Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: How Millennials Can Honor Our Predecessors

As a millennial leader, I feel profoundly grateful to those who blazed a trail before me. While our generation brings new skills and values to the table, we must acknowledge we did not get here alone. We stand on the shoulders of visionary giants.

The Baby Boomers I meet built many of the companies and structures that enabled millennials to step into key roles early on. Generation X managers paved the way with new thinking on work-life balance and flexibility years before these were mainstream.

Do some old-guard mentalities still permeate corner offices today? Absolutely. But I believe many veteran leaders are opening their minds to our innovative ways of working and managing.?

Just as we learn technical skills from these wise teachers of industry, so too can we imbibe their hard-won leadership lessons.

Rather than wage generational warfare, I believe effective leaders must bring empathy and nuance to bridging any divide. Millennials should champion change assertively but also respectfully. And executives from older eras must acknowledge that certain shifts speak to a new social conscience, not merely youthful entitlement.

As stewards of the future, millennials and really generation x now hold the torch in reimagining sustainable business practices and humanistic work cultures. But we stand on strong foundations built by those before us. Our innovations are only possible thanks to the sacrifices and visions of the generations that built the ladder we now climb.

So while we reshape aspects of this system handed down to us, may we do so with honor, wisdom and gratitude to the giants on whose shoulders we now see farther. Our next chapter thus begins not with manifestos but by paying respect to the authors of the last.

With all the respect,

Brett C. Jansen