LifePower

Boomer Triathletes

The 2011 Subaru Ironman Triathlon took place in Penticton, BC this last weekend. With temperatures in the low 30C's - 2,841 participated. Boomers included:

M50-54   245   F50-54   96

M55-59   134   F55-59   39

M60-64   64    F60-64    6

M65-69    25

F80+         1 (DNF)   

 

 

Municipal Bill

Two summers ago I was fortunate to meet a man I have given the code name Municipal Bill. You might recall the story... Bill took a huge leap of faith one day and along with his beloved decided to quit the rat race of being an owner of a franchise business in eastern Canada. Living in a smaller community they just could not get away from the identity their business had imposed upon them... an identity that in many respects did not match their core-selves. Their real identities had been "swallowed" by their business success. So it was time for a change.

Now they live very happily in a mountain town just west of Calgary, Alberta. A few days ago I met up with Bill for the third time to catch-up on his life. Long gone are the trappings of running a franchise business 24/7/365. Hello to new pastimes in nature and new second life opportunities. Soon he turns fifty-something.

I'll post an update on Bill's journey shortly... watch for this! By the way... one thing has not changed... Bill's glass is always seventy per cent full... at least!

Never Let Them Go

According to a new report released by Statistics Canada August 17, 2011, the Canadian labour force is undergoing a drastic change. Attracting and retaining workers is about to become more difficult and a more competitive process.

While businesses can invest in machinery and automation to improve efficiencies they also need to invest more in retaining their best talent.

Baby boomers feel that retirement no longer means an end to working but a new chapter of life. Pre-retirees say they now intend to delay retirement triggered in part by a longer and healthier mid-life stage and a financial need.

These are reasons for organizations to pay more attention to their grey power. Mature talent is one of the most important assets an organization has.

These are five ways to create an older-worker-friendly organization.

Start Early to build a culture that shouts out “we’d like you to stay”. Employees look for a match in values between themselves and the organization. Create a value proposition for them to stay and communicate it consistently in different ways. Create a purpose-driven environment that supports long-term involvement.

Promote Inter-Generational Collaboration. One client, Urban Systems, encourages all “generations” of employees to participate and collaborate:

• First generation – novice employees - get to contribute what may be called “fresh” ideas. This is a starting point for them to fully understand and “feel” the culture. It gets them off to a good start. But be prepared, it might also weed out employees who are not long term fits for the organization. That’s a good thing. 
• Second generation – mid-career employees – experience greater competence and responsibility in their work and pass this along. It promotes clarity around emerging roles. 
• Third generation – late-career employees – have the opportunity to exhibit more leadership and share more knowledge as mentors.
• Fourth generation – elder employees now retired – can provide the glue to future transitions. Encourage them to become sounding boards to younger generations. Encourage successful transition story-telling in workshops. They may even help attract and influence future hires and finally elders become the institutional memory of a multi-generational organizations.

Flex-Exit Plans: Organizations that offer more than one exit plan for retiring employees have a greater chance of retaining them longer. These exit plans may incorporate part-time, distance-working, contract and even gap-year strategies with varying compensation and benefit programs.

Build the Commitment by encouraging conversation and contribution. Organizations that offer facilitated career-development opportunities have the most to gain. Individual employee succession plans can be established and dove-tailed with others’ plans given sufficient notice.

Involve Life Partners: Retirement is not done alone when a couple is involved. Benefit plans are seldom the subject of conversation in the home. Spouses want to learn more about pension and investment plans offered by their partner’s organization and how they might be integrated with personal financial planning. A couple’s workshop is often the starting point of a more focused look at a soon to be transition.

Leading organizations who invest today in their mature workers will reap handsomely in tomorrow’s labour market while promoting organizational values and productivity today.

Ask about our eight-presenter comprehensive Changing the Way we Retire workshop. It brings 18 hours of insightful, practical, engaging and inspiring information to help employees aged 50-plus, together with their life partner, plan for the next stage of their life.

 

 

 

 

Do You Need a Retirement Coach

The missing link for many boomers is that they have failed to plan early enough for retirement… as early as 10 years out I suggest and if married, with both partners participating.

My theory is that as we grow in our professional lives we consistently compromise ourselves in order to fit in and to be successful. When this happens over several decades we actually lose track of our core-selves. When we leave our careers we leave behind our professional identity, along with all the other familiarities and privileges associated with work. Because work has likely been so all-consuming new and happy-ever-after “R” lives become more of a chore and anxiety as we attempt to find our way.

But much of this angst can be readily exchanged for much happier and meaningful lives with proven assessments, challenged thinking and the desire to go beyond the “R” malaise. The older you get the clues come further from in the past. In many respects we become who we are as a result of life-triggering events. Connecting with these events is crucial in understanding who we really are and where we belong.

Checking in with our forgotten values and unique abilities provide strong clues as to what will fulfill us during the newly extended mid-life stage of our lives. These assessments will also help us experience a new depth of relationship with our life partners, a critical component given the high divorce rates in this age and stage of life.

Retirement coaching will take you beyond your previous best efforts to build clarity, momentum and results.

To receive your free Are You Ready for Retirement assessment contact nigel@lifeplanningmatters.com

Got five minutes for micro-exercise?

There is now sufficient research that tells us that almost any form of exercise is generally good for us. Studying clusters of people from around the world who live longer, better - you find many of them do not use convenience-tools in or outside of the home. They do things in what might be described as "in the old-fashioned way". Brooming out the garage instead of using one of those ridicuoulsy loud blowers. Hand clipping a hedge instead of an electrical clipper while climbing up and down a ladder and even beating eggs by hand.

Now a Queen's University of Toronto study confirms that bursts of moderate activity as short as one-minute can add up to significant health gains. It's defined as an activity requiring you to burn three to six times as many calories as you burn at rest.

Brooming the garage out by hand has a metabolic equivalent (ME) of 3.3 when compared to ironing's ME of 1.8 and ballroom dancing's ME of 5.5. Every little bit of moderate activity counts and this is good news for many aging-boomers.

For Vivian Poy, the first Canadian Senator of Asian descent, she includes gardening gloves and a shovel in her workout tools. She includes stretching exercises before and after gardening and sit-ups as she watches the television news. Citing her arthritis, she says she can no longer lift heavy things but accepts her limitations and has substituted a range of micro-exercises.

Read more about the Queen's University study: http://tinyurl.com/3c8bvnd