrive, i.e., employees. Communication and treating people well are very important to being a successful leader. The great thing is that anyone can implement that into their professional development, it doesn’t matter what age or position.

In the leadership meeting that I mentioned, I learned that there are levels to being a leader, levels one through five. In the first level, position is important, but this is where encouragement needs to start to be implemented. That will separate the bad leaders from the good. Even when you’re young and are in an entry level position, you can be an encouragement to everyone around you!

In the second level, it is all about having respect, trust, to listen, and to be humble. It is about having the attitude of serving and bringing out the best of others. It is very important to also increase communication and build bridges with your team. Again, even in an entry level position, these are all things that can be focused on, and it will help to be a better teammate and good practice for a future leadership position.

In the third level, there needs to be a focused vision and ability to convert potential into performance. To help others gain confidence and be a team leader. In business in general, there should always be a vision to focus on and the motivation to have improved performance day by day.

Finally, the last level to discuss is level four, which is all about the ability to grow leaders and transfer leadership to others. It is important at this level to encourage others to learn quickly and help others help carry the responsibilities. This is where we can look to ourselves and ask ourselves if we are actively trying to grow to be a leader and working to always learn quickly and constantly trying to take on more responsibility.

To conclude, level 5 is about longstanding reputation, creating a legacy and having succession as a result. This level is about the opportunity to pour into the next generation. Reaching this level is very rare, and we should pay attention to the people that have gotten to this point. With all of these qualities and determination, it is a wonder who in this new generation will reach this level. It is not easy, but it is possible!