Building on Strengths
On October 5, 2006, in an article called “The Battle for Brainpower,”1 The Economist posted the following: “A labor crunch at senior levels is imminent. America’s 500 biggest companies will see half their senior managers retire in the next few years.” Everyone nods. Many begin to look for the opportunity, including Gen Yers who face as much as 50 percent unemployment as they enter the workforce because it is not the entry-level jobs that the Boomers are leaving. In one of our interviews for this book with a fully employed Gen Yer, we found it interesting that she and her peers consider the labor crunch at senior levels an opportunity for them. Her exact words were, “The Baby Boomers are going to retire and I want that big player position.” Now, we all knew Gen Yers were optimistic, but we’re not sure we all knew they were that optimistic. Wake up Gen X! Your competition has stated their position and they’re going for the gold. Yes, we know not all Gen Yers want to lead, but what if only 10 percent of them want to lead? That’s over 7 million at the most conservative estimates. It may be a little overly optimistic for Gen Y to take on the “big player positions” currently in the business world, but it is not overly optimistic to see them as a big player wherever they are in the workforce, and this is one of their strengths.
According to best-selling author Jim Collins and based on his extensive research,2 both companies and individuals will be better if they build on strengths versus remedy weaknesses. While we’re not opposed to remedying weaknesses and building on strengths, let’s take the strength-building concept and apply to the diverse generations. If your organization was going to take just a couple of strengths that each generation possesses and help them push these strengths to the next level, what would they be? We asked ourselves this question and below is what we came up with.