TRANSITIONING TO GEN X LEADERS

A blog post from a publication in Australia, WAtoday, speculating on Gen X Leaders got to me by way of a Google Alert a few days ago. It speculates on what Gen X leaders may be like as they finally are taking over gradually (some of them can't wait!) from the Boomer leaders and whether they will be different from Boomers as leaders. Take a look.

I think the Gen X leaders will be substantially different from the older half of the Boomer cohort leaders because those generations are typically different from each other and because they are facing fast-changing circumstances.

What do you think?

Phyllis Weiss Haserot    www.pdcounsel.com

Comments

[tgfr600]

We've already transitioned away from Boomer leaders, and it's not GenX's turn yet. As many prominent commentators have said, our new generation of leadership is Generation Jones(born 1954-1965, between the Boomers and Generation X).

Google Generation Jones, and you’ll see it’s gotten a ton of media attention, and many top commentators from many top publications and networks (Washington Post, Time magazine, NBC, Newsweek, ABC, etc.) now specifically use this term. In fact, the Associated Press' annual Trend Report chose the Rise of Generation Jones as the #1 trend of 2009.

Many experts now believe it breaks down more or less this way:

DEMOGRAPHIC boom in babies: 1946-1964

Baby Boom GENERATION: 1942-1953

Generation Jones: 1954-1965

Generation X: 1966-1978

Here is an op-ed about Obama as the first GenJones President in USA TODAY:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090127/column27_st.art.htm

And this page is a good overview of recent stuff about GenJones:
http://generationjones.com/2009latest.html

[Cheryl]

I think they have to be different because they're living in a (mostly) completely different world. I'm from the baby boomer generation. I feel like I've changed more in since age 35 than at any time before then. The world is moving faster, we're living on internet time.

The other thing I think differentiates GenX from Boomers is that they're not so freaked out about things like gay marriage. I compare it to boomers being ok with interracial marriage where our parents were pretty freaked out about it.