Retirement Planning Baby Boomer Years Executive Leadership During Change: How will organizations manage the leadership change as Baby Boomer executives retire?

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The corporate world is about to be hit by a generational transition never before seen in history. The Baby Boomer generation — roughly 76 million strong — will start to retire from the workplace over the next five years. Taking their place at the helm of private and public organizations will be Gen X'ers, many of whom have not been equipped with the leadership skills needed to assume the responsibility being passed to them. This creates a critical issue that organizations will need to deal with. Deborah Gilburg, Principal at the Gilburg Leadership Institute, offers her perspective.

Q: What does a baby boomer executive/manager look like?

Gilburg: Baby boomers are in charge of most organizations today. They are roughly between the ages of 46 and 621. This group includes most top executives, leaders, and politicians, as well as the upper level management tier in most organizations.

Boomer leaders are vision, mission, principle and values focused — sometimes to the point of being unwilling to move ahead without a highly-principled course of action in place. They like networking and connections. As transformers, they seek to reorganize, redefine or overhaul their organizations.