Put down that invisibility cloak: you can have more impact AFTER retiring
One of the most common concerns I hear from professional services partners approaching retirement is their strong desire to keep doing work that matters.
Andrew (name and other identifying details have been changed) had been a senior partner in a leading law firm for the past two decades. Thanks to his many years of dedicated practice with the firm, he had an influential network of leaders from all across Australia and globally.
Andrew was particularly committed to environmental issues. He had found it intensely rewarding to act in matters for various renewable energy providers, as well as acting pro bono for a prominent social enterprise in the sector. He had also contributed by encouraging his firm to sponsor various environmental initiatives, by chairing the firm’s environment committee, speaking at high profile events, and by encouraging involvement and contributions from others in his network.
With Andrew’s retirement from the firm 18 months away, he was worried that his ability to have such a meaningful impact would evaporate. Like most of us, he derived great satisfaction from being able to make a difference in the world in ways which mattered to him. In his quieter moments, he would admit to me that the thought of this slipping away was causing him some distress and sleepless nights. He felt he would become invisible, unseen and unheard, obsolete. Andrew was suffering from a bad case of what I call “Brick Wall in the Road Syndrome”.
When Andrew tried to envision his life beyond retirement from the firm, he drew a blank.
I see this a lot with my clients. It was as though he had been cruising down a bright, wide, well-signposted highway… for thirty years. He’s used to it. He’s extremely smart, accomplished… and accustomed to the highway as he sees it. The idea that there will be a new road, with new signs and new rules, can be literally mind-boggling. The cognitive wall goes up – boom – and life beyond retirement day becomes inconceivable, which becomes unsettling when you’re zooming towards it at speed. Whenever Andrew tried to think constructively about his retirement plans, he would feel a wave of dread and quickly divert his attention to his more pressing day-to-day concerns.
During one of our coaching conversations, Andrew used a thought-experiment to play with this idea of the wall. He imagined that it was instead a large “Welcome” sign by the highway. Rather than blocking his way, the sign simply marked his passage into a fresh, but largely similar, territory. Rather than being a completely new road with new signs and new rules, it was the same road, and he still knew how to drive on it.
This was, in fact, closer to the truth. Andrew’s network would still exist on the Monday after his retirement party. His firm was supportive and that support would remain. His deep knowledge of the renewables sector would still exist. His capacity to contribute to causes that matter to him would still exist. In fact, it would likely increase once he was no longer limited by the firm’s policies and became free to involve himself with whichever organisation he chose.
Andrew created a project plan. He identified the ways in which he wanted to be having an impact on the world up to, and five years beyond, his retirement from the firm. He then identified the key relationships and experiences he wanted in place for that vision to become a reality, and set out a timeline for making them happen. Importantly, that timeline stretched from his present day to well past “retirement” and he found himself shifting from denial of the shift, through acceptance to an excited anticipation of what he would be able to achieve.
Retirement from a long, successful career with a firm to which you have given immeasurable mental, emotional and physical energy over decades is, without doubt, a massively significant event in the course of your life.
There will be pride, grief, joy, uncertainty, confusion, happiness, frustration, fear, excitement… all of it. Your retirement should be honoured as the significant event that it is.
Life after retirement will also, without doubt, be different. But “different” doesn’t have to mean “less” or “worse”. In fact, with courage, insight, planning and enthusiasm, it can most certainly become much “more” and significantly “better”.
I work with clients from executive leadership teams to the front line, helping them to 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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Madeleine Shaw