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Instead of viewing retirement as an end-point in itself,
we need to begin thinking of retirement as a series
of developmental steps taken by individuals on an ongoing
basis. Retirement today needs to be seen as more a journey
than a destination. In order to more effectively participate
in this journey, retirees need to learn new skills and
competencies well before they begin their retirement
experience.
Over the past thirteen years, I worked as a Practice
Management Advisor for the New York State Bar Association,
and during that period of time, I had the pleasure of
working with hundreds of senior attorneys in developing
Exit or Retirement Plans for themselves
and for other key partners and shareholders. Today's
more highly educated, accomplished, and affluent pre-retirees
are simply looking to find more personal PURPOSE in
their lives than they ever had before. They want something
new, something different, perhaps something novel, and
certainly something interesting at deep personal levels.
The traditional meaning of retirement is a single
event – “withdrawal” from the workforce
into leisure, relaxation, a slide into the end of life.
Webster’s Dictionary defines retirement
as “removal or withdrawal from an office or active
service; to seek privacy or seclusion.” The word
retire comes from the French word retirer
meaning “to withdraw,” the same root “martyr”
comes from. The dictionary often has trouble keeping
up with society’s changing definitions of nomenclature,
but also perhaps, not only should retirement be redefined,
but also indeed the whole notion of age needs to be
reviewed.
The Question of Age and Phased Retirement
Research from Retirementoptions.com,
a training organization devoted to pre-retirement planning,
indicates that a new career developmental stage is emerging,
which they call the "Renewal stage." The Renewal
stage starts about the mid 50s and lasts well into the
70s. The Renewal stage can be a time of great personal
growth and development, or it can degenerate into just
the opposite. The transition we call retirement is actually
the beginning of a new career/life stage called RENEWAL.
The key to success in this Renewal Stage is how well
a person prepares for it. Today, I can only hope to
convince readers that, at some point in your career,
you will need to take active steps towards developing
your own Exit or Retirement Plan.
The Renewal Stage is a time when individuals begin
taking a much more personal approach to living. They
are more free to ask themselves what they want, free
for the most part from former family obligations, free
from the press of having to climb the ladder of success.
The Renewal stage is a time when even "hard-chargers"
re-evaluate how they live their lives. They don't have
to prove to anyone what they're made of. Now they only
have to answer to their own needs, their own impulses,
their own calling, and their own passion. That's really
what renewal is all about ... pursuing your passion,
your dream, your own goal—not someone else's.
Congress has repealed the Social Security “earnings
test” for people 65 or older, yet at the same
time, government data shows that the percentage of people
over 65 who are in the workforce has been rising since
the mid 1990s, after decades of decline. In 2001, it
was 12.8 percent, higher than anytime since 1979. The
mandatory retirement age has all but been eliminated,
but many partnership agreements in force today, include
clauses that require senior partners to begin a retirement
process once they reach a certain age. In most cases,
compensation is adjusted downward proportionately.
In 2001, the American Productivity and Quality Center
(APQC), a consortium that focused on identifying business
best practices and innovative methods of transferring
those methods, explored links between succession management
and company leadership development process. The study
pointed out that if economic growth continues at a modest
2 percent for the next decade and a half, this would
result in the need for a third more senior leaders than
there are today. Yet the supply of the age cohort that
has traditionally entrance into the executive rankings
(35 to 44 year olds) is actually declining in the U.S.
and will have dropped by 15 percent between 2000 and
2015 because of the differences in the size of the Baby
Boom generation and the much smaller Generation X. So,
law firm strategists have to wonder where this talent
pool of endless reserves will be found.
Today's retirees generally aren't looking to fade away.
They want to find fulfilling activities, they want enriching
endeavors. Certainly they want to leisure... at times,
and they naturally want to have fun. But, contrary to
the popular media view of retirement, the most important
thing persons anticipating retirement are looking for
is their own fulfillment...their own sense of purpose
and meaning.
Studies show that the majority of retirees work for
pleasure, mental stimulation, and personal fulfillment.
In the Cornell Retirement and Well-Being Study, 44 percent
of retirees say they work for pay at some point after
their careers. The most popular reason for returning
to work (89 percent) was to keep active, not financial
need. Innovative law firms are beginning to look towards
their senior partners to see how they might be able
to help the firm solve one of the greatest leadership
challenges the firm will be facing in the years ahead.
Ensuring an adequate supply of qualified leaders will
separate successful firms from the others.
Age does not miraculously give anyone the requisite
tools, competencies, knowledge, and attitudinal shifts
to ensure that retirement will proceed smoothly. The
average retirement age has declined from around 65,
some fifteen years ago, to around 58 today. At the same
time, people are living longer. Males today can expect
to live an average of 72-½ years, while females
will live almost five years beyond that. Eighty percent
of baby boomers say they want to work in retirement,
and three million of these baby boomers are expected
to live to be 100 years old.
Today, there are 40 million people 65 and over (14
percent of the population), in 2030 there will be a
whopping 70 million people (20 percent of the population)
in this age bracket. People over the age of 85 are the
fastest growing age group. Could it be that the same
senior partners that many firms are now looking to sunset
may become the untapped resources firms will need to
lead the talent pool of the future?
The Law Firms Role in Retirement Planning
Dr. Phyllis Moan, Director of the Cornell Employment
and Family Career Institute at Cornell University, who
has studied couple’s retirement traditions says,
“We plan our careers, but we don’t plan
our retirement.” Once you leave full-time law
practice, you may need time and possibly support as
you move away from the external, material, achievement
definition of self, toward the more personal, intimate
and, for many, the spiritual definition of self. The
journey from full-time work to full-time retirement
in its traditional sense may take years to accomplish.
If retirement is seen as a new journey, a path full
of challenges and opportunities that individuals may
begin in their mid-fifties, increasingly, law firms
will need to get involved in directly helping senior
partners as they work through this planning process.
With the proper planning, retirement should hold up
as a new prospect of growth for you, your loved ones,
and your law firm.
For years, David H. Maister, widely considered one
of the world's leading authorities on the management
of professional service firms, has been promoting skilled
managers and team leaders whose job it is to manage
the team and coach the individual players. In David
H. Maister ‘s book Practice What You Preach,
he shows (statistically) that success in professional
business actually returns greater profits to the firms
that provide coaching to individuals than firms that
provide no coaching or mentoring.
The phenomenon sometimes called phased retirement
is becoming increasingly more common among all many
white-collar professionals. Increasingly, professional
service firms are turning to retirement coaches or mentors
to help senior partners set retirement goals and exit
strategies. As a rule, Retirement Plans include
both long-term goals (e.g., to continue working three-days
a week for two more years) and the more immediate performance
goals that move lawyers toward those long-term goals
(e.g., to transition ten of my clients to younger partners
in the next thirty-days).
An ever-increasing number of professional coaches are
being brought in to work with sole practitioners and
senior partners in firms of all sizes. Research shows
that individuals who are able to set goals for themselves
that are Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Realistic,
and Time-limited (SMART) are much more
successful in achieving what they wished to accomplish.
When the goals are for the individual’s own benefit,
motivation increases, and success of the relationship
is assured.
Persons approaching their first retirement transition
need exactly the same process of self-analysis and sound
consultation that they would receive from a competent
career consultant if they were going through a job change.
Time to work on such a plan is very hard to do with
other responsibilities in a busy law practice. As job
changers need to generate their career options in a
clear and understandable way, so too, pre-retirees need
the same "options generation" process but
with slightly different content, slightly different
goals, and an entirely different purpose. That's exactly
what persons approaching retirement at any age need
... they need OPTIONS.
Throughout the country, coaching has achieved wide
spread recognition as being of value, relevance and
importance in business, and we are now beginning to
see increasing numbers of independent coaches working
in the legal marketplace. Innovative law firms are now
beginning to offer senior partners assistance in finalizing
retirement plans through the use of outside coaches,
who have specialized in retirement planning.
T he coaching engagement is generally provided through
a series of confidential telephone consultations made
over a period of three to six-months. Individual attorneys
can invest in retirement coaching on their own; however,
there are a number of benefits law firm can get from
extending coaching as a pre-retirement benefit. The
number one benefit to law firms is from helping the
senior people who built the firm determine how they
might want to continue to be involved with the firm
in the future.
Stephen P. Gallagher, president of
Leadershipcoach.us, an executive coaching firm that
works with attorneys, practice group leaders, and “high
potential” individuals to develop exit strategies
and Retirement Plans. Gallagher also works with management
teams to help firms adapt to change, build a sustainable,
more profitable law practice, that will support individuals
in working less hours and thus achieving balance in
your professional and personal life.
Reference:
Johnson, Richard P. Creating a Successful Retirement:
Finding Peace and Purpose (Liguori, MO: Liguori
Publication, 1999).
Leider, Richard J. The Power of Purpose: Creating
Meaning in Your Life and Work (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler
Publishing, Inc., 1997).
Sedlar, Jeri and Rick Miner Don’t Retire,
REWIRE: 5 Steps to Fulfilling Work That Fuels Your Passion,
Suits Your Personality, Or Fills Your Pocket (Indiana:
Alpha Books, 2003), p. xiii
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