Today on the Gen-Y Hot Seat we are pleased to feature Christopher Scott, a young leader for nonprofits, innovations and change. He is working on helping young nonprofits grow and learn and also leads his own group, A Day of Hope, which delivers baskets of food and turkeys to families in need for Thanksgiving. In our time together we got to chat about time management and if Gen-Y is prepared to lead the social change that is needed today. Enjoy!

Gen-Y Magic: Time is a very important issue to Gen-Y. We never have enough of it and we love to overbook. How does time affect what you do as a young leader?

Chris: How does time affect what I do as a young leader? – I see time as an asset and a liability; an asset in the way that it’s something I can use to make a difference in the world and a liability because I never quite have enough time.

I’ve spent a large amount of effort learning how to use time more effectively. The best resource has been Jason Womack. Over years Jason has helped me tremendously to focus on planning, getting the right things done, and to keep commitments. He has dramatically helped me to become more productive, learn how to focus on important things, and get the most out of my time.

Time is a very sensitive issue for a Gen-Y leader because often as young people we don’t have administrative or personal assistants to help lighten our work load. We end up paying bills, doing mail merges, picking up the dry cleaning, and shopping for our own groceries. Now I’m at a point in my life where I pay someone part-time to do these for me, but for a long time I was the one dedicating time every week to these tasks that could easily be done by someone else.

GYM: As a Gen-Y leader you have to find ways to free up time so you can focus on things that are important.

Chris: Being a young leader, what is the one thing that lets you teach and help other young professionals and educate them on leadership?

One thing that allows me to teach is experience and insight. Leadership expert and author, John Maxwell states, “Reflection turns experience into insight.”

Almost every day I spend about twenty minutes thinking and reflecting about what I’ve learned throughout the day. I also focus on how I’m going to use what I learned in the future to either become a better leader, or see if I need to share that information with someone else so he or she can become a better leader.

GYM: Is Gen-Y up to the challenge of leading the social and cultural industries through nonprofits? Industries that Millennials may or may not be so familiar with?

Chris: Do I believe Gen-Y is up to the challenge: yes.

Do I believe they are prepared: no.

I think Gen-Y still has some learning to do if we’re going to make the impact on society that is needed. By learning I don’t mean more learning in the classroom. The last thing Gen-Y needs is another degree in nonprofit management from some University where half of the professors have never ran a nonprofit or even volunteered.

To learn they need more hands-on experience such as dealing with people, writing grant proposals, collaborating with other organizations, and interacting with the media in a positive way.

This is stuff you can be taught in a classroom, but you really don’t get a sense of what it is and how to do it until you’re actually in the trenches day-to-day having to find a way to get it done.

Just a side note is that I include myself in part of this list of Gen-Y who needs to learn more. I still have a lot of learning to do, and a lot of leading to do.

GYM: There is a lot of “action” going on in Social Media and on Social Networks. Kids are joining groups, protests and speaking out on change, politics, cultural affairs and more. How do we get this excitement to correlate into real world change?

Chris: It’s great to see kids taking action and speaking out on topics specific to their interests. Kids are showing a lot of initiative to do these things, but if it’s really going to correlate into real world change they need to have more follow-through.

Initiative is great to have on the front end of change, but to reach the back end of change you’ve got to have follow-through.

I think kids are lacking in the follow-through area, the second that they run into a problem or obstacle, they give up and find something else new and exciting. It takes an extremely large amount of time, persistence, and energy to create change, and if kids are serious they need to know and practice follow-through.

GYM: You work for the United Way. What is a large organization like the United Way doing to reach new Gen-Y recruits? Can an organization like the United Way make an impact the way a smaller, more focused nonprofit can?

Chris: Currently United Way has been experimenting with what we call, “Students Live United.” It’s an outreach effort to engage college students in fundraising and service projects. I think one of the main benefits from Students Live United is that it’s going to be a recruiting pool for potential passionate young leaders.

On the topic of making an impact versus smaller more focused nonprofits, I think the answer is “yes” and “no.” I think United Way is an organization more targeted toward the everyday person who wants to make a difference and help people in need, but that person might not really know how. United Way presents an opportunity to that person to make a difference and shows the person different ways to give time and/or money.

Smaller nonprofits are better an engaging individuals in specialized niche areas specific to people’s past experiences and passionate areas. These nonprofits attract people who already know exactly where they want to donate their time and money, and the nonprofit presents an opportunity to do that whether it’s a program for the homeless, underprivileged youth, animal welfare, or domestic abuse.

GYM: Christopher, you are off the Gen-Y Hot Seat!
Chris: Great, I hope that I didn’t cool off the seat while sitting on it!