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What Does an Emerging Leader Need to Succeed?

By Julie Ann Schmidt, CMM, CMP

This summer Meeting Professionals International’s World Educational Congress was held here in Minneapolis, where we got to showcase our city to the industry. At a reception for emerging leaders hosted by the Global Emerging Leaders Community, I used the VoiceHive app to ask all the attendees one simple question: In one word, what does an emerging leader need to succeed in this industry? The responses from both emerging leaders and senior industry professions were combined into a word cloud. The more times a word was entered, the larger it became. The word cloud was displayed live all night and the responses were fun to watch.

One thing I found while talking about the question with people was that the responses were very similar whether I was talking to an emerging leader or to a senior professional. That tells me that engaged emerging leaders know what skill set it takes to make it in this industry. That is a good sign for both emerging leaders and the industry; those coming up the ranks will be prepared for what awaits them.

I was also struck with the positive nature of everyone’s response, compared to the more negative messaging we hear about young people trying to enter the workforce as a whole. I could comment more, but in this case I think the word cloud should stand for itself.

Julie Ann Schmidt, CMP, CMM, is the founder of the Global Emerging Leaders Community (GEL). GEL is a one-stop shop for all things in the industry geared towards emerging leaders. The organization is a portal that gives emerging leaders with zero to seven years in the industry help to embark on their career path. 

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