The Baby Boomer Exodus And The Corresponding Leadership Development Issue (Kinda)

As Boomers retire and, frankly, die — what happens to leadership at companies both public and private?

Hopefully we all know this by now — as Boomers retire and subsequently get older, two of the most impacted fields should be (a) leadership development and (b) health care. Health care seems to vaguely have an idea what it’s doing with the Boomer retirement influx. Leadership development does not.

I’m going to begin here by pointing you to a recent article from HBR. It’s about leadership development programs at American Express and Johnson and Johnson. The article isn’t that good, and the programs are largely a hand job to MBAs — I wouldn’t even recommend using those specific models, honestly. Most of the examples are about getting already-powerful or soon-to-be-powerful white guys in a room and seeing how they make decisions. That’s one form of leadership, sure, but it does nothing about “How are you going to interact with those who report to you?” Most people can succeed interacting at their level or managing up. Very few know how to manage down, and that’s where everything is broken.

I digress.