Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook has achieved some notoriety recently with her book, Lean In , which is about feminism and women in the workplace.
The title is interesting – it reminds me of some advice I was given by the Senior Partner of a practice I once worked for – when there are difficult situations, get close and get involved, things rarely sort themselves out – ie “Lean in”.
Another thought that has occurred to me more than once recently has been about the generational challenges facing the industry.
I’ve been guilty of this as much as anyone about highlighting GenY and the Millenials who will change the face of the industry – IN TIME. But for now we have a mixed picture, it will be another decade at least before Gen Y are in mid career and running the show.
They will be waiting, perhaps pushing and shoving (!) to get boomers like me out of the way! And here is the rub – the demographics are shifting, people living longer, retirement ages will inevitably go up, because we will need to work longer any way , and there are only so many rounds of golf you can put up with. So people like me, the forebears of GenY are going to be around for quite a while.
So the old dogs, like me, will need to learn some new tricks….we talk about the silver surfers sometimes, perhaps there will be Silver Bimmers! Certainly the boomers and those older will need to learn from Gen Y , and embrace the new ideas and technologies coming through.
Lets face it, we’re going to be working together for a long time, our industry is going to be transformed, and we can learn from each other as we move forward, sharing experience and ideas. So…..
Any old dogs out there – Lean In! – learn some new tricks…..!!!
As for me, I’m going to sign up for a few courses, I’ll keep you posted…
Cheers
J.
