Midlife in the Fast Lane
September 1, 2003
Case Study: The Quest for Midlife Workers
Originally published in Business & Legal Reports
Having a midlife crisis isn’t always about a cute little red sports car or heading off to meditate on top of a nearby mountain. In fact, many individuals who are going through a midlife crisis aren’t the least bit interested in escaping reality; what they want is a way to relate better to the world around them and make the work they are doing more meaningful.
“Many of them are out of balance. They have a deep emptiness, a poverty, if you will, at the soul level,” notes Karen Sands, a fast-growth coach with Future Works Institute Ltd., in Woodbury, Connecticut, and Manhattan. This may be a familiar feeling to many in their midlife, but Sands is particularly focusing on those who have been the fast trackers all their lives—the leaders and top managers.
She divides them into two groups: the “Been There, Done Thats” and the “Toppers.” Says Sands, “Those in the ‘Been There’ category are not looking for money to turn them on. What they want to be doing is something that really gets their soul, really gets their juices going again. They are more interested in making their mark than making more money.
“The ‘Toppers,’ on the other hand have some of the same issues as the other group, but they have hit the ceiling and are wondering where to go now. They want to know that there is still a place for them, or they may be moving to another job.”
For instance, Jane, a 51-year-old vice president, knew she couldn’t go any higher in the company where she worked, yet she wanted to contribute. Sands worked with Jane to realign her values with her desired dreams, and she was able to find another place inside the company where she could express those desires. For Jane, it was being able to share her experience with others, so she moved into the company’s training area.
The problem, however, has been that many companies don’t offer these employees opportunities for developing and growing during this stage of their lives. So often, the midlife crisis is just seen as a problem of those “over the hill.” “What used to be a midlife in the old economy,” says Sands, “was 50 years of age. Now it’s 40. There is an expectation that once we are over 35 or 40, we are no longer as useful.”
But, Sands notes, midlife is the highest potential stage of life. “This is the time for a quest, a time to leverage all of their unique skills and talents, and then link those qualities with the wisdom that people at this stage in their lives have and their ability to deal with complexity and change. What that gives you is great leadership potential.”
And leadership is just what companies need today. According to Sands, there are three forces that directly or indirectly impact the bottom line today in terms of productivity, profits, and quality, and renewing or reenergizing your midlife workers can help you successfully manage all three forces:
Staffing Shortage
Most companies are not only experiencing a staffing shortage, but the type of employees they need are those who are leaders, knowledge workers, technologically skilled, and educated. “And yet,” notes Sands,” we are having massive departures. Every 12 seconds, a woman leaves corporate America—three times more often than men.” Midlifers could potentially be a resource for these issues of staffing. “We need to be retaining them, not ‘decruiting’ them,” Sands asserts.
Leadership Needed
Because of the massive changes going on, leadership is a key component in the workforce. Most of the current managers who have been in leadership positions have worked with the old paradigm of leadership, the silo model, which has different divisions of the company competing against one another.
If these midlifers can be trained in fast-growth leadership skills, the kind needed by so many of the newer companies today, then your company can offer them the challenges they may be seeking, along with the opportunity to make their mark in the world.
Soul Work
Many of these midlifers have found that the old paradigms did not bring them the feelings of success that they had sought. They hit this mid-time of their lives and are looking for work that makes a difference.
One fallout of this, notes Sands, is that during this time of soul searching, many fall into poor productivity or maybe just a flattening of productivity. Finding ways to retrain them, renew them, redeploy them, and “recareer” them will definitely be beneficial to the company’s bottom line.
© 2000 Business & Legal Reports
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