“Take charge of your career, become a better leader, and get closer to the leaders you want to emulate!”
Podcast Episode 1: “Up Close With LAUNCH!”
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When you hear the words corporate America, what comes to mind?
Working in corporate America I found growth frustratingly slow and knew I wasn’t working to my full potential. I attributed this to a lack of skilled managers and politics. I imagine there are many of you who can relate.
How can I break out of this and reach my full potential?
I started my own business and then left corporate America. The experience of this entrepreneurial journey and the success was the best thing that ever happened to me and I want to encourage others to become a better leader and help to make corporate America a better place to work by building great leaders to take us there.
When you leave a company, particularly to start your own company, the last thing you are looking to do is create an exact replica. You are looking to make it better – to become a better leader and fill the holes where you saw gaps. You won’t build a great company if you institutionalize the practices and reasons why you left the last one because then you will have employees leaving you for the same reasons you left.
There are many others out there like me. And I want to explore this phenomenon deeper with you so we can better understand what is happening, the reasons and movements behind it, and where to go from there.
And what is the #1 reason why people leave their company?
The people. The people make the difference.
How much do bad bosses cost the economy?
A) $100 million
B) $2 billion
C) $360 billion
Bad bosses cost the economy $360 billion dollars every year in lost productivity. (Forbes magazine) Employees say that having a good boss contributes more to their happiness than a pay raise. Bad bosses can cause unhealthy stress and anxiety which can take years to shake off.
This is a huge driver for companies to improve their leadership ranks. It’s also an opportunity for employees who have had bad bosses to not be like them and not continue their legacy. This leaves us with an enormous market of people who want to become a better leader or who want to better leadership.
How many Americans quit their jobs every month?
A) 500,000
B) 2 million
C) 5 million
According to the latest JOLT (Job opening and labor turnover) Report by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 2 million Americans are voluntarily leaving their jobs every month. That’s like the whole state of Nebraska quitting their jobs every month. According to the Bureau, the number of voluntary “quitters” is continuing to grow and will not be decreasing anytime soon. A recent study by Accenture reports:
1) Lack of recognition (43%)
2) Internal politics (35%) and
3) They don’t like their boss (31%)
4) A lack of empowerment (31%)
As you will note, these numbers add up to more than 100% because people leave their work for more than one reason.
A study by Harris Interactive, an organization that conducts polls to uncover Americans’
opinions on a wide range of topics, indicates 74% of people today would consider finding a new job. That’s almost 120 million people who are discontent in some way with their current job. That’s 120 million people who want to quit, but don’t. To put it in perspective, that’s like taking the population of the 5 most populous states. According to the recent JOLT report, the number of Americans quitting their jobs has surged to its highest level in 16 years.
But why?
It’s not rocket science to know that people need a steady stream of income to depend on to live. It’s the fear of losing stability. The fear of change.
LAUNCH! provides tools, resources, education, and inspiration to help those 120 million people who want to make that jump and the 2 million who do quit every month.
So where are those Americans going after they quit their jobs? According to a recent BNP Paribas Global Entrepreneurs Report, “more and more Americans (particularly millennials) are enjoying the liberty of working for themselves and doing what they love, thanks to a burgeoning online economy and new, powerful tools that allow for convenient, cost-effective remote working. In fact, the report found that millennials are starting nearly twice as many jobs as baby boomers.”
As of 2015 Millennials have surpassed GenXers and Baby Boomers in population, which means that the scales are starting to tip in favor of a workplace that meets their values, culture, and lifestyle. One of the main trends is the rise of the entrepreneurial economy, where many young people are either becoming entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs.
A Business Insider survey of 225 executives reports 22 percent want to launch their own companies. Nearly 40 percent of men and 25 percent of women want to become their own boss, most of those being millennials.
More than two-thirds of all adults believe entrepreneurs are seen as high status. In the U.S., for example, entrepreneurs are often seen as celebrities and highly admired according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2016 Global Report.
But it’s not just millennials, all generations are trending towards entrepreneurism. With many baby boomers having to retire early because of ageism in hiring practices, they also are being forced to set out on entrepreneurial journeys of their own and become their own boss. GenXers, already a generation known for being the most entrepreneurial and independent, have already been one step ahead of the rest.
According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2016 Global Report, entrepreneurial activity remained stable or increased in approximately two-thirds of all economies surveyed.
More than two-thirds of all adults see entrepreneurship as a good career choice, but only 42% percent of all working-age adults currently see good opportunities around them for starting a business. North America reports the highest rate of opportunity perception at 58 percent. Only 13 percent of North Americans intend to start a business in the next three years.
As you can see there are quite a few gaps.
More than 33% of adults want to become entrepreneurs, but just don’t see the right opportunity yet. And 29% of adults who see the opportunity, just don’t have what it takes yet. What is holding that 29% back? This is where LAUNCH! brings them the tools and education to position themselves for success and inspiration to start their own business.
But it’s not just in entrepreneurship where the leadership opportunities lie. North America demonstrates the highest overall rate of intrapreneurial activity and it accounts for more than half the average total early-stage entrepreneurial activity in innovation-driven economies.
In fact many want to have a greater positive impact and leave a legacy. Solving social issues has been a huge draw for millennials, so much that corporate America has been attacking this from both sides. They are trying to retain talent by offering incentives such as donation matching programs and volunteer sabbaticals. And they are also offering a portion of the proceeds of sales to go towards a social or environmental cause.
With a new young generation on the rise, we need strong, capable leaders to solve global degeneration and lingering social issues. We expect today leaders be more than just company leaders, we expect them to be leaders of society.
LAUNCH! gives striving leaders the tools to lead their future. We produce content that helps build the kinds of leaders we want to look up to. Our articles, videos and podcast series help aspiring leaders take charge of their career, become better bosses, and get closer to the leaders they want to emulate.
SOURCES: Special thanks to the following contributors for their music.
Fortythr33 for “Bay Breeze”
Huma Huma for “Cielo”
Nicolai Heidlas for “Queen of the Skies”
