What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

Today’s story from the orchard brought a smile to my face.

Of all the groves in the Wisdom Orchard, Horizon is often the toughest one to guide leaders through. Helping people imagine a future they want—and see how they can help create it—can feel abstract. So when I see it practiced in a motivating and practical way, I learn from it.

A client is responsible for food services at a large, successful senior living community. Dinner is communal, and many of the servers are high school students. They bring a youthful energy, and the residents seem to love interacting with young people who could be their grandchildren.

These teens serve more than food. They serve smiles and a family dining experience.

There is one problem, however. They are teens with busy academic and sports schedules. Getting to work consistently can be a challenge. They sometimes call off at the last minute, leaving the team scrambling to provide the dining experience residents expect.

To manage attendance, the organization developed a point system. Each attendance issue earns points, and accumulating enough can eventually lead to termination.

It hasn’t worked as intended. The young people understand the system. They monitor their points, correct their behavior long enough to clear the board, and then start again.

The threat of losing a job might get someone to work. But how will they arrive?

Leaders understand the need for accountability. Exemplary leaders also understand the difference in effort between having to and wanting to.

That is where my client focused.

A couple more pieces of this puzzle: many of these young people are working because their parents thought it would be good for them. The kids don’t necessarily share that point of view. And my client is a dad who coaches his daughter’s softball team. He has some experience leading teens.

He began with a simple question:

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Then he listened.

Leadership is a relationship between those who have the courage to lead and those who willingly follow. That relationship grows when we understand what people want for themselves and look for ways to help them move toward it.

My client began exploring how this job could connect to each young person’s future. What could they learn? Who could they meet? What might they gain beyond the $17 an hour?

One teen said she wanted to become a real estate agent. It turned out that a resident had been a very successful real estate broker. My client asked whether he would be willing to mentor her.

His answer was an emphatic yes!

A young person gained access to experience and encouragement. A resident had an opportunity to share what he knew. And their connection gave new meaning to the time they spent together in that community.

Will conversations like this solve every attendance problem? No. Schedules still need to be managed, and commitments still matter. But my client had opened a door the point system could not: a reason for this young person to see the job as part of her future.

My clients often struggle with “the vision stuff.” We can make it sound as though it requires a grand statement or an inspiring speech. Sometimes it begins with a question, a little curiosity, and the willingness to act on what we hear.

The smile my client gave me was a knowing recognition of how simple it can be to start.

There is a lesson here for self, team, and organization.

For ourselves: What do I want to become, and how is today’s work helping me grow toward it?

For our teams: Do we know what people hope for? Have we helped them see a connection between those hopes and the work we ask them to do?

For our organizations: Are we cultivating a culture where those conversations happen—and where people have opportunities to grow?

As you plan your day, you will likely be surrounded by data showing how things went and problems demanding attention. Staffing gaps need to be filled. Dinner needs to be served.

But when the same problem keeps returning, leadership asks us to look at the conditions in which it grows. What might we need to change in the soil?

In this case, my client started by helping a young person see a future worth growing toward.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

It is a good question for a teenager.

And, at 75, I’m still finding it a good question for me.