Current Leaders in Charge
The research, while not exact, is very clear about the fact that the Boomers are currently at the helm. Statistics vary, but it doesn’t take a research scientist to see which generation is overwhelmingly in charge of today’s business world. If you look around, you’ll see Boomers include most senior executives; the upper-level management tier in most organizations; the leadership of educational and religious institutions as well as the arts, sports, and entertainment; and, of course, governmental leaders.
It takes a lot of work to take the lead of so much of the world as we know it, and the Boomers certainly did—and are still doing— the work. In fact, they have embodied the term workaholic. Perhaps this is a trait picked up in the 60s when “other” addictions prevailed. Now they are addicted to work, power, fun, expensive toys, and probably a few things from back in the day as well.
The Boomers have had a profound impact on today’s workplace and society in general, and they are still making their voice heard. In fact, they have finally made it to the platforms where they are both respected enough and powerful enough to make their mark on the world. They have for the most part been loyal to the organizations they’ve served, even when the organizations weren’t loyal to them. They learned to compete fiercely with their peers in order to establish their place among their own extremely large generation; and, according to Tom Peters, they’ve single handedly made America (American women to be exact) the number one buying power in the world.
They like the power that work gives them, and while their generational parade may be coming to an end where work is concerned, don’t expect them to quietly stop marching. As we speak, those who can are positioning themselves to go from the executive seat to the board seat. Some will need to keep working longer than expected. Others will transition to part-time and assume more of a mentorship role. Still others will move to community colleges to teach or local government, and of course, some will move to Florida and take up golf. But we can’t forget that the Boomers have always had a voracious appetite for change and challenge, and they are not going to stop just because their parade scenery is changing. They want to feel needed and they want to continue to add value to the world, and we are going to need them to do just that. After all, the Boomers have some characteristics that we do not want to lose. Here are a few worth mentioning:
• They have a strong work ethic, while overdone, which has been one of their key contributions.
• They really understand doing what it takes when it’s necessary, even if it is hard and takes a long time.
• They don’t share everything all the time.
• They understand both the concept and the execution of strategy and are able to make difficult decisions when necessary.
• They do know how to share and are willing to share, but not if it means giving up their strategic position—that’s just dumb.
• They typically prefer—and have often mastered the art of—face-to-face communication over e-mail and voice mail.
• They understand respect and protocol; after all, they learned from the best—the Silent Generation.
We would also like to hold on to their wisdom, and just as we never want John Travolta to stop dancing, we never want the Boomers to stop dreaming of making the world a better place, so we’d like to keep their idealism as well, please.
Of course, not all of their characteristics are exemplary. There are a few Boomer traits that we can stand to lose. For example, they took work ethic to an extreme. They made work their identity, often giving up their family and their health and sometimes their values for the work. As a group, they have big egos. Just like a big kid on the playground can be “king of the mountain,” the Boomers have become “king of the mountain,” and they aren’t afraid to let the other kids know it.
While they do a good job with face-to-face communication, they also took the whole concept of meetings in the workplace to a new level, and now it’s hard to get any production done at all in between all of the meetings.
We can also let go of the Boomers’ situational “I meant it at the time” ethics. We’ve seen plenty of destruction from that phenomenon—think Bernie Madoff, Bernie Ebbers, Ken Lay… shall we go on?
They see the world as full of options, and therefore, they introduced constant change.
It is a fact that the life of baby boomers was accompanied by postwar transformations changing the American society. The ideas about sexuality, gender, and family were altered profoundly. Likewise, parenthood changed, old age and retirement was redefined, and labor forces were transformed. Even in their old age, they seize opportunity to stay involved and active like staying in their work force to meet the responsibilities of supporting their children.1
So perhaps we could simplify and have a little less change. By the time organizations get their multimillion dollar technology platforms in place, they are already out of date. It seems like with all of the “options” and all of the “change” the Boomers brought to the world, they could get us some options for less toil and more time.
And while we’re at it, Boomers can be a little difficult to relate to for the younger generations because they are so focused on their work. Don’t interrupt them unless you can add value to the work. Even though they love change, they have only scratched the surface of implementing new technologies as if to say, “we didn’t mean that much change.” From all appearances, the Boomers are going to make just enough technological upgrades to get what they need to get the job done. Then when their workplace portion of the parade ends, they’ll be all too happy to let Gen Xers bring in the new technology platforms with their massive price tags and outrageous interruptions to standard processes.
While it’s no surprise that our current leaders add both positive and negative contributions to the workplace, what is a surprise is how unprepared we are for the next generation of leaders. In a survey of more than 400 HR executives from 40 countries by IBM in 2007, it was determined that more than three-quarters were concerned about their organization’s ability to develop future leaders. This is an increasingly serious failure, given the backdrop of explosive growth in emerging markets and the retirement of experienced personnel, IBM warned.
Of course it isn’t that these organizations can’t develop future leaders. It is that they haven’t; and with the Boomers retiring at a rate of one every 8 seconds, this is a problem.
You may be wondering how we got into this predicament? Well, we have to remember that Boomers consider themselves “…the timeless generation, often unwilling to let go of their youth,” says Dr. Daniela Schreier, assistant professor of clinical counseling at The Chicago School. “It’s a lingering characterization of their idealism and may account for trends like Botox and plastic surgery.” Remember, when they hit 40, 40 became the new 30, and now that they are hitting 60, 60 is becoming the new 40. So if they see themselves as timeless, there’s really no need to focus on the next generation of leaders. But as Gronbach says, the generational parade is moving forward whether the Boomers like it or not, and many organizations will have to play catch-up in developing the right level of next generation leaders to take the helm. “…Boomers are a big, complicated generation, but one thing can be said about them without fear of contradiction: They are no longer young.”2
Notes
1. Mitchell, Roger. “Impact of Baby Boomers on American Society.” EzineArticles. EzineArticles.com, 2010. Web. 24 July 2010. http://ezinearticles.com/?Impact-of-Baby-Boomers-on-American-Society&id=932508.
2. Brandon, Emily. “Generation Glum—Planning to Retire.” U.S. News & World Report LP. 21 July 2008. Web. 24 July 2010. http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/planning-to-retire/2008/07/21/generation-glum.