In this issue of WealthNotes we share with you the final piece of Doug Smith’s message, “The Leap of Faith: Living and Leading in the 2nd Half of Life.” You will recall Doug believes there is a transition between the “two halves of life” in which our lives and leadership begin to evolve. In our most recent publication of WealthNotes, you learned the principles of living in the second half of life. Today, we complete this series with the hope you are able to take the characteristics of both living and leading in the second half of life and determine how they may be relevant to your own life – just in time for the new year.

Leading in the 2nd Half of Life
In terms of leading, those who transition successfully become less focused on moving up the corporate ladder, less concerned about prestige and less concerned about winning some competitive race. Rather our leadership begins to focus on enabling others to work together in an effective manner to achieve ends that benefit everyone associated with our organizations. Our leadership becomes win/win versus win/lose, both/and versus either/or and synergy versus trade offs. We focus less on trying to address the twin monster fears that seem to dominate the first half of life: “I won’t be enough” and “I won’t have enough.” We become more inspired than driven as our leadership becomes increasingly centered on love.
When we successfully make this leadership transition we become increasingly clear about and committed to bringing about a vision of a better future for our organization. We integrate all our activity and that of our organizations in the context of this vision. We are increasingly able to understand and face reality, not as we wish it to be, but as it actually exists. We learn to lead our organizations in building a pathway from today’s reality to tomorrow’s vision, to engage everyone in the organization in this pathway, to gain the trust of others and to foster an environment of trust. We become increasingly humble, knowing we can learn from everyone and we can and will make mistakes. We learn to lead and live with courage and not worry about the “fan club.” We learn to integrate our personal and professional lives such that it all seems to be part of the same quilt.

The net effect of this successful transition in how we live and lead in the second half of life is valuable to keep in mind for 2016 – live with greater joy and lead with greater effectiveness for the benefit of ourselves and everyone with whom we come in contact.

Smith, Doug. “The Leap of Faith, Living and Leading in the 2nd Half of Life.”