By The Way, We’re Taking Over

06Feb09

According to Tammy Erickson, a McKinsey Award-winning author, who wrote recently on her blog, the Generation X is taking over:

Although the median age of serving CEOs is mid-fifties, most senior leaders are first tapped in their late forties. The new CEOs selected this year are likely to be X’ers. Boomers — competitive, productive — are beginning to move out of the top spots, but not necessarily out of the workforce. Like the Cabinet members, they’re increasingly easing into roles guided by the no-nonsense views of Generation X.

Will these new roles suit the times? I think perhaps they will. Bill Strauss and Neil Howe, coauthors of Generations, posit that each generation makes a unique bequest to those that follow — and generally seeks to correct the excesses of the previous generation. They argue that the Boomer excess is ideology — and that the Generation X reaction to that excess involves an emphasis on pragmatism and effectiveness.

This generational priority will give X’ers a strong advantage in remaking organizations to reflect twenty-first-century realities: the need for transparency, accountability, real-time performance, lack of ideology, top-of-market effectiveness, and cash value. (emphasis added)

You will note that missing from her list of “twenty-first-century realities” which we Gen-Xers will be enforcing, with our emphasis on pragmatism and effectiveness, is anything about coddling spoiled brat youngsters who think they know it all two years out of college.

You will note that high on our list are things like accountability, performance, and value.

Draw your own conclusions.

-GXM

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