by Charles R. Middleton, Ph.D.
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It is useful at the beginning of a leadership career in higher education to think strategically about each opportunity in the context of your ultimate career goal. I advise people who are interested in their next move to ask themselves, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” The answer to that question helps them think in a more focused way about what sorts of positions they might pursue next.
I also counsel them that this is a thought exercise to help shape possible career paths that could lead to attaining their final goal. But I also caution them that they cannot determine how their career path will proceed over the long run any more than they can push a string up hill.
This advice clearly is useful to those either just beginning their career journey — assistant/associate deans, directors, department chairs and the like — as well as those in the middle of their professional lives and have a substantial track record.
When retirement looms, however, I used to think that more tactical planning was the way to proceed. Do I want to do something totally different when I retire, or do I want to stay in the academy in some capacity? This is a practical question many pending retirees are wont to ask. For them I shift my focus and help them think about such matters as where they want to live, how much income (if any) they will need beyond social security and their retirement portfolio, and what their spouse/significant other will be doing with their time.
Recently, however, I have come to question whether this is uniformly advisable. I was reminded of this recently when I attended the first in-person conference for higher education leaders sponsored by the American Council on Education in the emerging post-pandemic world. The last time we gathered was in the spring of 2019 so it has been three years since I last saw, in-person, so many of my friends and colleagues. Many of them have retired, but more are anticipating doing so, conversations were rich with future possibilities.
It occurred to me as I interacted with other leaders at various stages of their careers, that a common thread or theme of our conversations was focused on our own larger possibilities for the future and how we could continue to be useful to others after we formally retired. Many of my peers still have a great deal to give to their institutions, their students, and the academy itself.
We seniors were all still thinking, at some level, on how we might personally answer the question, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” This surprised me. Maybe careers are continuums for more of us than we imagined in the past. Maybe retirement is more like taking a new position with more responsibility in earlier stages of our careers than merely just taking on a new activity altogether.
We all enter this stage of our lives and careers poorly prepared to think our way through all of the possible options. Personally, I found that writing my formal retirement letter to my Board was more difficult than I had ever imagined. Perhaps the reason is simple: for the first time in over 50 years, I didn’t know what I was going to be doing when the fall semester rolled around. This feeling must be especially intense if you retire before the mandatory age.
Sitting by the harbor in San Diego, and soaking up the afternoon sun, it occurred to me that perhaps for many of us, repositioning your career is in order as retirement looms. Rather than a break, for many retirement is an opportunity to strategically reconceptualize their future.
Careers, it seems, never end. One’s jobs change over time, of course, with one happy side effect being the benefit of keeping us on our toes and always in a learning mode as we address new challenges and take up new opportunities. The happy consequence of a leadership career path is that we get used to being intellectually stimulated and challenged. Maybe this is what we fear losing.
We have 30, 40, 50 years of stimulation and challenges coupled with the satisfaction of resolving them in useful and imaginative ways for the benefit of others. You can’t just turn that off.
This is where continuous strategic career thinking comes in. The constant challenge and response, and the resolution of issues, molds who we are as leaders. It also gives us ways of thinking and acting strategically about our own future. When we think strategically about our core characteristics as leaders, and those foundational skills that we are good at and enjoy doing, our own possibilities open up heretofore unimagined opportunities.
In my case, I like working with people as they transition from one phase of their career to the next. All the other things that I did in my various positions no longer interest me as they once did. Been there; done that. But there is, for me, an enduring pleasure in working with others to help them attain their own aspirations.
The great strategic advantage for my own career development is clear. There’s always work to be done in this area. Challenging circumstances in an uncertain world make that work even more interesting and intellectually stimulating and more important, essential to the success of the academy overall.
Today when someone asks me what I would like to be when I grow up, I will reply, “Grow up?” I’m still thinking strategically about what lies ahead. Perhaps you are, too. It’s a pattern worth considering. It will serve you well in the future.
