Summer 2007
Commentary
What's Next For Baby Boom-Age Leaders?
by Helen S. Kim and Frances Kunreuther
This article is the "Recommendations" section reprinted with permission from What's Next? Baby Boom-Age Leaders in Social Change Nonprofits from the Building Movement Project's Generation Series, supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in conjunction with the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, 2007.
The Baby Boom generation is distinguished by its involvement and leadership in many of the key movements that mark U.S. history, including the Civil Rights, anti-war, and women's movements. They have also built an important movement infrastructure by founding and developing successful nonprofit organizations — both large and small — through the 1970s, '80s and '90s. Their rich experience as activists and organization builders is a valuable asset to the next generation of leaders.
Three major questions loom for these Baby Boom-generation leaders, the nonprofit organizations they founded and the movement as a whole:
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What resources are needed to help the Baby Boom-generation leaders deal with the financial challenges of the next phase of their lives?
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What are the best ways to transfer the knowledge and experience of the Baby Boom-generation of leaders to a new generation of leadership in their organizations?
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How can the older generation leaders (who want to) contribute their social change contributions after they leave their positions as executive directors and organizational leaders?
At the moment, Baby Boom-generation leaders have been facing all of these questions in an isolated and individual way. Much more needs to be done to address these concerns from a structural perspective.
Based on our conversations with these leaders, as well as drawing from our past conversations with younger social change leaders, we present four recommendations that we believe can be instrumental in assisting the Baby Boom-generation leaders to prepare for their life and work transitions as well as bring the younger and older leaders closer together to work for social change in the future.
Recommendation #1:
Create Collective Resources and Options for the Baby Boom Generation's Leadership and Life Transition Planning
There is a clear need to address the baby boom-generation leaders' anxiety about their professional and life transitions. Many have major concerns about the financial viability of leaving their current job. There is also a need for emotional support as older leaders leave jobs that have become closely linked to their identity. For many older leaders, their job and their movement work have become their calling. Others talked about needing time to think about their leadership and life transition in a more systematic way, particularly in collaboration with their peers.
Actions:
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Create opportunities through convenings, trainings and dialogues for Baby Boom-generation leaders to come together to explore how to make their transition out of leadership positions. Findings from these discussions should be documented and shared widely with colleagues and funders.
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Provide financial literacy training and planning and explore collective solutions to the need for long-term financial viability, such as pensions and joint health care ventures.
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Work with boards and funders to continue support for individual transitions at specific organizations, such as succession planning.
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Develop pathways for older leaders as they leave their jobs to help with their leadership and life transitions, including emotional and spiritual support.
Recommendation #2:
Identify and Develop Opportunities for Baby-Boom Generation Leaders to Continue Their Contributions
Most Baby Boomers will not stay in their current work positions forever. However, because people are living longer and healthier, and because many older leaders want to continue to make a contribution, they need to think seriously about the next phase of their careers. Increasingly, there is more public attention focused on how Baby Boom-age leaders can stay engaged civically. However, there have only been a few convenings of older social change leaders to discuss their futures and how they see the next phase of their professional lives.
Actions:
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Convene meetings of Baby Boom leaders to think creatively about their future roles in social change activities, organizations and movements, how those roles will change, and what venues exist or could be developed for their continued improvement.
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Collect information from these convenings and existing resources to produce a guide that recommends opportunities for Baby Boom leaders who leave their positions, such as taking on interim executive director positions, teaching new leaders, convening movement building strategy sessions, or consulting on a variety of issues related to social change. This guide should also include the role of boards and funders in this process.
Recommendation #3:
Promote Cross-Generational Dialogue and Learning to Facilitate Information Transfer and Share Experience
Baby boom-generation leaders are thinking about leadership transition and how to transfer what they know to young leaders. They want to learn what young leaders think about social change and movement-building as well as to pass on their successes and mistakes.
Because Baby Boom-generation leaders have had mixed results to date in transferring their knowledge and experience to the next generation, they may need new skills to communicate and engage with younger leaders effectively. Identifying facilitators or "bridge builders" for this process among both older and younger leaders also may be necessary to promote learning across generations.
Actions:
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Identify and promote existing spaces, activities, and social networks where learning and sharing across generations can be implemented intentionally.
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Develop and provide training on how Baby Boom-generation leaders can pass on their knowledge and effectively communicate and engage younger leaders within and/or outside of their own organizations.
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Pay particular attention to how race, gender, class and culture can support intergenerational dialogue and sharing.
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Bring Baby Boomers and younger leaders together to envision the future of progressive social change, and to think creatively about building organizations and networks to support movement-building.
Recommendation #4:
Explore Different Models of Organizations Leadership that Promote Mutual Learning and Shared Leadership
Baby boom-generation leaders have made significant contributions to social movements by founding and guiding the growth of many successful nonprofit organizations. These organizations helped to safeguard some of the successes of the earlier movements.
However, the growth in size of the organizations and the sector — and its response to external circumstances — were sometimes accompanied by bureaucratization. In addition, many older executive directors realize that they have created untenable job responsibilities for themselves, making the prospect of hiring their successors more challenging.
For Baby Boomers to remain vital and for the next generations to step up their leadership role in social change, we need to think more strategically together about the future of the movement. Just as it was important that Baby Boomers had an opportunity to build organizations that reflected their politics and reality, it is important that they now encourage younger leaders to explore different structures that best serve the present and future needs of the movement. One leader commented, “Our institutions have to be different to be able to resonate with younger people.”
Actions:
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Examine ways to make current executive director jobs more sustainable for the next generation.
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Look for models of shared organizational leadership that continue to utilize the Baby Boom-generation while promoting increasing leadership opportunities for the younger generation.
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Encourage Baby Boom-generation leaders to lend support for younger leaders' experimentation in organization and movement-building. Younger leaders need space to discuss what motivates and animates them to build the future movement, in partnership with older generation leaders.
About the authors:
Helen S. Kim is an independent consultant, providing consulting and training assistance to community-based organizations. Frances Kunreuther is the director of the Building Movement Project, which was founded at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University.
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