Deciding when to retire is tricky for most people. Even high-profile people with all kinds of folks giving them good advice don’t always get it right.
I was talking to someone the other day, and we got on the subject of “athletes who should have retired sooner.” (You actually can Google this and get names like Jerry Rice, Brett Favre, Muhammad Ali, and Michael Jordan.) Lots of people think Bobby Bowden stayed too long at Florida State. On the other hand, Bob Stoops, the football coach at the University of Oklahoma, left at the top of his game. He was the Sooners’s most successful coach ever with a 190-48 record (101-9 at home), 10 conference titles in the Big 12 and a national championship title in 2000. At age 56, Stoops called it quits. When asked why he wanted to retire, he replied, “I’ve got more of what I want to do. What it is, I’m not sure yet.”
Sometimes the decision to retire is made for you for various reasons. Most gymnasts retire in their 20s. So do a lot of professional football players. (According to the NFL Players Association, the average career of an NFL player is 3.3 years.) Most people retire from the military in their 40s. Many coaches retire in their 50s or 60s. Most executives retire around age 65.
It’s different for family businesses
The lines get blurred, and there are no consistent numbers regarding heads of family businesses and retirement.
Often the men and women who start family businesses worked 50, 60 or even 70 hours a week to get it going and then take it to the next level. They worked through vacation time, sporting events and family dinners—leaving for work before everyone else got up and coming home late.
In their minds, these founders are more than just founders. They are the business. It’s all they know, and that makes it very hard to step away and retire. Sometimes, sadly, there is nothing to retire to—even when it’s time.
A succession plan can make this big change a little easier.
Many people treat succession planning as an event. It’s not—it’s a process that takes time, acumen and often difficult conversations. It takes close collaboration, too, between the founders and the next generation of leadership.
Succession calls for commitment
It’s easy to talk about succession and transition, but it’s harder to go down the path and stay on track. For many business owners (especially those who founded the business) it’s frightening to think about transition with its loss of power, prestige and income. It makes people confront their own mortality, and goodness knows that’s not easy. So naturally, people would be hesitant to start the process and likely to stop it before any significant progress is made. It’s a vulnerable time that calls for sensitivity to feelings.
Fertile ground for conflict
This is a new stage for everyone involved, and conflicts are common. At a time when the outgoing founder is feeling a loss of power, the incoming next generation is gaining power. The next generation might have waited years for this opportunity, and sometimes they overstep their boundaries. Old resentments might surface. A family counselor who meets with both generations separately and together can be a huge help.
A good webinar on this topic is from The Family Business Consulting Group, and it’s titled How Great Family Business Leaders Plan for an Enriching Retirement. Check out at: https://bit.ly/2kwRc5u
There are lots of things to consider when it comes time to retire. Exiting a business is hard, but staying too long is sometimes harder.
Having a plan in place helps. Consider putting yours together today—no matter what your business is, whether you founded it or not. This is how you do what you do better now and in the future.
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