Baby Boomers - 5 Keys to Remaining Competitive Managers

Born between the years 1946 and 1964 are the elite group of baby boomer's. Globally 76,000,000 people are included, and the US consists of 27% of this figure. A survey by MetLife has shown that 32 million baby boomers are about fifty years old and have a life expectancy of 87.4 years and that for women is 90.3 years. So with these statistics as evidence, there are a number of challenges that these baby boomers have to face. One of them is to stay ahead of the race in a competitive work environment. These baby boomers have a fear that at a point they will be replaced by the young blood with a fraction of the experience that these boomers carry.

Dr. Hardcastle, who has studied the age-related employment trends says, "It's no longer a matter of youth versus experience, it is a matter of who can take the most stress." Older managers have left organizations when the pressure became great, retiring unwillingly and with feelings of bitterness since their years of loyalty and hard work had been abandoned. At the same time, many companies have faced lower productivity, due to poor human relation skills of young, inexperienced managers.

So in order that baby boomers stay ahead and remain competitive managers, some of these points need to be worked upon.

* Baby boomers need to be up to date with technology, changes in business strategies etc. The importance is in knowing as much the younger competitors know if not more than them. Even if the information is being exchanged with a younger manager, some successful older mangers have done this a lot and both have benefited in this way. Participating in workshops and conferences help in building networks, and not only that but it also improves the level of proficiency.

* Performance is what counts in an organization, and assuming the organization loyalty is like yours, is your biggest downfall. Foreseeing that the management is looking at younger employees then a good idea would be to develop a different career path or moonlighting is another good option. A study in Palm Springs, California on retired professionals has shown that retirement without work is quite boring and in order to make their work interesting they selected a change in career paths.

* It is best to remain alert about any change in work area; look out for the number one in your process or office and try to keep up with him and don't let him outdo you. Many have fallen to this mistake since it can be quite stressful. Giving up without fight affects the self-esteem and you could lose the job as well since you have been wallowing in defeat.

* Avoid arrogance in the workplace, do your job well since it can be difficult to remove an employee who is doing exceptionally well. An example of this was Charles Schnider who received more than a few awards from his company, Air Canada, for exceptional performance he said "My productivity was half again as much as my nearest competitor, the boss was looking at the long run and guessed that a guy [at age 55] would lose his edge, sooner or later. He replaced me with a much younger person so we're all at risk no matter how good we are!" but he learned from this that everyone is dispensable and don't take job security for granted.

* Be a diplomat at work, don't annoy and be polite and nice with everybody, you could benefit from anyone. Its also best to keep track of rumors that have been going around, for example Dave Morland, was told by a secretary that his boss said something nonconstructive about his work and so he was able to work harder and improve his performance. After this incident he realized the importance of knowing what is going around and said "It saved my job and it taught me the value of having advance information."

© 2008 Anna D. Banks, GCDF

Anna D. Banks, a passionate advocate for baby boomers in exploring their priorities, planning and setting goals for the next stage of their lives. Assisting her clients to attract and build a professional and personal life consistent with their values is not just a goal of Anna's, it's her passion. Her diverse work experience in business, education and financial services enables her to help the diverse population of baby-boomers with their life, career, and personal finance coaching needs. Anna is currently Adjunct Faculty at Essex County College, where she teaches Career Development & Management.

Author's Note:

Do you have any questions about career development or lifestyle changes for Baby Boomers, which you think others, like you, would want to know the answers? Please place a post on http://www.annabanks.com or email your questions to me at Anna@AnnaBanks.com.