As I have gotten older, I find that my perception and
attitude about leaders has changed. The first major change that I’ve come to
realize has to do with trusting someone in a leadership right away. Generally
speaking, there are reasons why people are in leadership roles and we trust
that they are there for their competencies and qualifications. I joined the
Navy right out of high school. After I completed my training and moved into the
operating field, I was surrounded by “leaders” who were suppose to help guide
me and who were at the facility to help complete the mission. What I found
however is that not all of these people were actual leaders. I didn’t
understand that at the time, I just assumed anyone who out ranked me was a
leader. I know now as an adult and someone who has been through the leadership
courses that these individuals lacked any real attributes of a leader. Our
reading this week says it this way “leadership in any form cannot produce
results without a context within which to exist” (Obolensky,
2014). So my major observation from then until now is that I am skeptical and
analytical when it comes to who I assign the role “leader” to. Leaders now also
have to prove to me that they are capable of leading me and not the other way
around. I don’t want to take advice from someone who has less experience in a
certain area than I do. I guess that is probably an annoyance to some people
based on their age and their tenure.
If we take as a starting point the attitude to those
in authority/leaders as held by your grandparents, and then look at those
attitudes held by your parents, and then by you, and then the younger
generation, is there a changing trend? If so, what is it?
I think that there is a
changing trend. I think there have been a wide variety of changes to attitudes
in leadership as generations have progressed. For instance, my grandparents
lived in a much different economical time then we did. Those economical
influences played a large part in why a leader might be the way they are.
People set in an economy were jobs are sparse are more willing to work for
leaders that they might not normally want to based on the opportunities
available to them. As for the gap between my generation and the next one, I’m
not sure there is that big of a gap. I’m sure people would argue that there may
be one, but I feel as though the economic impacts, experiences and technology
haven’t jumped as they had between my parent’s generation and mine. I think the
trend has to be the work ethic changing from manual, hard labor, to smarter
less aggressive work styles. There isn’t a need to be close minded in
leadership positions and people are able to freely leave organizations now
based on benefits, personnel, and need. That wasn’t always the case. One
article I read describes a way to create a culture fro all generations. They
state “you want to tailor your generational bridge-building to suit the
specific needs of your enterprise. For some companies, the need is more urgent
than others. Take an inventory of where things stand and develop your plan
accordingly” (Biro, 2013).
Why do you think that
this has occurred?
I think this has occurred because of the experiences that
different generations have had. For instance the baby boomers have gone through
Vietnam ,
woman’s rights, civil rights, and rock and role. Generation X has gone through
dual earning parents, high divorce rates (I link the two together) and a poor
economy. Millennial’s have experienced September 11th, 2001, a
better economy, and more diverse families (Scouts, 2014). Assuming that these
events change generation’s perception on things such as business, leadership
and personal interests, I would make the conclusion that people and generations
are the way they are from those events. I do think that the rotation might be
cyclical though. I think it varies with the success of the economy. Leadership
is present always, in every environment but I think people gain the most
knowledge from leadership through a bad experience. I would point out that
people can recall good leaders too but I would imagine people often say to themselves
“I don’t want to be like “______” because they were terrible to work with. So
based on experiences and world events, our leadership and authority towards
leaders is formed.
References
Biro, M. (2013, October 13). Five Ways Leaders
Bridge
Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex adaptive leadership:
Embracing paradox and uncertainty (2nd
ed.). Burlington , VT
Scouts of America ,
B. (2015, August 11). Unique Experiences Shape Generational Differences. Retrieved
August 14, 2015, from
http://www.scouting.org/Home/Marketing/Resources/MarketingResearch/UniqueExperiences.aspx
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