I’m a fairly cerebral chick. I excelled at intellectual pursuits while growing up, and while I did a lot of performing arts, I never really understood how to “be in my body.” Fast forward a few decades, and now I can’t evangelize enough that you have to use your body to learn and grow, and that is true for business as well.
This brings me to a topic near and dear to my heart, which is the next generation of business leaders. What I hope for the next generation of professionals is to learn how to learn by doing, not just by absorbing and observing. Specifically, as I have taught networking and business development skills, there’s no substitute for actually sending the email, meeting the contact for lunch, or delivering the proposal. You have to physically move your body to do these things – even if it’s just clicking “send” on the email you’ve been nervous to send. The commitment to move from the theoretical and the safe to the action-oriented real world is a necessary step to anyone trying to realize their potential.
The pandemic robbed our next generation professionals of on-campus community, leadership positions in student organizations, internships, work-study programs, and part-time jobs. I think it will take us years in the business leadership community to make up for the cumulative knowledge that these activities bring to any entry-level candidate. I’ve heard many seasoned leaders lament what younger folk lack, and truth be told I’ve heard enough of it. If they indeed lack that experience, those chances to fail and grow, those opportunities to shine, then we as established leaders need to be work harder at mindfully engineering opportunities for them to take the next steps in their career. We also need to get the heck out of their way!
Something I am tired of hearing is that “young people just need to blah, blah, blah.” While that my be true, they’re certainly not going to gain the benefits of learning if we continually hover over them, doubt them, coddle them, and stay on the front lines. WE – we veterans – need to move as well. We need to comport ourselves worthy of being exemplified. We also need to move in such a way as to prevent people from getting caught in our unintended and naturally occurring shadows. We need to sometimes simply move out of the way.
So I guess what I’m saying is that we as seasoned leaders need to learn by moving as well. Because only when we move out the way can we actually see the results in the next generation take shape that we’ve been waiting for. And that’s a beautiful thing. We all of us need to learn how to learn by moving.
