In this episode of Leadership NOW, Leanne Clark-Shirley joins me to talk about what leadership looks like in the longevity era, when more of us are living longer and working longer, and when societies are quietly crossing the line where there are more people over 60 than children under 18. She calls aging “the mega trend of our moment” and argues that it should sit at the centre of how organizations think about talent, culture and strategy, not off to the side as a benefits and pensions topic.
Leanne is the President and CEO of the American Society on Aging, a seventy-one-year-old multidisciplinary home for people and organizations who care about aging, from community service providers and academics to entrepreneurs and designers. Drawing on her background as a social gerontologist, as well as prior roles at AARP and in policy research, she lays out why age is still framed as decline and cost, how language choices like “elderly” quietly rig systems, and why older entrepreneurs are statistically more likely to succeed than their younger counterparts.
Our conversation gets practical as well. We talk about how leaders can bring age into every conversation they are already having about equity, talent and culture, how to design “with not for” when it comes to older and younger workers, and two simple experiments she recommends to notice how age actually shows up in your day. Along the way, Leanne returns to ASA’s North Star that “longevity is the goal, and aging is how we get there” and what that means for any leader trying to build a culture that can thrive in an aging world.
This episode also underpins my Forbes column “Leadership In The Longevity Era”, which further connects Leanne’s ideas to the realities of workplace culture and organizational design.
More about Dr. Leanne Clark-Shirley at: American Society on Aging https://www.asaging.org
