Retirement

Time to retire? Part 2 of 2.

February 15, 2021 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Read part 1:

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/time-to-retire-part-1-of-2/

How career coaching helped preparation for retirement

We recommended three coaching sessions to help our clients plan their retirement.

During the first coaching session, we explored their situation fully and discussed any short and long term plans that they had.

It was important to establish quickly how they felt about retiring and to discuss the main issues and challenges that they were facing or likely to encounter in the first few weeks and months of retirement.

Taking stock

It is useful to help our clients to take stock of where they are from a personality, values (what is important to them), motivations and interests perspective.

Next to support them to do some thinking and planning to help them set achievable goals together with some budget planning.

The second and third coaching sessions were used to track their progress against the agreed goals and to provide mentoring support as a strategic, practical and confidential sounding board.

As with all career coaching, the client needs to take ownership of their plan and drive it forward themselves, blocking out time regularly.

Focus for career coaching

Assessing why and where they thought they would specifically need career coaching is important. Our approach is bespoke – a high quality boutique service.

What we didn’t cover

Their career coaching did not cover detailed financial, pension and investment planning. They needed specialist help on this and we suggested that they obtained separate advice from an Independent Financial Advisor (IFA). We recommended a trusted contact.

The focus of career coaching was getting them into the right mindset to deal with the “change curve” of retirement and to then give them a practical focus and clear plan to use their main life interests and preferred activities productively whilst managing their time effectively.

Career coaching exercises

To enable clarity and insights to inform their retirement, they completed a series of exercises on personality, temperament, career motivations and a strengths profile to help them understand themselves and their preferred ways of doing things.

They had not completed anything like these before and found them extremely helpful and illuminating.

We discussed the insights from these and, for them, the personal and practical implications for their future.

Getting retirement ready

For example:

structure being important
not being naturally organised
wanting to achieve too much
having no system to prioritise actions
lack of self-discipline

are things that need to be thought through.

These were pivotal exercises to complete prior to the follow up work which they agreed to do.

Retirement planning guidance

We recommended several sources of retirement guidance material and pointed them towards other relevant material to read online. They also had a copy of our Retirement Career Plan to help them.

Career coaching skills

Career coaching skills including listening, incisive questioning, coaching, counselling, challenging and action planning.

We introduced them to other areas including personal networking, research and looking at where they could build up other skills or do some further development activity.

With one client, we also looked at building in some voluntary work as a key part of their new life and plan.

The Result

The sessions were well received and both clients gave positive feedback.

A few weeks later, they individually reported that they were settling into their retirement well and were starting to achieve their defined S.M.A.R.T. goals – lifestyle, development, personal and financial.

More

Contact us to arrange your free 20 minute no-obligation meeting to explore your brief and how we can help: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/contact-us/

Andrew J Scott + Lynda Gratton ‘The 100 year life’ https://www.amazon.co.uk/100-Year-Life-Living-working-longevity/dp/1472930150

Andrew J Scott and Lynda Gratton ‘The new long life’ https://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Long-Life-Framework-Flourishing/dp/1526615169/r

Institute of Employment Studies (IES): ‘Shut out. How employers and recruiters are overlooking the talents of the over 50 workers.” January 2021. Centre for better aging. https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/resource/shut-out?utm_source=IES+emailing+list&utm_campaign=2b4e9e35ad-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_05_10_10_39_COPY_08&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f11585705b-2b4e9e35ad-364290580

Time to retire? Part 1 of 2.

February 15, 2021 By // by Rachel Brushfield

In the UK, the population is aging, with many people set to retire.

Most people typically having set up a pension in their 20’s or 30’s, don’t think about what they will do in their retirement until they are in their late 50’s or early 60’s, unless ill-health causes them to retire earlier than they planned, or they are offered voluntary redundancy.

We don’t get taught how to plan for retirement, and the sudden abrupt ‘stop’ or ‘steep’ cliff has never felt wise or logical, for either the employer or employee!

Planning retirement is very important, and working with an experienced career coach can really help to smooth this major life transition.

Is a steep ‘cliff’ or sudden stop to retirement wise?

A gentle ‘slope’ to retirement, reducing working hours, and increasing leisure time and volunteering, and for some, having a portfolio career with a mix of paid and unpaid activities has always felt better sense.

Why stop work suddenly, just because you have reached a particular age?

A gentle slope to retirement paces change.

Client examples

A couple of coaching clients were both approaching retirement age and looking to retire fully when they first got in touch about career coaching.

They did not know how to go about planning their retirement in order to ensure a smooth transition from working full time in an office (pre-Covid) to their new life, primarily based at home.

In both cases, they had both been working in their organisations for a number of years in technical roles and were now leaving with no intention of doing any further paid work.

Covid-19

Working from home because of Covid-19 in some ways has enabled an adjustment from working in an office and commuting, paving the way to adjust to a retired life, and being more home based.

Pacing change makes a lot of sense.

No prior retirement preparation

What was interesting and also surprising was to learn just how unprepared they were for this next step in their life.

They had received no pre-retirement advice at all from their employers (except to secure career coaching help), had not spoken to an Independent Financial Advisor (IFA) about financial planning and had little idea what they were going to do with their time once they retired.

It was clear that they had not thought about how they would cope without working, no longer having the structure and support of a full-time job, and they hasn’t started to make any concrete plans.

For experienced career coaches like us, this is a fabulous brief – almost like having a blank canvas to work with!

5 stages of retirement

There are 5 stages of retirement.

Stage 1: Pre-Retirement. The stage before you actually retire involves imagining your new life and planning for it.

Stage 2: Full Retirement.

Stage 3: Disenchantment with retirement.

Stage 4: Reorientation.

Stage 5: Reconciliation & Stability.

Sometimes people choose to come out of retirement and develop a portfolio career at stage 3.

If you love your work, why retire? A slower pace and reduced working hours can be a good choice.

More

Ready to be put ‘out to grass’? Or not! Part 2 of 2.

February 11, 2021 By // by Rachel Brushfield

This is a 2-part blog by Peter Wilford about supporting Finance Directors (FDs) to consider about whether to retire or not, and how a portfolio career can be a good career choice for the pre retirement life stag.

This is part 2.

The rest of this blog is in Peter’s own words.

Read part 1

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/ready-to-be-put-out-to-grass-or-not-part-1-of-2/

How we help our clients

Success comes from a number of factors.

We help our clients to develop a Plan ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ for their job search and marketing activity.

Each plan is carefully crafted and the priorities assessed.

This gives the Financial Director (FD) confidence that he / she is not putting all their career ‘eggs in one basket’. This is especially important for the uncertain times in which we live.

We coach them at every stage and act as a sounding board to keep them on track.

Career plan ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’

Typically, career Plan ‘A’ might involve securing 2-3 pieces of paid consultancy work – often with an SME and where they were not likely to be seen as a threat to the incumbent CEO or Financial Director, but are able to add significant bottom line value.

Career Plan ‘B‘ might be to focus on obtaining some interim work, particularly if they have already worked in a sector where interims are required and / or in a Senior Finance project role.

Career Plan ‘C’ might be to set up their own business and to create a web site and look at building a portfolio career to include typically:

non-executive director (NED) work

mentoring of younger finance professionals

voluntary work

paid consultancy projects.

Also perhaps:

supporting a friend in their local area with their own business, to broaden their experience, leading to new future opportunities.

Age bias towards employing 50somethings

Securing a full-time role as a finance director (FD) in a large organisation in your 50’s is both difficult and extremely time consuming, unless you have a strong business network and very well-established head-hunter contacts.

Opportunities for an FD to get work more easily lie in the Small Medium Enterprise (SME) sector.

Finding your niche and how we help

One FD client, whose experience was both corporate and SME based, identified that his niche market was medical devices companies.

We worked together to write 2-3 compelling direct approach letters and he drew up a list of 50 SME organisations within an agreed geographical area.

The letter was strong.

His value add proposition was convincing.

We coached him to be thoroughly interview prepared.

The result was a series of interviews with the MD / CEO of medical device companies.

Proactively helping our clients

We are proactive in our approach, providing a bespoke service, unlike the large career management companies/outplacement organisations which can be ‘sausage machine’ in nature, and relying primarily on on-line career portals and a standardized approach. One size does not fit all.

Ways in which we help our clients

We go the extra mile at Energise for our clients. Ways in which we support them include:

Introducing them to relevant contacts in our own networks
Encouraging them to adopt a proactive approach to marketing, often in new areas and outside their comfort zone
Getting them to think ‘outside of the box’, for example to approach their Professional Institute e.g. ICAEW for possible mentoring
Encouraging them to attend industry conferences to broaden/widen their network
Sharpening up their technical skills
Pointing them to non executive director (NED) membership organisations.
Invited them to our local Institute of Director (IoD) group
Introducing them to local employers
Helping them build up their lists of head-hunters and to learn how to manage these conversations to the best effect

The result

All our clients have now been either placed or are enjoying a new phase of their working life.

Some have been introduced to our Independent Financial Advisor (IFA) contacts for fresh support with financial planning.

Several have kept in touch.

Our clients have told us that they would not have known what to do without our help, coaching, senior experience and reassurance.

More

‘The 100-year life’ by Lynda Gratton and Andrew J Scott: http://www.100yearlife.com/

‘The new long life’ by Lynda Gratton and Andrew J Scott: https://thenewlonglife.com/

‘Future skills for a life-long competitive advantage part 1’ for the award-winning Future of Work Hub: https://www.futureofworkhub.info/comment/2019/3/22/future-skills-for-a-life-long-competitive-advantage-part-1

‘Future skills for a life-long competitive advantage part 2’ for the award-winning Future of Work Hub: https://www.futureofworkhub.info/comment/2019/6/26/future-skills-for-a-life-long-competitive-advantage-part-2

Ready to be ‘put out to grass’? Or not! Part 1 of 2.

February 3, 2021 By // by Rachel Brushfield

This is a 2-part blog by Peter Wilford about supporting Finance Directors to consider about retiring or not. This is part 1.

The rest of this blog is in Peter’s own words.

Context of this blog

I have worked with a number of Finance Directors, FCA qualified, mostly in their 50’s, who had left their last company, either through redundancy or via a mutual settlement agreement.

They had been provided with a set number of hours and sessions of dedicated outplacement support, the term for ‘career coaching’ provided by organisations making staff redundant and through a benevolent fund, and I was their chosen career coach.

Initial issues and challenges

In every single case, my clients said that they had no wish to retire from work yet.

Many said that they could retire if they chose with their strong pension portfolios and other investments.

They were all uncertain about their options next after having had long and successful commercial careers.

Exiting corporate life is a major career crossroads. Working with an experienced career coach is invaluable at this crucial decision point. Especially an experienced one, who has worked with many senior executives.

Lack of awareness of transferable skills.

In almost every case, they had no clear appreciation of:

their transferable skills
how the job market worked
where their options lay within finance
and outside finance.

Of course, they hadn’t needed to!

This can be a very daunting experience for people who have always worked in one profession.

You can only know what you know!

They had been siloed and sheltered working in the corporate world for many years and were now thrust into the open, in effect a boat without a captain to steer it, with no route planned and no rudder.

This can create a crisis of confidence and be stressful – venturing into the unknown!

Career options

Becoming a non-executive director (NED) is a common option considered at this point.

Also doing some voluntary or charity work and enjoying a slower pace of life and improved work life balance. A portfolio career can provide a gentle ‘slope’ to retirement, rather than a sudden ‘cliff’ stopping a long working life abruptly, just because they had reached a certain age.

Almost without exception, they all wanted to move on from working with large organisations and away from the ‘corporate treadmill’.

Lack of awareness about their brand and marketability

Few had any real appreciation of their USP (unique selling proposition) i.e. what made them unique in the market place.

Even fewer had clarity about a target organisation that they would like to work with, and how to go about marketing how they could help, or what services they could offer of value.

A common view, perhaps because they had been in the structure of corporate life,

Some had a degree of arrogance mixed with naivety that they would ‘get something soon’. This is not a criticism, just a consequence of having been ‘cushioned’ in corporate life.

Lead time to create a new role

I had to point out to them, that most people will take 18 months on average, to secure their first non-executive director (NED) role.

Also, that if they wanted to do interim/contract work, the key issue in the mind of the interim recruiter would be “has he or she done interim work before?” and that in reality those who had would be on top of the pile of shortlisted candidates.

In the current Covid-19 market in 2021, recruitment lead times are longer, with companies risk-averse about increasing fixed costs. They also have a large pool of high quality candidates from which to choose from.

Interpersonal skills

Interpersonal skills are a pre-requisite for success and are becoming more important with the advent of Artificial Intelligence and automation, predicted to increase massively in the next 5 years.

Many Financial Directors (FDs) and senior Finance professionals are brilliant at numeracy and numbers.

Words and people are, understandably, not their best strength.

Also, whilst they bring commerciality, few are competent at marketing themselves. They have never had to.

Like lawyers, FDs, are qualified and trained to do a specific job, from their early career, and in the past this has not included pitching.

One or two of my clients have been the exception to this norm and they have invariably secured commercial work more easily, possessing this experience, securing both full and part time roles.

Compelling CV and achievements

Some FD’s had some semblance of a CV, few have though about and been able to articulate strong and compelling achievements.

I had not expected them to know about a Skills CV and where and why they should have it in their ‘marketing tool kit’. All of them quickly saw its benefit, especially when approaching the unadvertised job market.

The beginning of the career coaching journey

Because of the above factors, the starting point of career coaching therefore, is ‘starting from scratch’ and having a conversation about their career and what they had accomplished.

Pitching themselves

Many FD’s were not used to or skilled at pitching, and many were poor at networking or rusty at it.

This was because they had not needed to do it in their corporate careers, or because they just didn’t have the natural personality and / or the skills to identify and grow their network.

We had to work together on this as we did on giving them a proactive LinkedIn profile.

Part 2 of this 2 part blog ‘Ready to be ‘put out to grass’? Or not! Part 1 of 2.’

More

‘The 100 year life’ by Lynda Gratton and Andrew J Scott: http://www.100yearlife.com/

‘The new long life’ by Lynda Gratton and Andrew J Scott: https://thenewlonglife.com/

Peter Wilford’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterwilford/

Client testimonials: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/testimonials/

Why choose us? https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/talent-liberation/

Blog – How does career coaching work? https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/how-does-career-coaching-work/