Forget the GPS: Navigating Life and Leading Others Without a Perfect Map

For those of us over 50, we have lived through dramatic shifts in technology, diversity, culture, and communication. During our lifetime, our life experiences span from rotary dialed & push buttoned phones to smartphones, from typewriters to tablets. It’s been a world where face-to-face communication (yes, it’s another a meeting) was a must, to now where emails, texts, video chats, and emojis suffice. And as seasoned leaders, we stand at a unique crossroads. We've witnessed the world shift dramatically, to a time where technology and analytics can drive much of our decision-making, even down to a critical decision to run a play by a coach.

In an illuminating conversation with my daughter, a Gen Xer, we shared how life is NOT like a GPS system. Along the way, you learn that despite your best efforts to plan out a course to follow, it seems life doesn’t follow a straight line or provide turn-by-turn directions like a GPS. It is also an essential topic that as a wise, seasoned Boomer, I must write a blog post about it, reflecting on my work and new role as “Big Mama” – the mentor and leadership coach. To share this message with the generations following me, especially Gen X and to those Millennials (Gen Y), closely on their heels to lead next, as both generations are jockeying to assume senior leadership roles, and meanwhile Gen Z, is emerging into adulthood. They are watching your lead. Another generational collision that you better figure out how to navigate.

Gen X: The Sandwich Generation. Independent, Latch-key Leaders

 You grew up learning to be self-reliant and independent, traits born out of necessity – dubbed the “latch key” generation for a reason. Many came home after school and made their own snacks, supervised younger siblings, and figured out homework without parental oversight. This resourcefulness has made you adaptive problem-solvers who aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and dive in – doing it ALONE. However, one of the critical things we, as older leaders, need to remind them of: the value and the importance of communication and community—especially the kind that builds trust and understanding. Ask for help and support that you need from others, setting clear expectations. Hold others accountable.

Self-sufficiency is no doubt a strength, but effective leadership requires collaboration, empathy, and transparency. Gen X leaders need to balance their independent character traits with the ability to connect deeply with their teams, peers, and stakeholders. This also applies in personal life, particularly if you are “sandwiched” between caring for aging parents while still raising children. We must remind Gen X that strong leadership doesn’t just mean solving problems independently in a “silo” or vacuum; it’s about ensuring that others are engaged, informed, and empowered to contribute. Building this bridge of communication and dismantling the silos, will be essential as they navigate workplaces, and even help address in caretaking needs at home, that as a member of the new sandwich generation, both work and home spaces demand collaboration across generations and even diverse perspectives.

Millennials: GPS systems fail and so will you along your path.

You discover that parents and other adults may have tried to hide this inevitable truth that failure is a part of life. Efforts to build a generation’s self-esteem by protecting, distracting, or “hovering” e.g. the helicopter parent. There is no manual to life or “adulting”. Just as GPS systems sometimes fail, that lead us down dead ends or wrong turns, the path to success in life and in leadership is often winding and unpredictable. There are moments when answers aren’t immediate, decisions require judgment calls, and there is no app (that I know of) to guide you through the emotional complexities, the nuances, or those “gray areas” of a difficult conversation or a leadership challenge. Life has gray areas, and embracing uncertainty is a vital, and often times a murky, part of growth – that lesson of uncertainty can sometimes bring on other physical and/or emotional consequences, even stubborn gray hairs that begin to appear. And to top it off, you learn that the older you get, you realize all that you don’t know… Do you still live by Hakuna Mata?

What Gen Z Needs to Know.

Gen Z, in contrast, has grown up with technology that offers instant feedback and clear directions—literally and figuratively. Many young people today are used to having all the answers at their fingertips and lack patience when at times, having to wait longer than 24 hours for a response or an order they placed. From all kinds of apps that track their every move, that life has been, in some ways, like following a GPS too—straightforward, concrete, and certain. Yet, life is not always so predictable. And as the old folks used to say about the Boomers, then as aging Boomers, we bemoaned about Gen X and Millennials generations, about this young, 20-something age, “they think they know everything anyway…”

I truly appreciate Gen Z’s tech-savviness - invaluable skills. In fact, they are essential in this rapidly changing world. However, from my own personal intergenerational experience with my grandson, we must show them how to balance their reliance on data and digital tools with the resilience, adaptability, vulnerability, and intuition that come from experiencing the ebbs and flow of life and overcoming life’s inevitable detours. Many in this next generation of leaders are already stressed out. An article in Forbes magazine takes a look at this problem.

Gray areas of life, that’s where wisdom resides.

Leave room for the gray. Unlike your GPS, life won’t always offer you a clear route. While it’s tempting to believe you can map out your future with certainty, life’s detours and unexpected turns often make for the most valuable experiences. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve repeated those words to the generations following me, in my nuanced styles, a combination of Oakland/southern/Black mama tone that only I can do. If you know me, you know what that means.

When the path isn’t clear, that’s often when you find your true direction. And if you missed last week’s post, I encourage you to continue to your cultivate curiosity over certainty (a lesson you learned in kindergarten), to be open to the unescapable fact that plans can and will change – at any age, and at any time. Learn to embrace the mystery.

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Weekly wisdom, in their own words:

“There's beauty in the unknown and beauty in what may be, beauty in the promises of tomorrow, and beauty in all we cannot yet see.”

― Erin Forbes (1999 -)