Still learning? A Reflection On Succession
Maestro-level Leaders is now three cohorts and on our way to five. The first cohort is now in their third year. Three years in and we can feel conversations shifting to the life a person goes to once succession happens.
When their cohort began, some had joined because they wanted to be planful about an eventual succession and transition. It wasn't anywhere on their calendar, however! And now, three years in, as they've planned and thought about potential successors and that all-important future balance sheet, the possibility of an imminent ending stands more starkly in front of them. If not in the near future, what must be completed before a good end can happen is now in focus.
And so, the life to go to becomes a conversation. How will they live? Where will they live? With whom will they live? And to what end?
If this has been well-developed throughout their career, they will not only have a quality life to go to. Meaningful work will exist in that next and previously unimagined chapter. What does developing it will look like? It means getting comfortable with uncomfortability (borrowing that phrase from Ari Emanuel's recent interview on the Freakonomics Podcast). It means not minding the extrusion process where the future mysteries of one's life are revealed over time
(borrowing this from the latest Third Turn Podcast, where Kristin Evenson and I take on this subject). It means embracing liminal space as a permanent condition (a phrase often heard among Maestro-level leader cohort participants). All this to say, it is a not having answers as one moves through the end of their Third Turn. It means that the lifelong learning process engaged through turns 1,2, and 3 remains in place as one moves into what comes next as a long and successful leadership run now rests in another's hands.
The above photograph illustrates this conversation. My wife and I have sold our beautiful Mountain Home with its incredible vistas and are moving into the city—a four-bedroom home to a two-room apartment. We came here following my last large consulting project and as I stepped into five years of chairing the Partnership of Design Group International after 18 years as its Lead Partner and then CEO.
My wife and I spent the entire pandemic up here. The concept of Maestro-level leaders as a project where I might invest my remaining years was researched and born while sitting next to that fireplace. Several CEOs and Executive Directors visited with me here or near the Boise airport, where we discussed the next steps in fulfilling their organization's mission. We had wonderful times with our blended family, and our grandchildren have had abundant time sitting on the porch, taking hikes, and finding places to spread out and play. It has been such a gift.
Now this gift will bring those same mercies to another family. At the same time, Patricia and I take up what is emerging for us- a far more nomadic life, basing ourselves for weeks at the places our children and grandchildren live, stopping over with our aging parents and wonderful siblings as often as we can. We are free to do this when they are not. And yes, it will give me more time in more places for meaningful conversations with aspiring and accomplished executives.
While we are sad to see something so beloved fade into memory, we are excited about what has emerged for us more fully as the life to go to...for now. We could only have arrived at this possibility as we patiently waited while we continued to learn.
About The Third Turn Podcast & Maestro-level leaders:
With each episode of the Third Turn Podcast, we host a conversation among leaders who want the world to flourish for generations beyond their lifetimes.
Listening with others in some way and enjoying in-depth conversations of your own as you reflect and choose what you would do the same or differently is a plus!
We always welcome you sharing these podcasts with others as well as sending along any suggestions for making these podcasts better.
The Third Turn Podcast is part of the Maestro-level leaders initiative, a production of Design Group International. Strategically Connected's Jennifer Miller is the producer.
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