The Foreign Service Journal, October 2012

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2012 49 how to manage them; age and generational differences are equally important to understand and overcome.) For mid- and senior-level employees, FSI’s leadership and managerial training courses can raise consciousness regarding the realities of man- aging newer employees. Over time veteran Foreign Service employees may come to realize that their younger colleagues’ work style is not only more appropriate to 2012 than traditional approaches, but perhaps even more to their own liking. In his seminal management book, Drive , Daniel Pink makes just this point when he identifies the elements of very satisfied employees: autonomy, mastery and purpose. For their part, younger employees may learn that they are most content when de-emphasizing themselves and putting mission and country ahead of their own preferences. And they may even see how older employees’ vast knowledge and war stories can help them with their own challenges. We can all learn how age is an asset when we let it unite us. n