Future Leaders

Among the many trends that involve the world of work at the moment, some of them verified, others probably more talked about than real, there is one that so far has not attracted a great deal of attention. Maybe because it is diametrically opposed to the career and organizational models that have been with us for some time and that, by now, we tend to consider “natural”. What is more natural than to want to get to the very top of decision-making as a final career objective? Traditionally, careers were built with this end in mind (obviously this would not apply to women whose careers, more often than not, were destined sadly to be dashed when confronted with the glass ceiling); failure to participate in such power games was inevitably considered to be an unacceptable admission of weakness. The younger generations, however, seem to want to change this paradigm, just as they are changing many others, beginning with the one that sees career taking precedence over private life. Or maybe, in actual fact, they are gradually changing the very meaning of a career. It is no longer seen as an uninterrupted climb of the ladder (with certainly no going back), in order to gain power, symbolized in economic success. Rather, it has become a horizontal path, along which personal growth counts, with the opportunity to broaden one’s knowledge and skills, to do what one likes and, in this way, to feel that one can make a difference.

This does not necessarily imply decisional power or people management and, instead, leaves more room for freedom and creativity, at the same time reducing the component of responsibility which is viewed as an inevitable source of stress. A position in which it is possible to learn by imitation and in which “meaning” (a word which carries great significance for these generations) is found more in the concreteness of a successfully concluded project than in the elaboration of strategies and business plans. As always happens when such changes in perspective are confronted, there is no point in stopping to make judgments. It is far more useful to try to imagine the impact that such phenomena will have on organizations so as not to be caught unprepared. And it is not difficult to hypothesize that, sooner or later, we shall encounter no few difficulties in generational handovers, if the value models of the young people who are destined to take on positions of responsibility fail to coincide with those of the organizations they are intended to lead. The key could be, then, to rely on these very values, on this desire to make sense of one’s own actions. To draw up a leadership model no longer aimed at conquering power and personal prestige (which even successful TV series, from Succession to Billions are helping to dismantle…) but, rather, to create positive impact, to multiply one’s own value and that of others with the ability to create a mark, to leave an inheritance both within and without the company.

With results to be measured not only in terms of absolute growth but also in ability to conserve resources and to integrate the business in a more global dimension. This is neither an easy nor a banal transition, but it is one which we will have to begin to take into consideration if we don’t want to lose tomorrow’s potential leaders.