X-generation... forgotten generation?

I attended this week very interesting event. It was about the future of management. One company had done an interesting research in Finland how we manage & lead companies today and what is the future of management & leadership as defined by managers who responded.

Rather quickly discussion led to age of people - How Y-generation is so different than we are and we cannot continue manage as we do today. Then I tried to ask: Who are in this case "we"? Majority of the audience were round 50+ and "we" was defined accordingly. I tried to highlight that I am not "we" when I am not 50+ but born in -71 so I am not either "those young ones". Majority of audience paid no interest. I didn't belong to the game of "we" against "them". We X-generation are forgotten generation... or are we?

Majority of the insights from the research I agree but not as the future but as is and how it should be. Things like "people need to have personal meaning to their work" and "they need to share company's vision and values also and especially on personal level" - Of course it should be so and it is and have been for years at least how I have managed and led my people. How about "people should not be managed from the distance but work with them as one of them" or "a manager should energize people around you". Of course you work and lead that way (...not necessarily in countries with very hierarchical cultures and structures) if you are from X-generation.

I started my career life in mid 90's and therefore have learnt the values and practices of industrial generations. Factories and all the tangible assets were the most important thing company had and as a last sentence "last but not least important" was written in the slide "people are our most important asset". No one really paid attention to this because factories or power plants are the key to success - so we were told. Actually in the same company during those days (the sales and marketing side) we created a vision leadership model and even wrote an internally published book about it. Naturally majority in the company thought that as nonsense and years later I have heard comments that "you haven't done those things because too early and in a wrong company, don't just buy it". Anyway that was in 1998 and I took advise back then and added vision leadership etc. to my own mgmt. style.

I will not talk anything about Y-generation - there is already too much stuff out there. My point is that we from X-generation know and understand "older generations" but we also know and understand Y-generation without the "we" against "them" setting. This future of management is already here and  natural part of our styles of management... maybe excluding the guys from pulp & paper and other heavy assets industries, sorry guys.

I know this all does not apply in some or even many regions in larger scale (lived in Asia for years) but I noticed as well that these "future of management" ideas worked very well in sub-cultures in those particular countries.

So please do not forget us. If you do... anyway we will have the power (= majority of senior roles) after a few years. Time is working for future of management.