The post-experience trap

I’ve recently started a new role, reporting to a manager who is twenty years younger than me.

And here’s the thing: it works beautifully.

She brings deep industry knowledge. I bring decades of transformation across industries. We respect each other’s strengths, we challenge each other, and she’s refreshingly unafraid of my experience. I admire her for it.

It never crossed my mind that I’d have a problem reporting to someone younger. Why would it? But I’ve seen the discomfort flow the other way—leaders uneasy about managing someone older than themselves. And that’s where the real problem lies.

When you let bias or insecurity drive how you lead, you miss out. You miss out on building extraordinary teams that balance deep experience with new energy. You miss out on the growth that comes from leading people who know things you don’t. And you miss out on becoming a stronger leader yourself.

This has been on my mind because of a conversation I stumbled into recently. A marketing leader with big-brand credentials defended her decision to hire without regard for experience. Her argument was simple: people without experience are freer, hungrier, more creative, and willing to work harder.

It stopped me cold.

Not because I hadn’t heard versions of this argument before, but because of how loud and proud it was. It wasn’t whispered bias or quiet preference—it was a blunt dismissal of the value of experience, loudly applauded by others in the thread.

Let’s decode that, though. “Freer, hungrier, more creative, willing to work harder” is often leadership shorthand for cheaper, more compliant, less likely to push back.

And if compliance is what you want, then say that. But don’t pretend it’s innovation.

Because experience is not baggage. Experience is adaptability.

We live in a strange post-experience moment, where some leaders argue that years in the field don’t matter. But look at what those years have contained. We’ve lived through the shift from analog to digital, the dot‑com boom, globalization, the rise of social media, the financial crisis, the move from print to mobile, and now the explosion of AI. Industries have been created, destroyed, and rebuilt. Consumer expectations have flipped overnight. Business models have collapsed and re‑emerged. Work itself has been reinvented more than once.

Anyone who has lasted through all of that hasn’t stood still. We’ve adapted, learned, unlearned, and learned again. We’ve made judgment calls without playbooks. We’ve carried people through uncertainty. That is what experience actually looks like: not rigidity, but constant reinvention.

And here’s the part too many avoid saying: “experience” is often code for higher salaries, stronger opinions, and the confidence to challenge bad ideas. In other words, people who cost more and won’t simply comply. Leaders say they want adaptability, but then dismiss the very people who’ve proven they can adapt. That’s the contradiction: the very qualities leaders claim to prize are the ones they undervalue when they come wrapped in years of practice.

Which brings me back to my own work today.

I love reporting to a younger manager. She’s sharp, she’s bold, and she’s confident in her own expertise. She has a little sass to her (in the best way), and she is in no way intimidated by my experience. She doesn’t see it as a threat — she sees it as an asset.

That makes all the difference. Because when both sides bring curiosity instead of defensiveness, when both sides are secure enough in what they know, the age difference becomes irrelevant. The work is what matters.

And the work is better for it.

Leadership isn’t about age. It’s about attitude.

It’s about whether you let insecurity and bias shape your decisions, or whether you create space for different kinds of intelligence to work together. It’s about whether you build teams that balance deep experience with new energy, or whether you default to what feels safe.

The strongest leaders I know are the ones who welcome both. Who understand that creativity doesn’t vanish with tenure, and that perspective doesn’t cancel out innovation.

Experience paired with openness doesn’t hold teams back. It pushes them forward.

So I’ll leave you with this: have you, knowingly or not, fallen into the post‑experience trap? And what would it mean for your leadership if you challenged that bias head‑on?

The future will belong to those who can hold both experience and fresh perspective without bias. That’s the real future of leadership.