Have you thought about ‘retirement’?
If you’re like me, that sounds a lot like a huge life change. What does ‘retirement’ mean anyway? It sounds like retreat, shutting down, giving up.
And as an ‘older’ human about to have a birthday, I feel like I’m just getting started. It’s time to reinvent what being an older person, an Elder, is all about.
First, did you know 16.8% of the Australian population is aged 65 and up? And that will continue to rise. That means there will be more older people around than younger people.
We’re living longer, we need more money to fund our later years, we want healthspan as well as lifespan, and we don’t want to be bored.
At work, many older workers are likely to have a younger supervisor. This is what sparked Chip Conley to write his book, Wisdom at Work. He figured he still had more to give and share as an older worker, and he needed a new model for later-in-life work.
What does this mean for the future of leadership?
Considerations for inter-generational workplaces
As a leader in this environment, we need to contend with the different values, goals, and experiences across each age group, and somehow leverage that diversity for a common outcome.
We need to work at unpicking stereotypes and confirmation bias when it comes to how our team members work together. It’s too easy to dismiss each other as ‘young and ignorant’ or ‘old and stuck in their ways’.
As a leader, help each team member to find common ground. What do they care about? What are their interests?
It’s time to celebrate the value of Elderdom, and Youth, in the workplace.
If you’re an older adult, then step into Elderdom.
History of the Elder
Across cultures, the Elder has often played significant roles including providing:
Wisdom and Guidance: seen as repositories of wisdom, often providing guidance on moral, social, and practical matters.
Conflict Resolution: as mediators and judges in disputes, using their experience and knowledge to resolve conflicts.
Cultural Preservation: Elders play a key role in preserving and transmitting cultural heritage, stories, rituals, and languages to younger generations.
In modern workplaces and western families? Yeah, not so much.
Ageism contributes to all sorts of issues including losing out on a promotion, getting laid off, finding it harder to find new work, and younger employees not wanting older bosses.
And yet, older workers have a lot to offer. It’s time to bring about the Renaissance of the Modern Elder.
Here’s how to lean into being an older, more mature, and hopefully wiser, human.
Elderdom Advantage #1: Older workers have more to learn.
As an older adult in her fifties, I am still excited about learning new things. Sure, yet another new social media platform to explore does not fill me with joy, but where my passions intersect with technology, I’m all in.
Learning is good for cognitive health, emotional well-being, and will help with maintaining independence long into the future. And older people generally have more money and time to explore their interests.
Tips for embracing the Elderdom learning advantage:
Reverse Mentoring. Have regular conversations with a teenager or young adult about their world. What are they learning? What are they excited about? How are they using technology?
Try New Things. I have a friend in her mid-fifties who does African drumming. And crochet. And marathon running. And travels. And the list goes on! She is the poster child of curiosity and staying young.
Read More Books. Books open worlds! Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, it's the best reward for time invested activity you could do. An author condenses a lifetime of experiences and learning into a digestible format you can absorb in just a few hours.
Elderdom Advantage #2: Older workers have more to offer.
All that life experience is incredibly valuable, if we mine it for insights and share it.
Tips for embracing the Elderdom experience advantage:
Craft Your Personal Manifesto. What does being an ‘Elder’ mean to you? What legacy does your role as Elder offer? What are your values? What do you care most deeply about?
Mentoring. Offer to be a sounding board for a younger colleague. Corporate and industry knowledge can help add context for a colleague’s enthusiastic change agenda. Share your hard won lessons. Make introductions. Give feedback.
Storytelling. Do you remember what it was like to not have a mobile phone? And no email? How on Earth did we get anything done? While harping back to the ‘good ole days’ and ‘back in my day’ won’t inspire anyone, the lessons about how you navigated changes, how you dealt with these less convenient times can be incredibly insightful. You can share your stories through blogs, social media, or even write a book.
Personally, I find older workers fabulous to be around. There is less drama, less ego, more curiosity, and very dependable. There’s a gentleness to older people that only comes with time, as if the tides of life have smoothed rough edges and etched long lines of wisdom in the soul.
Live with grace, lead in service.
Zoë Routh is a leadership futurist, podcaster, and multiple award-winning author. She works with leaders and teams to explore what's coming and what it means for leadership of the future.
She has worked with individuals and teams internationally and in Australia since 1987. From wild Canadian rivers to the Australian Outback, and the Boardroom jungles, Zoë is an adventurist! She facilitates strategy and culture for the future with audacious teams.
Zoë's fourth leadership book, People Stuff - Beyond Personality Problems: An advanced handbook for leadership, won the Book of the Year at the Australian Business Book Awards in 2020. Her fifth book is a leadership futurist science fiction dystopian novel, The Olympus Project.
Zoë is the producer of the Zoë Routh Leadership Podcast, dedicated to asking “What if…?” and sharing big ideas on the Future of Leadership.
Zoë is an outdoor adventurist and enjoys telemark skiing, has run 6 marathons, is a one-time belly-dancer, has survived cancer, and loves hiking in the high country. She is married to a gorgeous Aussie and is a self-confessed dark chocolate addict.