How Boys II Men can save the next generation of male leaders

Remember Boys II Men? Try to watch the whole video. [youtube OHzkICG47LU]

There is so much here to make fun of I need you to reign it in so you get the main point.

We have a crises happening in the realm of leadership. Young men are wanting less and less to do with leadership. Take a deep breath and pause. Brad Voigt, very supportive of women in leadership and has a daughter. So if a feminist spirit just rose up in you, I'll do this to the shot you are thinking about taking at me.

[youtube S06VJf0PTIQ]

Leaders of organizations are scrambling trying to find young male leadership in a culture that frowns at risk, self creation, and hard work. I was speaking to a person who hires for an organization and he said, "We don't hire people straight out of college anymore. They don't make it." Which I wanted respond to, "That's because they can't be as good as you."

But is it fair to blame THEIR culture? Is a person able to predict and control where they are born and how they are raised? Maybe we're to blame, the current body of people leading this young generation. We are refusing to adjust how we train and develop them, we just want results. The millennial men look at our results and think, "Doesn't look worth the work to me."

I think the answer lies in Boys II Men. Their first hit was about have a right of passage, I mean come one, they named themselves about a movement from being boys and turning into men.

What are their keys to transition:

1. They had a dream.

2. They had a opportunity.

3. Someone they respected believed in them.

4. They were coached through the process. Crap, they didn't even get to shoot their first video without Michael Bivens all over it.

5. They became part of something that was much bigger than themselves, The East Coast Family. (Bel Biv Devoe and ABC, or Another Bad Creation, had big hits. Not really sure what happened to Sudden Impact; poor guys. Not to mention that Bel Biv Devoe spawned out of the help of Public Enemy. Are you offering to be part of a greater story and dynamic lineage?)

Let's put the blame away and start offering rights of passage to young men looking for places in leadership. Every guy has a dream, he just doesn't know what to do with it. Maybe you should start with helping them accomplish their dream and not the results you immediately want. This generation, unlike any other, can spot a phony from miles away. They know if your FOR them or FOR yourself.