Re:Gen X: A World-Historic Moment For Kamala, Keir & All Gen X
There are four demarcated generations living as adults in our societies and working in our organizations, each with different values, strengths, and needs.
Much has been said about the Baby Boomers, Millennials, and Gen Z. Very little, vanishingly little, has been said about Gen X, the generation I and many of my clients coming for transformational leadership development are part of.
I have long placed my hope in Gen X for humanity surviving the Four Horsemen of the Anthropocene Apocalypse (as I call them in my book Now Lead the Change): climate change (food and water systems collapse, biodiversity loss, sea levels rising, pollution), inequality (cost of living, stagflation, casino capitalism), political instability (identity politics, culture wars, far-right/left populism), and post-industrial ill health (diabetes, cancer, long covid, ME, anxiety, deaths of despair, etc).
I will explain why I believe Gen X are facing a world-historical challenge as to be truly transformational leaders in all areas of life: family as much as political, business as much as cultural.
Coming of age in the 80s and 90s, through waves of cultural revolution that stretched from Punk to Rave, most Gen Xers are likely to have lost it in a Nirvana-inspired mosh pit or Burning Many festival. In place of the separate and fearful ego, we touched essence: the unified field of consciousness that is far more important to be felt than described in words, in Logos, as per the Communist Manifesto or Culture War pamphlets.
As the insightful socialist Rosa Luxemburg put it:
Socialism in life demands a complete spiritual transformation in the masses degraded by centuries of bourgeois rule. Social instincts in place of egotistical ones, mass initiative in place of inertia, idealism which conquers all suffering, etc., etc. No one knows this better, describes it more penetratingly; repeats it more stubbornly than Lenin. But he is completely mistaken in the means he employs. Decree, dictatorial force of the factory overseer, draconian penalties, rule by terror — all these things are but palliatives. The only way to a rebirth is the school of public life itself, the most unlimited, the broadest democracy and public opinion. It is rule by terror which demoralizes.
Experiences of dancing in the sea of common humanity — not limited to raving but also including taking a gap year to volunteer in places like Africa or backpack around a few countries, which became the norm for middle-class Gen Xers — gave us deeply held communal values. But we did not then need to go further to fall into the Sylla and Charibidis of radical and righteous socialism or vitriolic and venal fascism. We stayed grounded.
This does not mean we are boring, vanilla-beige centrists, though.
Schooled on The Goonies, The Breakfast Club, and Dazed and Confused—and the first generation to learn to code as kids (mine was the ZX Spectrum) and to be taught about ecological devastation at school—we GenX-ers tend to understand the digital and disruptive sensibilities that arouse fire and passion in our Millennial and Gen Z colleagues—we, too, protested a lot, against nuclear arms and freeway construction and we voted in Clinton and Blair—but we don’t completely define ourselves by protest. We are for the culture to change, not against it as the few, but vocal, hippies were… until they traded in tie-die for vast profits and enormous houses.
We also understand the value and values espoused by our parents and grandparents (the Greats, who saved our asses in WWII or saved our lineage by escaping WWII): to focus on a technical skill at the start of our career, to put our head down and work and get ahead; and to be grateful for what we get. We can touch the turmoil of the post-war reconstruction and can feel the horrors of the Holocaust all too vividly. We were born just 2–3 decades after Hitler died.
This means many of us, particularly those in professional roles, are indeed a little bit woke — maybe even a little bit awake after almost certainly having sought out psychotherapy, counseling, coaching, yoga, mindfulness, and spiritual awakening due to mental health and existential questioning — but we don’t feel the need to cancel anybody. We can honor a JK Rowling for her contribution and success without feeling the need to cancel them out for opinions we may not share.
This means we can share commonalities with departing Baby Boomers (our parents’ generation) and Gen Y/Z (our kids’ generation) alike. We are cultural translators, societal Hermes, helping the younger generations embody the values of hard work, meritocracy, and rigor and helping the older generations get the importance of purpose, in-it-togetherness, and authentic (because it costs the bottom line) diversity, inclusion, personal development, and sustainability activities.
I actually believe the societal values and cultural mores of Gen X, certainly those in the knowledge economy, were actually birthed far earlier, perhaps by the Beats; but the majority of Boomers didn’t think they were achievable, moral, or accessible for all. These sensibilities have spread with each subsequent generation, such that they are now dominant in Gen Z. Thus the three generations — X, Y, Z — share far more than some might think.
This is crucial because Gen Xers are right now being offered the keys to the kingdoms of our businesses and societies.
From Keir Starmer (61, so arguably a Xoomer, but I think he gets a more youthful sentiment) as the new Prime Minister in the UK to Kamala Harris (59) as the presumptive Democratic nominee US — and the tens of thousands of late 40s to late 50s VPs and SVPs rising to the C-Suite that we work with each day in our leadership practice— this is our historic moment.
It really is up to us.
This is because, by the time the majority of Millennials get into the same positions of power, the Four Horseman of the potential Anthropocene Apocalypse—climate change, inequality, cultural degradation (accelerated by AI), and poor mental and physical health will have done irreparable damage.
Even though I know that such broad generational insights are as much marketing narrative as evidential truths, it really is down to Gen X to take the leadership position and make the tough choices needed. They can so this by bringing together their twin impulses for radical change and evolutionary continuity.
Gen X — named as such as we resisted being pigeon-holed — is being invited to step up and come out of the closet. We know now what the X was all about. It is an X of bridging, in what I call in my books and articles a highest common factor not lowest common denominator, between right and left. It is an X that stamps our presence and our spiritual awareness on the world. It is an X that is code for transformation, adaptation, and regeneration.
To seize the moment, we must remember our deep, heartfelt desire for a better world, which saw us campaigning for change, dreaming up utopias in pubs, connecting with other ethnicities and races while on adventures, and hugging random revelers in raves… and then connecting our huge hearts to our lauded qualities of seriousness, stability, and grit.
This will require us to give up some of the comforts and conveniences of age and personal prosperity that the Boomers arguably struggled to relinquish as they shifted from the hippy generation to the wealthy one (they own double the wealth of Gen X, and many of them have already passed on). This giving up of financial and political power is what I have called elsewhere the “purpose premium.”
What we get in return, the “purpose dividend,” is a deeply meaningful role in shaping a better, more equal, and far more regenerative future for our species. Then, and only then, will we be able to look at our Gen Z and Alpha kids and grandkids who are but a twinkle, squarely in the eye, knowing that we wielded our generational power with purpose, wholeness, and love.
To be successful on our mission, we must reassure Boomers and Millennials/Zers alike that we understand their concerns and fears for the future and keep them as safe as we can during turmoil and turbulence as we lead our organizations and nations through much-needed, existentially necessary, adaption and transformation.
Now is the time to push forward toward the more sustainable, equitable, and regenerative future we can envision in our hearts and minds, for the truly transformational GenX leader is wise enough to know that it is physically and psychologically impossible to Make Anything Great Again.
We have to go on the journey of transformation, leading ourselves and our teams along it, and make what comes next work for as many stakeholders as possible.
Gen X must cope with existential risks to society and to sustainable business — that no generation has had to cope with before — while dealing with our issues sandwiched between aged and ailing parents who may be alive for decades to come to kids still at home who have a high likelihood of having various mental health and financial challenges. Thus we are the leaders of our family systems to heal, become more whole, and be more happy. We grok intergenerational trauma and many of us have done a lot of work to lessen what we pass on.
All the while, Gen X leaders have to deal with our own sense of grief and disappointment (our careers, our purpose, our net wealth), our growing morbidity (pain, illness, the cost of all that raving), creeping mortality (four friends of mine, all men, have died in the last year alone from suicide and cancer), and the challenges of constant overwhelm, constant demand, being constantly on.
Few leaders can transition to the latter part of life successfully (without fixations, addictions, and subsequent breakdowns) without effective support as we face the great conflict within that the psychologist Erik Erikson described as a massive psychic battle between stagnation (exhaustion, jadedness, bitterness) and generativity (purpose, commitment to the next generation, and leadership).
I’d go further to say that the generativity that is being invited from Gen X is more accurately described as regenerativity: not just passing on the blessings to those who come next (in the words of Robert Moore); but regenerating our fragmented, exhausted, and polluting social, ecological, and commercial systems. This is the time for ReGenerator X.
Thankfully, our daily well-being practices and engaged parenting commitments — our openness to therapy and coaching and empathy for others from raving and traveling — will keep us grounded, caring, learning, and resilient in the micro-moments where all leadership and life play out.
Keir and Kamala — and even the Gen X Murdochs — are starting to model what that looks like on a global stage.
Keir is not playing to fantasy left-wing populism but is instead charting a steady yet transformative agenda while publically stating that he loves his kids (and his own resilience) so much that, unless it is really an emergency, he won’t work after 6 pm on Fridays.
Kamala has written an article about the challenges and joys of becoming a step-mother, sharing really vulnerable life stuff about how tough it is to be in a blended family; has been filmed coming out of a record store in DC with Roy Ayers and Charles Mingus on vinyl displaying very publically what her heart loves; and has been declared “honest, blunt… and a bit messy” by pop star Charli XCX, in a post that has had 50 million views and counting.
(Re)Gen X, now is the time for us to step up, rise to the very real challenges we face, and make a difference using all the experiences, insights, and wisdom we have gathered on our journey… from Fight Club, Fat Boy Slim, and Friends.
You can read more thoughts about how to specifically support Gen X leaders with their leadership development here.
