Gen X: Three Ways to Make a Difference in Your Company and Career

At the risk of getting an “Ok boomer” eye roll, I have some professional advice to offer to those in the Gen X cohort: be the change companies want to see in 2020. 

You probably didn’t put that development objective in your 2019 performance review, but maybe it’s time to reconsider your priorities for 2020.

Why? Because you have a chance now to make a big difference in your company – even as you rev up your career.

In my view, too much of the narrative about your generation is stuck in early characterizations about your being indecisive, apathetic, conflicted. Ironic slackers. The MTV and Latchkey Generation.   

To make matters worse, it seems your generation is now getting squeezed at work by Baby Boomers, who just won’t quit, and Millennials, who believe they are ready to take over your job.  Although you have performed admirably at work, you are getting passed over for promotions.  And, meanwhile, you are sandwiched between raising your children and looking after your aging parents. 

A more hopeful – albeit sardonic - view is offered by a Gen X author himself, Rich Cohen, in a Vanity Fair article, “Why Generation X May Be Our Last, Best Hope,” but the hopefulness stems in part, he argues, from this generation’s sense of “irony and a keen sense of dread.” 

Alex Williams’ more recent assessment in the NY Times, “Actually, Gen X Did Sell Out, Invent All Things Millennial and Cause Everything Else that Is Great and Awful” shows how difficult it is to pin down defining characteristics of this cohort. He writes, “Maybe that’s the thing about being a generation without any particular identity or belief system: We are adaptable, a weedy species, like rats or cockroaches, built to survive any environment. We are hard to stamp out.”

Here is my personal take on Gen X – based on the corporate social intrapreneurs and sustainability strategists I work with, and it doesn’t have anything to do with cockroaches.

You have built a gold mine of social capital in your companies. Years of collaboration with colleagues across departmental aisles have given you a sense of who is highly regarded in the company, what they are working on and who they need to partner with to make it happen. 

Many of you are middle managers, occupying influential positions you have earned through hard work and perseverance. You have institutional savvy and know how to work the system. 

You understand the nature of the disruptions your companies are facing. Although born into an analog world, you adapted quickly and helped shape development of the internet, social media, video games. You are creative visionaries, a capacity companies crave as they figure out how to keep pace with the disruptions they face. 

You are indeed the sandwich generation – but not only because of your care giving responsibilities at home but because you work with Baby Boomers and Millennials and have insights from both influential generations. 

Many of you are purpose-driven. You hear the call to ensure companies operate in ways that positively impact society, and you know how to marshal your creativity and expertise to redeploy the resources of your companies in innovative ways that will make a difference to the company and the world.

I am certainly not alone in these perceptions of Generation X professionals – especially those in middle management roles. In “Thawing the Frozen Middle,” three leaders at PwC reference the research of INSEAD Professor Quy Nguyen Huy which shows that the interpersonal skills of middle managers make them particularly well suited to lead transformation efforts at their companies. 

Those perceptions are intriguing, but they really come alive when you put them in the context of just how much change companies are going to have to make in the coming decade. This same PwC article estimates that companies invested $3.8 trillion in digital transformations in 2019! $3.8 trillion! And, they note, even with these massive expenditures, many of these change efforts fail.  

Moreover, while companies are investing trillions of dollars in digital transformations, they are simultaneously trying to figure out how to meet society’s changing expectations of business. Companies need to develop business models, products and services that deliver value to shareholders AND employees, customers, community members, and the planet.

Who is going to help companies make these massive leaps toward digitization and broader social impact? 

My dear Gen X friends: it could be you! 

It may be your generation that is the one most likely to increase the odds of successful corporate transformations in this new era.  That’s job security – and job satisfaction.

Here are three ideas for positioning yourself to help drive successful change efforts.

Master something new. Make 2020 the year you will gain a much deeper understanding of what digitization really means for your industry. Develop a new vocabulary. Spend an hour each week talking with a technologist outside your immediate sphere of influence. Carve out the time to read that next book on AI or take an online class.

John Renehan at Pratt & Whitney is an example of what can happen when you dive into digital. John joined Pratt & Whitney in 2016 as the head of marketing. Nine months ago, he was asked to make an abrupt shift and take on responsibility for managing the development of digital products for this 95 year-old company.

“I walked through a door into a new world. Every day brings fresh insights,” John reports. “All companies can learn from how great software teams operate. They listen intently to customers and involve them at all stages of product development. The most versatile teams are a hybrid of business experts, user experience designers and software developers. Professionally, it may be one of the most challenging but most energizing assignments I have ever taken on.”

If you find yourself falling into that rabbit hole of self-doubt about your ability to master something so complicated, re-read Carol Dweck’s brilliant book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. It will help you remember that ability to learn depends on the mindset that you bring to the task. 

Leap over the generational divide. You have positional authority. Use it. Look out for your millennial colleagues. Listen to what they are saying and trying to accomplish. You know the system, so you can help them figure out how to make it happen. In exchange, invite them to teach you what they know about a digital world that didn’t exist when you were starting your career. Be mentor and learner.  

Doug Coleman, Group Product Manager – Advanced Product Strategy at Toyota North America, agrees. “I find a lot of millennials are like a champagne bottle with potential energy that’s waiting to get out. I love the satisfaction of understanding what makes them tick and helping “uncork” their energy in the right direction – toward solving a problem that matters to them. I can help them be more effective at channeling that energy because I know the advantages and pitfalls of the system around them. In the process, I don’t often even have to ask… they naturally share their own perspectives and teach me something. It could be new tech, an approach, or just a philosophical way of thinking. Leaping the divide is both personally rewarding and educational.”

While you are leaping, I also suggest checking in with the Baby Boomers who are on your team. You will find that they have stories to share about times when the company was able to achieve dynamic change. You can learn from them about when your colleagues worked at their best – or what obstacles hampered progress. 

If you get stuck wondering how to get these conversations off the ground, think about how to ask great questions. Warren Berger’s A More Beautiful Question is a great resource for question crafting.

Radiate possibility. You have a choice. You can see these massive changes coming at you as a burden or an opportunity. Most of them are both. However, the spin you put on it will matter to your colleagues. You’re the one with the social capital, remember? Your grousing gives permission to others to do the same. Likewise, your impact, if you choose positivity, can be substantial. 

Kerry Gumm, Head of Future Workforce, at Principal Financial and another Gen Xer, points out that the term “generation X” was actually coined in the 1950s, decades before the first Gen X babies arrived. “While some may say that is further evidence that we are the ‘forgotten generation,’ I prefer to think of it as an opportunity to shape the future of ourselves, our organizations and the broader communities in which we live.”

She asserts, “Although we are sandwiched between two massive generations, we are, in fact, the consummate bridge: the connective tissue between pre-digital and post-digital; liberal and neoconservative political swings; material abundance and economic hardship. We can choose to use our unique ability to bring the collective together in order to drive meaningful change.”

As you make your choice, if you feel like you are getting squeezed by scarcity and constraints, grab a copy of the Zanders’ book, The Art of Possibility. From them, you can learn practices that can take you into what they call a “universe of possibility” where you can revel in abundance and help others occupy that space as well. 

In short, to give your career a boost and help your company thrive in the next decade, my recommendation is to build your digital chops, be intentional about learning from other generations, and make space for optimism. If you do so, maybe you’ll be saying, “Okay, Boomer” – and mean it!

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Want to hear more from Kerry and John as they reflect on the role of Generation X in the workplace? These Gen Xers are part of the First Movers Fellowship Program for corporate social intrapreneurs at the Aspen Institute. If you’d like to join this free webinar, you can register here.

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Nancy McGaw founded the Aspen First Movers Fellowship Program, an innovation lab for corporate social intrapreneurs, launched in 2009 by the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program. She also directs the Aspen Leaders Forum, an invitation-only, cross-industry community of senior corporate social responsibility and sustainability strategists working at the leading edge of practice. Leaders in both of these communities are creating products, services, business models and management practices and policies that deliver financial value for their companies and make the world a better place.