Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders

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Tuesday, 1 September 2026

Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : How to Lead Generational Cohorts in the Workplace ...

Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : How to Lead Generational Cohorts in the Workplace ...: There is a wide gap between various generational cohorts in the workplace, and leaders find it challenging to bridge it. Several factors ...

How to Lead Generational Cohorts in the Workplace Successfully?—Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.—International Leadership Guru, The Father of “Soft Leadership” & 21st-Century Philosopher

There is a wide gap between various generational cohorts in the workplace, and leaders find it challenging to bridge it. Several factors contribute to this challenge, including age, experience, ego, attitude, environment, perceptions, and technology.

Globally, Baby Boomers overcame several challenges. They witnessed wars and conflicts, and their mindsets are different. They are conventional, follow the rules of the game, and expect others to follow them meticulously. However, they are not adequately equipped with the latest technology. Hence, their mindsets are different from Gen X and millennials. Gen X, who are sandwiched between the Baby Boomers and the millennials, are more flexible and ready to get along with older and younger generations.

The Baby Boomers and Gen X are under the impression that millennials are demanding, money-minded, complaining, impatient, creative, fast learners, vocal, and resourceful. Millennials expect ownership and recognition. Millennials are luckier than Baby Boomers and Gen X, as they were born when the world was relatively stable and peaceful.

Generational Differences

Millennials are highly ambitious, intelligent, and smart. They are technologically savvy and flexible in adapting. They are often aggressive and break the rules. They don’t like to be micromanaged. They care for their personal growth and have a growth mindset. They appreciate employability, not employment, because they are aware that there is no permanent employment in this world. They are curious and ask a lot of questions. They are often rebellious and challenge the old school of thought. Gen X and Baby Boomers are less comfortable with such behavior. They complain that there is no loyalty toward organizations in millennials and often feel that the latter are fickle-minded without any focus on their goals. However, when we look from the perspective of millennials, they are partially correct. As the world has changed, the millennials have changed. Their expectations and aspirations are different. They belong to a modern school of thought which is quite relevant in the current global context. Hence, it is essential to empathize with millennials. Gen X and Baby Boomers must realize how they behaved toward their older generations when they were young. If they think from that perspective, keeping the present global scenario in view, most conflicts in the workplace can be avoided. Additionally, Baby Boomers and Gen X must treat millennials as collaborators, not as competitors.

Generational Leadership Style

Leading various generations requires a unique leadership style that can be called a generational leadership style. This style appreciates the similarities and ignores the differences among generations in the workplace. In a nutshell, this leadership style celebrates generational differences. It applies different strokes to different generations to get the tasks executed effectively in the workplace. It emphasizes a soft leadership style, which is a relationship-oriented leadership style. Hence, there is a strong need to explore generational leadership styles in the workplace.

Each generation brings specific skills, abilities, and knowledge to the organizational table. Looking at their similarities rather than differences is beneficial for organizations. Instead of looking at their weaknesses, look at their strengths, appreciate them, and leverage them to add value to organizations. They must be imparted with leadership development training programs emphasizing the perspective of generational diversity. During the training Programs handpick the trainers from each generation to provide leadership training to all generations successfully.

The Role of Global Organizations to Bridge the Generational Differences

There is no choice for global organizations currently, as employees across various generations work in the same place. The differences are likely to aggravate, leading to conflicts. Hence, senior leaders must address this challenge by adopting various strategies earnestly:

Change the perceptions and mindsets of managers and leaders in the workplace.
Encourage each generation to speak about their expectations and aspirations to enable other generations to understand and appreciate them.
Emphasize partnership rather than leadership, and encourage all generations to share their experiences and expertise.
Encourage cross-generation interaction through leadership development training programs regularly. Engage experts and trainers from each generation to connect with their counterparts and appreciating the similarities.
Create cross-generational teams and encourage reverse mentoring to enable the older generations to learn from millennials on technology. Encourage older generations to share their experiences and expertise with millennials through mentoring and coaching.
Organize activities in the workplace to connect various generations emotionally on one platform.
Build generational empathy to create generational compatibility.

Create Generational Compatibility

When different people work together, it is a great opportunity to learn several things from them. They think differently, act differently, do differently, and deliver differently. It is a great learning experience for the generations! For instance, millennials don't like to be instructed and repeated. They want to explore independently through a trial-and-error method. They take the support of technology to explore and learn new things instantly. They consult older generations less but use technology more to find solutions.

Baby Boomers are idealists and Gen X are pragmatists, while millennials are a judicious blend of both idealism and pragmatism. The older generations have a fixed mindset, while the millennials have a growth mindset. We must understand them with empathy and mutual respect to achieve excellence.

Avoid negative stereotypes. Let us look at the door that is open, not closed. Let us look at the strengths of each generation instead of looking at their weaknesses. Let us appreciate their strengths and celebrate generational differences. For instance, instead of criticizing Traditionalists as fossilized, appreciate their hard work and sacrifices; instead of criticizing Baby Boomers as narcissistic, appreciate their workaholic attitude and loyalty to their employers; instead of criticizing Generation X as slackers, appreciate their flexibility and work-life balance; and instead of criticizing Millennials as highly narcissistic and lazy, appreciate their adaptability, innovation, and flexibility to embrace change. Hence, all generations must look for similarities, not differences, to bring emotional unity across generations in the workplace.

If organizations understand the aspirations and expectations of millennials, they can bridge the gap between various generations and eliminate the costs involved in retaining them.

As there are often clashes between parents and children at home due to the generation gap, there are often clashes between various generations in the workplace thus adversely affecting productivity and performance. As parents exercise restraint and patience with their children at home, the older generations must exercise restraint and patience with millennials. The older generations must empathize with millennials. They must think about how they behaved with their older generations when they were young, like millennials. When older generations understand and empathize with millennials, most conflicts in the workplace can be eliminated.

The older generations must understand the current realities and mold themselves to collaborate with millennials. They must learn to embrace change to get along well with millennials to create a healthy organizational culture to add value to all stakeholders. There must be coordinated efforts from all stakeholders, including educators, employers, and older generations, to bridge the gap between various generations to build global organizations.

Build Leadership Pipeline Globally

The Traditionalists and Baby Boomers followed the philosophy of ‘customers first and employees second,’ while Gen X and Millennials presently follow the philosophy of ‘employees first and customers second.’ The Traditionalists and Baby Boomers lived for tomorrow, while Gen X and Millennials live for today. Millennials work to live while the older generations often live to work.

Each generation brings something new to the organizational table. The Baby Boomers are strong in conceptual skills acquired from years of experience, Gen X is strong in hard skills, and the Millennials are strong in soft skills. Hence, strike the right chord among these generations to create chemistry and compatibility.

The Traditionalists and Baby Boomers must leave their leadership legacy to the millennial generation to build better organizations and global societies. The millennials must demonstrate a positive attitude to learn and grow from the experienced Traditionalists and Baby Boomers. The millennials must give due respect to the older generations to ensure a smooth transfer of knowledge. Globally, the leadership pipeline is leaking, and it will adversely affect global organizations. To ensure a seamless supply of talent in the leadership pipeline, it is essential to bridge the gap between these generations.

Look for Similarities in Generations

Millennials are more tolerant than older generations. They respect people of different nations, religions, faiths, cultures, communities, languages, and sexual orientations. They celebrate diversity. They want to set their own trend rather than follow the trend.

Learning new things is very hard. When you learn new things, your brain puts in extra effort. The millennials are agile learners. They look for learning opportunities and leave their organizations when they don’t find them.

Adaptability is crucial to leadership success. All generations must empathize and adapt to the changing times and technologies to create chemistry and compatibility among themselves to achieve personal and professional growth. It is rightly said, “A new broom sweeps better. But an old broom knows all the corners.” To summarize, there is no "one-size-fits-all" approach to handling generational differences in the workplace. Leaders must apply different strokes to different generations. What worked in the past may not work now. There is an urgent need to embrace change by looking at various generations from a fresh perspective to create generational compatibility. To conclude, look for similarities in generations to connect with them emotionally and celebrate generational differences to achieve organizational excellence and effectiveness.

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“Things You Don’t Know about Professor M. S. Rao” http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2015/10/things-you-dont-know-about-professor-m.html

Read my ‘Vision 2030 One Million Global Leaders’ URL: http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2014/12/professor-m-s-raos-vision-2030-one_31.html

Note: I had a brain hemorrhage. I was in bed for five months. My right hand has been numb and paralyzed. I am recovering. Thanks for empathizing with me. With gratitude. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFJrSRLHPUk&ab_channel=ProfessorM.S.Rao

Life is great!

Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.

Founder of MSR Leadership Consultants, India

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/M.-S.-Rao/e/B00MB63BKM

Vision 2030: https://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com

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See the Light in You: https://www.amazon.com/See-Light-You-Spiritual-Mindfulness/dp/1949003132

Thanks for reading!

Kindly share your thoughts and comments below. I’m sure someone out there will find your story useful.

This nonprofit blog will share Professor M.S. Rao’s passion and vision to develop one million students as global leaders by 2030. Please do not cut articles from my blog; redistribute them via email or post them online. The use of this material is free, as long as the copyright is acknowledged and a reference or link is provided to the Blog http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com. Without permission, this material may not be sold, published, or used to offer business services to third parties.

Tuesday, 25 August 2026

Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : Why Making Differences Matter?—Professor M.S. Rao,...

Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : Why Making Differences Matter?—Professor M.S. Rao,...: “Love your mother, but don't hate others' mothers. Love your religion, region, community, culture, and creed, but don't hate...

Why Making Differences Matter?—Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.—International Leadership Guru, The Father of “Soft Leadership” & 21st-Century Philosopher

“Love your mother, but don't hate others' mothers. Love your religion, region, community, culture, and creed, but don't hate others' religion, region, community, culture, and creed." —Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.—21st-Century Philosopher & The Father of “Soft Leadership

The 21st century has thrown several challenges to humankind. One of them for corporate leaders is managing a diversified workforce. With changing times and technologies, and with the rising aspirations and expectations of the people, businesses find it tough to meet their demands. Innovation and creativity are some of the solutions to meet the growing expectations of customers, and to achieve the same, it is essential to have a diversified workforce that can add value to organizations by bringing their diverse ideas and insights across the table.

As people are different, they have different attitudes, behaviors, personalities, gifts, talents, abilities, feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and appearances at the workplace. Diversity brings various individuals with diverse backgrounds such as culture, religion, region, ethnicity, and education working under one roof to achieve organizational goals and objectives. Diversity does not talk about the dilution of an individual's uniqueness, but it talks about recognizing and respecting others' uniqueness in terms of religions, regions, languages, creeds, caste, color, gender, cultures, and communities. Diversity clearly defines that individuals are not alike. It portrays knowing the differences among the employees and respecting them accordingly.

Diversity management is all about fostering a conducive workplace ambiance by recognizing and respecting the differences among the employees. It is aimed at looking at the similarities rather than differences among the employees to promote organizational fraternity and prosperity. It is about appreciating the differences in gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation of the employees working under the same roof.

It is essential to attract, retain, and train a diverse workforce as it enhances creativity and innovation. Although it has several challenges arising out of diversity, it has several strategic advantages as well for organizations. Here are some advantages.

It is a great asset where people across the globe bring in their diverse thoughts, ideas, insights, and cultures to the corporate world, leading to cultural assimilation and tolerance.
There is variety in diversity, where people have different and divergent characteristics.
Diversity helps in capitalizing on all the strengths of each employee.
It promotes innovation and competition.
It furthers flexibility and tolerance towards other communities and cultures.
The workforce realizes where they stand in their performance vis-à-vis others in the organization.
It enhances production, productivity, performance, innovation, creativity, and corporate democracy.
A diversified workforce brings in diversified talent across the table in the organization, resulting in the proliferation of ideas and innovation, resulting in new products and services as per the needs and requirements of customers. It promotes out-of-the-box thinking, thus adding value to the organization.

Here Are Some Disadvantages

Diversity has multiple challenges in the workplace, such as communication and cultural differences at the workplace.
Individuals may have less energy to contribute as they spend most of their energies in coping with an alien environment.
They may look at the differences but not the similarities.

Challenges For Diversified Leaders

Diversity is a gift from God without which our lives would be boring. God created people differently to add excitement and enthusiasm among the people.

We shall now look at a few of the challenges for diversified leaders.

It is very tough to please all, as people belong to diverse categories. Conflicts are bound to erupt due to differences, and it is a Herculean task for leaders. They need to reinvent themselves regularly in a dynamic global environment. They have to provide diversity training to the employees regularly. And to enable the same, the leaders must have rich experience in diversity to make the diversity process effective.

Diversity leaders must stay ahead of times and technologies. They must stay ahead of the game as well, which is possible through continuous learning and growth. They must

Never look at people with specific lenses. Sometimes they need to change their lenses. Therefore, flexibility in holding the lenses is essential.
Always look at the big picture.
Encourage second-rung leaders within the organization by bringing awareness about diversity.
Manage the anti-diversity employees constantly, continuously, and creatively because a bad apple can ruin the entire lot of good apples.
Praise the people who support diversity in public and correct them in private to ensure a successful diversity program.

Developing diversity is like developing soft skills among employees. It is easy to cultivate hard skills such as technical knowledge, domain knowledge, or core knowledge. However, it is highly challenging to develop soft skills as it totally depends on the personality, attitude, and behavior of the employees. It calls for the involvement of both formal and informal leadership as well.

One of the ways to develop diversity is to ask the employees to bring their own foods, like a potluck lunch, to share at the workplace, as it connects them emotionally as one family.

Educational institutions must foster diversity on the campus itself. For instance, business schools want to have the right mix of students globally in the classroom so that the students get to know one another and learn to appreciate the differences globally. They not only develop a global mindset but also develop tolerance and assimilation. People with different backgrounds think differently, resulting in many more ideas and insights into the issues, resulting in meaningful and realistic ideas.

The 21st Century Demands Diverse Leaders

The leaders who lead a diversified team successfully by recognizing, respecting, and appreciating the cultural, racial, ethnic, gender, and other backgrounds in the workplace and by connecting them with a common thread are known as diversity leaders. The 21st century demands diverse leaders who can lead from the front with openness, trust, confidence, and magnanimity.

To put it precisely, diversity leadership is the process of setting the vision, influencing the people, building teams with a diversified workforce, motivating them through trust and confidence with a global mindset, and aligning their energies and efforts towards organizational goals and objectives.

Dr. Martin Luther King demonstrated diversity leadership by championing for equality of blacks on par with whites, where people need to live together with diversity. It is diversity but with a limited perspective, i.e., from a color perspective.

If you want to become a diversity leader, you must be wedded truly to the principles and values of diversity. You must also check whether you have flair for it. You must be free and fair and should have respect towards others. You must demonstrate impeccable integrity and character.

Take initiative to grab opportunities to coach and mentor employees. You must know how to give sandwich feedback and must learn to accept criticism gracefully. You must be a visionary. You must build trust and confidence amongst your employees. Above all, you must be a good listener and problem solver.

Look For Similarities, Celebrate Differences

Technology and times have brought people together under one roof. Therefore, it is essential to gel well with others to ensure workplace survival and success. It is time to recognize, learn, understand, and appreciate others' cultures, languages, ethnicities, and races in the larger interests of individuals as well as institutions.

The days of looking through the lenses of cultural, racial, regional, or national background are over. Now these are the days of ‘perform or perish’. Businesses never look at your cultural, racial, linguistic, regional, or national background. They fundamentally look at your work and performance and the value you add to them.

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“Things You Don’t Know about Professor M. S. Rao” http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2015/10/things-you-dont-know-about-professor-m.html

Read my ‘Vision 2030 One Million Global Leaders’ URL: http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2014/12/professor-m-s-raos-vision-2030-one_31.html

Life is great!

Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.

Founder of MSR Leadership Consultants, India

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/M.-S.-Rao/e/B00MB63BKM

Vision 2030: https://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/professormsrao

Substack: https://professormsrao.substack.com

X: http://twitter.com/professormsrao

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessorMSRao

Meta: https://www.facebook.com/Professor-MS-Rao-451516514937414

See the Light in You: https://www.amazon.com/See-Light-You-Spiritual-Mindfulness/dp/1949003132

Thanks for reading!

Kindly share your thoughts and comments below. I’m sure someone out there will find your story useful.

Sunday, 16 August 2026

How Can Women With Different Conflict Styles Work Together?—Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.—International Leadership Guru, The Father of “Soft Leadership” & 21st-Century Philosopher

When I administered a self-assessment questionnaire in 2011 to identify the conflict management styles of working executives in management education, three female students exhibited similar behavior—avoiding conflict. The total number of students was 14, of whom three were women executives. It is a strange finding to note that three women demonstrated their behavior by avoiding conflicts that automatically fall in the category of the Turtles. And strangely, their second priority in responses was to collaborate in resolving the conflicts, which sounded contradictory to me. In fact, it is always ideal to collaborate in resolving conflicts rather than avoiding them, as avoiding conflicts may result in a crisis in the latter part. I worked on this trigger as it may open new vistas in conflict management styles, especially from a gender perspective.

But before we discuss about the findings from these three women, it is essential to unfold various conflict management styles such as The Turtle, The Teddybear, The Shark, The Fox, and The Owl.

The Turtle Style: Turtles avoid challenges. They are submissive by nature and care for relationships. They feel like doormats. This style is to avoid conflicts when they are minor in nature. However, it is improper to avoid conflicts when they are major in nature. Most of the time, it is not advisable to avoid conflicts, as it might lead to a crisis. It is a style of playing safe and staying away from conflicts all the time. It is known as the lose-lose approach. The disadvantage of this style is that the conflicts remain unresolved.
The Teddy Bear Style: Teddy Bears emphasize relationships more and goals less. They are not assertive, but cooperative and accommodative. However, they stand up for a few things that are close to their heart. They strive for peace and harmony. This style is accommodating when people want to maintain amicable relations with others. It is a submissive style and a lose-win approach. Conflicts are resolved in this style, but people can be exploited in the future as they are more concerned about relationships.
The Shark Style: Sharks are one of the most feared creatures on earth. They are competitive in nature with a clear eye on their goals. They are autocratic, authoritative, impatient, and uncooperative, and intend to win by any means. They emphasize goals more and relationships less, as they have the least emotion. This style works when time is short, and there is a need to maintain confidentiality. It suits best during a crisis. Usually, defense organizations adopt this style. It is competitive, and it wants to win at the cost of others. It is an aggressive style. It is known as the win-lose approach. The advantage of this style is that there is a temporary win and the conflicts are resolved. The disadvantage is that there is resentment and hostility from the other side. At times, sharks win the battles but lose the wars in the long run.
The Fox Style: Foxes are clever, quick, energetic, and independent animals by nature. They are manipulators and deal-makers. They want to eat the cake and have it too, as they care for both goals and relationships. They don't lose focus on their goals for the sake of their relationships and vice versa. Since they are clever animals, they want others to lose so that they can also lose something to resolve the conflicts. It is win some-lose approach and is also known as the compromising approach. It is against the competing and controlling style. You can adopt this style when both the contending parties are equally strong, and nobody is prepared to give up. However, it is still not the ideal outcome, as the contending parties lose something to resolve the conflicts.
The Owl Style: Owls are intelligent birds. They believe in dialogue and discussion. They care for both goals and relations and strive for consensus and collaboration. They sympathize and empathize with others and work for a win-win situation. It is the ideal outcome where all contending parties are happy, as their interests are protected and conflicts are resolved. This style collaborates by taking the strengths of all parties. It is an assertive style, quite the opposite of the avoiding style. We can adopt this style when we have enough time to think through and arrive at a consensus. However, it is often difficult to reach this situation. Besides, it consumes a lot of time, effort, and energy.

The questions to address here are why the three women working executives first avoided the conflicts and subsequently collaborated to resolve their conflicts. Is there any specific behavior pattern women demonstrate when they are faced with conflicts? Is age a factor in avoiding and facing conflicts? Is the conflict management style gender-based and biased? It is time to address these questions.

Research reveals that men and women react to the same situation differently due to gender aspects. While facing conflicts also the way women respond is different from men. Women often try to avoid conflicts in their first attempt and then collaborate in their subsequent attempt to resolve conflicts once and for all, unlike men, who compete in their initial attempt and collaborate in their subsequent attempt. According to the findings and my observation and analysis from the assessment of these 14 management students, it reveals clearly that women often avoid conflicts initially. If conflicts are thrust upon them, they would take it forward and see to it that they are resolved through collaboration and consensus rather than competition, compromise, and accommodation.

Often, women can sustain pain without reflecting it externally, whereas men demonstrate it externally. Women are often assertive and good at emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills. They are better at soft skills than men. However, men tend to exhibit aggressiveness due to biological reasons. Women are good at multitasking, while men are not. Some gender behavioral gaps between men and women cannot be avoided and must be accepted while managing conflicts and, thus, ensuring interpersonal effectiveness. Hence, extensive research from a psychological perspective on gender basis in managing conflicts can throw more light on whey women avoid conflicts in their initial attempt.

References

https://www.amazon.com/Strategies-Build-Women-Leaders-Globally/dp/1949003108

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/tie.21990

Share if you care!

“Things You Don’t Know about Professor M. S. Rao” http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2015/10/things-you-dont-know-about-professor-m.html

Read my ‘Vision 2030 One Million Global Leaders’ URL: http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2014/12/professor-m-s-raos-vision-2030-one_31.html