Youth leadership opportunities are often overlooked by adults, either knowingly or unknowingly, but the results are the same; a lost opportunity for young people to take the lead. Even when adults consider themselves champions for youth in leadership roles, many times adults are asked to assume leadership positions instead of letting youth take the lead.
Underestimated generation in being leader
Last Saturday (November 6, 2021), students of the “Global Leadership” program had a V.I.P Talk: “Leadership and Responsibilities of the youth generation” with Mr. Dzung Ho – Chief Partnership Officer of ENOUVO IT Solutions – a group on IT Consulting, Digital Creativity & Co-working Space. During the sessions, various interesting questions were raised around the topic of young leaders in society such as “Is it necessary for all young people to learn about leadership skills?”, “What challenges are awaiting for the youth generation?” and “How to remove the stigma about young people who are often underestimated in their ability to lead a group or community?”
Normally, when talking about a young leader, some Baby Boomer and Gen-X leaders don’t have a nice impression because “they are young, which means they’re lack experience, they are too ‘day-dream’ sometimes, etc.” Due to that reason, rarely do they accept a leader who is under 35 in their team.
Potential from Gen Z leaders
“The Jewish people, ever since David slew Goliath, have never considered youth as a barrier to leadership.”
– John F. Kennedy –
At a young age, Gen Z leaders are ambitious and enthusiastic. Optimism is something every workplace needs, and it can be harder to find in leaders over 40. The kind of enthusiasm you have when you’re young really helps make up for the lack of wisdom you might not yet have. Young and motivated easily beats smart and lazy.
Not only that, younger leaders see things differently because they grew up in a culture older leaders didn’t. They are digital natives with quick-learning abilities. Gen Z is like a sponge that can absorb all the new things, keep them and wait until the right time to use them. If any company wants to connect with the emerging generation, having the emerging generation around the table is irreplaceable.
Despite this biased concept, nowadays there are various big corporations in the world that use the Talent Acquisition policy such as IBM, Google, Microsoft, etc., which focuses more on the capacity than the age. Not out of that trend, as a leading IT company in Vietnam, FPT Corporation creates a similar policy to attract talents, ‘FPT Under 35’ for instance.
Young leadership skills – a key to success
“Leadership is essential, no matter if you intend to get a high position in the company or not. It starts with self-leadership,” shared Mr. Dzung at the VIP Talk. “Being a leader means you can lead yourself and you support others to lead themselves. Maybe your children, maybe your family, maybe your friends.” Only when you guide yourself in the right direction, can you bring success to you.
In addition, Mr. Dzung also shared about the process to become a successful leader: “Start with you, lead yourself; Go with a small team; Join in a big team; Lead with a big team”. We should begin from the easiest part – from the person who we have 100% ability to guide – that’s ourselves. This is essential because according to Mr. Dzung, one of the traits of a mindful leader is ‘Lead with example’ – which means we need to be a good model first. Time after time, we can try to co-work with others in a small team and learn to get on well with them and practice leadership skills: strategic thinking, planning & delivery, people management, change management, communication and persuasion & influence. These skills can’t be mastered in a short time, going with the process from small steps will give us enough experience to self-train.
How to enhance leadership skills?
Mr. Dzung also suggested students join social and voluntary activities (in school or local places where they live). They are ideal places to learn new skills without any pressures from bosses or KPI or anything that may affect your company. There, you still have a community to practice teamwork and other communication skills. For success today, Mr. Dung himself used to participate in various projects with a multicultural environment, and from that, he enriched his own leadership skills.
On the other hand, instead of spending a longer time self-learn, young people also can join various programs about soft skills from prestigious universities. Notably the “Global Leadership” program of the leading Vietnam educational institution FPT Education Global. The course is built in a practical format and from fundamental knowledge by the guest speakers who are leaders with decades of experience in the business world. “Global Leadership” is promised to provide students with the most essential information to enhance their confidence and leadership skills.
| Mr. Dzung Ho – the speaker for the VIP Talk: “Leadership and Responsibilities of the youth generation” in the “Global Leadership” program is now a Chief Partnership Officer of ENOUVO IT Solutions. He spent 6 years at the Department of Foreign Affairs for the City Government as an International Cooperation Specialist. In addition, he worked at DNES – an organization to build and promote the startup ecosystem in Da Nang city in 4 years and he was a key member in the project of Culture – Creative Hubs by British Council Vietnam. With decades of experience as a leader of big organizations and companies, working in a multicultural environment, Mr. Dzung Ho brought a fundamental view and valuable sharing about the role of a leader to students of “Global Leadership”. |