"I was sitting inside Estiatorio Milos in Hudson Yards at a table convened by ColorComm founder Lauren Wesley Wilson, who was hosting a conversation with media executives last December. Her closing question has stuck with me since: What's one piece of often unspoken advice that's truly helped in your career? For me, investing in age-gap friendships is one of the underrated ways I've sharpened my strategic thinking at work."
"They just weren't millennials. They were older; they were younger - but they each provided me with a petri dish of cultural understanding that I just couldn't get on my algorithms. I have found that age-gap friendships have given me cultural fluency that I could apply at work, too. They gave insight into different ways of thinking, alternative tastes in music and books, and firsthand context into so many of the themes we explore here at Business Insider - from entering the workforce to retirement."
Investing in age-gap friendships sharpens strategic thinking and provides workplace advantage through cultural fluency. Settling into suburban life just outside New York City and climbing the corporate ladder yielded encounters with people across generations who provided cultural understanding not available through algorithms. Age-gap friendships reveal different ways of thinking, alternative tastes in music and books, and firsthand context across life stages from entering the workforce to retirement. Such relationships offer a petri dish of insights that can be applied at work. Real-world examples include a 40-year-old writer whose friendship with a 97-year-old enriched conversation and lifelong learning. Valuable relationships need not be labeled mentor.
Read at Business Insider
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]