photocredit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesjordan/

There a huge crisis ahead, and nobody is talking about it. It’s a crisis that puts the future of everything we have built and know right now at risk. It’s a crisis of leadership.

We are in the middle of a major generational change in tide. Baby Boomers are moving out of leadership roles altogether, and Gen X into more senior positions. This is happening across business, politics, family dynamics, and any form of tribe. This sweeping tide is leaving a leadership chasm in the front lines, where people first jump in to a cause, a company, or a community. There will be fewer and fewer people there to inspire the rest of us to be involved in something bigger than ourselves and make a difference.  Why? Because Millennials don’t want to lead.

So what’s going on.

It starts with what it “means” to be leader today. The leadership landscape is filled with false prophets. People who love the idea of being a leader and the perks that come with it. Deep down, though, they seek power for their own gain. These “leaders” say one thing and do another, they first think about themselves and then about the broader community, and they sacrifice little but gain a lot.

Unfortunately, there are far too many of these so-called leaders, and they have redefined the term for the worse. This is especially true for Millennials.  Talking to them you remember that they grew up hearing about Enron’s greed, Wall Street’s hubris, and Pay-to-play politics. The narrative around leadership was filled to the brim with cautionary tales and constant disappointments. Leadership stories that inspire us to greatness have been few and far between. The safest interpretation of what means to be a leader is to be cynical about the whole idea.

No wonder only 22% of Millennials are even remotely interested in becoming a leader. Even among those who are interested in the idea they see it only as a means to an end of furthering their career. A likely factor? Most companies don’t even consider training their Millennial leaders as a top priority over the next two years. Not sure what came first, the chicken or the egg, but I know for sure nobody is getting any omelettes any time soon because of all of this.

This trend is so damn depressing because the possibility of more Millennial leaders is such a hopeful vision.

Why Millennial Leaders Are The Heroes We Need

We are a few steps away from transforming the sorry standard for leadership forever. All we have to do is coax the potential already within this generation of millions.

We need Millennials to lead because they already possess the characteristics needed to be a great leader. Here’s a sample:

Idealistic: Millennials want to make a “positive impact” in the world, and a bunch of other silly things we laugh at.  Stop and think of a few laser-focused leaders who want to change the world, regardless of how unrealistic it may be. How many of us consider Elon Musk and Malala pie-in-the-sky fools? What if we had millions of leaders passionate about making tectonic shifts in how we work together, the value we create, and the world we live in? Isn’t this an instant upgrade from millions of bosses trying to squeeze out the largest possible bonus?

Curious: “Why can’t Millennials stay put?” Actually, they can and do, it just takes a bit more to keep them engaged. They want challenges that help them stretch and learn.  As the most educated generation ever, they are feverishly curious. In order for a leader to be future-read and nimble in times of change they need be constantly learning, not be stubborn in their knowledge.

Selfless: Yes, in order to be an effective leader, you need to take charge. But what’s often missing in defining effective leadership is the work that happens before and after the charge. A leader is also a coach, a servant, and a valuable asset to the team. Leaders help connect their team to a larger mission in order to inspire great feats, and they make each success about the team, not about themselves. A leader who acts like this truly has followers; one who doesn’t is only exercising temporary power and a flash of influence.

What Now?

The current brand of leadership is uninspiring and inauthentic for the vast majority of Millennials. Millennials are next up to take the mantle, but are unfortunately faced with a definition that is as foreign as VHS tapes.

In order to make leadership resonate it needs to be framed as an authentic, purpose-driven, and growth opportunity. Big paychecks, corner offices, or having the final word don’t cut it anymore. Mainly because these are artifacts closely associated with the dark side of leadership that crowd the headlines. We need to show Millennials how leading others to achieve spectacular things can be one of the most fulfilling adventures one can take. We need to offer a brand of leadership that doesn’t make them lose their humanity in the process.

The leadership crisis has already begun, but will come at full force over the next 2-3 years as Millennials reach an age when first-time leadership roles usually arrive. What will happen when Millennials are unwilling to take those roles, or, even worse, take them but don’t have the support or motivation  to do them well?

The idea of “leadership” needs a major reboot. It needs a remix. Shoot, it needs a whole new record label and new arrangements. We need Millennials to see the impact they can have as leaders, and to do that we need a new framework that highlights purpose and humanity more, and flash and hubris less. We need to because we need them now.

I live a privileged life, even if I don’t own many houses or leather-bound books. It’s privileged because I am able to do and experience what many can’t. I’ll give you an example:

I was recently eating an over-priced but still delicious salad on the steps of the New York Public Library while wearing a nice suit, having just finished a great meeting with a client, and about to board a plane back to my wonderful family. There’s obviously a lot to be grateful for in that sentence, but it is deeper than that for me. I grew up in rural Mexico, and often dreamed of one day visiting New York City and witnessing the big lights, the buzz, the pizza (the eternal fat kid). Now I get to visit it regularly along with other places, with a purpose: my craft. But that’s not what this story is about.

In front of me were two couples, each had their little ones sleeping in a baby carrier, talking in Spanish. They seemed worn out, not just from the day but from the many days and years leading up to it. We all know the feeling; that stretched, feverish feeling when you’re not sure when or if things will get better. I noticed them because I thought I knew one of them, the older woman looked like my tia back home. They started arguing over whether they should go home since they didn’t have enough for lunch for everyone. This is when I realized how crazy of a scene this was.

At that moment I realized the truth we were both living but in different ways. We hadn’t fully earned our place in that scene. My hard work, education, and the network I’ve build has probably my success, sure, but it’s not the most important factor, not by a mile. My success is an accident because my birth was also an accident. I was an accident because my dad decided to take a work trip to the US, and my mom wanted to tag along. She was about the burst, but figured she had a couple more weeks. She didn’t, and I was lucky enough to be born in Wattsonville, CA. Because of that I was a US citizen and had been given a gift countless friends and family members have literally risked their lives to get.

I didn’t earn any of that, yet my whole life has been shaped by that flip of luck. If my mom would’ve chosen differently, or if my dad would’ve taken the trip a week before, or if mini-me had decided to take a few more days to cook, I would not be eating my lunch in the city I grew up idolizing and have a wonderful family waiting for me back home.

Why does any of that matter? Because we all have to realize that a good part of what we have and have achieved is largely due to luck. It is due to something we can’t control, and a force our talent, wealth, or connections can’t influence.

We should think about this and be humbled. We should also think about this and look at people who are not doing as well as we are and wonder, What unfortunate luck struck them? It could’ve been me. Because indeed it could’ve been. Luck doesn’t discriminate–and luck doesn’t care. Today’s good hand could’ve be tomorrow’s challenge.

Rather than think about this and get depressed and go into a nihilistic spiral, I want all of us to simply appreciate what we have even more because it very easily could not have happened. And I want us to also empathize with people who are not where they’d like to be because it might’ve had nothing to do with their work ethic or character, but just a matter of pure, fickle luck. The world has a big humility and empathy gap right now. That gap is alive and well because I don’t think many consider luck and so all the praise or blame are piled on the individual.

That scene in NY was a blaring reminder I am actually not that awesome, at least not entirely out of my own doing, and they were probably struggling with challenges that one day might fall on me. So the most humane thing to do is be grateful with what I have and be kind with what they lack. That will make any trip home that much sweeter.

credit: daniel_ericka (flickr)

Next time your friends can’t decide where to go to eat, recommend McDonald’s.

Nothing against the chain (big fan of the McChicken over here), but it’s typically not a group’s first choice for dining. And that’s the point. By introducing this option, you’ve asked them to react. They can either react by saying no and recommend another place, or by saying yes and making the discussion moot. Talk is over, and action has begun.

That’s the gist of prototype thinking. Often when people discuss, it can easily become theoretical or just blah blah blah. Decisions don’t get made, nobody acts. But when you have a conversation around a prototype, your involvement is more active. You are being asked to consider an option, and if you say No then you have to say why, which will then get you closer to an agreement.

It’s important to talk things through. It’s pivotal. Without it you don’t get an opportunity to know what others think, who they are, or what’s important to them. But when you need to make a decision, you should always find a prototype and throw that into the conversation.

The prototype can be a sketch of a process; a mock up of an idea; an imperfect model of a product. It can be half-baked solution, or a rough draft of what you see as the problem.

Grappling with a prototype makes your thinking a lot clearer. You now have something “tangible” to grab, tear apart, and consider. The conversation moves away from the passive and theoretical and towards the active.

A prototype also makes everyone consider it in comparison to their own options. Which one is better? What is either missing? How is it different from what I would come up with?

Prototypes take you from ungrounded talk to action-focused conversations. That’s the first step to getting stuff done.

credit: wikipedia

The most important step in problem solving has nothing to do with the solution. You first need to clearly and fully define the problem. And to fully define anything you need to understand why it’s there to begin with.

Many people skip this step and fail when they want to get their fix in place. They feel they know enough to start proposing fixes, but when they present their idea they find themselves in implementation quicksand.

“I think you missed a step. Because even if we were to change the marketing calendar, we would still need to delay the launch…”

“I’m sure it is a good improvement, but I really don’t think involving the tech team in this will make an impact. In the end it’s not their problem, it starts with the production process.”

They skipped the step of knowing the root of their problem, and so their solution was never right. Problem solving starts with the roots of it all.

To get to the root, you have to keep asking why.

You just need to keep asking Why, What’s the reason behind this, until you get to the root. You will have found the root when everything you can think of associated with the problem is covered.

Here’s an example:

Years ago, the Parks Service found a problem with the Washington monument. It was deteriorating, and nobody knew why.

They looked into it and found that it was because of the high-pressure sprayer used every two weeks to wash it. Before they decided to switch the spraying scheduling or lower the pressure, they asked why again: why are the high-power sprayers used every two weeks?

They found that it was because of all the pigeon poop. There was so much of it that they needed the high-pressure sprayers that regularly. Before they decided to get rid of the pigeons somehow, they asked why again: why are there so many birds there?

They found that it was because of the large amount of spiders at the Memorial. The birds loved to eat the spiders, so they all flocked there to get a great meal. Before they decided to use insecticide to get rid of the spiders, they asked why again: why are there so many spiders?

They found that there were billions of insects, little ones that spiders loved to eat. Before they decided to use another type of insecticide to get rid of the insects, they asked why again: why are there so many insects?

They found that it was because of the light schedule used to light the Memorial for tourists at night. The lights were being turned on two hours before sunset, and they attracted all of the insects swarming around early at night.

They decided to change the lighting schedule, so that they turned on 30 minutes after sunset, instead of two hours before, and by simply doing that they reduced the insects by 90%, which then greatly reduced the numbers of spiders, which removed the pigeon problem, which eliminated the poop problem, which removed the need for high-pressure sprayers every two week, and thus stopped the decay of the Memorial.

Some call this method the “5 Whys,” but there’s no right number. You just need to keep asking Why, What’s the reason behind this, until you get to the root. You will have found the root when everything you can think of associated with the problem is covered.

Once you know the root, you will know the problem better than most, and can propose solutions that will work.