It’s About People
A couple of weeks ago we had a great members-only meeting, confidential and ‘behind closed doors’ about succession and the tips and tricks of those who remain active in industry after retiring from their CEO roles. We discussed the importance of succession planning for the CEO role in any event — not just impending retirement — because after all anything can happen. We also discussed retirement and what good looks like.
One thing that came to light after hearing from each of our guests (and there were three) is that retirement doesn’t mean fishing, crocheting, pickleball, book clubs, and golf. Sure, there is time for that, but every one of them works today and are still very active in some aspect of corporate life. (They say boomers never retire. I guess we have to go no further than Mick Jagger or Bette Midler to see that.) It was neat to see how all were vital in the business world: VC activity, board work, mentoring and coaching, or simply stepping up to run the board of the company in which they had been the operating CEO. One just got appointed back into an interim CEO role. So much for “retirement!”
One of the things I took away from the conversation was that ‘retirement was more about freedom and flexibility than it was about stopping work.’ All mentioned relief from the day-to-day pressures of the role. They had more choices about their schedule, to be with grandchildren, take more trips, pursue a hobby, or to travel with their spouse. They still want to do work they love that keeps them vital while also giving back. It’s really the best of many worlds, but what was so striking was that it wasn’t about the work. It was about getting off the hamster wheel or out of the rat race. It was the stress of day-to-day they left.
One leader I spoke with recently is tired of the internal politics of which his organization is fraught. Another is operating on too thin margins — their business needs capital and it’s time to exit to have more resources, to pay back debt, to realize the company’s vision. Another I spoke with is exasperated by having to drive service synergies across a team of 400 people. How do you get 400 people to operate consistently?? It’s his worst nightmare.
At the end of the day our job is to deliver results, launch new offerings, manage the board and shareholders, customers, and team members. Another leader this week said it best “ I guess that’s our job — people.”
Because no leader anywhere on the planet can get anything done without people. Sure sometimes it’s about suppliers (people too) or in Tim Ferris’ world of 4-Hour Workweek fame, designing every process and aspect of his business to minimize any involvement from people including himself — out of the picture rather than in it.
Sure, sometimes it’s more about the machines than anything else but somewhere along the line there is still people — our suppliers have people; our partners have people. Business, medicine, law — life really — is about people. Our teams — people. The algorithms we train, the products we engineer, the markets we serve, the customers we sell to and serve, the margins we manage to, the collections we make. It’s always about the people.