Tag: #phasedretirement

  • Dan McDermott

    Phased Retirement: “Lousy” Goals

    Andy Grove, the legendary CEO of Intel Corporation, was known for surprising up-and-coming staff with a phone call where he would bluntly quiz them about their career goals at Intel. Most were so intimidated that they could barely speak.  Grove would famously close the conversation with, “Those are lousy answers.  Be in my office within two weeks with better ones.”…

  • Dan McDermott

    Phased Retirement: The First 90 Days

    For anyone starting a new role and going through a career transition, Michael Watkin’s 2003 book, The First 90 Days, is an excellent guide.  The subtitle is, “Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels.”  The book provides insights and specific steps to help job-changers navigate the unfamiliar surroundings of a new role – perhaps at a new company…

  • Dan McDermott

    Phased Retirement: The Retirement Pivot

    The concept of a “pivot” has steadily worked its way into our vocabulary since the 2011 introduction of the book, The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries.  A pivot has been used to describe a variety of things – even the change in agenda for a meeting that’s drifted off course. But this is no willy-nilly switching of a game plan…

  • Dan McDermott

    Phased Retirement: Defining Insanity

    A commonly heard definition of insanity is attributed to Albert Einstein.  That is, “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” The first thing that comes to mind for me is the Minnesota Vikings trying to establish their running game. The second thing that comes to mind, since I’m a contrarian, is “Is that really…

  • Dan McDermott

    Phased Retirement: Tom Brady Theory

    I’ve read several articles now noting that after 40 days of retirement the multiple Superbowl and MVP winner “unretired.” My theory is that he’s really pursuing a Phased Retirement. He’s coming back, yes, but will probably avoid the playoffs to start dialing back his workload. Had he done this in the first place, he wouldn’t have had to retire and…

  • Dan McDermott

    Phased Retirement: Make Some Waves

    When someone retires, regardless of how much preparation they’ve done, they’ll likely go through a series of stages.  In a traditional retirement scenario, you might have stages that look like this: Retirement Day (yay!), the Honeymoon Period (this is so awesome!), Disillusionment (is this it?), and then it’s either Figure it Out…or Back to Work (Tom Brady)! Why not plan…