BOOK REVIEW: Hip Sage: Staying Smart, Cool and Competitive in the Workplaceby Lisa Haneberg; Davies Black; 2009
THE FEAR of becoming irrelevant drove Lisa Haneberg to write this book. More precisely, it was the driver for a change in her attitudes and her passion for embracing new ideas and technologies and actively seeking collaboration with a younger generation.
Haneberg believes other middle-aged managers need to embark on the same adventure if they are to stay engaged and energised in the workplace.
The journey for her started in 2004 at a Fast Company magazine networking event. The small group she found herself amongst were discussing strategies for building blog readership using phrases such as permalinks, trackbacks and carnival of the capitalists. She listened, and she began to panic as she had no idea what they were talking about. What was worse was that these were not techies but business consultants.
Mustering the courage to reveal her ignorance, she found the group generous with their advice and mentoring. Within weeks she was an accomplished blogger, using many of the key tricks of the trade, and soon embraced a raft of other technologies that have helped her consulting business.
Older managers need to stop patronising their younger colleagues, she says. Instead they should show interest in these colleagues’ work and seek opportunities to work with them.
Haneberg cites the case of veteran crooner Tony Bennett approaching kd lang backstage at a Grammy awards show and telling her how much he’d love to sing with her. The resulting partnership brought Bennett’s music to a new generation and injected fresh life into his career.
Haneberg defines “hip” as the ability to communicate, connect and collaborate with younger generations. “Sageness” is our ability to successfully leverage our experiences, judgement and knowledge.
Older managers need to fuse the two approaches. Some of the key practices of sageness include increasing self-awareness, setting better goals, broadening perspectives, doing one great thing every day, writing and volunteering to be a mentor.
On self-awareness, Haneberg notes that our strengths and weaknesses are already known, so there is no downside to discussing them. When we admit our faults and discuss what we intend doing about them, the mental garbage that gets in the way of open conversations evaporates.
Goals should be meaningful and inspiring and challenging, yet achievable. Broadening perspectives is about being open to new experiences and the author recommends taking time out to travel and see different cultures. Writing is recommended as a way of keeping on your toes, processing thoughts and freshening opinions and the author strongly recommends blogging because of the informal nature of the communication.
There’s also an interesting chapter for older managers seeking new positions. Building networks is important but is often only done after managers lose their jobs. Instead managers should seek “hip” connections before they need them. They should attend key conferences and join and actively participate in one key organisation.
Recruiters are now using the web to seek out candidates, so an online presence can act as a shop window. Haneberg suggests creating a blog that offers provocative and evocative posts showing off your skills and experiences, but suggests that over-50s think twice about including a picture of themselves.
When you land a job interview, pay special attention to appearance. It’s important not to look like yesterday’s middle manager, so apart from dressing well, it is suggested you should flash your iPhone to show you’re not “past it”.
Other tips include using the web to research the hiring company, doing a Google search on the interviewers, and asking tough, open-ended questions of the interview panel about the organisation’s goals, culture and the expectations that will be placed upon the person taking the job. Its important not to come across as stodgy and rigid, so while the questions should be taken seriously, you should speak in a casual tone.
There is a useful chapter giving a handy summary of some of the most useful tech applications such as social networking, blogging and podcasting. Haneberg recognises “hip” is a moving target so she stresses it’s more about staying fresh and open to new ideas than having specific knowledge about today’s key technology applications.
Despite a title that may turn off some of its target readers, there’s plenty in this book that will be of value to a generation or two of managers who may want to stop feeling left out.
Frank Dillon is a freelance journalist
