Retirees Want to Rock, but NOT in Rocking Chairs
Retirees are on the prowl! They’re looking for life coaches, financial planners, career consultants, fitness experts and others who will help them live their best ”second life.”
Not shy about retirement makeovers, baby boomers have more choices in life-after-career than their parents did - so many in fact, that teams of retirement consultants are forming, in non-profits, TV networks, on the Internet and of course, in our world of coaching.
A March 22nd Wall Street Journal article finds retirees going back through career and personality testing, like Myers-Briggs, Strong Interest Inventory, etc. They are reassessing their strengths and talents.
Boomers may be older, but they seem bolder than those generations who came before, ready to unleash the dreams that have been hidden away in their business suit pockets for years.
Just imagine pairing all that experience, energy, wisdom and passion…………..with a coach!
Popularity: 47% [?]
Comment by Elizabeth Crouch on 27 March 2008:
I agree Linda!
This has me thinking about designing, refining and living into your legacy.
Where are the coaches who are working with this ‘rockin’ population on both sides of ‘retirement’?
And where would the bold boomers actually look find their coaches?
Comment by Linda Ballew on 28 March 2008:
This story about bold boomers came across my desk this morning from the UK and is a great example of the anti-retirement trend.
A husband and wife have joined talents to build a business (in their sixties) that offers coaching, training and management development. It’s very cool. The husband built a large outdoor chess board that teaches senior managers team building and strategic thinking.
Read more at:
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/business-news/2008/03/27/couple-join-forces-to-offer-management-development-and-team-building-55578-20678826/
Readers, please tell us more anti-retirement stories!
Comment by J. Lowell Williams on 26 July 2008:
Linda,
I have a passion for generational coaching (Gen Y’s & X’s) and a desire to develop a program around bridging the communication and value gaps among the 4 generations in the work force today. ( Y’s, X’s, Boomers’ and Historians).
As a corporate executive of 30 years and now a professional coach, I see a tremendous need for bridging the generational gaps in corporate america.
Any thoughts or diretion is much appreciated.
J.L. Williams
Comment by Amy Lynch on 28 July 2008:
What an interesting discussion!
I’m certain there is a need for generationally based coaching because different generations define SUCCESS so differently. Boomers, Xers and Gen Y entered the workplace under such radically different circumstances and with such different expections that I think coaching them is like the old apples and oranges comparison.
I’m thinking that Boomers, who entered a very competitive workplace did settle for money and the things it could buy (but now seek something else). And Xers consider success having personal time (life balance) and still struggle to have it.
Meanwhile, Ys consider both income and life balance a given and look for purpose! It’s so different.
By the way, I love the work of Rebecca Ryan on this subject. She wrote Live First, Work Second – and she brilliantly ties Maslov’s levels of need to generational development. . .all that, and when it comes to corporate America, you are SO right about the need to bridge the gaps!
I think a first step is building awareness, getting generations to SEE the differences first, so that a dialog can begin.
Comment by Ruth Ann Harnisch on 29 July 2008:
This is a noncommercial forum, so it would be inappropriate for Amy Lynch to offer her services here.
However, Old Lady Harnisch feels compelled to tell the rest of her fellow geezers that Amy’s free newsletter is my only regular connection with these baffling young whippersnappers and the way they think and act.
Seriously, there are times I think my head will explode. My work ethic, as a boomer raised by hardworking first generation Italian Americans and strict German Protestants, is as foreign to those “kids” as their “life balance first” is to me.
They’re right, of course, so I am trying to let them be my teachers in this respect. (But I still want to see more actual WORK from them, eh?)
Comment by Amy Lynch on 30 July 2008:
Hey, Old Lady Harnish (not my image of you!) you are not alone.
Our idea of work ethic did not include life balance or engaged give and take with our managers and supervisors.
I was talking with a Y’er who said she would get the work done, but if she had a date with her husband, her work ethic (life balance) required that she keep that date with him, too. Hummm, not like my first job!
Here’s a thought. I have an easier time understanding that point of view now that I’m older and have seen how quickly time passes. Maybe these young people insist on balance because they grew up in times of such rapid change and fast-paced lives. They experienced a pace of life at 12 that I didn’t experience until I was, er, 45 or so.
Comment by Howard Stone on 3 August 2008:
Thanks to Linda Ballew for opening up an important topic.
I particularly love coaching ageless adventurers who are ready to show up for their possibilities. It is rewarding to work with them in groups because of what they bring to the conversation: a huge diversity of experience, skills, wisdom and serious questions about what aging is today versus their earlier conditioning.
What are your coaching experiences with “retirees”? What distinguishes these individuals, this population today?