Leaders of the Future will be Young

This is what our co-founder Simon North believes. Last month he wrote an article for Edge Magazine - a magazine distributed by the Institute of Leadership and Management. In it, he looks at where we are heading, what is happening around us and what was predicted and is coming to life by Charles Handy...

"In an interview in 2009, Charles Handy, who has long predicted the changing shape of businesses and the workplace, stated that our leaders in the future would be younger (in his view the core enterprise would be led by individuals under the age of 40). His rationale may be predicated on the need to understand technology and the impact of it. Everything moves faster and you need to be fit enough physiologically to maintain that momentum. As the years roll on and you naturally slow down, leaders over 40 years will become less likely to hold their positions for long. Organisations with a smaller core team will continue to use widely the experience of wise individuals who can provide them with specialist know-how. McKinsey Quarterly’s report in the 1990s on the war for talent identified that there would be a significant shift as baby boomers left the workplace and their positions were taken up by generations X and Y. This war for talent has been getting hotter year by year since the report was published and one impact is that leaders will be taking on responsibility at a younger age. Companies recognising the war for talent will be minded to give these younger people their head and provide them with leadership opportunities earlier than in previous generations, if only to ensure that they stay in the organisation."

Read the full "Future Leaders are Young" article by clicking here.