7 Brilliant Leaders Tell How To Stand Out, Create Super Careers And Battle Adversity This Year
Leaders across industries share their advice for young people today
Featured individuals
January is at its conclusion. And looking back at the resolutions I’d written at the start of the year, I can already see my targets slipping away. I’m not alone. Of those that make resolutions, 18% fail by January and another 41% are off track by July. And it happens every year.
But this year is unique — there’s no time like the present. Yet there’s more to it: high inflation, rising cost of living, bouts of layoffs combined with emerging technology and shifting norms in the workplace. It is a time of both opportunity and challenge. And young professionals — as one of the most compelling demographics in the workforce — lay at the core of this change.
So I reached out to my trusted network across different industries to ask five pointed questions to make the most out of the next few months. Here’s what they told me:
1- What unique opportunities does this year present for young people?
Kate Snow, NBC News Senior National Correspondent, Anchor of ‘Sunday NBC Nightly News’ & Co-anchor of ‘NBC News Daily’: I’m currently co-anchoring NBC News Daily, a newscast that is seen not just on our broadcast stations but also on our streaming service. It’s a perfect example of how our industry has grown in the past few years, increasing the amount of opportunities available for aspiring journalists. Between broadcast, streaming, digital, podcasts, etc, there are so many more platforms disseminating news than when I first started. It’s a truly exciting time.
Shéhérazade Semsar-de Boisséson, CEO, McCourt Global, and former CEO, POLITICO Europe: At a time when market pressure is causing many organizations to do more with less, young people will have opportunities to take on more responsibilities and contribute to more initiatives. Their innate affinity for utilizing technology to solve problems or complete tasks makes them ideally suited for a complex, ever-changing economy that rewards resourceful creativity.
Aminatta Forna, Award-winning Author of the novels Happiness, The Hired Man, The Memory of Love and Ancestor Stones: From everything I read it’s a sellers’ market out there. This feels to me like a good time to try something new. Don’t be put off by fears of a recession coming. I graduated into the highest unemployment figures Britain has ever known. The chances of getting a job in the field I wanted to enter were slim to zero. I decided to try freelancing and the experience taught me a self-reliance that has been with me ever since. I have never depended on a single employer.
Jen Carter, Global Head of Technology, Google.org: 80% of middle-class jobs in the U.S. require a solid understanding of digital skills but the digital skills gap continues to widen. Fortunately, over the past few years there has been a huge increase in the number of free or relatively inexpensive training that can help young people gain the skills they need to pursue these careers.
2- What is the “low-hanging” fruit to accelerate your career?
Felice Gorordo, President Joe Biden’s nominee to the Board of the World Bank: If you don’t have a mentor, seek one out and invest in developing that personal and professional relationship. Similarly, there is undoubtedly a benefit to networking early-on and throughout your career. There are numerous professional groups that you can join based on common-interests and affiliations but they’re only worth joining if you’re going to make the most of them. These networks can also offer an important sense of community and support for you professionally.
Kavitha Prabhakar, Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, Deloitte US: Deeply invest in relationships. In the world of hybrid and remote work, connection is more important than ever – and not just to accelerate your career, but to grow as an individual. Look for connections that feel authentic, are grounded in a shared experience, and move beyond the transitional coffee chat or happy hour.
Princess Alia Al-Senussi, Art patron and curator: Be generous with your peers, being helpful and truly working — hard and diligently — to connect people – no one can forget kindness nor dedication and it will come back to you.
Forna: I firmly believe the sooner you get onto the path you wish to follow, the better. I am a writer. Before I was a writer I became a TV reporter, which was a job I thought I wanted but actually loathed. One day, sitting around moaning with another reporter friend, we alighted on the recent success of one of our number who had written a novel. ‘I could write a novel,’ said my friend. ‘All he did was actually write it.’ It sounds laughable, but he didn’t mean it as a joke. The words stuck with me. I quit my job, wrote a book and never looked back, which is not to say that it has always been easy, but I have not deviated from my path. A lot of people tell me that ‘one day’ they plan to write. That friend who wanted to write a novel – he’s still waiting for ‘one day’ to arrive.
3- This isn’t an easy time — high inflation, cost of living, market volatility, unemployment risk. How should we people deal with adversities and setbacks this year?
Gorordo: I think what’s most important is to remind yourself that you can weather any storm, and not let yourself be defined or bogged down by any individual setbacks. There is something to be said for being tenacious and resilient – especially in-spite of adversities. Employers will take notice of this. The market will take notice of this. And it’s what you’re able to accomplish during the most difficult of times that truly demonstrates your character and what you’re capable of.
Snow: I can relate to what some might be feeling as they enter the job market. I have definitely been there. When I was a senior in college, we were in a recession. My housemates and I collected our rejection letters and posted them on the walls. (I ended up going to grad school). If you talk to anyone who’s successful, we’ve all had setbacks. I’ve been passed over. I’ve had roles I didn’t like. But I learned from all of it. I kept moving forward and trying to find the work that gave me purpose and didn’t feel like work. You will figure things out, no matter what happens. You will find your path.
Carter: One of the most important skills young people, or anyone, can learn in dealing with adversities and setbacks is resilience, or the ability to recover from any setbacks and keep going in the face of adversity. It is a skill that can be practiced and learned like any other. At Google, we often use a “T.E.A.” (Thoughts, Attention, Energy) framework to reflect on the habits and routines that affect our well-being.
4- What would be your book recommendations to keep us inspired and energized?
Semsar-de Boisséson: Two nonfiction books that drew a lot of well-deserved attention stand out. The first is Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Things Happen — incredibly insightful and illuminating, especially for those of us seeking to persuade and collaborate with others. And second, I’d recommend the book System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot, written by three Stanford professors who have been on the front lines of the tech revolution, which is an extremely interesting and relevant read for this generation.
Forna: To read is to have a private conversation with an author, and inspiration comes in many different ways. Lines that inspire one person may mean nothing to another. I am endlessly curious and so books which satisfy that part of me are those I find most inspiring and energizing. Most recently Cal Flyn’s Islands of Abandonment, in which the author visits places where nature has flourished in the absence of humans, even in places where the land has been thought hopelessly poisoned, made me think deeply about the tenacity and resilience of life. John Freeman’s gorgeous poems in his latest collection Wind, Trees inspired me to meditate upon the question, If trees (or dogs) could talk, what would they say?
Prabhakar: ‘It takes curiosity to learn. It takes courage to unlearn. Learning is how you evolve, but unlearning is how you keep up as the world evolves.’ That is one of my favorite quotes from author Adam Grant, who wrote a book I highly recommend for challenging your mindset, Think Again.
Al-Senussi: Read the classics – but from parts of the world or parts of society that may be unfamiliar to you. The idea of more inclusive curriculums is not about excluding one society or another, but about opening our minds to other ways of thinking and truly about accelerating our evolution and our intelligence.
5- Final words of wisdom? Now’s the time.
Forna: It’s a big world. There are other cities, other countries, other cultures. Perhaps I should have said ‘learn another language’ under the question about low hanging fruit, so instead I’ll say it here – learn another language.
Prabhakar: Something that I’ve seen young people doing really well, and would encourage them to keep doing, is showing up for each other as allies. When we show up for those around us, we forge deeper bonds, build trust – and, at its most impactful – stir change.
Semsar-de Boisséson: Turn off notifications on your phones, limit your social media use to a maximum of an hour a day, and call and speak to your friends and family — because life is too short to spend it all behind a screen.
Views expressed are personal, and do not constitute advice from the author or Forbes.
