You Don't Want to/Can't Semiretire: 5 Strategies for Maintaining Career Momentum

“I have 2 kids in college and alimony. My primary source of income is my career. Not investments. I can’t fade out.”

That is just one of the reasons my career coaching clients give me for needing to dodge the semiretirement bullet. As Pro Publica documents, careers are shorter, unraveling around age 50. But for you there may be other reasons why you don’t want to or can’t be post-career. Here are just some:

You are the brand. At Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffett has to be fully Warren Buffett. Either you have to be all-in, or else you will be out.

You have to see through the implementation of reset strategies. Paul Weiss chair Brad Karp is reinventing the law firm. As he admits, some moves are experimental. 

Your career (or the  second or third) is beginning to take off. Digital strategist and content-provider Ernest “Paul” Chaney is evolving into an AI influencer.

You are immersed in reputation restoration. An example is Leon Black who has begun to make progress in navigating away from the past.

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The good news is that there are strategies to maintain career momentum, at any age. Here are 5 I’ve found to be most effective:

Size up if what you’re good at is blocking what you should be doing.

Bob Iger started out his second round as Disney CEO strategically planning and talking like an old-media guy. He stumbled. More recently he figured out how to retool for a rapidly changing media landscape.

In the 2024 book “Nobody Cares About Your Career,” former Barstool Sports CEO Erika Ayers Badan zeroes in on how not only careers end but so do bread-and-butter jobs when professionals one-dimensionally stick with yesterday’s skills/business models. Instead, they have to be learning ones that are moving the dial on results. The classic example is the graphic artist who has not embraced OpenAI’s tools such as Sora.

Audit what’s going on, then act in your self-interest.

You could be on sinking ship which will take you down with it. McKinsey puts the burden on you for accessing the right data and analyzing it to determine the headwinds and if the organization can handle them.

The management consultant uses the boiled frog metaphor. You could become so accustomed to the crisis conditions that you don’t realize the seriousness of the present situation.

Should you jump out of that pot? As you know, security analysts treat executive flight as a red flag of conditions not being managed. In addition, executives being pushed out also can be a negative signal. 

When Ford fired Lee Iacocca in 1978 it had reduced market share and financial losses. At the time Iacocca was developing the Mini-Max – which could have turned around Ford. At his next stop – Chrysler - Iacocca turned that into the revolutionary minivan which brought it back from near bankruptcy.

Create new networks, hopefully before you have to.

Aging triggers broken networks. Movers and shakers lose power/become irrelevant, get involved in scandal or die. Before Donald Trump won the election, some business leaders such as Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai had already reached out to him. Post-election those nurturing relationships with the next US President probably will not have the same bonding results as those who made early bets on the winning horse.

Build social presence.

The positive memes promoted in support of alleged killer Luigi Mangione came from the force field of social media. Not a high-priced public relations agency. So much, be it your branding or rating your moves, will be happening on social.

When it comes to decisions about investing your resources the budget should tip toward social versus funding those op-eds in legacy media such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Your watchers watch how many followers you have on LinkedIn and if you publish on Substack. 

Authenticity always wins out.

The very real Betty Ford was her underestimated husband’s greatest asset. Kamala Harris might have lost partly because she seemed not to let us in to meet her. Harris could go down in history as The Scripted.

That is exactly why prepared speeches are yesterday and loose talking points are in. For informal settings even on the elevator or in the parking garage be present, that is not being preoccupied with an agenda or a consistent power persona.

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Incidentally, just like careers can be sustained, they can be resurrected. For the latter the trick is to not get caught in a time warp.

Confessing one’s “sins” is not necessary. Doing so, as Bill Clinton - who is always hustling for a publicity comeback - does with the Jeffrey Epstein connection, is boring. No one cares any more. Shame is an anachronism. Instead, have the showmanship to demonstrate what you can deliver for others. This is a results-based era.

Affordable Career Coach Jane Genova provides end-to-end career services, ranging from diagnosis of the challenges and fix-it strategies to preparation of resume/cover letters/LinkedIn profiles and how to gain control of an interview. She specializes in over-50 work issues. For a confidential complimentary consultation please text/phone 203-468-8579 or email janegenova374@gmail.com. Fees custom-made for your unique budget.

 

 

 

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