The context of age in leadership

Over a decade ago, one of Nigeria’s biggest and most profitable banks (still is, currently) started the process for its first credit rating. The rating, it turned out, was the first-ever rating issued by a certain top, global rating agency to any financial institution in Nigeria, at that time. There was tension in the top hierarchy of the bank, including members of the Board of Directors and executive management, who were collectively responsible for ensuring that the rating by a leading, well-respected international rating agencywas a huge success.
 
During the pre-engagement process for the rating, emails came forth in a ‘fast and furious’ manner. We had loads of documents to put together and many questions to answer; a whole lot, regarding: loans/risk management, deposits, treasury, financial reporting/control, strategy/strategic planning, international operations, regulation/regulatory environment, local economy, human resources, etc. I cannot forget the charge from my boss, who is now an elected Governor of a state in the South-South region; he said: “Stanley, TJ, we must not fail on this pioneer project. JO (the popular acronym we used for the Founder/CEO) will kill all of us should we do otherwise”.
 
The frenetic process began and we started documenting several reports, with long-hour engagements with heads of departments relevant to the rating process. It was a ‘punishing’, grueling process, largely because it was a pioneer project. We did our best at forwarding tons of documents by email and other means to the lead analyst and other employees of the global rating agency at its London and Johannesburg offices. Finally, the time for face-to-face engagement meetings with selected members of Board of Directors, executive management, and heads of relevant departments emerged. We had a series of ‘dry runs’ (a form of likely question and answer sessions) with relevant persons regarding how to respond to potential questions- hard or soft, for which we had to improvise in our own way, as there was no single firm that provided such service at that time, unlike the current situation.
 
As was expected, the lead rating analyst had to apply for a Nigerian visa, so, he was asked to send the data page of his international passport to us. Seeing his date of birth, some executives were surprised and jokingly retorted that: “ehen, so, it was this small boy who was issuing orders to our top guns, asking for all sorts of things and giving deadlines”. Some of us laughed so hard.
 
The very young European man gave a good account of himself during his one-week stay in thebank’s premises. The way he firmly engaged the Founder/CEO, Board members, and other senior officers belied his age! He was confident, professional, and he never suffered fools gladly. He asked hard questions and demanded- and got- requisite answers.
 
With this background, it is useful to contextualize the place of age in leadership, especially in a corporate environment. Whereas, most companies are still stuck in the ‘he is too young for that role’ mentality, a number of companies in Nigeria are placing their trust in the youth on the relevant bases of competence, emotional intelligence, adequate experience, and self-assuredness. No rule anywhere says a “Methuselah” will/must be more competent than a youth.
 
Don Holley says that there is little empirical evidence to suggest that CEOs, business owners and their management teams were valuable because of years of experience and wisdom; adding that technological advancement and dynamic business models have conspired to significantly reduce the effect of age, and have placed brilliance, capacity to adapt, and energy as game-changers. I agree with him; the same way I agree with John Baldoni, a globally-recognized executive coach and leadership educator, who wrote against excessive focus on age, but rather, that: ‘experience counts, energy matters, and wisdom prepares’. Further, a 2011 thesis at the University of Queensland School of Psychology found out that there was correlation between wisdom and effective leadership, but there was no link whatsoever between age and wisdom, or between age and leadership skills. In fact, some older leaders, according to the study, are very ineffective!
 
Tamara Jayne, assistant editor and writer at “Leaderonomics”, wrote, in reaction to the appointment of 29-year-old David Knopf as the youngest-ever CFO at American food behemoth Kraft Heinz, in October 2017, that: “suitability, capability, experience, maturity, and performance are what matters more”.
 
In Nigeria, a certain sector of the economy where age never matters is among consulting firms. Owing to their largely uniform, global HR practices, elevations and responsibilities are earned on the twin-bases of competence and experience and not on the basis of tenure- a rather unsavory HR practice that forces employees to remain on a certain grade for a fixed time (say three, four, five years), which is akin to “wait for your time” HR lingo.
 
Any discerning observer of the Nigerian economy may have noticed the influx of well-educated, relatively young Nigerians who relocated from their stellar careers in Europe, Canada, USA, etc to take up executive management roles in diverse sectors of the economy. They are thriving as they lead agile organizations where age is seen as just a number. In the countries they worked previously, career progress was largely about the quantum of work and leadership exposure they had, their demonstrated, proven competence, and their capacity for successful leadership; they did not just attain positions by marking time owing to fixed tenure. For instance, whereas a 35-year old brilliant person, Nigerian or not, could be CEO at a successful corporation abroad, his counterpart in Nigeria might still be grappling with an obscure position in middle management!
 
In my view, being competent, far-sighted, ethical, dedicated and acting far beyond the ordinary call of duty, i.e. doing far more than the minimum, listening well and encouraging differing opinions and inclusiveness in an organization, etc are more important in selecting potentially successful leaders than the approach of placing too much emphasis on age and ‘donkey years’ of experience. The challenges of today’s economies are far more significantly dynamic; hence, organizations are better served jettisoning practices of the times of yore that were fixated on “mechanical tenures”.
 
Tajudeen Ahmed
Tajudeen Ahmed, a strategy expert, with several years of senior management experience in consulting, commercial banking, and FMCG, is the General Manager/Group Head Business Development at BUA Group.