The Strategic Value of Mid-Career Professionals: Why 35–45-Year-Olds are Organizational Linchpins

In the corporate landscape, mid-career professionals, who are generally in the 35–45 age bracket, are strategically valuable.

There are indeed the organisational linchpins. Their presence and performance can really make or break an organisation.

But why? Why are they so important?

There are seven things that make them the pivot point for an organisation. Let me expand on these -

1. Experience Meets Vision?—?They have earned their dues with years of experience. They generally know what the organisational vision is. Their judgement is mature. This strategic mid-level management position requires many decisions day in and day out. So, they have their decision-making muscle generally trained to the point of maturity. They have industry knowledge, which makes them experienced enough to understand industry dynamics, historical trends and patterns, and they can anticipate the change that is coming soon enough. This age bracket they are in makes it uniquely positioned; as very young people can make brave and risky decisions, and very old people (maybe 50–60 years fella) can have their defence walls up all the time. But this middle-aged person can have a bit of both. This makes them a balancer who can make risky decisions but with some calculated defences around it. So they are a perfect blend of someone who can take balanced risks and still be the realiser of the organisational vision.
2. Organisational Knowledge and Mentorship?—?They are generally organisational process champions and know the company workflows inside out. They know and help build the standard practices. Because they are close to the ground action, they know the process inefficiencies. When grouped with like-minded people in the organisation, they can help close that inefficiency gap. They are also the right set of people who can be mentors to the younger workforce who have newly entered the corporate world. They can start working on the young guns from the get-go so that they learn the right things with knowledge transfer in the right way and can be nurtured into future leaders.
3. Collaboration and Communication?—?They have mostly developed their internal network to the point where cross-team collaboration becomes easier for them. They understand team dynamics, like the strengths and weaknesses of various team members, not just their teams but even sister teams. They know how to do conflict resolution and defuse a situation. For the younger workforce they can be the channel of communication from executives or senior management, as they can interpret the communication from above and pass it to the right people in the team. At times they can also be the filter of pressure for the younger workforce, as they generally get a good amount of work-related pressure from the Senior management as management entrusts them with bigger projects as they have built that trust with their experience and tenure.
4. Being the bridge?—?This set of people can be the bridge between the young and the old. They can adapt the tricks while working with young and old both and then bridge that gap. Making the youngsters understand the organisational vision and helping them break the ice in the corporate world. These people can adapt to the culture from both sides. From an organisational growth standpoint?—?they are strategically placed folks who can really understand the young workforce’s technology sharpness and then channel that energy into growth for the organisation. They can easily do it by providing youngsters support and putting them into the right digital transformation projects where they can thrive as per their skills. Generally, a new fella doesn’t know much about the change management process, so this middle-aged person who has been through the company and industry long enough and can easily bridge the gap by taking the young through the change management process and holding their hand (symbolically) while they get experienced into the process flows.
5. Professional maturity and stability?—?They have been through the corporate world for more than a decade at this point, they have career stability and maturity. They know how to balance out their personal and professional world. Their performance becomes predictable at this point, and they gain trust with their performance through various types of projects and work they have done for their organisation and in the industry. They know how to manage through the stressful parts of a project or manage conflict situations between team members. Some of them can thrive through crisis situations or firefights. Their judgement of situations or with people is a balanced one, which is based on years of experience and open-mindedness.
6. Network and industry connection?—?As they have been in the industry for at least a decade or more, so they have most likely been through some organisations at their point and hence have a network even outside the current organisation. Which is helpful for industry awareness, competition awareness and partnership opportunities. They are generally aware of the industry cycles and market opportunities, which can help the organisation be ahead of the competition. Their network can be the USP for them as a person and the organisation as an employer.

For an organisation, they are of really a strategic value. They can be the glue that keeps things together. A bridge between the juniors and seniors. Rightly placed to be Mentors. They can be the shock absorbers for the organisational vehicle. Organisations can have a long term benefit by filling up these mid-level positions with the right set of mid-aged people who have the right attitude and are filled with experience from the industry.

I would recommend any executive leader to look at this layer of their organisation and leverage it to the benefit of the organisation. By first finding the right set of people for these positions and then giving them some important smaller projects to build trust and then eventually entrusting them with larger critical projects or jobs. Setting processes and systems for them to be the mentors for the young workforce. They are going to shine and be the linchpins your organisation needs.