Young, motivated and ready to make a difference…

Many thanks to Chuck Porter of Canon Capital and Chair for our Emerging Leaders Society for taking some time to write this blog post about being a young professional in the North Penn and Indian Valley communities. For more information on how to join our Emerging Leaders Society, contact Chuck at cporter@canoncapital.com or check us out on Facebook

It’s very easy to get wrapped up in the day to day grind at work. Rather than managing our lives, we often choose to manage our time – focusing on deadlines and five o’clocks. The problem is that, when we choose to take that route, we tend to focus on what we have to do rather than what we can do. For a young worker, it can be especially difficult to avoid this trap and, at the same time, it is critically imperative to go beyond deadlines and working for the weekend.

Young workers, like me, often feel like our voices aren’t heard. We feel like we’re working for someone else and the inherent motivation when that happens is the day when that position is yours and the things that you’ll change when you’re in charge. You lose some of the edge that probably got you the job you’re in and the people around you no longer look at you as a source of energy but rather, just another cog in the machine.

So how do you combat this? What are the safeguards that you can put in place to prevent this from happening?

First and most important – you have to understand that you have the ability to lead no matter which position you are in. After all, leadership is not about power, it’s about influence and anyone can be influential, regardless of title. Your day to day actions have the ability to inspire those around you.

Second, you have to be deliberate about expanding your growth as a leader. Some people are born with the ability to lead but without proper care, those abilities can go stale. Seeking out mentors and finding ways to sharpen those leadership abilities are critical to expanding capabilities.

Third, you have to model yourself after the person that you aspire to be. If you want to be a good leader, you have to do the things that good leaders do. You have to be ask great things of yourself before you ask great things of others.

The Emerging Leaders Society of the North Penn United Way is committed to providing the framework to help emerging leaders in our area expand their leadership capabilities. Our efforts to grow our group have focused on three key areas: leadership development, community service and networking.

Our leadership development efforts have consisted of quarterly “Lunch and Learns.” Over the past year, our members have had the privilege of hearing from Ron Geib, President and CEO of Harleysville Savings and Rich Aichele, Executive Director at Keystone Opportunity Center, among others, speak about their journeys and the characteristics of a good leader. In October, we will be holding our next “Lunch and Learn” with Ken Byler, Partner and Senior Consultant at Higher Ground Consulting Group. He will be speaking on the Paradox of Leading and Following.

September will be a community service month for our group – we will be seeking out volunteers for the United Way Days of Caring on September 28th and the Run For Your Neighbor 5K on September 24th.

Finally, in November we will be celebrating our efforts and networking at our Cocktails and Comedy event at McCoole’s in Quakertown – a comedy show featuring David James (http://davidjamescomedy.com). Our social events provide a great way for emerging leaders to meet other like-minded individuals.