The Leadership Pendulum
What if the healthiest org chart isn’t ruled by age, but rather by a form of shared leadership across generations?
A recent LinkedIn post from a bright early-thirty-something billing herself as a “CEO Consultant” sparked what I hope was a healthy internal debate within me.
Young leaders bring undeniable upside: agility, digital fluency, and the courage to break things that need breaking.
As Simon Sinek notes, “the next generation’s impatience for progress keeps the rest of us honest.”
But impatience has a shadow side.
It can tempt us to undervalue experiences that simply take time – market cycles, economic downturns, personal failures, the kind of hard-won humility Brené Brown calls a “grounded confidence.”
Many organizations once clung to leaders until retirement – or beyond – creating a bottleneck for rising talent.
Now the pendulum is swinging the other way: skipping a generation to prove we’ve “learned our lesson.”
But trading one extreme for another helps no one.
Horst Schulze, co-founder of the Ritz-Carlton, warns: “You can’t create excellence by ignoring the teachers who’ve already walked the road.”
Maybe we should consider an intentional move toward a more middle ground – a shared leadership that pairs youthful drive with veteran discernment…
…encouraging young executives to energize strategy while seasoned leaders supply context, pattern recognition, and long-view thinking.
Doing so may offer a solution that could be better than either of the pendulum’s extremes.
Data can be Googled. And with the onset of AI, an even more comprehensive knowledge is at our fingertips.
Wisdom, however, still travels at the speed of life.
Advanced emotional intelligence is forged in downsizings, product recalls, and personal valleys – lessons no book, webinar, or chatbot can fully impart.
Here are a couple relevant questions for org leaders to reflect upon:
Where have we equated quick thinking and digital fluency with leadership readiness, and at what cost?
Do our succession plans honor both rising talent and leaders still able and willing to contribute into their 50s and beyond?
What mechanisms (reverse mentoring, peer advisory groups, cross-functional teams) can we implement to actively mix leadership generations in real time?
How do we measure “wisdom capital,” and who is accountable for growing it?
Are we willing to transition any leader – young or old – at any level of the organization – when growth plateaus, without wasting their remaining insight?
Intentional succession is less about setting static expiration dates.
It’s more about conscious redeployment.
Using Lencioni’s language, ideal teammates (“humble, hungry, and smart”) come in every age bracket.
What if we promoted a 35-year-old VP and assigned a 55-year-old mentor to co-lead key initiatives?
What if we celebrated a CEO’s decision to step aside at 62 – but retained her as a peer group chair or strategic adviser?
That’s why I am such a big fan of peer groups like Convene, Vistage, and others.
They give late-career executives, former senior pastors, veteran entrepreneurs, and even retirees a strategic runway to keep stewarding their gifts, turning decades of service into a force multiplier for the next generation.
Be aware of the swing of the leadership pendulum.
Some leadership lessons cannot be obtained from books or manufactured in a lab.
Some come only through a resource we cannot duplicate, replicate, or multiply.
Time.
It would be a shame to waste it.
“Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” – Proverbs 4:7
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” – James 1:5
Blessings to you, my friends!
==========
This Week’s Resource Recommendation:
“Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder"
- Chip Conley
From Amazon: At age 52, after selling the company he founded and ran as CEO for 24 years, rebel boutique hotelier Chip Conley was looking at an open horizon in midlife. Then he received a call from the young founders of Airbnb, asking him to help grow their disruptive start-up into a global hospitality giant. He had the industry experience, but Conley was lacking in the digital fluency of his 20-something colleagues. He didn't write code, or have an Uber or Lyft app on his phone, was twice the age of the average Airbnb employee, and would be reporting to a CEO young enough to be his son. Conley quickly discovered that while he'd been hired as a teacher and mentor, he was also in many ways a student and intern. What emerged is the secret to thriving as a mid-life worker: learning to marry wisdom and experience with curiosity, a beginner's mind, and a willingness to evolve, all hallmarks of the "Modern Elder."
In a world that venerates the new, bright, and shiny, many of us are left feeling invisible, undervalued, and threatened by the "digital natives" nipping at our heels. But Conley argues that experience is on the brink of a comeback. Because at a time when power is shifting younger, companies are finally waking up to the value of the humility, emotional intelligence, and wisdom that come with age. And while digital skills might have only the shelf life of the latest fad or gadget, the human skills that mid-career workers possess--like good judgment, specialized knowledge, and the ability to collaborate and coach - never expire.
Part manifesto and part playbook, Wisdom@Work ignites an urgent conversation about ageism in the workplace, calling on us to treat age as we would other type of diversity. In the process, Conley liberates the term "elder" from the stigma of "elderly," and inspires us to embrace wisdom as a path to growing whole, not old. Whether you've been forced to make a mid-career change, are choosing to work past retirement age, or are struggling to keep up with the millennials rising up the ranks, Wisdom@Work will help you write your next chapter.
MMS 25-26
I would love to send our Monday Morning Stretch directly to you via email and would consider it an honor to serve you in this way. To register, please take 30 seconds to give us permission to do so below.
