Viri

Tags:

GUEST BLOGS, MILLENNIALS, OPINION, THE STARTUPS ECOSYSTEM

By Alan Mak (@AlanMakUK), UK Group Board Member at Havas Worldwide; President of Magic Breakfast, a leading children’s charity; Ambassador for youth summit One Young World; World Economic Forum Young Global Shaper (More at: AlanMak.com). Alan was a guest speaker at the Telefónica /FT Millennial Leaders’ Summit in London, June 2013. 

22 March 2014: My last blog reflected on the fact that whilst your 20s (and early 30s) can be tough they are also the best time to get ahead in your life and your career. It’s the decade where you can expect to work the hardest, but also the time when you can focus your energies on achieving roles that will position you as a leader for life.

Earlier this year, Telefónica carried out the largest and most comprehensive survey of adult Millennials ever conducted. Over 12,000 young adults, aged 18-30, across 27 countries, were asked how they felt about the world in which they live, how technology impacts their lives, and their personal goals and dreams. The Global Millennial Survey, carried out in partnership with the Financial Times, identified a subset of Generation Y called “Millennial Leaders”, the “Global 11%” of the Millennial Generation who will drive change and take up leadership roles in the private, public and charitable sectors.

Here are five proven strategies that aspiring Gen Y leaders can implement to secure board-level leadership roles:

1. Go the Extra Mile and Excel

Success gets you noticed, so whatever career you embark on in your 20s, work hard and excel. The key is to “go the extra mile” – it’s rarely crowded. Take on special projects; put your hand up to lead; go beyond your day job. Ideally, ensure that you get business and financial decision-making experience, particularly P&L responsibility and experience leading a team, even a small one. These are the skills and experiences that will equip you to make high-level strategic and operational decisions at board-level. Once on a board, make sure you contribute from Day 1: your contributions will get noticed and your fellow directors will recommend you for other Board opportunities.

2. Develop Your Personal Brand

Build up your professional reputation and personal brand. Why would a board chairman hire you? What unique skill sets and strengths, experiences do you bring? Develop a reputation as a strategic thinker with operational experience, and ideally some sort of specialist skill set, whether financial, legal, marketing, HR or communications for example. Also, think about the sectors that interest you the most. Not everyone is suited to serve on the board of an engineering firm, whilst it might be hard to join an advertising firm if you’re not imaginative, but there will be a sector for everyone, so think about where your skills and experiences would add most value. For example, Telefónica’s European Chairman, Eva Castillo Sanz, enjoyed a successful career at the top of the finance world before deploying those skills in the technology sector at Telefónica.

3. Get non-profit Board experience

Non-profit boards in the charity, voluntary and public sector are an excellent way to start getting board experience at an early stage in your career. Make sure you are passionate about the cause as you will need to spend time working for free. However, being on the board of, say, a charity will give you great exposure to the people, working practices relationships that will help you progress to bigger boards, especially in the private sector. My work as a charity trustee at Magic Breakfast certainly helped me.

4. Think Big, Start Small

Another option to get experience is to start with smaller companies, family-owned businesses or start-up boards. You will often have to work for free or in exchange for shares or other in-kind benefits, but you will get your foot in the door and these companies tend to grow quickly and move fast so you will have the opportunity to learn in a dynamic environment. Starting your own business is also a great way to put your entrepreneurial skills into action whilst also being able to build your own board of directors.

5. Build Your Network

The old debate was between “Who you know or what you know?” Today, it’s all about “Who knows you”. When a board role comes up, you need people to think of you as the perfect candidate. So you need to build relationships with executive directors (people who run businesses full-time), non-executives, and recruiters and head hunters who are often the gatekeepers to Board roles. Visit the websites of head hunters and add your CV to their candidates’ database when you’re ready.

Read part one from Alan here