This week, I had the opportunity to speak to over 50 interns that just completed their summer internships at CHS. I thought long and hard about what relevant message I could bring to this group and landed on the subject of early-career leadership.

Over the years, I’ve become known for my leadership lessons. When I speak with students and early career professionals, they often tell me that they aspire to be a leader, but they are unsure of the steps to take.

Looking back at my own journey, there are several steps I took that made all the difference.

I’d like to share with all of you, the same insights I shared with this group of interns. Because I had a lot to share, I’ve written this as a two-part blog series. Stay tuned next week for part 2.

Way back when I was a student with no professional experience, I thought it would be important to work for a well-known company that people respected. That way, when I got together with my family over Thanksgiving, and they ask me where I work, I could tell them, “Yes, I work at XYZ company.” And they would respond with a proud smile, knowing the company I speak of. If I worked for a company that no one ever heard of, that would require me to do a whole lot more explaining, and I didn’t always feel well-suited to do that.

Looking back, that was a dumb reason. It doesn’t matter if the company you work for is a household brand name. What matters is the leadership culture of the company you are joining. That makes all the difference. Will your manager listen to you? Will she develop your skills? Will she challenge you to stretch your abilities? Will she make you feel safe if you mess up? Those qualities are golden. The familiarity of the name on the building doesn’t matter nearly as much.

Working for a great leader

My first job as a corporate employee was with a company that didn’t have a name anyone recognized. However, I got really lucky and I had great leaders that poured into me.

As a growing leader, you will model the leadership style that is portrayed to you. It’s paramount that you learn the right way early on, so you don’t need to unlearn bad habits later. I keep this in mind when I encounter “bad leaders.” It’s not that they are malicious. It’s that they learned bad leadership behaviors early on, and they can’t break the bad habits.

A prerequisite for becoming a good leader is working for a good leader. How can you figure that out? Ask yourself if you want to be like him or her. If can you say to yourself, “Wow, I hope I can be just like my boss one day,” that’s a great sign.

Work should be fun

The second prerequisite is fun. Yes, fun. Some think that work should be work, and fun should be fun, but I believe that work should be fun. In fact, it must be, if you want to develop as a leader.

I use the word, “fun,” but I could also use “happiness” or “engagement.” These are all loaded terms that may mean different things to different people. Here’s the ultimate question: “Do you want to go to work, or do you have to go to work?”

Remember that no-name company I went to work for? It was called RFC. Most of you never heard of it. RFC stood for Residential Funding Corporation, but internally, we used the nickname, “Really Fun Company” because it was.

I think we can agree that we all know a lot of people that don’t like their jobs. They work because they must earn a living. It is rare to hear someone say, “I like my job” and even rarer to hear them say, “I love my job.” According to Gallup Research in 2021, 80% of employees globally are not engaged in their work.

1 of out 5. That isn’t very good odds.

I think we can beat those odds by being intentional about it. Don’t accept a job offer that isn’t engaging. Don’t work for a boss that hates their job. If they don’t like their job, how on earth are you going to like yours? Conversely, if your leader loves his job and brings fun to the workplace, chances are good that you’ll enjoy it too.

Here’s the key takeaway: If you aspire to develop as a leader, it’s mission-critical that you find an ideal environment for that development. You need to be led by a competent leader who is a part of an overall healthy leadership culture. You need to be surrounded by people that like their jobs and a few crazy ones who absolutely love what they do. In those conditions, you can grow as a leader.

It doesn’t end there. Once you’ve found the right environment, you have a lot of work to do if you want to be a leader. I’ll cover that next week. Stay tuned.

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