Why Your 60’s Can Be Your Best Years in Business!!

When I wrote my other LinkedIn Post about "Advice I would give to women in their 40s" - the response from all you 40 year olds was wonderful.? As I look back, I can remember how daunting the age of 60 was to me when I was in my 40's.??

I'm 66 years old and feel like I'm 30!!!? What am I to do with all this aging-gracefully energy? ? I believe and know that being in my 60's is not the "end" of anything, it is not only a time for me to 'harvest' what I've planted.?It is time for me to harvest, reinvest and leverage resources to drive massive impact at scale. Yes!!!

At my age, if you have done effective financial planning, you are living off of your interest that accumulated due to your wise investments.? Your money is making money.?

You may decide to serve on boards, or start that company you always dreamed about.? You have the freedom to keep making new money, but it is your wisdom, professional experience and knowledge that is providing a jumping off platform for you, and is helping you win in new ways, with time and flexibility as freedoms that you didn't quite have before.??

At 60 you know you are still living a good life, a winning life, an extraordinary life, an unapologetic life? ? But someone recently told me there is a perceived difference in how the sexes age --Men are perceived to age well, like a fine wine.? Women, on the other hand, are perceived to age like a banana. ? I aint no banana, and neither are you!!

But how old, is too old to lead, and to keep making a difference?

I retired from corporate America 5 years ago, with no plan to ride off into the sunset,? disappear and eat my harvest, but rather to exercise my financial freedom to really dig into achieving my purpose - "teaching wisdom to the world."??

The age topic or ageism? has been around for years.? Whether a 40 year old actress should play a young love interest, or does she need to play the grandmother??

?Whether a person can run for president in their 70's or 80's.

This topic is also playing out in board rooms around the world.? Many public boards historically expect board members to retire, or step down at 70, but many boards are extending that age to 73, or 75 now.?

While that creates a challenge for new people to join boards, due to lowered turnover, it provides companies with the longevity of experience needed to weather some of the challenges with supply chain disruption, advising the CEO, dealing with activist investors, or geopolitical tensions, or human capital challenges.??

I am discovering that my 60's are my best year in business and I'm not too old to lead or make a difference.? Why?

Overall, I have sufficient money to live on, don't have the day to day expectations or microaggressions? placed on me anymore, and am able to set my pace, my north star, my plan of action,? and can execute, or not, if I want. ?

My learnings that I have gathered over 45 years in business are coming home to roost and I am using them across the spectrum from coaching others, investing in small businesses, running my own business, speaking around the country, driving transformation in my church, and more.

In order to really let YOUR? 60's be the best years in business, you should seek to be "FORTIFIED AT FORTY-FIVE!!! "? In other words, the? foundation of? your life? should be as strong as possible as early as possible, because whatever you are at 40, plus or minus, is who you will be at 60+.

If I had to prioritize the top 3 focus areas at my 40's, they would be:??

1) HEALTH. ??It starts now.?

Making a decision to be healthy, live longer and feel better is on you!? When you don't have your health you don't have much.?

There are basically? two things you can do with your health, 1) prevention or 2) detection/correction--- prevent an illness, or detect it so you can correct it. (remember the quote ' an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure')? ?

My goal is to do as much prevention as possible, and minimize my chances of needing to do correction. ? If correction is required (ie surgical intervention, meds, therapy, etc) it is better to detect? early, so there is a stronger likelihood of a positive prognosis.?

By the way, if? you carry this mindset into the other aspects of your life - your career, your child's school behavior patterns, your marriage or love relationships, your home maintenance, etc. you will see the pattern and prevent bigger problems there too!

?As we age, the way we age depends on the baseline from which we start and how we manage the movement up, or the movement down. ? I have high blood pressure, inherited it from my mom.?

As much as I believe in prevention, was I able to prevent getting it?? I'm not sure--but if I never found out that I had high blood pressure until I was my current age of 66, my starting baseline for improving might? be a higher number than it would have been if I had known my bp at 40, or 50.?

And as it likely gets higher in each decade, just imagine what my undiscovered blood pressure would be today at 66!

DO THIS:? Everything you do regarding your health should start with a baseline measurement.?

Your weight, your blood glucose levels, your BMI, your bones, feet , teeth, moles on your skin, your prostate, everything!.? You also have the power to look at your body every week and check it over for anomalies.? As they say at the airport -- " If you see something say something"? to your doctor. ? Get fortified now!?

For healthy weight, if you have to choose between working out and eating--eating will help you lose weight more than working out will. ? (Yes, I do both, but when I can't get to the gym, I'm intermittently fasting).?

So don't think going to the gym for 30 minutes will help your weight.? It will help you heart rate, or your agility etc, but eating in accordance with how your body best metabolizes proteins and carbs will get your weight down faster than anything.??

?Also spiritual, mental and emotional health often take a back seat to the physical aspects of health.? Why?? Perhaps because we don’t always focus on our spiritual health, nor do we see our emotions or our mind as we see our physical body. ?

But just as your physical health can help? or deter your ability to get things done;? your mind, and emotional responses to stimuli are part of the overall healthy person equation and can determine how successful you will be.? Ensure you assess your own mental health and ensure it is in line with what should be normal for you. ? Your body & mind need? to be able to take you well into your 90s.??

2) Don't Let Bias Win / Win With Office Politics. ?

Senior women in the workplace can face a double challenge in the workplace, navigating both racial and/or gender bias, micro aggressions, imposter syndrome, inequities and more.? ? Consider what I did to combat bias and not let it get the best of me:?

DO THIS:? First - recognize bias when you see or experience it.? Bias can be subtle or overt.? I encountered both overt bias and subtle bias--when it was subtle, it was just enough for me to know something was wrong, but not big enough for it to leave a 'trail'.?

I used my pattern recognition to see the pattern when a boss would seem to target me because I was different , and not because of my performance.? Sometimes a boss might use performance as the reason for their attitude towards me, but it would seem to be a standard of performance that wasn't required by others, but seemed to be required of me.?

So be cognizant of that --perhaps you may? become subject to stereotypes (strong women are - too aggressive, but strong men are --just fine) and you may seem to be "Too X, Too Y, or Too Z" --essentially you are everything except "Just Right".??

Recognition of bias is the first step to elimination, and you will not let others walk over you now, or ever again.??

THEN DO THIS:? Remember that the village has the answer--just need to connect with your village.?

Don't go it alone.? Your village should be as diverse as possible, each person playing a role suitable to help you with the diversity of challenges you may have.? There is someone in your village (maybe not your office) that has experienced bias.?

Seek them out, and create a strategy for what you can do.? Quit?? Play the game?? Use your sponsorships?? Use the start/stop/continue strategy?? There are multiple ways to win.??

Office Politics:? I may do a whole article on the topic of how to win in office politics, but let's touch it a little here.?

Office politics is a common way that biases can raise its head.? I remember stating a point in the middle of a senior mgt meeting.? 5- 10? minutes after I made the comment, a male peer made the same comment.?

The difference?? Noone seemed to notice when I said it, but when he said it, he darn near got a standing ovation!? I never saw this behavior between two men, and since I was the only woman in the room full of male senior leaders, it was easy to see/feel the pattern.?

This happened on more than one occasion, and I devised a strategy for when it happened again.?

When it happened again, I immediately but calmly said - "Thank you Jack for restating my point -- you got it right on, but? I would like to add another point and take it to the next level .... blah blah blah, what might be the impact on the organization if we were to try that approach? "??

In that situation, several things happened 1) I gave him recognition for the wonderful articulation of my point, but 2) I took back my comment and built on it making it stronger and more impactful.? 3) I ended the comment with a question for the team to respond to, so they are responding based on my line of logic, not Jack's.? ? So that type of behavior was cut short.

While in mid career, and YOU? are clear on what you stand for, what your expectations are of others as they relate and work with you, you set yourself up for an intentional and unapologetic future of relationships that are healthy, productive and propelling.?

You eliminate or turn away from those behaviors that put you in a box, disrespect you, and make you think less of yourself.? This builds on itself, and snowballs as you get older, and helps erase the impact of imposter syndrome, gives you the internal measure that builds up your confidence as you grow your competence.?

This is how you "FORTIFY at 45"!??

Do not let bias win, and if you recognize it, you can devise a strategy to address it, teach others (yes I am in constant teaching mode) on how to not let bias become their modus operandi.??

3) Prioritize & Focus on Relationships.? We are not here by ourselves nor are we here only for ourselves.?

There is not one single thing that I or anyone else built, created, learned, drove, ate etc without the help of someone.? ? We may not know who built the pen we use every day to write with, but we know it wasn't us.?

We may not know who made the shoes we used to walk to school every day, but we know it wasn't us.? We may not know who grew the apples? in the grocery store we shop at every week, but we know it wasn’t us.?

So it stands to reason that we need relationships and people who have? strengths that complement our weakness or gaps.? Prioritizing productive? relationships over non productive ones helps you to advance your agenda, and your objectives without having to know it all, or have experienced it all. ?

This was an area that I wish I had done more.? I think I could have gone further, faster, if I had listened to others who told me this.? Your relationships will encourage you as you are winning, and will lift you up when you are confused, broken or discouraged.??

DO THIS:? Create a stakeholder map - list out? all the? wonderful people in your life that do or can help you to achieve your financial, career, health, family, etc.?objectives.?

Identify if they are just a name on a sheet of paper, or if you are truly in a relationship with them.? For each one, check once if they have the POWER to help you to achieve a goal you have.? ? Check twice if they will have the DESIRE to help.? To win now, you need stakeholders who care about you AND are in a position to help you.??

For every person that you have 2 check marks by, that is now your prioritized stakeholder list.? Before you need anything from them, establish a connection, reach out to them, see how they are doing, what they are working on.? Show interest in them, before you ask them to show a special interest in you.?

Nurture the relationship.? It is said you should "never repair the roof when it is raining" --fix the roof before trouble comes, that way you will be covered when you need a covering.??

No, you don't have to wait until you are 45 to fortify your health, response to bias or build great relationships -- do these earlier in your career.? And, by the way, if you are 50, it may seem you are cutting it close, but it is not too late!

Do these things-- age like wine and not a banana, and your 60's can be your best years in business!!

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