Bottom-to-Top Mentoring

By on January 22, 2012 in Workplace

I’ve previously blogged about reverse mentoring, so I read with interest that this was the topic of a recent news article from The Globe and Mail. According to the newspaper, more and more companies are seeing the importance of not only the old mentoring the young in the workplace, but reverse mentoring (meaning the young mentoring their more mature colleagues) can re-energize older employees, engage younger workers and bridge the workplace generation gap.

Many younger members of the workplace are coaching their boomer colleagues on how to use social media for internal and external communications. This new type of mentoring involves the traditional roles being reversed and junior employees taking on the role of teacher to their more experienced co-workers.

Pioneered just over a decade ago by former General Electric CEO Jack Welch, reverse mentoring has been embraced by an increasing number of companies, including Ernst & Young, General Motors and Procter & Gamble. Welch’s idea originally was to help boomers at his company learn about new technology, in particular the Internet and email. Today, companies are using reverse mentoring to encourage other types of learning. Junior mentors can, for example, help their managers understand how to motivate and retain young workers. They can also provide knowledge of a younger customer base. Some companies are using reverse mentoring to enhance diversity training for senior staff.

There’s always the challenge of persuading senior managers to embrace the role reversal and start taking advice instead of always giving it. They also need to suspend their judgement of the younger generation often called the ‘entitlement’ generation. It’s important for mentoring partners to actually make the relationship work. People who are willing to do role-reversals in mentoring need to go in with an open mind.

In my opinion, it’s fair exchange. Learning something new everyday should not have age limits. So If young people can benefit from their boomer co-workers’ experience and knowledge in the office, I’m sure boomers can equally benefit from their younger colleagues’ words of wisdom to bridge generation gaps.

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New Year Resolutions For Boomers

By on January 16, 2012 in Lifestyle

Since we’re still in mid-January, I thought I would suggest the top 10 new year resolutions for baby boomers:

1. Forget about unrealistic weight-losing goals. How about just eating healthy but still indulging occasionally? There’s no healthy food that really tastes good except tofu – and even my favourite food is considered bland by many others!

2. Save and spend money wisely. According to a consumer survey by Empathica Inc., no matter how much we earn, we don’t feel rich enough. So instead of envying others, why can’t we just be content with what we’ve got? This is assuming that you’re not spendthrifts and save some reasonable amount  of your income each month so that you can retire early!

3. Put our best face forward. There’s no excuse for boomers to just give up and lax even if we’re retired. We want to be presentable and groom ourselves not for other men or women, but for our own satisfaction.

4. Having said that, let’s not be obsessed with defying age. Aging is a natural lifestage, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Instead of pursuing endless cosmetic procedures to stay young, why not just be happy? Happiness is a state of mind and happy people usually look younger because they feel good.

5. Lead an active lifestyle and be consistent. While a lot of people take up exercising in January, the fitness clubs would be half-empty by February. Instead of making personal trainers rich, why don’t we just set realistic goals by picking some forms of exercise that are appealing to us – whether they be walking, running, spinning, yoga or pilates? The key approach here is consistency.

6. Learn something new everyday. I’ve chosen to enrol with the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies to study Shakespeare again without any exams. You may want to learn a new language or play bridge.

7. Share your knowledge and experience with a youngster two or three generations our juniors. Mentoring younger people is our unofficial duty – our legacy to this world!

8. Develop a passion in life before it’s too late. A lot of boomers or seniors dread retirement because they feel lost. Their career has been their sole identity in life. But life is not too short, only the good moments are. So try pursue your passions in life and enjoy them while you’re healthy. If you don’t have any passion, it’s never too late to develop one.

9. Be grateful for what we’ve got. This is easier said than done, but I’ve decided to write a daily gratitude journal to count my blessings everyday.

10. Focus on quality, not quantity. Whether it’s life or friends, I’ve come to realize that quality is more important than quantity. A friend in need is a friend indeed, so it’s time for us at this lifestage to write-off those sunshine friends who are there just to party with us. I’ve, in fact, narrowed it down to one simple criterion: if friends don’t inspire or support me in one way or another, why waste time? Ditto with life - I don’t want longevity, I would only like to live well and enjoy life. What’s the point of being 100 years old but you lose all five senses?

New year resolutions are made to be broken? Not true, if they are realistic and achievable.

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Naples Draws Boomers

By on January 12, 2012 in Travel

Whenever I told people that I’m becoming a snowbird and would like to spend my winter months in Naples, the immediate reaction was: Naples, Italy? And when I clarified that it’s really Naples, Florida, there’s usually a big disappointment on their faces. “You’re too young to be a snowbird!” is the reaction I often get as well. Others would say, “I just can’t see you golfing or lying on the beach in Florida – the sunshine state is so not you!”

Well, I’m now in the midst of my fourth stay in Naples, Florida, enjoying the sunny, albeit chilly, weather every now and then since I’ve arrived here on New Year’s Day. Not only do I find Naples suitable for me, but I believe it’s got a huge potential to draw more sophisticated baby boomers as a retirement haven. Already, the local news reports here are advocating better road systems and public transportation for the retiring boomers.

The truth of the matter is: there’s really very little public transportation here. No subway, very few bus lines and no cabs to be found (except for limousine services). But this is probably where Naples fits in with the rest of Florida – everybody drives, even 80-year-old seniors! Fortunately, the tree-lined roads are wide and cars are still relatively fewer than the traffic volume in big cities like Toronto and New York. So, driving everywhere is actually quite manageable.

What I really like about Naples is that it can be tranquil and peaceful when you desire that kind of environment – tons of beautiful gated communities and condominiums with relatively fewer high rises when compared to Miami. But Naples is also sophisticated enough that there are a lot of arts and cultural activities all-year-round. The Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts is probably one of the very few cultural institutions in North America that is not struggling, but thriving, due to the affluence of philanthropists around here. I was also told by a friend who’s a Board member that they are now raising funds to open a new Children’s Museum.

Last week, I went with a visiting friend to see the renowned Pinchas Zukerman performing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from London, U.K. The audience gave them three rounds of standing ovation. With my little knowledge of classical music, I was also mesmerized by their performance. I’m also proud that Isaac Stern’s protege has chosen to live in Ottawa for most part of the year as Zukerman is the music director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra – a position he has held since 1998.

Later this month, I’m planning to support another Canadian artist – jazz musician Diana Krall – also performing at the same venue. So if you’re not into high-brow performing arts, there’s always the musical Les Miserables and other Broadway shows touring this city.

As a foodie, I’m always interested in exploring good restaurants. I don’t think the Michelin star system covers this area, but there are many excellent restaurants here, ranging from steak houses to Italian fare as well as the very fresh and sumptuous seafood.

Then there’s retail therapy – although most retirees like me would no longer need therapy as everyday becomes a vacation day. From upscale brand-name shopping at the Waterside Shops to more accessible mainstream brands at the Shops at Coconut Point to even ‘upscale bargain shopping’ at the renowned Miramar Outlets Mall, you can shop till you drop any season of the year with better prices than Toronto as sales tax is only six percent here.

For the ultimate boomer pastimes of golfing, fishing and boating, Naples is definitely a paradise in all three categories. It’s also famous for its miles of white-sand beaches by the Gulf of Mexico.

Already, the number of Canadians owning properties here has been increasing due to the recent housing slump in the U.S. According to one of my former bosses who also lives here on a seasonal basis, Naples seems to be attracting more boomers than Sarasota which is the only other Gulf Coast city that might compete with Naples as a boomer retirement haven.

So while I’m disappointed to hear that in Ontario, innovative cultural events, such as the Black Creek Summer Festival, have to close due to the lack of financial support,  I consider myself lucky to be able to enjoy the rich cultural gems here on the Paradise Coast – even though I feel more like a penguin than a snowbird!

 

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New Concept Of Intergenerational Learning

By on January 9, 2012 in Education

A retirement home in Invermere, B.C., has started an innovative program to bring the old and the very young together in education.  According to The Globe and Mail, every Tuesday and Friday, 18 kindergartners from Eileen Madson Primary School arrive in Columbia Garden Village retirement home, and take over the home’s common room into a classroom. The kindergartners attend their lessons, crafts and play time in the room surrounded by seniors who live there.

Some elders watch from the sidelines, others join the kids and build block towers or indulge in a reading of a Scooby-Doo storybook. Eighty-four-year-old men and women find enough energy and stamina to walk out of their rooms down the carpeted hallway to watch the children pour in with their multi-coloured ski jackets and lunch boxes.

With fewer children growing up with a grandparent in the home, emerging research suggests they are missing out on rich learning opportunities. The Invermere collaboration is the brainchild of Rocky Mountain School District’s superintendent Pau Carriere and his wife, Barbara, a kindergarten teacher. The couple has read about a previous successful example in a seniors home in Oklahoma. With children interacting with the elderly, the program had seen the kids’ reading improve while medication rates among the seniors had declined.

The Invermere program had been running since last January. There seems to be a symmetry between the children and the elders – each in life stages that leave them a bit vulnerable. The young and the old are a good match as learning partners. For instance, reading is a skill often preserved long after age has weakened other mental faculties. The seniors are patient teachers and the children are at ease around them, according to the educators.

The concept of intergenerational learning is also having a following in Toronto. At the Baycrest retirement home, seniors act as consultants for a high-school philosophy class by talking about death and aging. The Invermere initiative is believed to be the only one of its kind in Canada.

According to education experts, the life experience of the elder can really enrich the learning of younger people. This new concept is challenging the stereotyping of aging by tapping into the strengths of seniors who have taught students about aging, death and compassion, and helped coax others out of their shell.

A study in the U.S. found that older adults who worked with children in a school setting had less stress and a better quality of life compared to those living at a high-end facility interacting with their peers.

A lot of seniors at the retirement home are walking more and feeling stronger when surrounded by the children. They have also found a new purpose in life. The children seem to be equally happy among  their new-found ‘grandparents’. It will be highly beneficial if this best practice can be expanded into more collaborative programs between retirement homes and elementary schools across Canada.

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Brand New Year For Empowering Women

By on December 31, 2011 in Workplace

On the last day of 2011, it’s time to review what has happened in the past year and look forward to new year resolutions and projections. 2011 has not been a bad year at all for smart boomer women.

This year, The New York Times announced its first-ever woman Executive Editor, Jill Abramson, who’s also a proud mother of two and a well-known lover of dogs. In Canada, two of our national TV news channels – Global TV and CTV – each appointed its own woman chief news anchor: Dawna Friesen and Lisa Laflamme respectively. Also in 2011, CBC’s Executive Vice President of English Services Kirstine Stewart was named ‘Person of the Year’ by Canada’s film and television industry magazine Playback. In the past year, her push to increase CBC’s Canadian content proved to be a success after ratings of popular shows like Dragon’s Den.

In business, the Report on Business Magazine crowned the first woman chief executive of the year – Lululemon Athletica’s Christine Day. She was chosen for “her ability to create a remarkable bond between the brand and its ultra-loyal fans.”

In the political scene, 2011 also proved to be a banner year for Canadian women. We now have four women premiers for the first time in history – B.C.’s Christy Clark, Alberta’s Alison Redford, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Kathy Dunderdale, and Nunavit’s Eva Aariak. The House of Commons also has a record 76 women as a result of the May federal elections.

On an international level, Canada was named the third best country for women by Newsweek, after Iceland and Sweden. According to The Huffington Post, though we still rank poorly in equal representation in government, Canada proved to be a leader for justice, health and education for women – giving us an overall score of 96.6.

In spite of the strong progress, the ratio of female senior executives at Fortune 500 companies declined this year, according to a new tally, suggesting women still have a long way to go in achieving gender equality in business.

Women held 14.1 percent of the C-suite positions this year, down slightly from 14.4 percent last year, says the report released in December by Catalyst, an international advocacy group for women in business. The findings mirror the organization’s most recent study of Canadian corporations, where only 17.7 percent of senior officer positions were held by women in 2010. The Canadian number is higher than in the U.S. because the Financial Post 500 list of companies used in the analysis includes Crown Corporations, which have nearly twice as many female senior executives as publicly-traded companies.

According to Catalyst, women are not rising to the top because they don’t have access to as many professional networks as male employees, or to mentors at higher ranks who can take them under their wing and guide them. Let’s hope that in the new year, women boomers of all ranks will continue to mentor the younger generation, show them the ropes and empower them to maximize their best potential – whether in business, politics, law, communications, arts, technology, finance, education, hospitality or media.

Happy New Year!

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