The 'Top Ten' attributes of youth leadership today

Those of you who have been reading this blog since last year might remember the video of Rahul Ganapathy, a young leader at HCL Tech and a role model, who inspired colleagues to look beyond work and add value as a brick in the construction of society. He was a bagful of ideas for social responsibility, be it volunteering for organ donation, organising blood donation camps or presenting plant saplings as birthday gifts.

Rahul is not the only one who captured my attention. All around me in India and overseas, I am captivated by young men and women displaying admirable leadership qualities beyond their age, breaking the mould to find new paths to a better future.

Each of them has unique traits, and yet, they are similar in many ways. So at the risk of a generalisation, I am going to present some characteristics of youth leadership that strike me as common to this generation:

1. Knowledge dunking: There is no limit to their soaking in of knowledge. Natives of the new world, they are comfortable swimming in the deep waters of information overload and are adept at finding what they are looking for quickly in the hundreds of thousands of search results.
2. Compulsive entrepreneurs: These young guns are bounding with a spirit of enterprise that cannot be restrained by any ‘job description’. They have fresh ideas on every aspect of business and it would be our loss if we tried to restrict them within the folds of their ‘key responsibility areas’.
3. Yes, and ...: It always fascinates me when I watch the response of a youth leader to a new idea. Their energy and excitement to question, probe and find new solutions is so strong that their mind keeps ticking with more ideas long after the solution has ostensibly been found.
4. Collaborators, naturally: In my opinion, youth leaders are some of the most inclusive team captains. They are collaborative by nature and have grown up in a generation that is used to consulting peers on their smallest step to their biggest decision. They bring true democracy to their organisations, a welcome change, and are catalysts in breaking down the rigid pyramid structures of yore.
5. More please: Boredom sets in if you try and engage these young leaders on just one dimension. Multi-talented with multiple interests, they multi-task with ease and lead their teams on a multi-dimensional level.
6. Blender personalities: There are no water-tight compartments in their lives; no boundaries between work and home. They do not divide their lives in 9-5 or 5-9 blocks and are comfortable performing their personal and professional roles simultaneously.
7. Open books: Chipping away at the knowledge hoarding ‘manager syndrome’ of the past, these youth leaders see little value in keeping their cards close to the chest. They conduct their business like an open book - transparent in intent, deed and feedback– and expect the same from their teams and seniors.
8. Innovation vs. Experience: This is a generation that is mature beyond their years. Treated as young adults by helicopter parenting, they have been encouraged to think for themselves. As such, they are self assured and make up for their lack of experience with innovative thinking and continuous skill upgradation.
9. Green brigade: The redefinition of responsibility by this generation comes as a welcome change. Looking beyond themselves, they readily take responsibility for not only their own actions, but also their teams, organisations, world and future. No wonder then, they are the green brigade, looking for new and collaborative ways to undo the damage caused to the planet by economic development.
10. Live life: There is far more to life than work for these young achievers. So, without much ado, they pack a tight work day but sprinkle it with frequent moments of fun. Always on the go, they operate across time-zones ready to jump back to work at the red blink of a BlackBerry! And yet, they have mastered the skill to recharge their batteries with short timely breaks, always finding the time for a quick chat with a friend or an even faster status update on Facebook!

These are just some of the amazing qualities I have observed about youth leadership today. I am sure you can add much more to this list and look forward to your thoughts on this intriguing topic.