LEADERS TEACH THE NEXT GENERATION

This is a very personal newsletter post for me. You are receiving this newsletter on Sunday, September 29. I wrote it in advance of the weekend. On Thursday, my wife and I flew down to Austin, Texas for a very special event.

Yesterday, Saturday evening, our younger son got married to a wonderful young woman. For those of you who have raised children, many of you know how joyful it is to watch your grown son or daughter get married. I experienced this four years ago when our older son got married just a few months before the pandemic hit.

As I thought about this wedding in advance, I reflected on how the subject of leadership has played a significant role in the life of our family. Since leadership is a subject in which I have been passionately interested, it is a subject I have strived to teach to my sons.

How can we educate the next generation about leadership – the next generation of leaders at our organizations and the next generation of leaders within our families, either our families by blood or our families by choice.

-We can encourage young people to strive for leadership positions within their high schools and colleges

-We can encourage youngsters to do volunteer work for leaders at their religious institutions – churches, synagogues and mosques

-We can ask young people to contact the local volunteer bureau and see what volunteer opportunities exist at local non-profit organizations

-We can help young people inquire about volunteer roles at youth-oriented organizations at the local, state, regional or national levels

-We can create suggested reading lists on the subject of leadership, encourage young people to take notes, and then discuss their impressions after they finish those books. I did this with both my sons when I gave them the book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens.”

-We can encourage young people to watch movies or TV shows that include good leadership as themes. There are so many shows from which to choose.

-We can encourage young people to discuss leadership with leaders they most admire at school: principals and teachers, or college professors

-Students can learn so much about leadership from participating in school sports. They learn about sacrifice, collaboration, teamwork, sportsmanship, positive attitude, and listening skills. Encourage youngsters to get involved in sports. I was a very poor athlete as a boy and never dreamed about playing on a school team. However, in both junior high school and high school, I served as the manager of the basketball team. I never played, but I was exposed to wonderful leadership lessons from exemplary coaches.

-We can ask young people to read online about great leaders – political leaders, religious leaders, corporate leaders and athletics leaders.

-We can encourage young people to read the biographies or autobiographies of esteemed leaders, then discuss their biggest take-aways with each other or with us.

-We can point young people to digital resources on leadership, including TedTalks by authors like Brene Brown and Tik Tok videos by authors like Simon Sinek

As I ponder the leadership lessons I have tried to pass on to my sons – and to my younger colleagues at Georgetown Law over 30 years – I realize that sharing leadership wisdom with those that follow us is an essential aspect of creating our leadership legacies.

This kind of sharing is best done intentionally, as part of our leadership missions:

-To whom do we want to pass on leadership wisdom?

-What leadership lessons are most important to disseminate?

-What is the best way to share our leadership wisdom so that the intended recipients integrate those lessons?

Distributing leadership lessons to the next generation is part obligation and part pleasure.
-How are you doing it?
-How could you be doing it better?
-Who can you enroll in your efforts to help spread the word?

Please help make this world a better place for leadership by focusing on the people coming up after you, whether they be work colleagues or members of your own families.

If you believe this content would resonate with a friend or colleague, please feel free to forward it along!

-Larry