Are You One of the Top 10%?

This past weekend, I had an engaging conversation about the younger generation with one of my best friends who serves as an HR Manager for a major Fortune 500 company in Denver, Colorado. Are discussion began with leadership in relevance to Generation Y and quickly moved into an in-depth conversation about recruiting the Top 10% talent in the college market.

Although this topic of discussion has not been of much interest to me as a leadership speaker who focuses mainly on issues that revolve around leadership, I was curious to hear how my friend defined the Top 10% because I personally did not believe the Top 10% should just be based on attending the best college and achieving the best grades in your class. Surprisingly to me, my friend felt the same way as me about the Top 10% and explained to me how being in the Top 10% from HR standpoint dealt with so many other factors beyond the college you attend and the grades you achieve in your class. He also agreed with me that everyone has the ability to be in the Top 10% if they are able to receive the proper training in their area of expertise.

As many individuals graduate college, aspire to move up within their company, and be the best they can be within their area of expertise, I wanted to share with you twelve key things that my friend and I believe people must possess in order to be considered the Top 10% in their area of expertise.

Strong Skill Set

If you are going to be considered Top 10% talent in your area of expertise, you must possess a strong talent and skill set for your specific professional arena. This can only happen for people who know what their skill set and work continuously to be the best they can be with their skill set.

Positive Attitude

If you are going to be considered Top 10% talent in your area of expertise, you must possess a positive attitude on the job, which means that you focus on the positive instead of the negative and possess an attitude that impacts others around you!


Great Character

If you are going to be considered Top 10% talent in your area of expertise, you must be someone that possesses great character. Great character means that you are someone others can trust, you are someone that has integrity, you are someone that fair and just, and you are someone that does what’s required of you in your area of expertise.

Passion

If you are going to be considered Top 10% talent in your area of expertise, you must be someone that possesses passion for your work. This ultimately means that you are someone who cares about your job, loves your job, is willing to go the extra-mile to be the best at your work, and refuses to let anyone or anything stop you from achieving great success in your area of expertise.

Team Player

If you are going to be considered Top 10% talent in your area of expertise, you must be someone that is an exceptional team player. Being an exceptional team player means that you are someone who works well with others, understands how to work effectively in a team setting, gets along with others on the job, and is willing to sacrifice for the betterment of the entire team.

Strong Leadership Skills

If you are going to be considered Top 10% talent in your area of expertise, you must be someone that has strong leadership skills. As a leadership speaker, there are many different aspects of becoming a strong leader, but one key thing to understand is that great leaders are not born, they are developed, which means at some point you will have to work on your leadership skills in order to be a great leader. This process can occur in college or in your area of expertise.

Teachable

If you are going to be considered Top 10% talent in your area of expertise, you must be someone that is teachable. This ultimately means that you are a person on the job that is willing to learn, is willing to hear positive and constructive criticism, knows how to listen, and does not believe that he/she know everything. Although this concept seems easy to do, many people fail within various organizations and companies because they are not teachable.

Professional Etiquette

If you are going to be considered Top 10% talent in your area of expertise, you must have professional etiquette, which is ultimately adhering to the company culture in which you work and being an example of the standards set by the company to others. For instance, as a business professional, if its required for you to wear a suit and tie, make sure you wear a suit and tie to the job. Also, if its good business within your company to respond to emails within 48 hours, make sure you are someone that responds in 48 hours. Basically, professional etiquette is doing what is professionally required in your area of expertise to the highest level.

Problem-Solver

If you are going to be considered Top 10% talent in your area of expertise, you must be a problem solver which is someone who is not only effective at solving problems on their own or in groups, but its someone that focuses on solutions to problems rather than the problem itself.

Strong Work Ethic

If you are going to be considered Top 10% talent in your area of expertise, you must have a strong work ethic, which consists of someone who works hard at their job and works at being better at what they do on a consistent basis. Since it’s basketball season, the greatest example of this concept is Kobe Bryant because he is not only one of the best players in the NBA, but he is also one of the hardest workers in the NBA as well.

Strong Decision Making Skills

If you are going to be considered Top 10% talent in your area of expertise, you must have a strong decision making skills, which consists of someone who is extremely effective at making good choices and making the right decisions in tough moments. For instance, if your on the job and your friend is not doing his job effectively, are you willing to make the tough decision to replace him with someone else for the betterment of the team or will that be something to hard for you to do? This is just one of the many tough decisions that talented people must make within their company or organization.

Great Communication Skills

If you are going to be considered Top 10% talent in your area of expertise, you must have a strong communications skills, which consists of being able to communicate effectively to the members of your team, being able to effectively communicate to people of different backgrounds than yours, and being able to effectively communicate in front of an audience as a public speaker. Although some areas of expertise require less communication than others, at the end of the day, the talented 10% are able to communicate their message effectively to others in a group setting or one on one conversation.

Like most people, I believe that are several others key factors as well, but applying these simple twelve basic things effectively in your area of expertise can really position you as a great candidate or leader within any company or organization!

Solution-Focused Leadership

For the past five years, I have not only had the amazing opportunity to travel the country speaking to several different emerging leaders in high school and college, but I have been an avid-student of leadership as well who has worked very hard to increase my knowledge and understanding of effective leadership. Throughout this leadership journey, I have not only learned about several different leadership concepts and principles, but I come to BELIEVE that effective leadership is the key to success within any organization, business, and team.

Although there are many powerful leadership experts, consultants, and speakers in America that empower leaders to make their organizations and companies successful, there is one KEY leadership concept that I have heard few experts, consultants, and speakers talk about in the leadership arena. This KEY leadership concept is Solution-Focused Leadership, which is the leader of any organization or company understanding that one of their key roles and responsibilities is to develop powerful solutions to problems that exist within several different companies, organizations, and businesses. In essence, this is the type of leader that develops solutions to various problems within companies and organization verses complaining, whining, and blaming others.

When you think about great leaders of the past and present, you will find that one of the main reasons why these men and women have become great leaders is because they have been able to develop powerful solutions to various problems that existed within their society and culture. For instance, one of the reasons why people celebrate the leadership of FDR is because he was able to develop a solution to the Great Depression, the reason why people celebrate the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is because he was able to develop a solution that led to the equality in America, the reason why we celebrate the leadership of Ghandi is because he was able to develop a solution that led his people to independence, and the reason why people celebrate the leadership of Susan B. Anthony is because she was able to develop solutions that led to the equality of woman. In addition to these great leaders of our past, you will also find that leaders who use Solution-Focused Leadership not only achieves great success as a leader, but they elevate to high levels within their field of expertise because they have powerful solutions to problems that others can not seem to figure out.

As our nation moves forward, I not only believe in effective leadership, but I believe we will need more leaders who are focused on developing solutions to various problems we see within our community and nation verses complaining, whining, and blaming everyone for the current issues that are greatly affecting our nation. If you believe that you are one of these emerging or seasoned leaders within our community and nation, be the solution-focused leader verses the leader who complains, whines, and blames others for the different issues that affect various companies and organizations.

What is the Greatest Challenge Facing Generation Y?

Over the past few years, I have not only read and heard several experts talk about a variety of different things as it relates to Generation Y (those born between 1977-1994), but I have been involved with many different discussions that revolve around this emerging Generation in America. Although most of these conversations and articles about Generation Y increased my knowledge and understanding of Generation Y immensely, the one question that has been hardest for me to answer about Generation Y is, "What is the greatest challenge facing Generation Y?"

The reason this question challenged me so much is because I believe there are several different challenges that are facing this emerging generation in America. For instance, we have several Americans living in poverty, several men and women without health insurance, an education dropout rate that is staggering, an economic crisis that is horrendous, and some of the strong morals and values that have been built for years in America have been lost. Although these challenges above along with many others are serious issues that need to be addressed by the leaders of our generation, one of the challenges that I believe is greatest amongst our generation is an "instant gratification mentality," which is believing success is an overnight thing rather than a process that can take quite a bit of years. In essence, this mentality that success in life comes quick in life rather than through a long process is an issue that our generation will have to overcome in the years to come if we desire to build a greater future for generations to follow and make a greater impact in our community, nation, and world.

Even though there are many different reasons why our generation has adopted this attitude, one of the key reasons why I believe we have this belief in life is because my generation has grown up during a time where things are given to us much faster than previous generations. For instance, we had the microwave oven that warms food up in minutes, we've had fast food restaurants that provide food for us immediately, we've had an internet that allows us to research lots of information instantly, we have cell phones that allow us to contact someone at any moment of the day, and we have been bombarded with many role models and celebrities that have became overnight successes within one year.

Although these stories, inventions, and experiences have been great for our generation, the reality is that most people who become very successful are developed over time rather than born overnight. We know this statement is true because when you study great companies, organizations, and people, you will always find that there was a long process that took place before these companies, organizations, and people became very successful. Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers, confirms this notion when he states in his newest book that it takes at least 10,000 hours of practice before a person becomes a success.

Even though many successful men and women understand this concept, based on my research and experiences with Generation Y, I do not believe that many men and women of our generation share this important aspect of truth. For instance, over the past few years, there has been more talk about a quarter life crisis amongst twenty-somethings because they are frustrated with things not manifesting the way they had planned in high school and college. In another article that I read about in reference to the Generation Y worker, I found that many men and women of Generation Y not only love instant gratification and expect frequent rewards for their work, but can become disengaged with their work if there is not advancement or rewards within the company for their work. Although I do not believe it's bad to want things done quickly and to be rewarded for your efforts frequently, in order to build a stronger nation for generations to come and to bring about great change within our communities, nation, and world, it's crucial that the leaders of our Generation understand that great things will not always occur overnight, but will take hard work, diligence, patience, and time to manifest most of the time.

As many leadership experts continue developing leaders of Generation Y, I not only believe it is important for leaders to develop the common leadership qualities that we hear about consistently, but I believe it is essential that we develop an attitude that is contrary to the "instant gratification mentality" that I have seen amongst many different members of our Generation. Listed below are three key things that leaders of Generation Y can do to help develop an attitude that does not think in terms of instant gratification, but long-term success.

Idea #1

When you assist men and women of Generation Y in setting goals, do not just have them create short term goals, but have them create long term goals as well that take at least 10-20 years to accomplish. This one exercise will challenge these emerging leaders to think bigger and think further down the line.

Idea #2

When you talk to emerging leaders about great leaders of the past, do not just talk to them about the accomplishments of the leader, but talk to them about the process as well so that they can see the good and power that comes to leaders who can make it through the process.

Idea #3

Make sure that every emerging leader understands that great leaders who leave legacies for future generations and make a positive impact in the world had to possess endurance to survive the challenges of things not happening as quickly as they may have preferred at the outset of pursuing their vision in life.