Excerpted From
Guiding the Next Great Generation
By Jonathan Catherman
For generations, societies worldwide functioned within a two-layer model that separated the hierarchical positions leaders held over followers. Leadership directed businesses, schools, politics, and families from above, where tenure was often the reward of all-consuming dedication or boosted through inheritance and tradition. From below, followers filled subordinate roles, committing to tasks that implied promotion only after years of loyalty or upper-level vacancies. This top-down model was the norm for the Silent Generation, Boomers, and Gen X, but it has failed to engage Millennials and is widely rejected by the 85 million members of Gen Z.
As Generation Z comes of age, they are joining Millennials to form the largest population count in the world. This demographic shift means their demand for change in next generation leadership models cannot be ignored. In recent years, organizations of all sizes have investigated the need for updated personal and professional development that recognizes the opportunity for anyone to rise. Our collective willingness to invest in the promise of increased performance has created a competitive industry of consulting and training. This pursuit highlights a growing interest in equipping next-generation leaders and understanding what the next generation is looking for.
Annual spending on leadership development has climbed into the billions of dollars over the last decade. From global management-training firms to boutique coaching services, solutions are readily available for mastering the “laws,” “principles,” and “art” of being a leader. A search for books with leadership in the title yields overwhelming results. Yet, despite this topic saturation, researchers report that only 44% of high school students are engaged in learning, and 82% of managers struggle to lead effectively. With disengaged employees costing the U.S. hundreds of billions annually in lost productivity, it is clear that traditional approaches are no longer sufficient.
Perhaps we are focusing too much on convincing students, employees and team members that they need to be leaders and not enough on what qualifications they must first steward to make them worth following.
The growing rejection of the hierarchical leaders-over-followers model requires us to reimagine our centuries-old two-layer paradigm of leadership. In the process of restructuring the model, it remains important to include what we know are the universal principles anyone can practice in their qualification for the role of leadership. In doing so, the new model will be acceptable to and achievable for both pre- and post-millennium generations.
What begins to take shape is an inclusive, three-layer model built upon the qualifications of membership, stewardship and leadership. With this new layers-to-leadership model, leadership is obtainable by anyone who chooses a vertical dedication to personal development. This means leadership is no longer the most significant role one can practice daily. Stewardship is.
Why would stewardship be the most significant of the three layers? Because stewardship is what elevates us beyond the general inclusion of membership and acts as the prerequisite for the role of leadership. Stewardship is particular, long-term and strengthening. Where membership and leadership both function in public, stewardship is a far more private practice. Stewardship is powered by one’s personal commitment to integrity, which includes doing the right thing even when no one is watching. If we are to truly trust those who have risen to the level of leadership in our nations, communities, businesses, faiths, education, sports, entertainment and families to be good at what they do publicly, it’s best they are first consistently good at what they do personally. This means stewardship holds the prequalifications of leadership.
Stewardship is not a top-down responsibility. Stewardship is based upon the model that those who can be trusted with little can be trusted with more.
Bringing the focus back on our emerging generations, how committed are they to stewarding what has been entrusted to their care? How prepared are they to launch into life responsibly managing, supervising, and protecting their communication skills, driving habits, education, environment, faith practices, finances, personal belongings, business practices, heritage, influence, language, physical fitness, property, nutrition, opportunities, relationships, reputation, sexual activity, sleep schedule, social media, technology, time management, work ethic … just to name a few. As we work to prepare them to inherit the world, our responsibility includes guiding them to practice stewardship before leadership. When we do that, stewardship acts as the prerequisite for the quality of leadership they will need to right many historic wrongs and become the Next Great Generation.
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Excerpted from Guiding the Next Great Generation by Jonathan Catherman. Copyright 2020 by Jonathan Catherman. Published by Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Used by permission. BakerPublishingGroup.com