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OI Partners - E.K. Ward and Associates
April 2004 Newsletter
Welcome to the first monthly OI Partners e-Newsletter!
As the world's largest career consulting partnership, we will endeavor
to bring to you concise, hot topics in human resources to help you
manage your business more efficiently. Just as OI Partners has global
reach through more than 170 offices including the local touch
of your area's OI Partner firm, the articles and subjects covered will
have relevance for both large, multi-national corporations and small,
family-owned businesses.
Our first topic is the "Aging Workforce." We are proud that
one of our partners, Dr. Jean Walker, is a nationally recognized
authority on the subject, having authored a book and written many
published articles. We hope you enjoy this issue and all those that
follow in the months to come.
Bill Montgomery
Chairman, OI Partners, Inc.
To learn more about OI Partners, please click
here.
Please click on
the links below to read the complete articles.
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Re-Thinking Life
Stages
Life used to be much simpler. It was divided very conveniently into
three segments: preparation for life (education, training, physical
development, socialization); adult life ("real" life: work,
responsibility, family); and retirement (rest and leisure). Then,
something happened. People started living longer and better. They had
more energy, better health, greater resources. At the same time,
economic realities and global competition threw a monkey wrench into
expectations of lifelong employment, and dreams of a golden handshake
and sunset years spent on the golf course faded away. The reality is
that career transition in mid-life is occurring with increasing
frequency.
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Advantages of
Hiring Older Workers
"Get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the
bus) and then figure out where to drive it." - Jim Collins, Good
to Great. Why should you hire older workers? Let me give you some
reasons. OI Partners conducted a series of surveys this last year on
the top advantages of hiring people over age 50. They interviewed
career management consultants in our nearly 200 offices worldwide,
midlife clients in these offices and HR Professionals at the annual
SHRM conference. Here are some of the results. Mature employees, when
placed in positions that take advantage of their enormous depth and
breadth of experience, can be the company's most valuable assets. To
fail to take advantage of this potential is foolhardy at best and
self-destructive at worst.
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What I Wish I Had
Known at 35!
"Human society has always been a blending of energy and
wisdom...alas! More often too much of the first, too little of the
latter. The young provide the energy to get things done, but it takes
the wisdom of more experienced heads to know how best to use that
energy." - Theodore Roszak, The
Longevity Revolution. When I ask senior managers at midlife what they
know now that they wish they had known at 35, I hear: 1. You need to
understand the politics of a situation; 2. I'd rely more on the group
intelligence and talent; 3. My ego got in the way; I was terrified of
being wrong 4. There is rarely one right answer 5. Listen more;
question more.
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Take a Risk: Hire
the Non-Conformists!
Tom Peters, in his book, Re-imagine, says, "The absence of a
bias for action remains the biggest problem for large organizations.
They simply think too much. Plan too much. Meet too much. And
accomplish too little." He says his favorite Power Point slide
is, "Reward Excellent Failures; Punish Mediocre Successes."
The people who change the world (and your company!) are the ones who
dare to take chances. In my view, NOT taking risks, not caring enough
to step off the treadmill and think, not constantly questioning how
things could be better, more efficient, indeed more fun, should be
grounds for firing. There is no courage in consensus. We don't need
dedicated conformists; we can't afford people who are too complacent
or too comfortable.
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The Generational
Management Challenge
How do you manage the Elders, Boomers, and Generation Xers? How do you retain the best and the
brightest? How do you motivate them? How do you get them to get
along? The questions are clear; the answers not so obvious, unless
you seriously consider the environment in which they were raised. The
Elders were depression children. They never forget "doing
without" and "waste not, want not." The Boomers came
into a world created by the Elders, a world they naturally assumed
was their birthright to enjoy, full of opportunity for riches and
personal growth. Generation X is the obvious legacy of over-achieving
parents and siblings. The challenge for managers is to understand
history and to create a workplace that honors and respects
generational differences. One plan for all will no longer work.
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