The Next Generation

Most students entering college for the first time this fall—the Class of 2014—were born in 1992. For these students, Benny Hill, Sam Kinison, Sam Walton, Bert Parks, and Tony Perkins have always been dead. Each year, Beloit College puts together a list of "cultural touchstones" that affect the lives of students entering college in 2011. The faculty uses it as a reminder to be aware of dated references. Here are some of our favorites:

1. Few in the class know how to write in cursive.

2. Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail.

3. Al Gore has always been animated.

4. “Caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” have always been street corner lingo.

5. With increasing numbers of ramps, Braille signs, and handicapped parking spaces, the world has always been trying harder to accommodate people with disabilities.

6. John McEnroe has never played professional tennis.

7. Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry.

8. Doctor Kevorkian has never been licensed to practice medicine.

9. Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.

10. They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone.

11. Leasing has always allowed the folks to upgrade their tastes in cars.

12. Unless they found one in their grandparents’ closet, they have never seen a carousel of Kodachrome slides.

13. Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.

14. Czechoslovakia has never existed.

15. Second-hand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.

16. J.R. Ewing has always been dead and gone. Hasn’t he?

17. Rock bands have always played at presidential inaugural parties.

18. Beethoven has always been a good name for a dog.

19. Having hundreds of cable channels but nothing to watch has always been routine.

20. They've always been able to blast off with the Sci-Fi (SYFY) Channel.

You can view the complete list at www.beloit.edu/mindset. Are you guilty of being "dated" in your dealings with the younger generation? These folks will soon hit the workforce so be aware of language you may want to change.

Thanks to my friends at Resource Associates Corporation.

Looking to the future,

Jon Bohm

Leading up the Ladder

Tom Landry, the coach of the Dallas Cowboys, once said something that may be true of nearly any motivator: “I have a job to do that is not very complicated, but it is difficult: to get a group of men to do what they don’t want to do so they can achieve the one thing they have wanted all of their lives.”

At what point does someone become the type of leader that is worth millions to an organization or team? What does it take? There are many answers to that question that we could use to describe someone like Tom Landry, Jim Boeheim, Phil Jackson, John Wooden, or one of my current favorites Ken Whisenhunt.

One thing, they all have in common, is that they have the ability to motivate people and players to higher performance- to fight through pain and achieve at the highest levels of their potential.

This requires conquering 3 levels of leadership.

1- They have climbed to the rung of leading themselves - this means they know who they are, they like the person in the mirror, and they have become confident internally with what they know they can do. They have the capacity to truly care for others and confident in the circle of people that care about them.

2- They have climbed to the rung of informal leadership - this is the behind the scenes leadership, locker room conversations about life and leadership, inspiring others through conversation and small group huddles. They can rally energy in others when they walk into the room.

3 - They have climbed to the rung of formal leadership - they can drive a team/organization by grabbing the energy of everyone involved, they recruit, train, develop, and strategize to surround themselves with smart high performing people and then rally the team to the cause.

A leader who has climbed this 3 rung ladder is the type of leader that an organization can not pay enough, support enough, or give enough too. They are truly priceless in a world of insecurity, disorganization, and dispassionate living.

Which rung are you on? Are you priceless to your organization? You can be, the secret is ....it never happens on accident.

Creating Priceless Leaders -

Jon Bohm