Last week, I took a break from our 2023 review and 2024 preview to revisit some ideas from past 2023 columns that still held relevance. The piece focused on goal setting for a reduced staff (and that you shouldn’t think that less staff can attain what you could when you were fully staffed) and one piece included tips on employee retention. Both issues are very relevant for the beginning of this year, too.

This week, I want to look back at a pair of columns that hit on leadership; we’ll continue to see new leaders emerging to top positions in organizations throughout 2024 as our baby boomers settle into much deserved retirements. Next week (when everyone is back to their “normal” schedules), we will wrap up the 2023 review and begin the 2024 preview of exciting things to come.

The first leadership piece I wanted to highlight came around the time of Lois Skillings’ retirement, which coincided with leadership changes at several other organizations in 2023 from Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority to the United Way and so many more. If you attend enough retirement parties, common themes begin to reveal themselves. Here are some observations from a piece titled “3 lessons of leadership from retiring CEOs,” which originally ran early in 2023:

What can we learn from these departing leaders and take with us on our own paths? Many of them have fostered relationships that are so wholesome that the people at their retirement parties are choking up because they don’t have the joy of working with them any longer. Here are three things I have learned from recent retirements.

First off, none of them — as in none at all — built their relationships over Zoom. Now, I understand that times change, and we have new technology to help “connect” us, but the rise of video conferencing and in particular Zooming during the pandemic was much more about maintaining relationships than establishing them. …

We need to disavow ourselves of the notion that any business can establish the same type of meaningful relationships with colleagues and employees over Zoom as we do in person. Any team that can find cohesion, trust and loyalty over screens is an outlier — they are the exception not the rule. Why? Because relationships are messy and raw and truthful and constant. You rarely get that on a video chat. Over Zoom, you get someone’s manufactured background and their best branded self. …

Secondly, these leaders didn’t care only about their own success in their own business. They typically cared about their industry and their communities as well. Too often, I’m seeing people looking out for themselves, for their own bottom line, for their own successes. What does all of the personal success in the world mean if the community you live in is crumbling around you? How important are your sales numbers if your children are struggling to get what they need at school? These are just examples mind you, and I’m not saying our communities are crumbling or that there are problems at our schools (quite the opposite actually — in many ways, I think our region’s schools and communities both thrive and are constantly improving). Yet the point is all of the great leaders cared as much about the success of their communities as they did about the success of their own organization. More than that, they actively engaged in the matters of their community by giving their time and expertise.

Finally, no great leader takes a bow by themselves. They always mention those who support them. They make a point to deflect any successes to those around them and take absolute ownership of the failures. A great leader knows their responsibility is to care, champion and protect those in their care. Nobody wants to follow anyone who is only touting themselves. The best leaders- the iconic ones- lift up everyone around them and let them shine.

That’s how [they] … built a legacy that will last beyond their tenure. They led with vision, empathy and genuine caring for those around them. They elevated the people who, in turn, elevated the work of the organization. There is a lesson in that for all of us.

Secondly, I want to highlight a piece about accepting the new leaders and the new ideas they may bring. This is from a piece I wrote in May titled “Oh, the times they are a-changing”:

… When you look at the demographics of our state and region, there are an increasing number of 60- to 70-year-old business leaders who have changed from counting down their final years until retirement and are now counting in months and weeks. …

… The next generation of leaders are being trained, tested and evaluated right now and if you don’t have an upward mobility plan for your best young people, then another organization will be happy to come calling. …

Along with accepting these new leaders, we need to begin to accept the new ideas that they bring with them. There’s a generational shift and a tone shift that many new leaders have that all of us need to begin to become accustomed to. I can’t say that I’m up to speed with the entire lexicon of new phrases, labels and definitions that our youngest employees use right now, but I know enough to ask the questions and be open to it.

Do I think all of these new leaders will succeed? No, but not all old leaders succeed either. Do I think all of these new phrases and labels will stick around? No, but there are plenty of phrases that I used 20 years ago that are no longer in my working vocabulary, so that happens, too.

The point is, the changes are coming, and with these fresh faces come fresh ideas. The best new leaders will listen to what has become before them, respect the foundations of the organizations that they are now leading and will adapt them for the new world thinking. It’s actually pretty exciting to see how these new leaders will carry the torch forward to help our communities grow.

Cory King is executive director of the Bath-Brunswick Regional Chamber of Commerce.

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