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“I ’m tired of my generation being dissected by Boomers as if I wasn’t in the room!” the exasperation of the 20-something young lady at the back of the room was palpable, and she didn’t stop there. “How would you feel,” she went on, “if a

group of 130 Millennials were dissecting your generation—and you were only one of three Boomers in the room?”

She had an excellent point. the Boomers dissecting her and her generation were a group of people invited from business and academia to join key U.S. military figures in identify-ing leadership development needs 15 years from now. It was a very thought-provoking conference, well organized and forward thinking, with four panels, each followed by a question-and-answer time and small group debrief sessions. the frustration of our 20-something Millennial was aired during the panel that addressed the way young adults would be learning and processing training 15 years from now. Since I was on a different panel (the one that addressed what kind of leadership would be needed in the U.S. mili-tary 15 years from now), I sat back and listened to the debate.

The Big (False) DebateThe Big (False) Debate

the panel had done an excellent job of describing the differences in the generations that now cohabit the marketplace—great stuff about Boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Yers (also called Millennials). one academic gave a masterful description of how technology is rendering traditional lectures increasingly obsolete as a teaching format, particularly for those who have grown up in an “information-pull” society and who define the pursuit of knowledge as “just in time, just enough, and just in case.” When you can pull up infor-

H e S S e L b e I n & C o m P A n Y

by Antony Be l l

tHe MYtH oF GeNeratIoNaL teNSIoNS

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mation almost instantaneously with a few mouse clicks, who needs to sit through a long and boring lecture? Generations, it was clear, view learning very differently: Baby Boomers, for example, read to retain, Gen Xers read just enough, and Gen Yers reach for the remote control, head to the Web, or poll Facebook. the same academic made the provocative statement that students today would rather not have to learn anything: they’d rather get the degree to get the job and then learn on the job what they need to know.

all this fed right into the inevitable discussion about the work ethic of these young adults and their inability to relate socially in a world where social media now means that major adolescent transactions—breaking up with a girlfriend or boyfriend, confessing mistakes to a best friend, engineering some gathering—are often conducted as text messages. It was somewhere at this point that our exasperated 20-something at the back of the room broke into the discussion. She countered with the inevitable arguments of indiscriminate stereotyp-ing and pointed out the evident discomfort that most Boomers have with rampant technology.

Unfortunately, both are right. and fortunately, it doesn’t matter. at least not the way both sides think it does. It is true that social media have at some level replaced direct social interaction. and it is true that the greater dependence on social media tends to make social interaction more awkward. and it is also true that many Boomers have a hard time keeping pace with the bewildering pace of technological change. For early Boomers particularly, the amount of new technologi-

cal information doubled approximately twice by the time they graduated from high school. In the same time span for their children, it doubled more than 10 times, and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it will double every 72 hours by 2012 . . . that’s a lot of change for the Boomers’ grandchildren.

But fortunately, all that doesn’t matter. at least it doesn’t matter any more than any other tension in the workplace—whether gender, ethnic origin, race, or simply personality. In fact some of these other issues may be more significant than the generational issue. racial and gender issues can be more destructive than generational conflicts. and personality issues are non-generational: extraverts will be still be extraverts and introverts will still be introverts, whatever generation they belong to. I know plenty of introvert Boomers who are socially inept and plenty of extravert Millen-nials who connect well to those around them.

this isn’t to say that generational differences are not real, nor that we should ignore them. But it is to say that a much deeper issue is being obscured by the gen-erational debate.

The Big (Real) IssueThe Big (Real) Issue

the deeper issue is poor leadership. this isn’t what Boomers want to hear (or for that matter, Xers and Yers in leadership roles). But there is plenty of research out there today that tells us that people quit bosses, not companies. Millennials are not going to quit be-cause their Boomer bosses are technological dinosaurs.

Unfortunately, both are

right. And fortunately, it

doesn’t matter.

A much deeper issue is

being obscured by the

generational debate.

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they’ll quit because they’re bad bosses. and Boomer bosses are not going to keep their Millennials by be-coming technologically savvy. they’ll keep them by providing great leadership.

If you face the challenge of leading people from a dif-ferent generation (or two), you can make the genera-tional issue (and the racial, ethnic, and gender issues as well, for that matter) irrelevant by concentrating on two things: developing a strong dose of self-awareness as a leader, and developing a deep understanding of the aspirations and capabilities of the people you lead. No other areas of focus in your own leadership develop-ment will yield such rich dividends.

the great leaders we see in the marketplace, whether in for-profit or not-for-profit organizations, have huge amounts of self-awareness. they know their own strengths and weaknesses, and because they know them, they can adjust to them—recruiting people around them who are strong where they are weak so that they can concentrate on what they do best. But it goes beyond strengths and weaknesses: great leaders are also acutely aware of their own personal aspirations and values. they know what matters to them and they lead more by values than by charisma. the people they lead know what’s important to the one who leads them. they have also thought about the leadership principles that matter to them, and they can (and do) articulate them.

But great leaders not only have a deep self-awareness; they also know and understand the aspirations and ca-pabilities of the people they lead. they are students of their people, and because they know their people, they can identify the opportunities that best match their strengths and aspirations. this commitment to match-ing the strengths and aspirations of their people to the best opportunities demonstrates something very com-pelling about their leadership: a genuine care and con-cern that seeks to bring out the best in their people.

take a cue from dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. She recruited three members to her team, not by convinc-ing them of the rightness of her own aspirations (get-ting back to Kansas), but by looking for a way to help them pursue their own aspirations in the context of her

more immediate goal (getting to the emerald City). She didn’t cast aspersions on the Scarecrow’s hope for a brain, the tin Man’s longing for a heart, or the lion’s insecurities about courage. Instead, she thoughtfully wondered how joining her in her pursuit could help them get what they were looking for. She was both self-aware enough to know her own aspirations and caring enough to listen to and accommodate theirs. She led people who were very different from her with aspira-tions very different from hers. But the very obvious differences—generational, gender, and, well, species—didn’t seem to interfere with her capacity to recruit and lead what ended up being such an effective team.

The Right ResponseThe Right Response

So how do we deal with the generational issue? Here are three suggestions:

Know your people. Become a student of your people—not just the generational influences they grew up with but the personal aspirations that drive them. You will inevitably study the generational influences that shape their thinking, but it won’t be to find excuses for poor leadership (which, unfortunately, is why many of my fellow Boomers study the generations that follow them); instead, it will be to figure out how to bring out the best in them.

Know yourself as a leader. What matters to you as a leader? What values are important to you? What prin-ciples guide your leadership style? What contribution do you want to make? What legacy do you want to leave behind? I cannot think of a single great leader—whether in the annals of history or in the tussle of the

Great leaders are great

learners.

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marketplace—who didn’t deeply explore these ques-tions and articulate the answers that emerged.

Become a student of great leadership. No one becomes a great leader by chance. Great leaders are great learn-ers; they study great leadership. they read. they ask questions. they take notes and keep a journal. they test and challenge their own assumptions. they make mistakes and learn from them.

So what would I say to the 20-something young lady at the back of the room? I’d want to reassure her that she needn’t worry about secondary issues, such as gen-erational tensions, however much heat they generate. Focus instead, I’d tell her, on the one issue that really matters . . . the pursuit of great leadership. and when it came to my turn as a panelist, I did just that.

Antony Bell is president and CEO of Leader

Development Inc., a thought leader in leadership

development, whose unique framework makes

sense of the confusing complexity of leadership.

Its leadership-development specialists have helped

thousands of leaders in their quest for great leader-

ship. He is the author of “Great Leadership: What

It Is and What It Takes in a Complex World”

and “The Clock Tower: A Story About the Three

Key Dimensions of Leadership.” Visit his Web site

at www.leaderdevelopmentinc.com.