Several topics were debated at the first biennial conference of the Aspen Junior Fellows Alumni, a group embodying a wealth of up-and-coming young talent already adept at conscientiously applying the ethos of Aspen Institute Italia from having taken part in the Aspen Junior Fellows initiative. The focus of the event was to discern, through the exchange of experiences and views, the challenges facing leaders of the future. These challenges were of keen interest to the participants considering that they are between 35 and 45 years old, the 10-year age bracket that marks the turning point in their professional growth towards positions of higher responsibility. In addition, the backdrop to this transition is a period of great change and uncertainty in scenarios and paradigms: it has become more complex to predict the results of one’s decisions, information and control over its dissemination is in the hands of fewer people, the workplace has become virtual (smart working), and the boundaries of ethics seem to have become blurred.
The conference proceedings were divided into two sessions. The first focused on comparing different professional experiences and drawing lessons from individual cases, ascertaining the limitations and strengths encountered, on a personal level as well as for the Italian or international context. In this regard, for instance, the significant experiences of highly-trained and professional Alumni members prompted a debate on how to foster a virtuous cycle in mobility from Italy to other countries and back again (that is, brain circulation vs. brain drain).
Another issue explored, which is increasingly the subject of discussions on the standard of modern and international leadership, was the ability to engage with diversity and turn it into a resource. It was noted that diversity can be internal and external to an organization, comes in many forms (including gender, cultural, values-based, and behavioral), and calls for an innovative approach characterized by an open mind and receptiveness. It was noted that gender equality has taken on particular significance, representing as it does an unresolved issue linked also to the value of and constraints on life balance, extending not only to the matter of childcare but also caring for parents. A range of varying solutions were proposed in respect of this issue, though there was consensus in recognizing that equality entails allowing everyone the same opportunities and hence options.
While the first session took stock of the supply of accumulated value and experience of Alumni members, the second session concerned their demand for the “resources” necessary to exercise values-based leadership, the cornerstone concept of The Aspen Institute. Questions were posed regarding which ethical principles should be a source of inspiration, which values should be considered universal and constant over time, and which have instead changed. The participants examined how to go about reconciling, in Machiavellian terms, virtue (skills and abilities) and fortune (external conditions) in an increasingly frantically-paced and uncertain age, how to strengthen the ability to forecast and anticipate through lifelong learning and the cultivation of interpersonal relationships, and how to go about shoring up the banks to contain rivers in full spate, to paraphrase the aforementioned Florentine philosopher.
It was observed that paradigms for the exercise of leadership based on hierarchy and control are giving way to shared leadership models, team-based structures, online exchanges of information (as opposed to a few decades ago), and integration between technical expertise and new soft skills. It was suggested that Kennedy’s ambitious new frontier, encapsulated in his statement “it is a time… for a new generation of leadership – new men to cope with new problems and new opportunities”, cannot be read as sweeping away the role of older leaders, but as following through on their contribution, albeit in new ways. The Alumni stressed that the metabolism of leadership entails its renewal and transformation. The participants pointed to the utility of the American civic and corporate catchphrase, namely, “Learn, earn, and serve”, which highlights that there is a time for training and development (learn), a time for reaping profit from it (earn), and a time to give back to society, in the form of service and care to others (serve). The young Alumni acknowledged the pivotal role played by their interactions with their teachers and, in general, were not in favor of traumatic dissociations, involving the breaking of contact or loss of mentors (in the Anglo-Saxon mold). Instead, they joined in declaring that they support networks as a key strengthening factor, cultivate and affirm non-negotiable principles through coherent actions, use their skills responsibly and are accountable, and seek to foster – through greater teamwork than in the past – a trajectory (with the corollary objectives) aimed at creating shared economic but also social value.