When you hit mid-career, it’s very easy to become complacent- you have your friends, you have your mentors, and you have your heroes.
You grew up with your friends - took degrees about the same time, went to the same conferences, and shared many of the same experiences.
You grew up bc of your mentors - took their advice, attended their workshops, and learned from their experiences.
You grew up wanting to be like your heroes - emulating their leadership, publishing in similar outlets, and wanting similar respect.
I learned a lot from my friends, heroes, and mentors - about what to do and what not to do.
I value those lessons.
Lately, I’ve recognized that I learn a lot from the recent cohorts of academics.
Recent cohorts are incredibly diverse in ages, ideas, gender, identity and more.
This group is coming of age in an incredibly tumultuous time for academe - with uncertainty about the future of tenure, escalating demands for publication, & social media stalking their classroom performance.
Yet, this group has demonstrated tremendous resilience - weathering an anti-intellectual president, flagging stipends, and volatile academic markets.
As I’ve come to know early career academics (& grown tired of the bellyaching of the old ones), I’ve come to admire the next wave.
Things that I like.
First, I like their activism.
Where my cohort was tolerant & likely to not push too hard, this group stands up and yells for what is right.
Second, I like their rigor.
Where I know many scholars who cut corners, this group seems less apt to satisfice & more apt to do things the right way.
Third, I like their imagination.
Young scholars are pushing the boundaries of business research to consider the social good, sustainability, and more.
Fourth, I like their balance.
My generation paid lip service to family first. The next generation is living it.
Fifth, I like their commitment to teaching.
My generation was told to publish or perish. The next group seems to ascribe to publish & teach or perish.
Their minds are in the right place.
When I take the time to sit with the next group, learn about their values, and their concerns - they aren’t fools & worry about the future of academe too - I hear about what my cohort did well & what we can do better to leave behind a better academe.
As much as I learned from my friends, mentors, and heroes about what to do, I am learning from early career faculty what to do next.
It you are more senior, take some time to listen to the next group - you’ll enjoy what you hear & feel better about the future of academe.
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