A MAJOR MIND SHIFT?

Every generation has had its share of complaints about the preceding and following generations. It’s like a rite of passage. There’s a joke that goes something like this:

“As a teenager, I realized that my parents were going senile. When I reached the age of 25, I realized that they were a lot wiser than I’d thought. Now my kids seem to think I’m senile.”

And, of course, Baby Boomers often bemoan the younger generations’ lack of qualities they consider important. Their obsession with things like social media. Their irresponsibility. Nonetheless, I think that we all have more in common than we may have realized.?

What does this all have to do with business and leadership?

I read an article?in which the author said that Gen Z, or ‘Zoomers’ felt they had “better skills for pursuing entrepreneurship than their parents' generation," and the same number said their generation was "primed to be the most entrepreneurial in history.”

While that’s great to hear, I had to chuckle about their exuberant confidence and optimistic attitude. Actually, this entrepreneurial spirit has been alive and well throughout all generations to one degree or another. It’s human nature. We are creators. We are innovators. We are optimists and our nature is to want to make things better.?

In fact, before the industrial revolution, people were largely self-employed. They had, what we call today, ‘cottage industries’ and were usually solopreneurs, or ran family businesses serving their local communities. There weren’t big factories, or industries employing thousands, or tens of thousands. There were some mills, mines, shipbuilding and the like that were the ‘big’ employers of the day. But even those were really small compared to what we have today. And careers were not ‘for life’ with a gold watch ‘thank you' on retirement.

Why is entrepreneurship so important today?

Granted, the Baby Boomers and their parents’ expectation of a ‘life-long career’ with a single employer hasn’t been ‘a thing’ for quite some time. In reality, anyone over 50 years old - is facing incredible bias when it comes to employment prospects. When you think about it, the current focus on combating biases is interesting. We have biases against those who are ‘too young’, ‘too old’, ‘too different’, ‘too educated’, ‘too uneducated’, ‘too introverted’ and on it goes. My favorite ‘shake my head’ job advertisement is for an entry-level position for someone with 5 or more years of experience in the industry and a degree and an MBA….?

What can all these people, who probably make up a big portion of the potential workforce do to earn a living, other than become an entrepreneur?

Thankfully, the upside of the past few years chaos is that it has opened up avenues for people to work in ways that were not possible previously. Or, I should say, were not permitted by the majority of employers, previously. And this has benefited all those people who are ‘too’ whatever to land a job by giving them the ability to job-craft for themselves, or, avoid the previous hiring biases. With technologies such as Optevo facilitating the process, there are now just as many benefits for employers as for employees.

Why employers and leaders need to take note:

If we are interested in getting the job done and done well… if we are committed to creating a culture of thriving for employees… if we are determined that our organizations are going to move beyond surviving to thriving and thriving long-term… then this trend of #entrepreneurship and #RemoteWorking could be just the catalyst needed to achieve our goals.

When we remove the things that disqualify many skilled, talented and experienced people from working with us, we open up a whole new reservoir of possibilities.?

We can focus on what really counts. Things such as potential, entrepreneurial mindset, capacity for innovation, ability to make learning-forward mistakes, to problem-solve. The depth of character to be a partner in our vision, rather than a ‘worker drone’.?With that kind of person, we can work together for a mutually beneficial purpose.?

Who cares if the person is young, old, neurodiverse, an introvert, extrovert, experienced, not experienced, or whatever other thing that prevents them from entering or remaining in the traditional corporate workforce, if they have the capacity and potential to shine? This is the kind of dynamic that will make us better leaders and better human beings. Not to mention a more productive, more profitable and more human-centric organization.

What do you think?

#GenZ #UnconciousBias