"The Way We See a Problem is the Problem" Stephen Covey

I was enlightened by the findings of Professor Carolin Reka Munro of Royal Roads University into attitudes toward Gen Y leadership. 

She found that Boomer leaders across Canada experience Gen Y as  "having a loud voice...[are] confident and are very forceful,” In turn, Gen Y is “clear that it wants to move into leadership position and it wants to make changes...[T]hey want to build partnerships based on key values, and...mak[e] a difference in the world.” All this leaves Boomer leaders not "quite sure how to handle these upstarts, but there is as sense of profound, inevitable change in the workplace"


Profound indeed; for their world will be one of monumental change. According to Julian Cribbs it will be a world requiring a doubling of "food production using half the water, far less land, with no fossil fuels, scarce fertilisers amid drought and changing climate."  Consequently, it will be a world requiring the best of leaders to deal with the social, political and economic fall out; and one where an entrepreneurial, collegiate style of leadership will optimize performance.

So, rather than trying to work out how to handle Gen Y, why not  allow a process of co-enquiry, a discovering of synergy between leadership styles and prepare the ground for a smooth transition? Better still, lay the foundations by which they test their mettle and acquire the tools for their future.


The conversation must begin with key values and a reimagining of the culture they underwrite. Also, from my experience, it must be conducted with a progressive attitude because they'll know if you're not being real with them.


In turn you will be rewarded if you hang out with them and experience life through them. My outlook is changing, I behave differently and I have begun to live more myself. All this has come about because it is so enjoyable to talk 'with' them and not 'at' them and to learn alongside them, freed from the tyranny of the expert.