Founder and CEO at Modern Elder Academy (MEA), NYT Best-Selling Author, Speaker
Have you ever met an impressive young leader and said, “You’re such an inspiration. You give me hope for the future!” I have and I won’t be doing that again. I just read a new report from CoGenerate, What Young Leaders Want — And Don’t Want — From Older Allies (https://buff.ly/43bLWc0). It’s based on in-depth interviews with 31 young leaders (ages 18-31) committed to working across generations. These leaders have a lot to say -- honest, direct, and sometimes hard to hear -- about what older adults can do, and should stop doing, to make cross-generational teams work better. The first thing we modern elders can do? Make it clear that we’re not expecting young people to mop up our messes on their own. One of the young leaders explains: “The phrase that always got thrown at me was, ‘You are the future, you’re going to solve all the problems in the world,’ and it really rubbed me the wrong way. Don’t put that all on my shoulders, it's an unfair burden to say one generation is responsible for solving problems that existed before we were even born. I’ve learned to say thank you, but let’s build this thing together.” There’s no other way “to build this thing” but together. Intergenerational collaboration in the workforce has gone mainstream, but there’s still so much more we can all learn about how to do it better. I hope you’ll read the report (funded by AARP!), then share it with younger friends and colleagues. I promise it’ll get the conversation started. P.S. I sit on the board of CoGenerate, a nonprofit bridging generational divides. Register here (https://buff.ly/3TxGRYr) for a March 21 research briefing with five of the young leaders who participated in the study.
Jordan Bowman
1mo
Thanks for sharing! I agree that "There’s no other way “to build this thing” but together."
Bethany Mckinzie
1mo
This is insightful. I believe education is our future as well as building legacies and generational wealth. Which makes our future generations our legacy and as such our place as older generations to help guide, direct, listen, and learn alongside other generations. Our issues too complex for one group or class of people to handle alone.
Loved your Wisdom Well post this morning. I posted my thoughts about this and linked the report and WW too. I plan to listen to the webinar next week.
Helene Cahen
1mo
Chip, I so agree that problems are too complex to be left to one generation and the future. They need to be addressed now and together so we can bring multiple perspectives and break from silo thinking
Marneen Preza
1mo
I'm definitely joining! Thanks, Chip, for always sharing such great stuff. The information you brought is truly useful and interesting, especially for those of us who want to contribute to the reframing and boost of intergenerational collaboration. I can't wait to delve deeper into this!" -
Lindsay Rentz
1mo
Love this! Being comfortable to leaning in and having a growth mindset helps tremendously-and keeps the communication open.
Maria Cristini
1mo
Joining - love hearing from young leaders.
They can't build it on their own. They don't have the wisdom 😊
Director of the Elfenworks Center for Responsible Business & Professor of Marketing
1moI appreciate the effort and agree on the need to collaborate, but those 31 may not be a representative sample. When I have told some of the student leaders I work with that they inspire me, they have let me know they appreciate it, even after they graduate and have no need to stay in touch, but many still do. Not everyone under 35 is looking for a reason to be offended or distressed by a compliment. 💜 Perhaps we can say, "You inspire me. How can I help?" Showing it's not all up to them, but also that we don't think they are lost without us.🤔