Comments About Intergenerational Leadership

Three readers shared some insightful comments about yesterday's article about the need for intergenerational leadership in economic development. They are worthwhile reading.

Comment 1: "Liked your thoughts about the need to diversify community leadership. It is not an easy transition - I think that previously the generational hand-off was really just one group of executives (mostly white, mostly male) passing the torch to another group of people just like themselves, so there was a fair amount of trust and common understanding among everyone. Now it's different, because "community leadership" includes a more diverse group of people - and I don't simply mean race and gender, but different socioeconomic backgrounds, and with very different ideas. (This is the biggest challenge facing Richard Florida's creative class idea, I think.) I'm not sure that I believe that there is "a solution" to this. Rather, I think that those of us in economic development can go out of our way to include and empower a more diverse group of people in our activities. Sometimes just introducing people can have powerful consequences. I also think that we all have a tendency to let certain people have veto power - if a particular project is dependent upon one person's approval, that's a pretty precarious position to be in - and we need to stop doing that! Anyway, I appreciate your bringing up the issue because it affects an awful lot of communities."

Comment 2: "This sounds a lot like the argument that many of us have been making about why economic development needs to work at adhering to the principles of sustainability. The intergenerational angle never occurred to me--that is thinking about the leadership problem in terms of the various generations represented in the community. That could be a new way to introduce the idea that economic development needs to think more about the long term and cumulative effects of what we do to grow local economies. Is it possible to get older leaders to work with younger ones on projects now? That could be a challenge. Don, the average age of members of my board of directors is probably in the mid-50's. Would exsiting members be willing to allow someone in their late 20's or early 30's on the board? Probably not--unless the young person was a child prodigy or some kind of super-star. Do I think it's a good idea? Yes, I think we must bring the new generation onto the playing field before the old guard steps down. We need to find a way to do this."

Comment 3: "I think attitudes about leadership vary by community. My community (region) is probably in the middle of the pack in terms of receptivity to this type of an idea. I don't think we would want to be the first and make all the mistakes so everyone else could learn from us, but we don't want to the last either. You might be on to something with this idea. Personally, I think the network-based stuff we were talking about the the 1990's went out the window with the dot-com bust and the last recession. People are more cautious now and leaders are both more risk-aversive and accountability-oriented. Hell, Arnie Swartzenager might become our next governor. Is the Terminator going to support a bottoms-up leadership model? My board members don't want the organization to blow up because of a sudden change in the leadership model. They might be willing to transition toward it over time though. You are correct that we need to start some experiments in this area now though. Sounds like the guys in Cleveland need to be the first for once instead of waiting on California to make the breakthrough."