Amir Omar Podcast

Amir Omar: I think there's a respect that's earned by being in it with them.

So often as an executive, we keep so much of the information to ourselves. With this generation, the more they feel like they're on the inside and they feel like they get why the decisions are being made, then they're actually more willing to help and more willing to kinda lean in on the work. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: One of the things I've noticed is that we spend a lot of time talking about young people without actually talking to them. We sit in meetings and we talk about what Gen Z wants, what they need, and what will get them engaged, and sometimes we forget the most obvious thing: we could actually just ask them.

And that's one of the things I actually really love about this generation, is that they want to be known and they want to tell us if we're actually willing to listen. And that's one of the reasons I wanted to have today's guest on the podcast. Amir Omar is the mayor of Richardson, Texas, and I actually heard about him through a good friend of mine.

Her son had the opportunity to work directly with Amir on creating a skate park in Richardson. And when she told me that story, I thought, "Okay, this is really interesting," because it's one thing to talk about listening to young people, but it's another thing to actually invite them into the process and let their ideas help shape what we actually build.

So I wanted to talk with Amir about what he's learned from doing that, what's worked, what hasn't, and what happens when we stop assuming we know what younger generations want and we actually bring them into the conversation. I'm Dr. Katherine Jeffrey, and this is GenShift.

So Amir, before we get into your work with younger generations, I want people to know a little bit about you.

How did you end up in local government? 

Amir Omar: Ah, gosh. It starts off with a whole lot of volunteering and then it goes from there. I think the more you get involved the more you're volunteering in the community, the more people get to know you. Then, somewhere along the way someone says, " Hey, you ought to run for city council," or, "You ought to get involved in this."

And I think the more you start to kinda see the impact of the work that your volunteer work does it can be a little bit addictive and you can want to try and do more and more. And so I think when the opportunity presented itself back in, gosh, '09 I decided I would sit through council meetings, see whether or not I could add value and that began to take shape into a campaign that resulted in kind of an unlikely win, but an opportunity for me to serve.

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: That's fantastic, and congratulations. 

So through your volunteering you started to see "I can affect change." 

Amir Omar: Yeah, and I would have never known this outside of this role, but when you're in an elected office your ability to get meetings that can be consequential and can actually move the needle for your community is dramatically greater than the one minute before you were an elected official. Learning how to leverage that to be able to position opportunities for good things to happen, I think has been really eye-opening, but also something that I try my best to take advantage of on behalf of our city. And whether that's a tree program that I got an opportunity to do, early on or community gardens or, you name it.

Even when the city isn't spending money, the fact that you've got a person that can actually get the meetings that makes a world of difference, 'cause there's a lot of companies and leaders out there that wanna also help, but no one's asked them. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yeah. So you're creating opportunities- Yeah

for people who are ready. 

Amir Omar: Yeah. That's right. That's right. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: So what were you doing before this, and what from that world has helped you most as mayor? 

Amir Omar: So probably a little known fact. There's two different flavors of mayors and elected officials on the local side. Depending on where you live and all around the country it's different but usually they fall into two different camps.

One camp is what they call a strong mayor type system, where the mayor is a full-time role that's paid as a full-time role that actually does the hiring and firing and all of those things that mayors do. In the state of Texas, for example, I think only the city of Houston in terms of any major city is done that way.

Dallas, Arlington, Fort Worth, and any number of the other large cities have mayors that are much like me, where it can be a full-time job. You can take your entire day doing it, but it pays in our case, $6,000 a year. Really? Yeah. So then if you're in that kind of system, which a lot of mayors and elected officials across the country are in, then you're in one of three positions.

You're either independently wealthy, you're retired- 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yeah ... 

Amir Omar: or you do your very best to juggle as many things as you possibly can, and I fit into that third category. I've been in the technology space for, gosh, decades now. Most recently as an executive for a company called HydroPoint that does smart irrigation.

And so it's been really a labor of love to be involved in the political space the way that I am because you definitely don't do it for the pay. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: So in essence, you're still volunteering. 

Amir Omar: Yeah. Someone decided "You're such a good volunteer, you should just volunteer more."

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: That's right. Just give us more of your time ...

Amir Omar: Much more publicly much more exposed. But also so much more impact that can be made from this role. And as I said earlier, there can be a little bit of an addiction to trying to figure out how you can make good things happen.

And so I'm guilty as charged on that particular front. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: I love that. And you're probably maybe trying to figure out work-life balance? 

Amir Omar: Yeah. There's still a family and, a wife, ... that most of the time likes to see me, and you know- ... all of those things add up to something that's important to figure out, yes.

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yes. We appreciate you taking time this morning

to join us. So what has surprised you most about leading a city? 

Amir Omar: I think the biggest thing that has been surprising is it's really easy as an elected official to say, "Hey, we have public council meetings.

We go to all the neighborhood association meetings. We have all these different annual events and things like that. My cell phone number is listed on the website or whatever." And so it's real easy to kinda say, "Hey, we're already so accessible.

Residents don't feel like they need anything more than that." And what I've learned through being mayor the last, gosh, 16 or so months now, is that the more opportunities you create for people to have access to you, they continue to take it. Which tells you that there's either a yearning or at least an interest in being engaged with your city. And so in my case, I do these monthly coffees. I pick different days, different times of day, different locations so that each month, whether you're a night shift person or you work a normal 8:00 to 5:00 or whatever, that you feel like there's at least one of those months where you can sit down and have coffee with the mayor and express your concerns or needs or ideas.

I do a quarterly town hall, and that had never been really a thing that was done regularly by mayors in Richardson, and yet every time I do them, we end up with, 70, 80, 100 people that show up. And more and more younger people as well as they've gotten to know me a little bit and recognize that they can join in on the fun or at least be a part of the process.

That's been the most eye-opening part, the part about making yourself accessible, and no matter how much more accessible you make yourself, there's still that much more interest in being involved. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yeah, it's fascinating. People want to be heard, and they care about where they live, right?

Amir Omar: Yeah, and I think there's the other part of it also, which is if you feel like you might be heard and that there's a possibility that the person that's hearing you can actually do something about the thing that you want to be heard about- 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yeah ... 

Amir Omar: that makes the draw, I think, even more interesting or more exciting for those people who get involved.

And so from my perspective, I welcome it. I really enjoy those interactions. And it helps me recognize that, that the time and the effort is not wasted and that it is effort well spent towards, giving people that extra voice,

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: I love that. And I'm curious about this because it comes up so much when we talk about leadership in today's world.

Yeah. How did you really learn to listen to people that you disagree with?

Amir Omar: I think it might've been a lot of trial and error. And I'm not necessarily great at it all the time. I think, if you catch me in an exhausted moment or if you push perhaps the right buttons, I can, maybe not be as composed as I ought to be or should be. But trial and error has shown me that, the more you try to understand where the other party is coming from there's almost always, like even the person that, let's say, people might write off as, "Oh, that person's just, hyper-fixated on," you name it, infrastructure.

Yeah. But then you sit and you listen to that person, and although you may not ever get to a point where you agree with the person, you start to recognize that number one, their feelings are real to them. And that at the heart of what they are sharing is something that is coming from the right place.

They want the city to be a better place. Whether or not I agree that their approach to it is gonna get us there- ... I should first at least appreciate the fact that they are wanting better. And if they want better, I happen to want better as well. And so that begins to be a commonality that I think, we can build from.

And so I think that's been probably the secret to learning how to be patient and learn from those people when they have those disagreements with us. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: You just summed up so much of what I often say when I talk about working across the generations, right?

Because it's often we don't see their frame of reference, we don't understand where they're coming from. But you actually take time to get curious and you listen, and then that starts to shape your own perspective potentially, right? You might not go in that same direction- Yeah ... but you might see some ways you didn't.

Amir Omar: But I almost always get to a point where I know why they feel the way they feel.

Although again, I may not agree with it, I at least get it, and I can start to see it through their eyes. I then do my best to attempt to bring them over to what my reality is and what I see with the information I have.

I think you just gain so much credibility in every one of those conversations when you're approaching it with that attitude. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yep. Yeah. I love that.

 Okay, so now we're gonna do the lightning round. 

Amir Omar: Okay. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Before we get, too serious. 

Amir Omar: Yeah. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: So don't overthink these.

Just say the first thing that comes to your mind. 

Amir Omar: Sure. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: One word for what young people want from their city. 

Amir Omar: Activity. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: You ran for office because ... 

Amir Omar: I thought that Richardson deserved better. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Hardest part of being the mayor.

Amir Omar: Saying no. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: A city earns young people's trust when ... 

Amir Omar: When we truly listen to them and bring them to the table. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Love it. A city loses their trust when ... 

Amir Omar: When big decisions are made without a great deal of transparency. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Key word, transparency, with Gen Z, right? So good. Most underrated thing a city can build.

Amir Omar: I think unity. I think finding opportunities to bring people together. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Best way to get the attention of a Gen Zer in Richardson? 

Amir Omar: Figure out what they care about, and then give them an opportunity to contribute in that way. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: And what's the worst way? 

Amir Omar: Tell them what to do.

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: ' Cause telling is yelling from their perspective. Have you heard that one? 

Amir Omar: It turns out. It turns out, yes. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yeah. And then finish this sentence: the thing people get wrong about local government is ... 

Amir Omar: That a mayor or an individual council member can do whatever they want. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Love it. I have a feeling we're gonna come back to a couple of these as we continue.

Amir Omar: Sure. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: So I really wanna spend some time talking about your relationship with younger people in Richardson, because this is actually how I first heard about you. 

Amir Omar: Yeah. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: And we reached out to a few young people who've had the opportunity to work with you, and I want you- Oh ... you to hear what they had to say.

Laura Bullone-Johnson: my name is Laura Bullone-Johnson, and I am the architecture teacher at Richardson High School. 

What is Mayor Omar like? 

Interviewer: He is an incredibly kind and down-to-earth person, and you can tell he truly wants to serve every member of this community. 

Laura Bullone-Johnson: What's it like working with him? 

Interviewer: It's been an amazing experience.

It's taught my students how to, level up to the professional world, and he's given them so many opportunities that they wouldn't have had otherwise.

Joanne: My name is Joanne. 

I'm a senior at UTD, and I work with Mayor Omar on the advisory council as the marketing, mayor communication and branding team lead. So I see him every week almost, and I guess working with him has been super rewarding, bringing together the whole community, not just the students, but the whole village that it takes to be part of a city.

It's really rewarding to see events like these and be part of something bigger.

Speaker 4: Working with Mayor Omar is exciting, but a little daunting as well. He's very personable and a few of us on the team are still in high school, and he understands that, but he interacts and treats us the same way as he does with any other professional.

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: All right, so that's some pretty high praise. And what strikes me about those comments is that these young people don't just feel like you listen to them. It sounds like they felt like they actually mattered in the process. So how do you do that?

How do you actually get young people even to come into the room in the first place? And you're saying they're even coming at a higher rate than they used to. 

Amir Omar: Yeah. It has to come from a genuine place. So you actually have to believe that they matter, and then what happens magically is they begin to feel like they matter.

And I think as you get to know any person and I don't think that our younger generation's any different, there happen to be certain things that every one of them cares deeply about. And, I've got a group of 20 UTD students that are interns working for free, helping us further projects, and the one rule I've got all the time is, "If this doesn't move you, let's find you something that does.

Don't just work on a project because that's the project I want you to work on. Work on the project that moves you." And recently we've added a number of high school students into that team. Again, it's the exact same rule. I also don't create a bunch of crazy deadlines, at least in this context of a volunteer or intern thing.

Recognizing and giving an immediate it's okay when there hasn't been a massive amount of progress made has- earned a lot of trust in those conversations. As much as some of this stuff I already intuitively knew and I already intuitively did, the more that I see the way people react from it, it only doubles and triples the behavior on my side to find those ways.

And then lastly, like going to them versus expecting them to come to you all the time. I think that is also something that I've recognized over and over again, that just saying, "Hey, all you high schoolers, come to the city council meeting," right? But instead being the mayor that decides that you're gonna go to their pep rally or, you're gonna go to their annual picnic that's happening at their school.

Th- those kinds of things and those kind of places, going to the football game and just being available. The number of people that walk up, especially young people that walk up and are, like, shocked to see me there, excited that I was willing to go to that again, versus inviting them to come to me- I think that as a way to break the initial ice has created scenarios where now they're coming to me and to my things without me even asking. That tells me everything I need to know about how to approach, that generation of our residents. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yeah. That's incredible.

So if you put on a CEO hat- Yeah ... and I'm going, okay, so get them to do what moves them. Don't give them hard deadlines. It's a journey, it's a process, and then moving toward them, and I'm going, "I don't have time for all that."

What would you tell me as a CEO? 'Cause I think that what you're saying is spot on and Gen Z's responding to it, right? So how would you respond to that? 

Amir Omar: I think anyone who hires anyone and anyone who has employees the most time-consuming thing to do is to figure out how you're gonna replace an employee that's left.

And finding a way to keep employees and keep them happy actually ultimately saves you a tremendous amount of time as a CEO or a leader in any company. And so if you can now take the hard work you did on the front end to initially recruit and bring that person to the table, and invest what probably feels like a little bit more time on your end than you're used to- 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yeah

Amir Omar: To actually figure out what makes that person tick and then, lean in on it. Things like not having hard deadlines in the workplace, that can look a lot more like, let's work together to figure out what the right deadline is, and have them be the people who are helping you set those deadlines.

Now granted, if that deadline doesn't work, then you also still need to be honest and say, "Hey, the issue is we've got this coming up that we're up against. Do I need to bring in more help? What can I do?" 'Cause again, the worst thing you can do is just force them into it. They quit over it or they do a bad job, and then the thing that you created that deadline for doesn't fulfill anybody's actual needs.

Also in the business world, there's so many times where you create a deadline and it was an artificial deadline. There was nothing really that needed that to be done- Yeah ... at that time. And again, the fastest way you lose credibility with anyone, especially this particular generation, is you created a deadline, you made everyone jump through hoops, and then nothing actually happened with the thing that you said was so critically important at that time.

You can only do that so many times before people lose trust. Understanding when a deadline really needs to be a deadline, and then really working with your team to figure out how they get there, I think that's the most fruitful way to be able to work with that generation and frankly with any employee.

But it's just you have to be more mindful of it I think with this younger generation. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: I think you're totally right, and sometimes I think for Gen Xers in particular we're moving at such a fast pace. We're used to doing that, and we're like, " Oh, if I slow down and I actually put in more time up front, that's gonna help me down the road," but it's so hard for us to do that.

Amir Omar: Yeah. I mentioned, the UTD students. I've got three standing meetings a week. It's a lot. Yeah. I meet with my team leaders every Friday. I meet with those individual team leaders plus their teams once every other week, and so it's four teams, and that ends up being a meeting every other week and therefore three meetings a week for me.

Yet by doing that, everyone feels like they're moving along at the same pace. They know what's going on. They hear me tell people who didn't have a lot of progress since the last time that, "Hey, that's okay. You've gotta focus on school," or, in the workplace it might be a family situation.

But at the same time as real deadlines approach, I'm telegraphing that every step of the way. And so everyone's along that journey, and they can make the decisions that help them be able to get to the deadline themselves without being pushed or without a whole lot of effort on my side.

So it's a lot more time spent than let's say I might with a generation or two ago. But it creates this smoother interaction and smoother process for the things that we are trying to get done. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yep, and you're in it with them. 

Amir Omar: Yeah, and I think there's a respect that's earned by being in it with them.

So often as an executive, whether it's an elected executive in this case or a business executive, so often we keep so much of the information to ourselves. With this generation, the more they feel like they're on the inside and they feel like they get why the decisions are being made, and that kinda goes back to that transparency bit a little bit, then they're actually more willing to help and more willing to kinda lean in on the work.

At least in my experience, all of that has created an atmosphere that's been, really productive. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: I think people will be interested in this. So we always talk about, Gen Z wants transparency, right? And then people in the workplace will say, yeah, but where's the line? There's some things I just can't tell them, or some things even about myself I don't want them to know. So how do you walk that line of transparency? 

Amir Omar: That's a great question.

Here's what I'm gonna say.

I think that whenever we're uncomfortable, we create these all or nothing rules. And it's really easy to say where do you draw the line?" And so therefore you just draw the line at the strictest possible place and you end up sharing nothing. And that, by the way, goes with working with the younger generation as an elected official.

Look, it's real easy for me to say, " Hey, look, you don't know everything I know. I'm privy to a whole lot of information that I can't disclose." 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yep.

Amir Omar: And so therefore I can't explain to you why we're doing X or Y or Z." And I can tell you that no matter the generation, that doesn't go over real well.

Sometimes there's, an inordinate amount of not always merited skepticism.

But yet when you create these opaque moments, people fill it with their own thoughts, and those thoughts are not always the greatest. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yep. 

Amir Omar: So I think you've gotta press yourself to figure out how far can I go at the, the infinitesimal exposure of whatever giving a little bit more information is.

The amount of respect you get is 10X, is 100X, and the amount of buy-in you get is 10X or 100X. And I think you can say, "Hey, I can't get into the details of this, but what I can tell you is that for these reasons, this is a really good thing for us. But I'd love to hear from you as to what concerns you might have, 'cause I wanna make sure that I'm keeping those in mind as a part of this process."

And people will share, and it turns out that a lot of times those concerns are already something we've thought about and figured out, or those concerns are something brand new they're bringing to the table that we haven't thought about. And guess what? We might be able to actually come up with a better solution thanks to that concern.

So all of that I think comes from striving towards being as transparent as you possibly can and what that can do for you in terms of trust building and all that. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yeah. And then inviting them into that transparency almost, right?

Amir Omar: And the loyalty that brings you- Yeah ... at least what I've seen so far, is really massive.

And there's every reason and every benefit to doing it from what I've seen.

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Same meeting, same email, four completely different reactions. That's not a bad attitude. That's four generations looking through four different lenses. I'm Dr. Katherine Jeffrey, and I built the GenShift Framework to help organizations understand those lenses instead of fighting them. My clients aren't looking for another slideshow on generational stereotypes.

They want research they can actually use, and they get it: real data, real workplace stories, and interactive exercises that get people talking instead of just listening. I've worked with businesses, nonprofits, and educational institutions across the globe from small teams to conference auditoriums full of executives through consulting, speaking, training, and leadership development built around your team's actual dynamics.

Contact me to learn more at katherinejeffery.com. I'd love to help get your multi-generational team speaking the same language

So let's hear the skate park story, 'cause that's what brought us together today. So how did that whole thing start?

Amir Omar: A student came to one of our council meetings and really spoke very passionately about- wanting to have a skate park in Richardson.

And we don't have one. And so this young man I think he was a junior in high school at the moment came and spoke to us and did a great job. The first thing that I try to do in that scenario is reach out to those people who come out and take that time to speak, and especially in the younger generation.

I can't do it with every speaker, but the ones that are younger are such an anomaly that I really wanna create this positive feedback loop as quickly as possible. So I reached out to this particular gentleman, and we actually had a sit down and talked a little bit more about his thoughts and about his idea.

I let him know that I happen to volunteer with some food rescue work that happens at a skate park called Four Down in South Dallas in the middle of a food desert. And I shared with him that, "Hey. If you'd like. If you're up to helping with the food rescue, you can do that.

If not, you can just meet me at the skate park." And it turned out that he also really liked the idea of volunteering and doing the food rescue parts too. So now it's become a weekly thing. I think last week was the first week in about nine weeks where he sent me a text and said he couldn't make it.

But that began to be a thing where he shows up, he volunteers, and then he goes down to the skate park. We take this food down to the skate park, and it gets redistributed to others. As far as Richardson goes, it's a part of our parks master plan, but it's not a highly ranked part. So now I get to use kind of one of the superpowers I talked to you about earlier, which is I can get meetings.

So now trying to get meetings with people that can potentially help us, not by way of city money, but by way of philanthropy and by way of donations that may come from key stakeholders in the city. Could we potentially fund this without any city money at all? At least a pilot that would test whether or not this is even something that would work.

If the answer to that is yes, then the next question becomes, what part of our city do we have a park that hasn't been fully developed yet, and could we test it there? If it doesn't work, no big deal. If it works, then maybe that's an opportunity to start considering it higher on the ranking. And so where I am now is having a lot of community conversations specifically with people who might be able to be donors see if we can get there.

I've got a location or two in mind after getting a lot of input from people. And so now it's just a matter of can I go raise the funds? That'll be the easiest and fastest way to get a yes. So more to come, but along the way I should add one of the days that we were doing this food rescue, it was the week before Father's Day.

That Sunday before Father's Day. This food rescue happens on Sundays. James mentions to me, "Oh it's World Skate Day." And it's World Skate Day next week." And I was like, "Oh, what is that?" And he explained it to me, and I was like maybe I could figure out a Skate with the Mayor thing, and maybe we can find a spot where...

We don't have a skate park, but we have areas that are flat." 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yeah. 

Amir Omar: That led to literally Tuesday after that Sunday getting hooked up at a skate shop having them kinda outfit me with everything. The wife insisted that every pad known to man- ... uh, must be worn, ... or my life insurance would have to triple.

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: That's right.

Amir Omar: So I went ahead and did that. And,

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: I did hear about that, by the way. I heard that was pretty darn cool. 

Amir Omar: It was amazing. It was Father's Day. Yeah. It was over 100 degrees. We could pick the worst time. It was, like, 1:00 to 3:00 or something 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: like that. Oh, my gosh. And- In Dallas, yeah ... 

Amir Omar: yeah, in Dallas, and on Father's Day, where that might be a good time to actually have lunch with your father.

And here I am, like, rogue skate event, but I had a week to put it together, and we had a good, I don't know, 40, 50, 60 people show up. Wow. A bunch of them, father and son or father and daughter skaters. A lot of them were just kids that were taking a break from the Father's Day festivities and showing up.

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yeah. 

Amir Omar: And some of them were just fathers that were there without their kids showing up. So it was really an eye-opening opportunity for me to be able to recognize, again, " Hey, there's actually a little bit of demand here for this," and it fueled the fire to figure out, "Okay, how do I go make more of this happen?"

Some more to come. But, we've had some really great business partners. Beyond the Bar is a non-alcoholic beverage company that- 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Oh, yeah. ... 

Amir Omar: That has since done a little skate day at their spot, took some of their parking spaces and used it. And finding good community partners and then beginning to build the story and then sharing it. That's the last thing I would say about, not just the skate thing, but kinda the approach overall. Social media is a great way, especially as an elected official, to show your work.

We tell our young people to show their work when they're solving a math problem. Showing your work as an elected official and showing what you're doing and explaining why you're doing it, I think that also is just a huge trust builder. But it also creates these opportunities for people who are watching you on social media to decide, " Hey, I saw you were doing the skate thing and I wanted to join in," or, "I wasn't able to join in, but how can I participate in the future?"

And so all of that is great ways to kinda get people to interact. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: And the fact that you were covered in all that padding probably made you just that much more cool. 

Amir Omar: I think cool is a relative term. Usually a lot of those skaters were not using some of that padding. But I think- ... for the youngest of our young generation, the parents that saw me out there that had their seven or eight-year-old there- they were thrilled that the mayor had a helmet on and- Oh ... elbow, because they wanted their kids to not desire going free. Yeah ... without all those things. I suppose I normalized it, but mine was out of just pure necessity. I fall way more often than I roll on a skateboard. But I'm willing to give it a try and and I've got a really cool skateboard now ... so I'm excited to take those opportunities to learn how to roll a little bit better. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: That's amazing. So you were a good role model. 

Amir Omar: I tried to be. At least to the youngest they seemed to really like it.

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: And it sounds to me like you're just a super passionate person, and you relentlessly pursue the things you're passionate about, and now you're relentlessly pursuing things other people are passionate about, like on behalf of the city. 

Amir Omar: I'm moved mostly by what can bring a city together, what can bring people together.

And then, what would make a difference for people? And I wasn't passionate about skating, but as soon as I heard someone be passionate about it, I was like, "Oh, I wonder if there's something here." And then every time I've peeled a little bit of the onion back, I find all these additional layers of oh, hey, there were much older folks and much younger folks all together, showing each other how to do tricks.

I don't know anything about that. I'm still trying to roll. But the point being is what then moved me wasn't all of a sudden the mayor's excited about skateboarding. I was just excited about the community building that was happening. That you had these- disparate groups that were showing up together and getting involved together.

That's what I loved about planting trees. You had Republicans and Democrats, and older and younger, and richer and poor all in the same circle, all using shovels to dig a hole to plant a tree. And at that moment, nobody really cared about any of those differences. They just cared about, "Hey, am I doing my part to dig this hole and help?"

And so the skating has identified a little bit of that same kind of togetherness that brought all sorts of people together that I would have never expected. Corporate executives and, folks that, use their hands to make a living were there together at Beyond the Bar when they had that skate event.

And it's like, okay, cool. This is community-building that happens to happen under the guise of skateboarding, right? 

So anyway. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: I love it. No, what I really love about that, so as you were talking, I was thinking, "Okay, technically you're a politician," right? And politics is so polarizing in today's world.

And so to hear you talk about no, we actually wanna bring everybody together, and we want them to get along, and like we're building community," it's like, oh, that just feels good to hear. 

Amir Omar: I'm glad it feels good. I will say I'm glad it feels good to you 'cause it feels good to me, right?

A lot of times you get in a political position, and instantly people are trying to point you or push you in this direction or that direction as it relates to higher office or what have you. And the truth is like the world that I'm living in right now gives me the opportunity, 'cause in, in Texas, our city elections are nonpartisan.

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Okay. 

Amir Omar: Whether I'm a Republican or Democrat really doesn't matter to anyone. All they care about is am I listening to them? Do I take their opinion seriously? Do I use some level of reasoning? And am I inviting them to the table? And so I'm truly enjoying every moment of getting to do this role because I can very purposefully and actively stay out of the partisan mess, and really just focus on what good I can bring to the city.

And, we get to do this role in Richardson. Every city's a little different. In Richardson, it's every two years that you have an election. Yeah. Where others are three or four. But in Richardson we have a term limit, but it's a longer term limit. And really if somehow I'm honored by the residents to be able to do this for 12 years there isn't a higher office that would ever interest me more than being able to do the things that I get to do on a day-to-day basis, and the connections I get to make, and to do it without having to deal with, oh, he's a D or he's an R or, you know any of that, I think, just makes it that much more meaningful on my end. So I love what I get to do, and just honored to be able to do it, two years at a time as long as they'll have me. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yeah. That's pretty cool. Like to stay under the radar of all that other stuff, right.

Amir Omar: Yeah. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Love it.

Amir Omar: And I wanna be true to that, and I want people to recognize that the job that I signed up to do is the job that I'm actually doing. And none of the job description had anything to do with, national or even state politics. It really has everything to do with how do we make Richardson, the, the best city it can be.

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yeah. Incredible. So one of the things I hear from leaders all the time is we invite young people to participate, but they don't show up. 

Amir Omar: Yeah.

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: What makes them want to show up, and what makes them decide I'm never going back to that? 

Amir Omar: Yeah. I think let's start with the second part first. They're never gonna come back if they don't feel like they're listened to and/or ignored or marginalized, right?

Cute idea, but... 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yeah. 

Amir Omar: Yeah on the first end, it's listening intently and listening actively to what they bring to the table. I'll go back to going to where they are. If it's a company and you're trying to get them to attend something, where do your younger generation of employees, where do they congregate?

What makes the most sense for them to be able to get together? And then, recruiting leaders out of that group to be able to help you gain more traction and put you in the right spots so that you can begin to build those relationships. I think that's everything. And again, once you've built them, once you've brought them, now you gotta actually take what they have to say and have enough conscientiousness to recognize that whether or not it is a bad idea that somewhere in there is a desire to actually help.

And so listen intently for that, and then begin to try and see if you can't help shape the discussion in a direction that might be more fruitful 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Really good. Have they ever asked you for something where you've had to say, "No, we just can't do that?" 

Amir Omar: Yeah. Literally this morning I had a presentation from one of the volunteers.

So I've got a group of young architectural students that we mentioned earlier that are helping with a number of different ideas. And I've taken parcels of property, sometimes a combination of properties, and put it in front of them and asked them to imagine what could possibly happen there.

And from time to time what comes out of it is this amazing and very creative park.

But on a property that let's say will cost $80 million to assemble. And is not currently owned by the city. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Ah, yes. 

Amir Omar: That does- that doesn't have the $80 million to buy it. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yes. 

Amir Omar: Explaining to them, "Hey, first of all, this is a cool idea."

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yeah. "

Amir Omar: And I'd love for us, save that idea and let's see if there's an opportunity for us to find a parcel that the city already owns or maybe someone wants to donate to the city at some point where that could work. In the meantime for this particular project, we're gonna need to look for something that's income generating and that a business person might want to build there and be able to justify an $80 million purchase."

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yeah. 

Amir Omar: And figuring out how to pivot in a way that doesn't just totally cut their legs out from under them because they've created this beautiful idea. One of the ideas was initially this LED park, and the renderings and the drawings that they made were just like amazing.

In that particular case, I of course shared with them the cost of the land and all that and said, what if you figured out a way to incorporate that LED park into a business park where you have high rise office and living and all that, and this LED park becomes the reason why people want to office there and the reason why they wanna live there?

What if you made that the center stage of this development?" And, I think just trying to be creative in ways that they can still have their idea and still help you with something that could be practical that's been, one of the muscles that I've been enjoying exercising as a part of this process.

But yeah, so sometimes you gotta say no, but there are ways to say no that can still involve the thing that they're thinking, or that puts the ball right back in their court. "Hey, you think you can help me find a place where we could put that great idea, right? This one might not work for this reason.

But how about this?" And so I think that's been, the way to make that happen. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so I wanna look one generation ahead for just a minute. 

Amir Omar: Yeah. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: The kids sitting in Richardson Elementary Schools right now are Gen Alpha, and they're growing up in a very different world, right?

They're evolving alongside of AI. 

Amir Omar: Yeah. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: And so when you think about those kids becoming teenagers or young adults even, eventually leaders in Richardson, what are you building today that you hope will matter to them?

Amir Omar: Hopefully a legacy of listening. Look, when I was a council member the first time, it was 2009. I ran a race and lost for mayor in 2013, and I was 12 years away from public service. I still volunteered, I still did other things, but I was gone for 12 years When I started having coffees with people in 2024 to kinda contemplate whether or not I was gonna run, I had a college student that I ended up reaching out to because they spoke at a council meeting and I thought, "Oh they spoke at a council meeting.

Let me talk to them and see what they care about." And he was grinning the entire time. And it turned out, to shorten the story, that he was 10 years old when I was a council member the first time.

And had come to their school, and I had read to them, and from that day forward, he had it in his mind that he wanted to become, a public servant, and had shared that with his, family and all that along the way.

And I think the lesson that I've learned from all that is that you're making an impact literally every time you create access to this younger generation. So I will tell you the meetings that I never say no to, every opportunity to read to students, every opportunity to go to an event at a school.

There will be people who will criticize me and say, " Hey, there's a school board. There's an entire governance around schools. The I in Richardson R-I-S-D is the word independent, and so they're not owned by the city. Why are you going to all these things?" And I'm going there because I think that's the greatest way for that next generation to feel a connection to public service.

And the more of those seeds I can plant, the more likely we have another generation that's really engaged. And so I think the best thing I can do for that next generation now is to continue to keep saying yes to those scenarios where I'm outreaching into those schools, I'm outreaching into those opportunities where young folks can be.

I'm creating events. I did an ice cream social two weeks ago. By the way, once again, like in stupid hot weather. I have a way of picking times and days. But there were a crazy amount of young people, and many of them that were coming with their parents, and I was taking time not talking to the voter, but talking to the voter's kids.

And I think for me at least, those are opportunities where they can begin to have this indelible image potentially of the mayor sat with us and talked with us, right? Stopping and allowing their parents to take photos of you with them so that the story can be told and reinforced.

All of that I think creates these opportunities where you can plant seeds with people that want to be a part of the solution in the future. And it's exciting to me to think about, let's say the residents of Richardson decide that I should stick around for 12 years in this role. By the time I get to that 12th year, the number of students and young people that I will have had an opportunity to interact with when they were six or seven or eight or nine, and now they're in their formidable years and becoming what they're gonna become, that's inspiring to me to just think of what kind of an impact I can make. Above and beyond any of the development stuff or what we do in the arts or any of that other stuff just that interaction with those young folks.

You learn the older you get that 10 years goes by very quickly and that eight-year-old or 10-year-old that has nothing to do with politics becomes someone very quickly that can be a part of the solution in that next generation. So anyway that's my formula for that younger generation.

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: It's beautiful, and I hope a lot of leaders in any sphere in today's world listen to this podcast and hear what you have to say. Because I think the way you talk about it and your passion for it it's inspiring.

I'm touched by your heart and your desire to make the world better, and I would imagine these Gen Z-ers are resonating with that part of you, right?

I wanna make the world a better place. I wanna make the world safe. I wanna have people around me that I care about and I enjoy working alongside, and you're allowing that to pour out of you and to shape future generations. 

Amir Omar: Yeah. Absolutely. And it's such an honor to do it.

I know I just talked about 12 years, but I rarely talk about anything more than the two years you've got, right? And I've had people ask me "Are you not gonna burn out? Are are you doing too much?" And my deal is, especially in politics, you never know, when people decide that it's time for someone else. And from my perspective, I don't wanna look back at whatever period of time I'm given. Let's say it all ends at the end of this first two years. I wanna be able to look at it and say, "You know what? I did literally everything humanly possible to engage with that next generation, to do good things for my city to move the needle in a way to make people believe that we can do better than some of the things we've done in the past."

All of that can be accomplished in two years. It's just you can accomplish more of it over a number of two-year parcels or two-year pieces. So for me I'm very much inspired and driven by that and with the realization that there's no guarantee of a tomorrow or a next term, and so do as much as you can while you've got the opportunity.

And so I'm doing exactly that every single day. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Awesome. So one of the things I'm taking away from this conversation is that engaging younger generations isn't really about figuring out the perfect program or even the perfect way, you're supposed to communicate with them. It's actually much more human than that.

You ask them, you listen to them, you let them contribute, and when you can't give them what they're asking for, you actually tell them why. As much as you can, right? Because there's a big difference between being invited into the room and believing that your voice actually matters once you're there.

Yeah. And that's not just a lesson for local government, that's a leadership lesson for all of us. So Amir, I wanna end with the question I ask in many different ways throughout GenShift, and that is what do you wish more leaders actually understood about young people?

Amir Omar: Although there are so many differences there are also so many similarities to every age of person. We talked a little bit about transparency, and I think that's probably a good place to go back to. Regardless of age, maybe for different reasons and maybe their reactions are a little bit different, but regardless of age, the more that you share with people about why you're making the decisions you're making, how you're making them, that just builds trust.

And being able to really just constantly be thinking about the other person and how it is that they want to engage, how it is that they wanna be a part of this and sometimes it's sharing more information. Oftentimes, again, this also works in every age group. Yes, by going to schools, I'm engaging with that younger generation.

But guess what? If I'm trying to get to our senior population that's in their 80s to 90s, let's say, I might find myself, going to a senior housing apartment complex or a place like that where a number of those people are congregating to be able to sit and listen to them.

And so even the adage of go where they are that works for every single generation. It just takes a little bit more thought to think about that younger generation because, frankly, we're not as familiar with them, and we're not as familiar with the way they think. But the best way to get familiar with them is to spend time with them, like really invest and listen, and put yourself in their shoes and try to understand.

The more you do, the closer you get, I think, to being able to to really cracking the code and getting the most out of that group. And you get the most out of them ultimately by allowing them to kinda be their authentic selves and do the things that they actually care about. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: So well said. So Amir, thank you. I've really enjoyed this. It's been incredible. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule. I know you might have been paid, what, $2 for that time. 

Amir Omar: Try not to think of the hourly rate.

It it starts to get a little bit disheartening. But thank you. Thank you for doing what you do. I've listened to your podcast. I love the focus that you've got on these topics, and it just it's eye-opening to kinda hear the different specializations talk about how they're dealing with and working with the next generation.

I think this is, super important work that you're doing. I really appreciate it, and I'm just honored that you guys asked, and thrilled that one of the students that I worked with had a parent that happened to know the great Dr. Jeffery and was able to make this introduction.

So thank you so much for doing it. 

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: Yes. Thank you and it's a pleasure. And I wish you all the best. And those 12 years are coming, I feel it. 

Amir Omar: We'll see. One term at a time.

Dr. Katherine Jeffery: And to everyone listening, if something Namir said today made you think differently about how you're engaging younger generations, share this episode with one person who needs to hear it. And if you're enjoying GenShift, follow the show and take a minute to leave a rating or review.

It helps more people find these conversations and helps us keep bridging the gaps between generations. I'm Dr. Katherine Jeffrey. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time on GenShift.