Use the benefits of age to become a better leader

Some things clearly improve with age: wine, some cheeses — leadership skills? Do older people make better leaders, wise stewards who can leverage decades of experience to spark creative solutions, level-headed bosses who can rely on their age-related serenity to temper the emotional outbursts of younger, more explosive team members?

Or are senior leaders mentally dim-witted, digitally incompetent, have trouble with basic computer operating system functions, and are so bad at softball that they drag down the division’s recreational team — as stereotypes of widespread ageism suggest?

Then there is the issue that was raised during this year’s US presidential election: What age is too old to lead?

The answer to these questions is: it depends.

While aging doesn’t guarantee improved leadership skills, some of the changes that come with age can benefit your team and organization if you use them well. Or, as the subtitle of the 2015 film The Intern, starring Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway, goes, “Experience never ages.”

Here’s how to use age to your advantage:

How exactly older means wiser

While forgetting words—even your house keys—is so common that it’s something of a running joke among older people, some cognitive abilities improve with age, including those that support strong leadership. A 2021 study in the journal Nature Human Behavior looked at how aging affects three components, or “networks,” that make up attention. In a sample of more than 700 people aged 58 to 98, aging reduced “the efficiency of the alerting network” but improved “the efficiency of orienting and executive inhibition”; these improvements lasted “at least until the mid- to late 70s,” the study authors found.

Executive inhibition efficiency is a research term that relates to attention and executive functioning. Who has excellent executive functioning, generally speaking? Older adults. Not only can enhanced executive functioning help you set long-term goals and tasks for your team, but the executive control network also manages other types of control processes, such as resolving conflict and detecting errors. These improved skills can make it easier to manage conflict between employees or provide developmental, necessary feedback during a review. An enhanced ability to detect errors can be an asset in many fields, from engineering to communications to law.

Use your self-confidence

While some aspects of aging, such as decreased physical fitness, may seem like temporary dents in self-confidence, research shows that self-esteem actually increases with age, peaking between ages 60 and 70. When it comes to leadership, self-confidence is a fundamental strength. Of the five traits commonly considered valuable to leaders—intelligence, determination, honesty, sociability, and self-confidence—self-confidence “is the most important trait because it inspires self-confidence in followers,” as this post from Penn State puts it.

Confident leaders can also conceptualize larger goals and communicate optimism about achieving them. Confident leaders help their teams aim high and avoid getting bogged down. They can march through tough times without getting discouraged, impulsive, or distracted. As this article from the Center for Leadership Studies puts it, a confident leader “envisions success, and that vision is contagious.”

Confidence also comes from experience. Time on the job allows leaders to see obstacles for what they are—temporary setbacks rather than life-changing disasters. If you’ve been on the job for decades, you’ve probably lost a sale, entered incorrect statistics into print, or moved your family halfway around the world to get a new job in a department that the company later cuts. Experience allows you to take a setback in stride rather than overreact. That consistency, in turn, helps those you lead feel more comfortable and secure. Even if you don’t necessarily feel super confident, the fact that you’ve seen worse and survived can help create a sense of calm in your team that’s valuable.

Mentor

Your connections and experience put you in a great position to mentor younger employees in and out of the workplace—and the older you get, the younger everyone else seems compared to you. Mentorship is an incredibly valuable form of leadership, and one that’s increasingly hard to find in our often virtual world, as this column has previously written. Personal relationships are part of how we rise. By stepping into the role of mentor, you pass on the accumulated wisdom of your years, helping them grow and flourish, enjoying the satisfaction of giving back, and adding value to your company.

As a mentor, you can offer advice, quickly explain processes, highlight areas where the mentee could benefit from growth (make valuable connections), offer interpersonal guidance, and even identify opportunities within the company or elsewhere (through your valuable connections). While younger people need mentors, it’s not always obvious how to become one. You can reach out to someone you like and suggest meeting up for coffee to talk about their career. You can sign up through a formal mentoring program run by your college’s alumni program, the SBA, an industry group, or your workplace. If your company doesn’t have a mentoring program, you can create one, either in person or virtually. You can also sign up for an outside program like Mentor Walks.

Mentoring is a great way to feel good about yourself as you age. As this Harvard Business Review article on mentoring explains, a classic study by Harvard Medical School professor George Vaillant found that “older people who mentor and support younger people in their work and life are three times happier than those who don’t.”

One reason? Mentoring forces you not only to help someone else but also to reflect on your own successes. As this column previously wrote, “Sharing what you’ve learned helps solidify it in your mind. It also reminds you how much you’ve done and how far you’ve come.”

As Abraham Lincoln famously said, “In the end, it’s not the years of your life that count. It’s the years of your life that count.” You can use this life to become a great leader.