Executive Coaching and Retirement Coaching

These two forms of coaching have more in common than the word “coach”. Let me explain.

When you are coached as an executive of a corporation, it’s not always in order to improve your skills on the job. Instead it’s often about better management of your behaviours and emotions at work; so that your interactions with peers, bosses, subordinates improve: all to make you a more effective employee.

On the other hand, when you are coached into retirement we don’t really talk about skills. Now the coach helps you to locate meaning in your life postwork. As a corollary this will help you to manage your behaviours and emotions better. Isn’t that a good thing, for you and family and friends?

I predict that, one day, companies will sponsor retirement coaching just as they do executive coaching. Why?

Because that will send a positive signal down the line to more junior employees. Namely that the company values its employees at all phases and times.

Retirement: You won’t know what it is like until you get there.

Lifelong learning

I didn’t know of this concept until recently. Here are some thoughts that I garnered from the internet.

1. What is it?

Lifelong learning is learning that is pursued throughout life - obviously. It has the characteristics of: flexibility, diversity and availability at different times and places. The emphasis is on learning to learn and the ability to keep learning for a lifetime.

2. What are its benefits for retired people?

There are several:

·      It might lead to involvement in voluntary activities and larger social networks;

·      Larger social networks and voluntary work are both associated with improved health;

·      Better health and increased participation in society can mean reduced healthcare costs                       and a greater individual contribution to society.

3. What are some of the outcomes?

Lifelong learning can instil creativity and resilience in people. This may enable them to show an increased ability to

·      Manage uncertainty

·      Communicate with others and build relationships;

·      Improve skills at negotiating conflict.

Retirement: You won’t know what it is like until you get there.

Choice and regret

In my February 18th post I quoted J.W. von Goethe the German writer.

The topic was about making choices in retirement. These choices I am thinking about are activities either for business or for pleasure.  But what if you lack the confidence to even commence. Well, Goethe had this to say:

“The moment one definitely commits oneself,  then…..all sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.”

An aspect of this could be that people will come forward to help you, in surprising ways. But, as a precondition for this you need to be clear on your meaning and purpose behind the activity. It will help them to help you.

I contend that meaning is everything in retirement.

Also, you shouldn’t feel endless regret about the choices you didn’t make, the paths you didn’t follow. To state the obvious, making a choice logically implies choosing NOT to do other things. Fact. So why stress and feel regret.

Experiment!

Retirement: You won’t know what it is like until you get there.

New beginnings

Suppose you have just retired, or are about to do so, and you want to try some new things in your life. These may be activities you have perhaps neglected or want to try for the first time. What will give you the confidence to even start?

A good question and one which the (now-hardly-ever-read) German sage Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was all over. He said; at least in an English translation; and I quote with freedom:

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative there is one elementary truth…..that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then…..all sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

Or, in plain English: commit to a new path and see how the universe will come to your aid and surprise you.

And if it doesn’t work out?

Try something else.

Retirement: You won’t know what it is like until you get there.

Predicting your future

I found this fascinating piece on the internet: let’s believe that it’s true for the moment.

There was a work of fiction called The Wreck of the Titan published in 1898. The author was an American called Morgan Robertson. The Titan was a large ocean liner.

The fate of the Titan was similar to that of the famous Titanic (which sank 14 years later) in many many ways, such as:

·      There were not enough lifeboats;

·      It sank in the North Atlantic;

·      It fatally hit an iceberg during the month of April, at night;

·      It had been described as unsinkable.

Let’s settle on calling this a coincidence, but also one based on Robertson’s understanding of the realities of ship travel at the time. What has it to do with retirement? Please stay with me as I develop my analogy, but this time as a story with a happy ending.

I will pose it as a question: are you able to “write the book” of your retirement and feel that you will pretty much predict a good outcome for yourself? In other words by thinking about the opportunities and risks that may/will present themselves postwork, can you figure out your own solution to what comes next in your life?

If so, this will be the opposite of a shipwreck!

More precisely, knowing more about your personal meaning in life postwork will assist you to move confidently to this next phase. A coach can help with this.

Retirement: You won’t know what it is like until you get there.

What does a famous writer do when he retires?

Here are two excerpts from an interview with Philip Roth.

Interviewer: Now that you’ve retired as a novelist, do you ever miss writing, or think about un-retiring?

Philip Roth: No, I don’t. That’s because the conditions that prompted me to stop writing fiction seven years ago haven’t changed. As I say in “Why Write?,” by 2010 I had “a strong suspicion that I’d done my best work and anything more would be inferior. I was by this time no longer in possession of the mental vitality or the verbal energy or the physical fitness needed to mount and sustain a large creative attack of any duration on a complex structure as demanding as a novel.... Every talent has its terms — its nature, its scope, its force; also its term, a tenure, a life span.... Not everyone can be fruitful forever.

Interviewer: Before you were retired, you were famous for putting in long, long days. Now that you’ve stopped writing, what do you do with all that free time?

Philip Roth: I read — strangely or not so strangely, very little fiction. I spent my whole working life reading fiction, teaching fiction, studying fiction and writing fiction. I thought of little else until about seven years ago. Since then I’ve spent a good part of each day reading history, mainly American history but also modern European history. Reading has taken the place of writing, and constitutes the major part, the stimulus, of my thinking life.

Read the whole article at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/books/review/philip-roth-interview.html

An article where I was quoted in the Herald Careers section on Saturday

Dr Jon Glass is the first to admit that he's the type of person who fills his life with activities. So when, a few years ago in his early to mid 60s, he retired from a 30-year executive career he soon realised a twilight career was in order.

"I decided to set up a business helping people who were fully retired or semi-retired think through all the issues that come up in that context," says Glass, now founder of retirement coaching consultancy 64 Plus.

While retirement coaching isn't yet widely recognised, Glass believes it should be, given that retirement is one of life's major life transitions.

"Retirement is a massive opportunity. It's good to get someone to help you think through all the possible paths it could take," he says.

While Glass emphasises that retirement looks different for each individual, he knows he's not alone in one regard. Search Google for retirement images and you don't get the full story.

"You see a whole lot of images of grey-haired people on the beach at sunset, having a drink. Terrific, but I don't think that's retirement. I call that a holiday," he says.

How does it feel?

Retirement from work for some people entails an abrupt shift from work to nonwork; for others a gradual shift via the pathway of part-time work.

Suppose you are engaged in that gradual shift, via part-time work. What are some of the feelings you can have that might indicate that you are on your way to full retirement? Here are some potential signs:

·      You are losing track of time, deadlines having become less common

·      You no longer need to find free time, as it is “everywhere” in your life

·      You feel “retired”, which I admit is not a well-defined term!

·      You talk less about “we” when discussing your colleagues at work

The point I want to make is that you don’t need to sleepwalk into retirement. When these feelings come upon you it may be the time to talk to a coach.

Retirement: You won’t know what it is like until you get there.

A modest flow chart on retirement that may help

Here it is:

Ideas about ideas

The Italian Renaissance poet Ariosto, who is not well-known in the English-speaking world, was once asked by his patron Ippolito d’Este:Where did you find so many stories?

How is this relevant to coaching you ask, well that is also a good question. The essence of retirement coaching is for the client to find MEANING in his/her life, postwork. These problems are notoriously difficult to think through without some sort of help. Not impossible, but not easy.

The coach assists the client to generate ideas or stories that can help to define his/her future self. Where do these ideas come from? We don’t need to ask Ariosto or any other poet or writer, because there is a more widely-known model.

As professional investors know, you typically build a portfolio strategy around certain ideas, or stories, that concern stocks, bonds and other markets. These ideas and stories can be found through talking, discussing, reading. Then you sift through them for the most meaningful ideas and stories at that moment, analyse them and if - acceptable - action them.

So a retired person can locate suitable ideas and stories that relate to his/her MEANING by talking, discussing, reading - all under the watchful eye of a coach – sift for the best of them at that time; then put them into play.

Retirement: You won’t know what it is like until you get there.