Common mistakes that smart partners make as retirement approaches, and what to do instead
With the right planning, the years up to and beyond retirement to a fulfilling encore career can be engaging, rewarding… and fun.
Yet, here’s four common mistakes that smart, focused partners can make as retirement approaches – and what to do instead.
1. Ignoring the issue
Whether or not your firm mandates a retirement age, you will be retiring at some point. It’s a reality. But, it can be a confronting reality, bringing up all sorts of questions you might prefer not to have to face just yet. And, you’re very much not out the door. You’re still here, still successful and that means you’re busy with actual work.
Starting the work of preparing to leave the firm involves quite a change in gear from the working habits you’ve had until now. It’s very easy to keep putting off dealing with retirement until “later” and instead focus on what you do well.
But pretending it won’t happen doesn’t mean it won’t happen. Avoiding reality puts you in the passenger seat of the process.
Instead, accept reality and get into the driver’s seat, just as you do with the rest of your practice.
2. Waiting too long
A common mistake is underestimating the time it will take to get a great transition plan happening.
If you wait until six months, three months, or worse – only weeks – before you’re due to go, you lose control. The momentum will get away from you – announcements, client handovers, planning for your next steps.
Ideally, start the planning process two to three years before you think you’ll be moving on. Visualise how you want your life to look 5 or 10 years after finishing with the firm. Then work back to now and begin taking action.
Do you want to do any skills training (such as in company directorship, for example)?
Will you start contacting your network about possible roles or collaborations?
How much of your year do you want to spend working, travelling, pursuing other interests?
The clearer you can be about what you’ll be doing in the years following “retirement day”, the less significance the day itself holds. It is important, but also becomes just another step along your interesting path.
3. Driving your colleagues crazy
Remember when you were a junior partner coming through? You knew perfectly well which senior partners were likely to (or “should”) retire, and it drove you crazy when they refused to budge, held tightly to the best work, blocked opportunities for new people to come through, and responded angrily to the suggestion that things might change.
Now, you’re that senior partner … so it’s your chance to do things better. Budge. Begin to hand over the best work. Open up opportunities for new people to come through. A thriving practice, beautifully handed along to the next generation, is a wonderful legacy.
4. Going it alone
This is hard stuff. Keeping it all bottled up is a mistake.
Talking to trusted people about what you’re thinking is enormously helpful. Find those people – your partner, a good friend, a trusted colleague, your financial adviser and independent services (such as Beyond Blue) or of course, an excellent coach! Having a private, confidential and independent sounding board as you build and implement your transition plan makes all the difference.
Madeleine Shaw
I work with clients from executive leadership teams to the front line, helping them:
Make clearer decisions about what they want, and
Adapt faster and more easily to change and transition.
I use deep purpose as a key to unlock powerful thriving in work and life.
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