Guiding the Next Great Generation , livre ebook

Cover
Endorsements
“This powerful text serves as a road map to help guide the next generation toward current and future successes. Using relevant stories, proven models, and practical strategies, Jonathan Catherman offers the reader an opportunity to navigate the challenges faced in harnessing the unlimited potential of our teens. Moving beyond the traditional and often outdated notions of leadership, Guiding the Next Great Generation is a must-read to help inform and empower teachers, coaches, stakeholders, and parents to use strengths, stewardship, and purpose as catalysts to help guide and develop future leaders. This text will now be an integral part of our teaching and learning curriculum for years to come.”
Matthew Ohlson, PhD , director of the Taylor Leadership Institute and associate professor in the Department of Leadership, School Counseling & Sport Management, University of North Florida
“We have no choice about aging, but getting old is a decision all humans make. Reading Guiding the Next Great Generation , I felt like a student and a teacher. Jonathan has created a must-read guide for generations of leaders.”
Ron Kitchens , CEO of Southwest Michigan First and author of Uniquely You: Transform Your Organization by Becoming the Leader Only You Can Be
“Jonathan Catherman presents a compelling case about the potential for today’s youth to become the next great generation. With chapter after chapter filled with practical tools and insights, this book is a must-read for parents, teachers, and coaches, as well as any adult who is in a position to support, guide, and positively influence young individuals, helping them discover how to live a life of service and purpose. After reading Guiding the Next Great Generation , you’ll be inspired to do even more to equip young people in your life with the skills needed to solve the challenges of tomorrow and prepare them for greatness.”
Nicole Suydam , president and CEO of Goodwill of Orange County, CA
Half Title Page
Books by Jonathan Catherman
The Manual to Manhood
The Manual to Middle School
Guiding the Next Great Generation
Becoming the Next Great Generation
With Erica Catherman
The Girls’ Guide to Conquering Life
The Girls’ Guide to Conquering Middle School
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2020 by Jonathan Catherman
Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2020
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-2119-0
Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
Published in association with the Books & Such Literary Agency, 52 Mission Circle, Suite 122, PMB 170, Santa Rosa, CA 95409-5370, www.booksandsuch.com.
Some names and details have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.
Dedication
Dedicated to my sons, Reed and Cole— may my ceiling be your floor.
Contents
Cover 1
Endorsements 2
Half Title Page 3
Books by Jonathan Catherman 4
Title Page 5
Copyright Page 6
Dedication 7
Acknowledgments 11
Personal Message to Readers 13
Introduction 17
CHALLENGE 1: BUILD BRIDGES 31
1. The Space between Us 33
2. New Normal 43
3. Crossing Over 49
CHALLENGE 2: PRACTICE STEWARDSHIP BEFORE LEADERSHIP 57
4. Rethinking Leadership 59
5. Membership: Can I Join You? 64
6. Stewardship: Walk the Walk 72
7. Leadership: By Invite Only 86
CHALLENGE 3: TRANSFORM RAW TALENTS INTO VALUED STRENGTHS 101
8. View from 30,000 Feet 103
9. Talent: Value 1 111
10. Training: Value 2 118
11. Timing: Value 3 136
12. Treasure: Value 4 148
13. Strength 169
CHALLENGE 4: LIVE WITH PURPOSE 177
14. One-of-One 179
15. Vision Defines Your Where 185
16. Mission Defines Your Why 190
17. Goals Define Your What 197
Conclusion 209
Notes 213
About the Author 219
Back Ads 221
Back Cover 226
Acknowledgments
There are a handful of people I want to thank.
You are my family, friends, mentors, and colleagues who went before me, walked beside me, and had my back on the adventure of writing two books at once. Guiding the Next Great Generation and Becoming the Next Great Generation made it to print because of your encouragement, support, and push for me to never give up on what I can’t go a day without thinking about.
Personal Message to Readers
In 1997 Apple launched their “Think Different” ad campaign. In a sixty-second narrated video featuring some of the twentieth century’s most iconic influencers, Apple challenged people to believe they, too, are crazy enough to change the world for the better. In a series of short clips, now famous mavens including Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Maria Callas, Mahatma Gandhi, and Amelia Earhart briefly appear in celebration of their disruption to our then-traditional ways of thinking. Over historic black-and-white images, the narrator pays tribute to their brilliance with the oft-quoted “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently . . .” The famous manifesto goes on to celebrate how the very same people who were once described as “crazy” came to be recognized as true “genius” for their credit in changing the human race. The short piece ends with the statement “Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” 1
I’ve found the entirety of these words inspiring enough to commit them to both memory and heart. Just as Apple sought to impress upon consumers that their brand had examined and clarified who they were and what they stood for as a company, my goal in writing this book is to challenge us to “think different” about the significance of who we are and how we will change the world. Specifically, will our influence in guiding today’s young people help them discover their very best, empower them to do and be even better than us, and in turn, ensure they become the Next Great Generation?
Call me crazy if you like (I’ll take it as a compliment), but I believe today’s emerging generation of tweens, teens, and twentysomethings possesses more potential to do good in this world than any generation before them. Don’t believe me? Read on and I’ll do my best to convince you. Agree with me? Read on and we’ll do our best to convince our sons and daughters, students, and mentees that they can exceed the successes of parents, grandparents, and all the famous crazy people history now calls geniuses. But for them to become the kind of change agents who press the world ahead, we too must be crazy enough to think different about what they will need to succeed. Today’s “new normal” is truly unprecedented and requires us to revamp our old ways of thinking about the importance of stewardship, the development of strengths, and the significance of purpose.
Though I remain eighteen at heart, the years of my youth are falling further and further behind. As a dyslexic, I’ve spent my lifetime seeing things a little differently and not always fitting in. Turns out I’m in good company with other creative thinkers who have been richly blessed both personally and professionally because we think different. Today’s youth are preparing to launch into the independence stage of their lives. As they grow and go into what we may never know, I am confident they too will discover that their greatest contributions will come when they look at the world from new and different perspectives. I’m choosing to invest in a few basic recalibrations to how we’ve done things for years, in the belief that thinking and acting a little different will benefit the next generation as they set out to accomplish their hopes and dreams, goals, and plans of changing the world for the better. Care to join me?
—Jonathan Catherman
Introduction
It isn’t considered eavesdropping when someone is talking loud enough for all to hear. Considering the tone of voice and volume level, the middle-aged man’s conversation was probably overheard by almost everybody at the market. Standing beside a cart displaying fresh, locally grown vegetables, he waxed poetically down a long list of grievances. His obvious displeasure specifically focused on the faulty ways of the younger generation. “The beardless youth . . . does not foresee what is useful, squandering his money,” he openly scolded. 1
Now before we let our minds imagine such strong condemnation cast in the direction of a fresh-faced twentysomething purchasing herb-infused organic honey from a farm-to-fork hydroponic horticulturalist, let’s stop and consider the actual date and place. This is not a trendy pop-up urban farmers’ market featuring live music, face painters, and tech-savvy vendors equipped with wireless credit card readers. Quite the opposite. This is Rome, first century BC. The poet and Roman senator Quintus Horatius Flaccus, popularly known today as just Horace, is upset with the lack of judgment and few capabilities of his day’s youth.
Déjà Vu
If you are thinking this first-century generational disapproval echoes what many are saying about today’s twenty-first-century youth, you are correct. The number of people who believe their children and grandchildren are falling far short of their potential has never been greater. Or has it?
Centuries Past
Throughout the age