patience, young grasshopper.

so i find myself frequently talking to people about what it means to be young and a leader. i feel like i’m always pressing older leaders to engage us young grasshoppers in this discussion—not just through a workbook, but through relationships, resources and opportunity. we crave these things, however, you might not know it. i stumbled across this great quote by Brad Lomenick (in an interview with Tony Morgan):

Young leaders…still love to be led and deeply desire to be molded by those who have gone before us. I think there is a perception that because we have a tendency to have a “free agent” mentality towards our careers and vocation and calling that we are rebelling against wise mentors and older leaders. This is not the case. Young leaders still deeply desire to have someone lead them…The challenge is that our approach is different- we don’t (as a general rule) play into the more traditional idealism of waiting our turn, brown-nosing our way to the top, or not voicing our opinion because we haven’t “arrived” yet.

thoughts? what does that mean if you’re a young leader? an older leader?

~ by bradherndon on August 30, 2008.