Leadership Ladder

You made $10,000 a year back then as a youth program director and here you are, you are the head of the YMCA nationally. How has leadership changed over the years for you and how will it continue to change, do you think, as we move into the future?

I think the issues about the social justice and equities that we exist has really made leadership challenging, and not in the negative way. But I will tell you, as I spoken to several of our leaders about not only not for profit but for profit organizations, most of us baby boomers, which I am, have generation Z and X, they have a very different perspective about what they want to see happen, but more importantly, the rate of speed that they want to see it happen. In addition to that, there's an expectation that you take a position. You've seen it recently in the whole issues with George and the voting law coming out, there's been pressure on corporations to take positions and not just mouthpiece it but mean it. That expectation, while it's coming from the leaders being driven, I believe, by some of our younger staff members, they come with a different perspective about the role of leadership and the role of organizations and corporations in this society, and they expect you to act. And I don't think that that's going to ease up. I think it's going to become much more engaged. It's going to be a bigger part of who we are and what we do as organization leaders. In fact, as I see some of the younger people coming up, who come in with that, they're going to be driven even more to do that. And there's an expectation, as we know, brand loyalty, people are connected to different brands but those brands aren't doing this kind of work publicly and realistically. And honestly, they will lose support amongst their consumers. It's become an expectation, not a "hope for," it's an expectation. So I see leaders of all organizations going to have to deal with that and reckon with it, it's not going away. It's going to become much more intense.