The Individual Man

By the year 2012 retiring baby boomers will have vacated more than 165 million jobs in the marketplace, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Inevitably, many companies will be forced to replace proven managers with generations X and Y's rising stars. Unfortunately, these generations don't provide a big enough pool from which to replace these corporate leaders. “Companies that are sitting back thinking that leaders will arrive are wrong,” says Susan Williams, executive editor of Wiley's Jossey-Bass imprint. “Companies have to cultivate younger leaders and spot them early on.” Because of this imminent dilemma, publishers have begun to acquire business management titles for and about a new generation of leaders.

Many publishers believe that the same old Jack Welch—style books will no longer be sufficient, despite some protests by those in the industry. One publisher said off the record that there are hardly ever any new ideas in management publishing, and that publishers take old information and spin it with new terminology so that it appears fresh. The majority of publishers, however, agree that the boomers currently occupying leadership roles approach the workplace a little differently than generations X and Y, which will require new management concepts in their literature.

Perhaps the most obvious disparity between younger up-and-coming leaders and their forebears is represented by how their companies use technology. Most people know the story of Mark Zuckerman, the 23-year-old creator of Facebook, who took an initial investment of $500,000 and turned it into the Web-based networking company he later refused to sell for a rumored $2 billion. Though Zuckerman happens to be his generation's most fortunate entrepreneur, he is far from the only young Internet pioneer. “Younger people have grown up with computers and networks in a way that older people haven't,” says Nicholas Brealey copublisher Chuck Dresner, whose Future Files: The 5 Trends That Will Shape the Next 50 Years by Richard Watson comes out in November. “The younger generation built Web 2.0,” he says.

This advanced technology carries with it a large burden of responsibility. The era of the 40-hour work week is over; executives are tethered to their Blackberries 24/7. As Palace Press v-p Brenda Knight explains, “Generation Y is the first generation where the office is your world. It is the café, the house, the car.” Because their work follows them out of the office, managers now tailor their companies to the types of lives they wish to lead.

“People really do care these days,” says Business Plus executive editor Rick Wolff. “They worry about where they are going to spend their days, who they are going to work for and how they are going to learn.” The bottom line is no longer the most important measure of a company's success. Sam Wyly, author of 1,000 Dollars & an Idea: Entrepreneur to Billionaire (Newmarket Press, Sept.), believes that the new generation of leaders is much more interested in creative work. “Young folks today have value systems. A lot of them have more environmentally friendly business goals. They want to be able to make a decent living while making the world a better place.” (See sidebar, p. 26.)

Another way in which young managers are changing the workplace is in their relationships with employees. Lori Cates-Hand, Jist Publishing's product line manager, views younger leaders as having “emotional intelligence.” She believes that today's effective leaders must alter the old model: “The world has changed and management should change too.” The publisher's 30-Minute Resume Makeover by Louise Kursmark (July) targets recent college grads hoping to establish themselves as leaders.

Today's young workers are much more likely to leave a job that isn't offering the right opportunities or environments. Whereas once upon a time, workers believed they had to pay their dues in order to earn management's respect, according to Williams at Jossey-Bass, “This generation expects respect to be communicated through policies that 10—15 years ago were thought of as innovative. Now they're just assumed.” This instantaneous anticipation of respect may be why—according to Rhonda Abrams, founder and CEO of the Planning Shop in Palo Alto, Calif.—six million people started new businesses last year, many of whom had no prior business experience.

New Books for Young Leaders

The season's forthcoming management titles suit the new breed of boss. Much in the same way that young leaders are customizing their companies to fit their lifestyles and values, publishers are releasing books that cater to the changing corporate landscape. “We live in a customized world now,” says Barbara Henricks, president of Cave Henricks Communications. “Everything we buy is customized. You put what you want on your iPod. You can build your own Converse sneaker.” One title that Henricks represents is Stall Points: Most Companies Stop Growing—Yours Doesn't Have To (Yale Univ. Press, May), which examines history's unsuccessful management strategies. Though Knight at Palace Press says that young people aren't as interested in learning from the past as their predecessors, Stall Points may well be the resource for learning from past mistakes.

Although it might be argued that ignoring the past is a bit self-centered, ego and individualism, and a sense that improvements must be made, are what drive the current wave of new management titles. “There's been disappointment in the waning current generation of leaders,” says Dresner at Nicholas Brealey. “People are looking for something new [in management publishing]. Personal character may just be what they are looking for.”

He's right. Newer books are focusing on the leader as a whole person rather than a set of skills or techniques, says Berrett-Koehler publisher Steve Piersanti. “People are revolting against the idea of the corporate man. We should bring our whole selves to work. That's what leadership is about.” This philosophy is what prompted B-K's second edition of Leadership from the Inside Out: Becoming a Leader for Life by Kevin Cashman (Sept.).

“Americans have the idea that one person can influence something larger than themselves,” says Williams of Jossey-Bass. “There is a lot behind the success of leadership books that target the sense of individuality that is part of the fabric of this country. Young people see themselves as more than a cog in a machine; you join a company and you mold this company.” Jossey-Bass is set to publish The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation is Shaking Up the Workplace by Wall Street Journal writer Ron Alsop (Oct.), which deals directly with young leaders and their sense of individuality, high needs and expectations.

Generation Y views the workplace as something that needs to fit their lives and not vice versa. The One-Life Solution: Reclaim Your Personal Life While Achieving Greater Professional Success by Henry Cloud (Collins Business, Aug.) teaches readers to negotiate how much of their personality should be present at the workplace.

Though most publishers agree that Jack Welch (“Face reality as it is, not as you wish it to be”) is out and a Mark Zuckerman—like idealism is in, the concept of modernizing business and management ethos isn't exactly new. According to Knight of Palace Press, changes in business management started drastically accelerating 12 years ago. “Since then it has sped up every five years. From now on it'll probably accelerate every two and a half years.” This will probably delight those business management publishers looking for new and exciting ideas, but Knight also warns, “I just don't know how much change human beings can take.” Cates-Hand at Jist Publishing has a more optimistic view of the current hastening of industry transformation. “I think it is too soon to tell whether Generation Y will be effective. But I think their presence is refreshing.”