MEL #035 | From Electrical Engineering to City Leadership through Purpose-Driven Service with Paul Young

YOUNG (00:00)

There are very few decisions that we make where everybody agrees. I those are the easy decisions, quite frankly. It’s the ones where where half the folks saying do it, half the folks saying don’t. Those are the ones where as a leader, you have to listen to the facts and make a decision based on those facts and your internal compass.

Angelique Adams (00:48)

In this episode, I speak with Paul Young, Mayor of Memphis, Tennessee. Mayor Young was inspired to pursue engineering after watching A Different World, a late 1980s to early 1990s television sitcom set at the fictional Hillman College, which explored college life, social issues, and black culture. The show became especially influential in inspiring young viewers to pursue higher education and professional careers. He earned his degree in electrical engineering at the University of Tennessee but soon realized he was drawn more to community development. A pivotal sermon from his mother led him to pursue a graduate degree in city and regional planning, which laid the foundation for his career in rebuilding neighborhoods and eventually serving as mayor of Memphis. In our leadership segment, Mayor Young discusses being confronted with widespread scrutiny over the arrival of Elon Musk’s XAI supercomputer project, a development that has been extensively covered in the local press.

Balancing environmental concerns, economic opportunity, and community trust, he is standing firm in his values while navigating heated public debate, a timely example of leadership under the spotlight of real-world headlines. Mayor Young advises that leadership is not about titles, but about filling gaps in organizations, treating people with respect, and building a reputation that inspires others to advocate for you even when you’re not in the room.

Explore the full episode summary, including guest bio, key takeaways, transcript, and recommended resources in the show notes at drangeliqueadams.com/podcast. 

Without further delay, here is my conversation with Mayor Paul Young.

ADAMS (02:20)

Hi Mayor Young, welcome to Mastering Engineering Leadership.

YOUNG (02:23)

Hello, hello, glad to be here with you.

ADAMS (02:25)

I’m thrilled to have you here. Can you start by telling us how you got into engineering as a career path?

YOUNG (02:30)

My journey may sound a little funny, but it’s my journey. hey, but I started, you’re probably old enough to remember Different World, the TV show, Different World. When I was in like seventh, eighth grade, I was watching Different World, saw Dwayne Wayne on there. was the skinny guy with glasses and he was an engineering major. And it just stuck in my head. Like, I like to fix things and I want to be an engineer.

Then I went the engineering track through the high school that I attended in Memphis, East High. And I went to University of Tennessee and I had electrical engineering on my mind. And so that’s what I majored in. And that’s how I got into it. And I think it was an amazing program that really prepared me. Even though I’ve never done engineering work technically, I think that it set the foundation for everything that I’m doing today.

ADAMS (03:24)

And did you did you know even going in and picking engineering to study? Did you know that you probably weren’t going to be a traditional engineer? Did you know that in the outset or did you kind of make those choices along the way?

YOUNG (03:37)

made it along the way. I definitely didn’t know at the outset, but I mean, you know, you’re 18, 19, what do you? Exactly. Give yourself some good guesses, but you really don’t know. But I would say probably my junior year, I was starting to feel like I might not want to be a traditional engineer. Like that was just my feeling, but I finished the program and I even tried to get a job in engineering when I graduated.

I didn’t quite find the job that I was looking for. And, you when I was on my political campaign, I would tell this story all the time, but I think it’s fitting for where we are. You know, I graduated from University of Tennessee, couldn’t find the job that I wanted. It was right after, you know, 9-11 and all those things had taken place. So I was substitute teaching, working in retail. Both of my parents are preachers. And so my mom was preaching a sermon.

on this Sunday and you know, I had friends from engineering, from my fraternity that had moved all over the country and they were telling me, you need to leave Memphis, you need to come to this place or that place. And I was like, it’s something about here and I just want to be here. And my mom was preaching the sermon and the title of her sermon was called The Purpose Driven Life. And what she said changed my life. She said that God’s purpose for your life will never be about you. God’s purpose for your life will always be about someone else. And so,

For me, that’s when it clicked and I decided that what I wanted to do for someone else and still earn a good living is to rebuild neighborhoods in the city that I love, which is Memphis. And so I went back to school. went to graduate school at the University of Memphis and I majored in city and regional planning and focused on community development, of which obviously engineering, electrical engineering specifically has been vital for my career because I focused on power when I was…

going the electrical engineering track. And so I deal with a lot of issues around power ⁓ in community development and MLGW, which is our local utility and other issues. So it definitely set the foundation. I didn’t know where I was going, but my path just kind of led me to where I am.

ADAMS (05:42)

Can you talk a little bit about that transition from undergraduate engineering to now a graduate degree in a completely different field? And I’m curious just how you approached learning the new concepts and immersing yourself in this completely different environment, both academically but also in the content. How did you go about learning the new stuff?

YOUNG (06:05)

It was different, but it was actually easier, quite frankly. I think engineering prepares you very well for the technical side. We understand formulas, we understand logical flows and processes and how to solve problems. And when I got into the planning program, certainly there are some more technical aspects, like when you get into like zoning code and things of that nature, but there’s…

a lot of other issues in the community that come up on a daily basis. what engineering did was gave you a ⁓ rigorous approach to try to solve the problems in a very straightforward way. And so it was a different type of learning environment, but in a lot of senses, it was actually easier. ⁓

ADAMS (06:59)

And so, you know, I’m going to make an assumption here. So you clarify this if I’m wrong, but it sounds like you started from, you know, the planning side of things, which the way I understand it is much more of like an internal sort of organization where you’re, you know, you’re thinking about understanding how things really work and improving how things work. And your career has progressed to now you still do all of those things, but now you’re also much more externally facing as a mayor. You are out there.

interacting with people, listening to their concerns, et cetera. And I’m curious about that transition for you as well.

YOUNG (07:35)

Yeah, that definitely was a transition, but it started actually with the planning side of the work, because as a planner, especially the community planning that I was doing, I’m going into communities and I’m listening to the problems. And what I was charged with doing is hearing somebody that is mad about, you know, trash in the neighborhood or homes that are dilapidated and hearing all of those things, and then trying to go back to the office and think of,

the technical solutions to the problems. How do we change zoning code or what are different ways for us to redesign roads so that some of the traffic issues, like all of those technical things you have to translate. so planning and engineering helped to prepare me for translating that into the technical side. And so it’s really that on steroids now. I just deal with it at a much…

higher level and higher volume, but we also have an amazing team that’s also helping to do what I was doing as a young planner.

ADAMS (08:38)

Yeah, okay, absolutely. And thanks for kind of giving us a peek into how things actually work. Now, I am curious about the public facing side. I mean, in terms of actually talking to people, you do have to have good communication skills. You’ve got to have presence. You’ve got to have patience. You’ve got to have a lot of things that aren’t necessarily tied to the engineering curriculum. Let’s just put it that way. And so how did you…

learn those skills were things that you just learned along the way. Maybe it came from your family. It sounds like you come from a family that does a lot of that.

YOUNG (09:11)

I mean, I come from, I’m a preacher’s kid, so I put around people that talk a lot daily. you know, that still doesn’t make it come natural for you as an individual. What helped me was really just building up internal confidence. You know, I would get, you know, intimidated when I have to go and speak somewhere. And this is early on in my career, particularly after college or grad school.

I go into these environments and you feel like everybody here is so smart. They know so much more than me. I got to try and outsmart them. And then I had one boss that told me something one time and it really kind of changed my outlook. She said, we had these guys that came and talked to us about some new approach for evaluating programs. And she said, and she asked me, how did you like that? What did you think? And I was like, I was…

It was cool, but I just didn’t quite understand everything. And I don’t know if I was smart enough to get it. I was like, don’t you ever think that if someone comes and speaks to you, it’s their job to make you understand. And then it just kind of started to click in a different way. Like nobody’s actually smarter than me. They just have a different experience than me. And if I can convey my experience in my own way to where people get it, then they’re going to receive it.

And so that just kind of changed my outlook and how I engage. And so now I think I walk into rooms with the utmost confidence because no matter what the people in the room already know, none of them have my experience. None of them have gone through it from my lens. And I think the more you can articulate things, you can give facts and you should give facts, but the more you can articulate it from your experience and your lens, it helps to give you the confidence.

And that resonates with people when they can feel that it’s an internal confidence that’s being conveyed when they hear from

ADAMS (11:10)

Yeah, I think that’s a really great point. yeah, I like what you said about once you changed your mindset about, it’s not about knowing everything that that other person’s saying, it’s about conveying things once you had that internal confidence that really improved your, I’m sure it improved your ability to communicate. One other thing I’ve always been really interested in ⁓ is how you actually prepare.

for going into some of these different engagements because you’re talking with different people with different concerns all the time. to me, it just seems like an infinite amount of information that I would never be able to get a handle on. But I’m curious, like kind of what your internal, what your own process is during being prepared in that next meeting. And then the next one that’s, know, 30 minutes later, that’s, you know, across the city or whatever, however it works. How do you actually prepare?

YOUNG (12:00)

Well, I mean, the first part is just having a strong team. Having a team that can prep you because literally I go into one meeting and I’m talking about how we’re going to address homelessness and the next meeting is about a ⁓ sewer extension in another part of the city. And so it really happens daily, but having a strong team helps. The fact that my journey has been more of a bureaucrat as opposed to a politician.

also helps me because, you know, I have been on the technical side of the work for the last 20 years and not the politician. as a we get the cliff notes versions. I had to be in the weeds and understand all of the pieces. And so that has helped me going into these environments. And then the last thing is what I talked about earlier, it’s just conveying my story and what I know.

people are really interested in the mayor’s perspective on a lot of these things and being honest about what you don’t know. Like I don’t try to go personally, I don’t go into environments and act like I know things I don’t. I use it as an opportunity to learn and I’m very quick to say, I don’t know if I don’t know, but I can go find the answer. And I think that’s the key. If people respect, you say you don’t know, but you’re willing to go find an answer, what they don’t like is if you say,

I don’t know when I don’t care. And your actions say you don’t care if you don’t do certain things, so.

ADAMS (13:34)

All right, Mayor Young, what leadership situation are we going to be talking about today?

YOUNG (13:38)

Well, as I think about the biggest challenges since I’ve been in office, it certainly would be the location of the XAI project in the city of Memphis, which is a project from Elon Musk, which is building the world’s largest supercomputer. I believe it’s a good thing for our community and our city, but certainly there are others that object, whether it’s the objection based on

who he is and his affiliations as an individual or the concern, and I would say rightful concern about what the project can do to the environment if not kept in check. And I think it is a great example of having to step up and be a leader and stand on what you believe even in the face of a lot of criticism.

⁓ which can sometimes be unnatural amount of criticism to you as an individual, but you kind of stand firm on what you believe.

ADAMS (14:38)

Yeah, this is a great example very very timely and also very public So this is your you’ll mind one of the only people that we’ve had on the podcast so far that actually is is is Talking about a situation that we can all read about Yeah, you can Google it it’s in the local newspaper for those of us that are that are in Tennessee But yeah, let’s dig into it So, you know one of the things that that I think about when you talk about this and what you said is you’ve got You’ve got multiple stakeholders

with very diverging interests. so let’s just start there. How do you think about really understanding their concerns and then making sure they know that you care about their concerns, even if you happen to choose a different path? But what is your process for really gathering those concerns and kind of thinking through what’s the position I’m going to take here?

YOUNG (15:28)

Well, I think the first thing, and this is what I do in every issue, I want to be able to argue all sides of the argument. I want to be able to articulate what someone who agrees with me will say, and I want to be able to articulate what someone who disagrees. And then I want to be able to come to a conclusion based on all of those factors and the things I believe in my heart and the values and things that I hold dear.

And for me on this project, it’s tricky because it’s a complex equation. There is a concern around what the project might emit into the air as a part of the emissions that can come from having natural gas turbines powering the facility. The facility we know now

is only using those, at least this first phase, only using those for temporary backup power. But for the year long period that it has been operating, it’s been using them as the primary source of power. And so the community has been concerned about pollution, given that pollution in this part of the city has been historically a major issue. And the concern is whether this person, Elon Musk, is coming here to

poison our community. And, you know, for me, it’s about getting the technical information to understand, is that really happening? What is the air quality today? Is it something that is elevated to a level of concern to where we should deny this project? And what the data has shown us is that it’s not. And so once we address the health side of the equation, then the question becomes what more

can it bring to our community? And we’re now looking at the second highest tax paying property in Shelby County over the course of one year. In January of last year, we didn’t even have this on our agenda. And now there’s $25 million in taxes that’ll come in in this first year alone. And so for me, the compass was how do we turn that into action for a community that has been

looking for answers. It’s in an area of town that’s been disinvested in. The private investment in that area has not been up to the standards that anyone would want. And in order to get more, we know there’s going to take more public investment. And so we created some ways for us to be able to do that. We created a first of its kind ordinance where we’ll take 25 % of the revenues from the city side.

and we’ll reinvest it into that community every year. And that means that the community that’s most adjacent to the project are gonna be the largest beneficiaries of the project’s presence. And with the second phase where they’re looking to invest significantly more, we’re looking at a lot more revenue that’s gonna be able to help support this community. And so for me, the goal is how do we use this to elevate our status as a city?

and what’s happening in that community.

ADAMS (18:41)

And how do you go about helping the constituents understand sort of this picture that you’re talking about, As you said, it’s very complex in terms of the environmental concerns. It’s complex. You’ve looked at the data. You feel confident about what you’re seeing there. And you’re adding to that, trying to make sure that, one, the benefits do, you know, that people have benefits for.

this investment happening there and you’re really working hard to do that. There’s still, I could imagine, still a need to make sure that everybody else understands what’s going on and understands how that is all going to work. how do you, and maybe don’t necessarily have the data that you have, don’t have the engineering background that you have and kind of understand the complexity, particularly on the environmental side. So how are you going about trying to help people to kind of see things at least the way that you see?

YOUNG (19:36)

Well, first is just being present. And I mean, I’ve been present almost to a fault. Like when it’s time for someone to ask questions about the project, I’ve been the elected official that’s willing to answer them. Because I think that’s important for the community to have the mayor be able to articulate what the project means. what I also think the community needs are more experts that are able to speak.

They don’t just politicians to tell us to tell what we’ve heard from another expert. We need those experts’ voices to be present. we pushed out one of the air quality tests that we did just a month or so ago. And that gave some data that essentially showed that the air in the community around XAI is at the same air quality as the air that is downtown.

And that’s not saying we have the best air in the world, but what it is saying is that we are breathing the same air and there’s not necessarily ⁓ a more negative impact in that community versus other parts of the city. I think that kind of data gives some reassurance, but that’s not, it’s gonna take more. We know that was just air quality testing on those two particular days. So we got to do consistent testing.

And I think the most important thing is that people began to see results. It’s one thing as mayor to talk about what’s going to happen. At this point, I think it’s more about showing and proving than it is about telling. It’s about showing.

ADAMS (21:08)

Yeah, that’s and I want to just sort of reinforce and maybe summarize what you said. I mean, one is about really being present, right? Being willing to answer the questions that people have and in a calm and, you data based way and just say, yeah, I’m listening to your concerns and I’m taking them into consideration and I’m demonstrating that by showing up and being here and talking with you. And I do think that’s really important. And the other thing you said that I think is important is, you know, bringing in

external experts who can talk about what’s actually happening. know, lending some additional credibility to what we’re seeing. it’s not just the politicians or not even just the, you know, the people who are really maybe invested in wanting things to go a certain way. You’re bringing in external credibility. And then last thing you said is really making sure that you’re showing the results, right? Making sure that

the results are there and that you’re demonstrating those and making sure people understand that the results are happening. So that’s completely transferable to any real leadership situation. So I wanted to make sure I summarize that. And the other thing you said when you described this that I also want to talk about is the pressure slash criticism for the choice that you made and your need to stand firm through all of that.

personal challenges that come along with having a leadership position that may be unpopular with some people. So can you just talk a little bit about how you’re handling that?

YOUNG (22:32)

Yeah, I mean, I think that it’s important for us as individuals, as leaders to understand that There are very few decisions that we make where everybody agrees. I those are the easy decisions, quite frankly. It’s the ones where there’s a split, where you got half and half, where half the folks saying do it, half the folks saying don’t. Those are the ones where as a leader, you have to

listen to the facts and make a decision based on those facts and your internal compass. And I think it’s important to know that when you do that, I now have peace at night when I go to sleep because I know that I’ve listened, that I have actually heard and I’ve gathered as many facts. You’re never gonna have all the facts, but I’ve gathered as many as I can and you make your decision based on that. And you won’t always make the right decision, but I think it’s important.

that you make a decision and understand that if you have to go back on the decision, do it. But in the meantime, stand firm on what you believe and it can be challenging, particularly in the age that we live in, especially if you’re in a public facing role, because the things that people say on social media can be like some of the most outlandish things that you could imagine.

before being an elected official, like you really don’t realize what it means for somebody to be, like you see stuff online, but they talking to you now. They’re saying this about you And I won’t even repeat some of the things that they’ve said, but you get a little more hardened to it. I’ve learned that instead of living just in the social media realm, you gotta go out.

touch grass, hands, look people eye to eye. They’ll still give you their opinion, but they’ll do it in a more respectful manner in most instances. And, you know, face-to-face dialogues, those kinds of disagreements are a little bit easier to digest than what you consume online. I would, for any, by any leaders, I would just advise take social media in doses and don’t use it. Because you’re really looking at, even if you get

500 comments. There are 500 people out of 625,000 in the city of Memphis. And the people that comment are probably the maddest. The people that agree are probably the least likely to comment. Or the people that are indifferent. And so there’s a lot of stuff in between. And so you still have to have real conversations, gather facts, and then make decisions that you believe are in the best interest of whatever it is, your purpose and…

And go this.

ADAMS (25:20)

All right, Mayor Young, as we wrap up, what advice do you have for engineers who are interested in pursuing leadership roles?

YOUNG (25:27)

I would say learn as much as you can in the role that you are in, because I think that sometimes people think of leadership as a title and it’s much more than a title. I think that you can be a leader at whatever level you’re in. the other thing that I would advise leaders, and this is a way to do it from whatever level you are in is find the void. I always say find the void in every organization, no matter what you’re doing.

there’s something that could be happening that’s not happening. And if you go in, you start doing that thing, you start pushing for that thing, you automatically become the leader for that thing. And people are going to look to you for that thing. And I think that it’s really, really important that you find those opportunities to fill a void so that you can exercise your leadership ability and more people will see you. The last thing I will say as advice,

is treat people with respect. Every, and this was never more apparent to me than when I began running for mayor, but every experience that people have with you follows you for a lifetime. And it just so happened that the experiences I had with people were pretty positive. And there were people that I didn’t even think would remember me that

I called during the campaign fundraising and asked them to support. And I remember one guy specifically saying like, man, I ain’t talked to you in 15 years, but you know what? I’m gonna give it to you because I know your heart. I remember you. I know how hard you work and you’re gonna be good for this city. So yes, I will. And somebody said this to me or maybe I was listening to a podcast, but it’s interesting that

most of the jobs that you get, if you get a job from somebody else, unless you’re an entrepreneur, and even if you’re an entrepreneur, most of the decisions about your career are made when you’re not in the room. Like most of the decisions are made when you’re not in the room. And so the question becomes, who’s going to advocate for you when you’re not in the room? It’s going to be the people you had these experiences with, whether it’s somebody you just had from an interview panel, whether it’s somebody that you know from…

10, 15 years ago that’s now on a loan committee that can fund your dream for your entrepreneurial endeavor. Like those things are important. So treating people with respect just pays, wait, one, you should do it anyway, but then two, for your career and for your advancement as a leader, I think it’s really important to remember that respect.

ADAMS (28:04)

Mayor Young, thank you so much for sharing your insights with us.

YOUNG (28:08)

Thank you.