Leading Your Family During Retirement

Many squander the chance to lead their families during retirement and lose massive opportunities for fulfillment and happiness. As you embrace your ability to lead your children and grandchildren during retirement, your family can have greater unity and your retirement years can take on much more significance. Relationships with children and grandchildren can be some of the most powerful and important relationships we experience but can also cause some of the deepest wounds. No matter where your relationships currently reside with your loved ones, your retirement years give you a new chapter to level up those relationships that matter most. Leadership in the workplace is often discussed and praised yet society rarely emphasizes leadership in the home. Often media and pop culture downplay the role of strong parents and grandparents, emphasizing dysfunction instead.  The truth is that grandparents who retire enter a unique phase of life to influence and lead their families in unprecedented ways. Instead of letting your most important relationships evolve through chance, seize the possibility to unite your family, create incredible memories, and leave an intentional legacy embedded with the values that will help your family thrive for years to come.  As you mold and shape retirement, here are five powerful strategies to help you lead your family during retirement: UNITE YOUR FAMILY THROUGH VISION “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high, and we miss it, but that it is too low, and we reach it.” -Michelangelo "Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” -Warren Bennis Most businesses develop vision statements and know the significance of leading with vision. Where do we want to go? What are we trying to achieve? When do we want to get there? The professional business world is ripe with vision statements and goal setting. Somehow, this rarely translates into leadership in the home, especially during retirement. I once heard a story of a single father, who was less than happy about his seventeen year old daughter’s choice in a boyfriend and was letting her know it. Instead of coming closer together, their relationship was being strained and he knew it. So what was he to do? He decided to tackle the issue by finding something new and exciting that he knew his daughter was interested in. She had expressed interest in volunteering in third-world countries so the two of them scheduled a trip.  This trip inspired her to see a bigger vision for her life and what she wanted to do after high school. She realized pretty quickly that her boyfriend didn’t match her vision for a greater future and they drifted apart. One way to do this is to clearly articulate your family values and principles. One suggestion is to have a family dinner or barbecue. Get everyone together and take a few minutes to lead a discussion on what your family stands for. Look for consensus and something everyone can buy into. You could even pass out a sheet with twenty different values or statements and have family members circle what’s most important to them (i.e. hard work, integrity, growth, courage, faith, etc).  Identify at least five values and formalize them in some way. One way to make this more concrete way is to create a Family Vision Statement. Whether your family vision is an informal discussion or formalized in an actual document, helping your family see a bigger vision can create unity and excitement. DEVELOP AN INTENTIONAL CULTURE “A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.” -Mahatma Gandhi Your family culture is what you do, how you do it, and how you treat each other. For example, what do you do during the holidays and Christmas season? What will you do for Thanksgiving? How often will you reach out to your children and grandchildren? What influence will you have on their life?