Workplace

You are not the same person you were when you entered the roofing industry. Time changes who you are and what drives you. But add growing technical expertise, financial success, and more and bigger projects, and you have the foundation for professional life shifts. The daily hurdles and uphill battles of your early years lead to a search for greater meaning and satisfaction. By recognizing these shifts occur and embracing them, you can align your professional focus and business practices to revitalize your company and leadership.

Professional life shifts

Decades ago, Erik Erikson, a renowned developmental psychologist, noted adults mature along observable dimensions. As we age, he says, we move through developmental stages in pursuit of two major life goals—love and work. Although material success, recognition and skill building dominate early work life, later we become interested in guiding the next generation and giving back.

More recent surveys by human-resource researchers support the argument for an age-related shift in the meaning and goals of work. Younger workers seek financial and professional independence and opportunities for advancement. These desires eventually shift to where older workers seek to enjoy their work and relationships with co-workers and have interesting and meaningful assignments.

Business owners may experience similar shifts as time and experience relieve early pressures for survival and lead to deeper questions of meaning and satisfaction.

Professional focus

Congruency between one's developmental needs as an adult and one's professional pursuits creates a recipe for deep satisfaction at work.

For example, young leaders may exhibit intense work behaviors, putting in extra-long hours and going beyond what is expected in pursuit of extra pay and promotions. To the extent these opportunities are available in an organization, workers will remain energized. However, leaders who pass this stage of professional life will learn to work smarter, relying on partnerships and delegation to build their expertise and create flexibilities that help balance work and life. Businesses that recognize the different developmental needs of these leaders will embrace this professional shift and support a less hands-on leadership style.

To remain energized, business owners may need to rethink earlier intense work behaviors and develop new ones to accommodate this new phase.

Finally, mature leaders focus their attention on the big picture. Their interests in their businesses may reside at a higher level than day-to-day operations. A mature leader may ask, "How will the business continue after I leave? Are we doing all we can or should do? How can we contribute and give back to the community?"

Alignment

The key to revitalizing your leadership is alignment. If you are feeling drained or even a little disinterested at work, ask yourself, "Am I acting on my age-related developmental and professional life challenge?" If you are in the middle phase of your professional life, are you still scrambling from job to job, working intense hours? Are you still "doing" when you should be "leading"?

You may want to take a hard look at your management style and identify ways you can develop future leaders by delegating. If you are a mature leader, are you losing interest in the operations of your business? Do you feel a pressing need to do more meaningful things? It is possible you will be revitalized by proactively seeking opportunities to give back, influencing social or community activities, or focusing on jobs that matter to you.

At specific times during a leader's life, certain business activities provide more satisfaction than others. Young leaders may need to learn advanced skills early when faced with exceptional challenges. Mature leaders occasionally may need to put in intense hours. But leaders who recognize their professional life challenges can enhance their professional satisfaction by seeking to align where they are with what they do.

Karen L. Cates, Ph.D., is a professor of management at Monmouth College, Monmouth, Ill., and teaches executive courses for Evanston, Ill.-based Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.