Management Bytes

Aren’t we all living in the age of super-achievers?

Few weeks ago, Justin Trudeau visited India. Keep aside the success of that trip(that would be another topic), but how many of you know his age? He is only 46!  Now, Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, is visiting India. He is only 40 yr old! (By the way, youngest president (head of state) in the world is Vanessa D’Ambrosio. She is 30 & leads San Marino in Europe. Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz (31) is second youngest!)

Looks like heads-of-states are competing with the start-up-founders! Isn’t it?

When it comes to Forbes list, Jeff Bezos is the richest billionaire (& first one to amass $100 Billion Net worth!) & he is only 54! Mark Zuckerberg (yes, the one who came up with Facebook & the world changed forever) is #5 richest individual & he is only 33!

Closer home, we have the founders of PayTM, Flipkart (& many more) vying the Billionaire tag & they’re in early 30’s!

So now let me ask you a question.

How do you feel if your manager is younger than you?? (And to complicate this further, … what if it is she & younger than you???)

I have seen some of my friends (mostly from engineering industry) getting extremely uncomfortable when the immediate manager is younger than them. Some have taken the extreme step.. of resigning!

WHY?

Look at the examples I shared at the start of this article.  What would be the older colleagues (in cabinet / in organizations) could be feeling? And I don’t think there would be any jealousy or rancor! Yes, because the said person had fantastic capabilities, s/he is there in that place & you need to accept it, appreciate it / reconcile with it & work without enmity!  Closer home, many felt that Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi, Yashwant Sinha were betrayed but look at how Modi almost single-handedly got the landslide win for BJP in 2014! Look at the Team-Modi’s performance in last four years! Haven’t they delivered? Or, look at Dhoni, the super-successful captain-cool! How sportingly he has accepted Virat as the captain?

Ergo, it’s high time we shed the ego!

Pronto!!

😊