The “Remixer of the Month” is a representative of the concept of The Remix, the topic of my next book, to be published by HarperCollins in Spring 2019.
As I define it, to “remix” is to take a best practice of one generation and “mix” it in some way with the best practice of another generation (or several!) to achieve a positive end result. Although most of my focus is on the business world, remixing can take place in any realm, from marketing to politics to sports to parenting and beyond.
As a child of the ‘80s in the New York metro area (I grew up in Norwalk, CT), I’ve been a lifelong Mets baseball fan. While some seasons (2017) have been harder than others (1986), I love the team, and my husband and I (he’s also a Mets fan, of course) couldn’t be having more fun passing the passion on to our daughter Chloe (pictured above).
What does my family’s baseball fandom have to do with the multigenerational workplace, you might be wondering? Well, this year the Mets have a new manager, Mickey Callaway, who has attracted some attention. Besides the fact that the Mets had their best season start in the 57-year history of the team, Callaway has been noticed for his leadership style off the field as well.
Multigenerational Leadership Strategies
Here are a few of the strategies Callaway has used as a first-time leader of a multigenerational team of people:
- When he became their leader, Callaway reached out to every single player individually.
- He shortened team practices to reduce wasted time.
- He uses big data (a.k.a. analytics) to make decisions, but presents his findings to players and coaches in an authentic, human way.
- He is especially respectful and transparent to veteran players who might feel blindsided by certain changes or decisions, especially those based on data analytics.
- He seeks input from all layers and functional roles in the Mets organization “whether it be a coach … with 40 years’ experience or an analytics intern that we just hired out of college.”
As Mets star Jay Bruce has said, “Mickey is like old meets new.” That, in a nutshell, is the “remixing” it takes to succeed as a leader in today’s multigenerational, tech-heavy world.
Oh — and there’s one more thing. I can’t leave out my favorite fact of all about Callaway: He is an avid reader and sharer of — yep — leadership books. (Carol Dweck’s Mindset is one of his favorites…and mine.)
Do you have a Remixer to recommend that I feature? Tweet to me using #TheRemix. Please let me know!
View all Remixers of the Month. These people take best practices from one generation and apply them to others.
