When I grow up...

When you are young, at the beginning of your career, you want to grow. Maybe you plan to become a specialist in something, or you want to become someday a manager, or you want to become a successful entrepreneur like the famous examples from media. And in the same time you have lots of energy to invest and lots of fresh ideas. You are a young professional with high career ambitions and you would do anything to grab opportunities to get you there.


However, there are a two important things "mature people" do not consider when they have young professionals in their companies:


- Experienced employees and managers usually do not empower young people. If they have an intern or a junior, most of the times they will give them small tasks and projects and little responsibility. They are afraid their lack of experience will mess things up. But they miss one important thing: these young people are the ones eager to take on big challenges and they can also have different perspectives that would enable innovations. They can be their perfect intrapreneurs. The true leaders in business are the ones able to see potential in the young people, to empower them and to help them grow...themselves and the business.

- Experienced employees and managers usually do not even think about the great impact they have on somebody who has just started his/ her first job. The way they do business, the way they manage their internal processes, the way the team communicates - all these will impact the young professional and will reflect in his/ her way of working...maybe for all his/ her future career. The true leaders in business understand the responsibility of hiring somebody with no or little previous experience and are careful in the way they shape people - and this starts from ensuring that what is "inside" is good quality and improving.

Have you ever thought on how much influence the first professional experiences had on your life? Don't forget all these when you will work with/ manage younger people.