Leadership Advice for GenY: 12 Golden Nuggets from #LeadershipChat

By Lisa Petrilli

Last night Steve Woodruff and I hosted our weekly Tuesday  #LeadershipChat on Twitter at 8:00 pm Eastern Time and chose to make it “Open Mic” night given it’s a holiday week. 

On “Open Mic” night anyone can come with a question, comment or challenge regarding leadership and the community “chats” about it. (Typically, Steve and I set a topic for the conversation and spend the entire hour on that one particular topic, going quite deep into the subject).

Last night one of our first-time participants was Laymon Hicks who raised the following question:

laymonhicks: I’m 23 years young and want to know what are valuable lessons student leaders should learn while they are young? #leadershipchat

I thought the responses were tremendous and wanted to share them here in order for other GenY up-and-coming leaders to benefit from them:

mckra1g: @laymonhicks Best advice: hear the essential in the other, respect viewpoints, don’t be afraid to voice your conviction #leadershipchat

swoodruff: @laymonhicks Interestingly enough, they’re all the same lessons you need at 33, 43, 53, and 63. Best start: humility. #LeadershipChat

CASUDI: @laymonhicks showing by example is what I learned when I was cons8dered too young to lead ~ good tip for anyone young #leadershipchat

steinerm: @CASUDI @laymonhicks great point. That, to me, is the first step towards gaining credibility. #LeadershipChat

TanveerNaseer: @laymonhicks Good leaders listen more than they talk, never afraid to admit they don’t know answers & are willing to learn #leadershipchat

LisaPetrilli:  @laymonhicks Know that there is not a soul you’ll work with that you can’t learn from – Be fully open. #leadershipchat

vampyrse: @laymonhicks That there IS an I in team. To perform well, you must maximize use of potential in both team AND individuals. #leadershipchat

RustiAnn: @laymonhicks Leaders don’t motivate people, they inspire people to become motivated #leadershipchat

DeRochier: @laymonhicks Everyone responds to appreciation. #leadershipchat

sumnermusolf: @laymonhicks: sure you got answers to your ?, but I’ll throw in my .02. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. Even a huge one. #leadershipchat

jonathansaar: @sumnermusolf @laymonhicks without mistakes there is no room for growth #leadershipchat

And just when you thought this was a one-way street…

DeRochier: @laymonhicks I enjoy hearing your thoughts and am learning from you! #leadershipchat

It goes without saying that leaders of all shapes, sizes and ages, with all forms and levels of leadership experience are welcome to join us for #LeadershipChat every Tuesday night at 8:00 pm Eastern Time on Twitter!

Next week, as we look ahead to 2011, we’ll focus on the topic of Vision in Leadership – you won’t want to miss it!

What leadership advice would you give to GenY? Please share your advice in the comments – I’d love to hear from you and for readers to be able to learn from you.

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Photo is NBP Gold by covilha.