If there’s a common theme I hear from business leaders, it’s how they don’t have enough time. This isn’t a blog about how they can find more time – they really don’t have enough. The average CEO works more than nine hours a day and 62 hours each week. They prioritize daily, trying to accomplish as much as possible with finite resources, but sometimes that means training goes by the wayside. In light of new research, this appears to be a critical mistake for younger workers, who value opportunities to develop professionally.
In fact, “sufficient training” is the number-one factor younger workers consider when starting a new job. As further proof, 71% say they will leave an employer in two years if they’re dissatisfied with how the organization is developing their leadership skills.
Emerging Leaders Breakfast
With a nod to the importance of providing enlightening opportunities for your future leaders to learn and grow, we scheduled our second Emerging Leaders Breakfast for March 22. This session focuses on the importance of getting involved in your community. Involvement takes many forms — board membership, charitable contributions, direct volunteering, and more.
Our session features a panel of three local dynamos who exude community commitment and leadership. Our tremendous trio includes Renee Moe, President and CEO of United Way of Dane County, Jason Ilstrup, President of Downtown Madison, Inc., and Jillana Peterson, Social Impact Manager at Zendesk. I am personally super stoked to hear what these three will say about making a personal and professional investment in the Dane County region and how getting involved has changed their lives and their careers.
For more perspective about how getting involved in the community can benefit your personal and professional development, I recommend reading this recent Forbes article, as well as some pretty cool feedback that the survey participants in the article provided about how getting involved changed them.
If you’ve read any previous blogs written by my First Business Bank colleagues, it should be no surprise that giving back to our communities is in our corporate DNA and has had tremendous returns for our organization and our teammates. Creating opportunities for these activities and seeing our staff embrace them has produced rewards beyond what we could imagine. Our millennial crew has totally rocked, (does anyone say that anymore?) the involvement opportunities presented to them. Serving on boards, volunteering at United Way Days of Caring, leading internal fundraising campaigns, and jumping into the outside world! They do it with contagious enthusiasm, fun, and energy!
