Extended Careers and the Later-Career Phase: Winners in the Second Half

In ‘emerged’ markets around the globe, governments say they are desperate for us to keep working longer to delay depleting the already over-stretched pension funds. Economies urge us to continue to contribute to productivity for as long as we are capable and to counterbalance the steep decrease in younger participants entering the workplace due to demographic change. Businesses too are beginning to recognise that there is a looming talent shortage, and that individuals from 50 to 70, and even beyond, are physically capable and emotionally (and often financially) committed to working beyond traditional retirement age.
So why is it so hard to manage? And why are there still so few aspirational examples of what it should look like?

I first became interested in the topic of the extended career, particularly the later-career end of it, while I was a partner with one of the major global executive search firms. I knew all the statistics about the ‘baby boomers’ becoming eligible for retirement and the worrying ramifications of it. For example, NASA estimated that 45% of its senior and middle management are already entitled to retire, and that this figure will rise to 70% in two years’ time.¹

But what really intrigued me was the face-to-face human aspect of that. I was witnessing a trend: the successful executives who had sat in front of me in their 40s, sharing their 12-month, two-year and five-year plans, were turning into 50- and 60-somethings who had no idea what the future held for them. In many cases, their roles had plateaued and become unfulfilling, or they were anxious about being ousted in favour of a younger model. Retirement was holding little immediate appeal. They still very much wanted to continue working.

I wondered if the extended career is such an imperative, why aren’t the dots joining up? I developed a rather controversial theory: that it is actually harder for the average successful executive to work out and script what their ‘later’ period will look like (55-70+) than it is for the blue collar worker. That is a waste of good resources for any economy and a frustration for any knowledge worker.

That dilemma drew me to set up an organisation focused precisely on the issues of the later career, CGAcademy, and how to foster it, increase its productivity and attractiveness for all stakeholders. As a consequence, I wrote Winners in the Second², which through real-life examples, case studies and interviews, explores the obstacles and preconceptions involved, debates the various responsibilities concerned, and offers solutions and advice for both business and individuals.

Through my research I came up with four major findings which impact our ability to develop the right kind of rewarding and fruitful extended careers.

1. Age prejudice – it has two faces

Whenever I mention this step as part of a later-career discussion, most people’s first thought is about confronting age-ism in society. There is certainly deep-rooted age-ism as an external force to contend with. But, in many ways, the more damaging form of it is the age prejudice we carry about ourselves, which can form obstacles of our own making.

I always think it is curious to reflect that age-ism is the only prejudice that catches up with all of us. Anyone can be anti-women or homophobic in the happy certainty that they will never turn into what they hate, fear and disapprove of. For example, xenophobes are usually those who travel least and thus have least likelihood of being discriminated against as foreigners themselves, so they are most likely safe from experiencing the same prejudice against themselves.

Yet we all grow into the people about whom we once held those age-ist preconceptions – too often still carrying those, largely unconscious, stereotypes with us. In Winners in the Second Half, I record a number of stories in which those self-directed prejudices become self-limiting beliefs. It is the constant attrition of ‘Not at my age!’ and ‘I’m a bit old for….’, albeit usually said in a humorously self-effacing way, which hold otherwise successful and capable individuals back just as much as the overt age-discrimination of others towards them.

The insidiousness of that needs to be acknowledged by players in their later career. Thoughts and beliefs determine behaviour, which then influences the reactions of others. Age-related self-awareness should be an integral part of leadership development.

2. Continuous learning: why only up to a certain point?

Most successful organisations now realise the benefits of executive education. Yet the majority dedicate well under 10% of their total training budget to the over 50s. The picture in too many company cultures appears to be that once into the second half (i.e. 50+) of life one is no longer seen as an asset worthy of investment, but a cash cow to be milked until dry.

Good money is spent, and consequent solid ROI is achieved, on assisting quality performers to become expert at dealing with new situations, such as taking up one’s first people management responsibilities or dealing with technological or process change. Self-awareness and self-mastery are considered integral parts of a leading executive’s personal and management development. My contention is that this needs to be continued to those in later-career phases, so they can be better equipped to deal with the equally new phenomenon of an extended career.

Why? One of the most common complaints against older workers is that they become stale, less engaged and less productive. The corollary is that the most common complaint that older executives tend to make is that they feel they have reached a plateau, been sidelined from learning opportunities and interesting projects, and have lost their enthusiasm and drive as a result.³

Thoughtful development and/or coaching programmes designed to prepare and equip executive to cope with a plateau stage of career and re-engage their energies and focus go a long way to both dispelling such out-of-context fallacies about age and, more importantly, add to bottom line productivity and individual morale and commitment.

3. The last taboo

There is still a very distinct taboo around discussing age and daring to explore what is beyond the traditional career and retirement scenario. I have been called in a number of times by companies because they said they wanted to discuss issues around later career and transition among their management staff, but who very quickly talked themselves into believing that there was no problem at all because the older management staff did not agree that there was any.

The fact of the matter was that those in leadership who called us in were absolutely right. Their gut reaction about performance, engagement and anxiety about the future among their older senior team members was absolutely correct. Yet it was torpedoed by the very group that would have benefited. It can be hard for individuals in their later career to admit to anything that is not ‘mainstream’ or ‘the norm’. It is usually prompted by a fear that discussion might simply raise the unwelcome spectre of age-prejudice rather than an opportunity for genuine problem solving. Sadly, company cultures often reinforce this fear, thereby perpetuating the taboo and strangling the exploration of how to keep these good guys longer and performing more productively and happily.

Psychologically, for the leader at the top and those at any level of authority and power, there can be a concern about becoming like a ‘lame duck president’. In the case of a president, it is the fear that once it is known that there is only a short run up to the next election, their power base will evaporate and transfer allegiance to whomever looks as if they will take on the mantle next. At the emotional level, it can be anxiety that one is perceived to be about to drop into the retirement ‘abyss’ – when in actual fact the real discussion needs to be about alternatives to that.

In contrast, where I have come across in-house peer support groups, open to discussing obstacles, aspirations and alternatives for later career, the knock-on effects have been extremely positive. Not only do they achieve practical outcomes for themselves and the bottom line, but they tend to increase the overall attractiveness of the company culture to Generations X & Y too, which greatly value ongoing personal development, choice and transparency.

Since specialising in this area, I have lobbied hard to put later-career management on the business agenda as a way to encourage mutually rewarding extended careers. Yet I don’t believe that the business should bear all the responsibility for moving the theme forward. Executives, as leaders, should be prepared to come ‘out of the closet’ and take up the challenge on it too if new and attractive templates and role models are ever to be created.

4. Lack of role models versus greenfield opportunities

This is the two-edged sword about the later-career aspects of extended careers. Until the baby boomer generation, just approaching the 60s now, retirement tended to be grabbed as early as possible because life expectancy seldom exceeded the end of that decade. Physical frailty often impeded working ability too. Yet nowadays we are all likely to live on another 20, 30 even 40 years, most of it in robust health and fitness. Very simply, that explains why there are so few role models for what work ‘looks like’ from late-50s onwards.

One problem that creates, even for the most sophisticated, is that it is exceptionally hard to imagine something, let alone design policies for it, if you haven’t seen something relatively similar from which to extrapolate.

The flip side of that is that it offers the scope to create new opportunities for oneself and write new scripts for one’s professional life – with no ‘baggage’ or pre-conditioned responses. Some have stayed within the companies in which they have worked for many years, while moving into a different type of role and relationship. They describe how they coped with moving from a ladder perspective to an engagement or mastery mindset.

Others have become portfolio people, along the lines that Charles Handy prophesied. Much of the interest in their accounts centres on finding the right balance in terms of time, income, interest-level and meaning.

Another section have debunked the old misconception that later career is an ON-OFF button. That is, one either continues to work full-time (as normal) or simply retires. They have chosen to work part-time, take on project work or interim roles.

Then there are the ‘olderpreneurs’, one of the fastest growing as well as most stable and successful sectors among start-ups and small business. While some have a history of prior entrepreneurialism, a surprisingly large number have chosen to take part of a retirement lump sum or redundancy package after a long corporate career and invest it in their own business. In some cases this is as principals themselves, in others as highly hands-on members of an investor unit.

Personally, I find this last group a particularly fascinating phenomenon and an interesting one to monitor going forward. While many move into entrepreneurialism through choice and planning, there is no doubt that a very large number have taken this road by default, due to a lack of appealing opportunities within the corporate or even public sectors.

Conclusion

In summary, the extended career is of vital importance to global economies, businesses and individuals – yet it is not being given sufficient airtime, or practical encouragement. It is as if none of the stakeholders are yet willing enough to take responsibility for it. Yet if individuals, in leading influencing roles, do not start to voice their own demands for their own extended careers, they may well find themselves with neither the script they desire nor the power to change it.