Watched a ‘classic rock’ band Friday night. Pretty good-couldn’t stay for the whole gig. One song stood out.

“Here I am

On the road again”

Every morning I’m on the road at 5 after 4. Yup-4 o’dark, when even the birds have enough sense to have their heads tucked under their wings.  Every day, heading off to a job that I pretty much enjoy.

“There I am

Up on the stage

Here I go

Playin’ the star again”

Every day is busy. I seem to attract people needing answers-‘Can you program the environmental chambers for our special project?’ ‘Can you help with our experiment?’ ‘Why doesn’t the program run?’-and explaining to new engineers why you can’t run power next to high impedance input. It’s fun, and I do like helping.

“There I go

turn the page”

And so the pages turn every day.  Except this week I realized-in the middle of one of the perpetual re-orgs that every American corporation believes in- that I had started a new chapter sometime ago.  It caught me off guard; I wasn’t expecting it. No, I didn’t lose my job or anything drastic.

I realized that I was no longer one of the cool kids, or the favored few.  I had become the Old Guard, the white haired wizards that have the answers but are not regarded as promotion worthy.  Young ‘Up & Comers’ are given the opportunities and groomed for their future roles as leaders. They appear almost out of nowhere, zooming in from the previous assignment, and now checking the box for this part of their training.

Most of the ‘Up & Comers’ are good, personable, deserving of the opportunity. They’re in every company; I’ve enjoyed the U&C’s I’ve worked with.  My job (should I choose to accept it) will be to mentor and help the U&C’s become the great leaders they can be.(this recording will self destruct in 10 seconds (sad-my cultural references are 50 years old!!))

In case you haven’t worked in the corporate world:

Cool Kids-skilled, intuitive, providers of solutions. Opportunities are seized for the enjoyment of solving problems.

Favored Few-seem to get promotions/job assignments out of sync with experience or ability.  Sometime this happens due to chance, other opinions are more in line with ‘boss’s favorite’.

Old Guard-experienced hands (white haired geezers) at development/technical issues. Will analyze before acting. Favorite motto “Accidents are just Unplanned Outcomes”. Beware – some Old Guard will analyze instead of acting.

Up & Comers-Could be boss’s nephew, could be someone with a lot of potential.  Only time will tell.

Time to ‘geezer’ off for the evening.

Turnin’ the page for the Good and True,

Billy Acre