Between Patience and Progress

I've been thinking about generational shifts in leadership, prompted by watching younger leaders step into their roles. It brings me back to my early days of being the youngest person on a management team, the only person of color, the only woman. You bring your insecurities and doubts to that table, learning to position things carefully so you don't come across as "too emotional" or "too this" or "too that."

The weight of every unspoken expectation sits heavy. You work twice as hard to be heard, to be taken seriously. You learn to calibrate every word, every reaction. And somewhere in all that calibration, perhaps my generation became too patient. We were ready to step forward sooner than we were allowed. We accepted the careful positioning, the constant monitoring of our presence. We waited our turn when maybe we shouldn't have.

Now I watch younger leaders pushing forward faster, sometimes wanting to "push you out the way," as we say. I understand that energy. And I understand the wisdom of my generation's patience, too. Both approaches carry their own power and their own cost.

What fascinates me is how much each generation needs what the other brings. The fresh perspectives help us look at old problems through new lenses. And there's wisdom in those hard lessons we learned through all that careful waiting, lessons that could make the path easier for those coming up.

Yet, it's not as simple as just sharing what we've learned. Each generation faces its own unique challenges, and requires its own unique responses.