Leveraging your passion for a rewarding final career stage

In the final part of my series on Career Rocket Fuel, I detail a plan for the last stages of your work life, designed with how to successfully wrap-up a fulfilling career.

STAGE 3: PASS THE TORCH

• Succession
• Tribal Wisdom
• Teach
• Mentor
• Stay Fresh

Traditionally, the last years of a career were marked by a distinct fall-off (Retirement Day) or a sad drift. In my view, the third stage of a career can be exceptionally fulfilling and enduring. But it takes the right mindset and expectations and preparation.

The purpose of Stage 3 is to pass the torch: closing the loop on succession planning and evolving from a doing/leading role to an advisory/contributory role.

This is where the student becomes the teacher and the mentee becomes the mentor and the leader becomes the valued contributor.

Succession: How do I equip the next generation in my company to succeed? This can range from a simple, thoughtful hand-off of duties and lessons learned to a much more formal hand-over of leadership or ownership.

Consultancy and paid advisory boards: Consulting jobs and board appointments can be great Stage 3 gigs if you can get them. But you need to have laid the tracks in Stage 2 to get asked. These roles are in hot demand now as Boomers age out of the traditional workforce in record numbers. The tight competition brings us back to that rude eBay question: "Are you now skilled and connected enough that someone would bid for you?" Nobody owes you a paid consultancy or Board position. You need to earn it.

Teaching: To me, teaching is a critical part of a rewarding Stage 3 experience. Think broadly about what you know and who you could teach. You can aim as loftily as a college professorship or as down-to-earth as tutoring local kids to read. Adult schools offer hundreds of courses in business, the arts, languages, life skills, hobbies and crafts. What tribal wisdom do you have to pass along?

Community: Recent retirees often talk about their hopes of "sitting on a few community Boards," but they are startled to find how competitive and demanding these roles can be. Frankly, I wouldn’t want someone on my Board who wants to sit around and preside. But I would welcome a volunteer who says they want to "contribute to this exciting mission." You need to be productive. Do things. Contribute, or you won’t be asked back.

To be effective in Stage 3 you must stay fresh and relevant. People value history, but only to the extent that it informs present-day conditions and challenges. If you don’t stay at least broadly informed and relevant, don’t expect people to listen to you. And certainly not to hire you. Staying relevant is part of your job in Stage 3.

YOUR TIME PORTFOLIO: HOW DO YOU INVEST IN YOU?

If you ask a skilled financial advisor how to get the best yield out your investments over the long haul, they’ll tell you that asset allocation is the key. Are you investing in the right kinds of things at the right time—stocks, bonds, commodities, etc.

The same in true of careers, but the question is how do you invest your time?

The pie charts shown below are based on real examples for myself and other executives I know. Conveniently, there are about 100 waking hours in the average week, so it’s easy for you to do this exercise, too.

I classified my 100 hours into broad categories like Work, Family, Health & Wellness, Teaching & Learning, Community. It’s not critical that you use exactly the same categories or that you have precise hourly estimates. Do it for a few people you know, and you’ll get the point.

This first pie chart is me in my early 30s. This is pretty reflective of me in Stage 1. I was an up and coming executive at Ogilvy Canada. I was married, with two young children.

WORK—60%. Like lots of my peers, I worked hard. I could do 80 hours a week for a short burst if I absolutely needed to, but found that I maxed out at 60 hours per week on a sustained basis

FAMILY—about 20%. This included a few hours a day with the kids at bedtime and some family activities on the weekend. Not exactly Dad-of-the-Year stuff, but Child Services was never called!

CHILLING WITH FRIENDS—10%. The occasional dinner out and some weekly zombie time, usually in front of the TV.

HEALTH & WELLNESS—5% In my 30s I joined a gym and reactivated my beer-league hockey career.

COMMUNITY—2%. Minimal volunteer service. I started to get involved with a local charity: Goodwill Industries.

LEARNING & TEACHING—maybe 3%. I did a few industry lectures a year plus some training at work.

For contrast, Chart #2 is me in my 50s.

WORK in a traditional sense is now down to 45%, but as discussed below I have re-invested a lot of my work time into teaching and advisory activities. So I still put in about 60 hours a week, but the nature of the work is quite different

FAMILY time is down a touch as my wife and I are now empty-nesters. Family time is now often focused around travel together.

CHILLING is steady at 10%. I still need my down time and zombie time. In addition to time socializing with friends, my chilling time now includes playing a guitar—often while watching really bad television.

TEACHING & LEARNING is the big change as training, mentoring, lecturing and a range of industry and advisory board roles now takes up to 20% of my time. It also includes an active learning component, which is an important dimension. For me, every Saturday morning begins at 8:30 am with a guitar lesson. It’s hard to think of work when you are playing Hendrix.

HEALTH & WELLNESS is steady at 5%. A few trips to the gym and Sunday night hockey are a critical part of my weekly balance.

COMMUNITY plays a bigger role in my fifties than before. There are a few organizations where I like the people and the mission, and feel I can contribute in some meaningful way. I use non-work for energy. To me it’s the vitamins and nourishment that keeps me going.

Remember this: All work, all the time is a recipe for burn-out. It’s like a severely monotonous diet. I really like chicken. But eating only chicken all the time would make me very tired and angry. The same is true of work. At least some change of pace is needed for inspiration and refreshment.

Below is a time portfolio for a very talented colleague of mine in his thirties. He worked incredibly hard—not just occasionally but all the time. He barely had time for his young family. He tried to meet with friends, but often had to cancel "because I’m too busy with work." He let his cycling and photography lapse, again citing work reasons. This executive burned out at forty, was unemployed for almost two years and suffered a near breakdown. I believe that the lack of diversity in his time portfolio was a clear contributing factor.

FINAL THOUGHTS ON CAREERS

If you are like most people, you spend a lot of time stressing about work. Why not re-invest some of this time and effort into periodically thinking about your career strategy and pathway. Do your basic career math. Take inventory of the transportable skills that you have already acquired, and the ones you will need to propel yourself forward. Talk to your bosses, and at least one trusted advisor. Begin to define your sweet spot, and how to evoke your passions. Work out your time portfolio and think about how you are investing your precious time. Is it changing over time? Is it building new skills and relationships? Is it leading you somewhere better in your career?

Most of all, enjoy the long, long ride.

PAID JOBS I’VE DONE IN MY LIFE AND WHAT I LEARNED

Gardener: First job
The value of a dollar

Snow removal contractor
Montreal winters last forever

Window cleaner
Pricing by job, not by hour

House painter
The power of word-of-mouth referrals

Baby sitter
Responsibility

Dog sitter
Coping with allergies

Golf caddie
Customer service, stamina

Baseball umpire
Judgement, dealing with angry adults

Carpet salesman
Bundling products together

Door-to-door newspaper salesman
Overcoming fear of rejection

Dishwasher
Humility

Bartender
Customer empathy

Insurance accountant
GAAP accounting methods

Market researcher
Making data into insights

Whiskey barrel salesman
Advertising actually works

Marketing consultant
How to make clear recommendations

Exam invigilator
There’s money in compliance

College lecturer
Statistics and HR

President of a small company
How to budget and pay off bank loans

Brand manager
A brand is more than a product

Advertising executive
Stay very close to customers

Professional musician
There’s no money in rhythm guitar and blues harmonica

This is an excerpt from an article that was originally published on FastCompany.com