Experience is the best teacher?  Age begets wisdom?  How about it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks…  Many people equate leadership with experience, or maybe it is more true to say we trust leaders with more experience.  Translate that, we trust leaders that are older.  We somehow get anxious when we hear about the 26 year old CEO of that new start up that is doing great.  We secretly wonder how long it will be till they make some major blunder that leads to disaster.   In the end, we seem to value more the experience of the elders, over the clean eye of the youth.

This may have been true decades ago, but in our current world, where new technology tools seem to be invented hourly, a wise leader must begin to look for advice to the younger crowd.  Never before in history have we had such a divergence in the experiences between generations.   Never before have we had to wrestle with how they differ in their use of tools (technology.)  Once upon a time, it made sense to create a Board of Directors and fill it with people that had a few decades of experience on them.  Now even venerable firms like Delloitte are writing white papers suggesting Boards have a specific technology section on the agenda.  That young IT hot shots be held accountable at these very same Board meetings.  In order to truly have the best shot at success in today’s world, we need some youthful advice.

It is time to stop believing that age equates to value in an organization.  The viewpoint of the young now contains nuggets that will dramatically improve the operation of many businesses – if we listen.  Sure, they may be spoiled, coddled, and disrespectful of their elders at times.  Yes, they sneer behind our backs because we do not know how to load our own wireless drivers, and then comment to each other about how amazed they are that we got to where we are now.  But they have incredible value.  They have a clean eye, and when approached the right way, they can offer powerful insights.  So the next time you want sage advice, see a 22 year old…

Written By Scott Klososky. Scott@giantpartners.biz, www.klososky.com