Auditing the Future of Workplace Coaching

Podcast notes: In Episode 15 we explore retirement as an identity transition—not simply a search for purpose—and what stepping away from leadership can mean for structure,belonging, contribution, and status. This week’s reflection: list five things your role gave you beyond a paycheck, then circle the one you miss most or expect to miss most. Use that insight to consider what your next chapter needs to provide.ReferencesAshforth, B. E. (2001). Role transitions in organizational life: An identity-based perspective. Lawrence Erlbaum.Froidevaux, A., Hirschi, A., & Wang, M. (2016). The role of mattering as an overlooked key challenge in retirement planning and adjustment. Journal of VocationalBehavior, 94, 57–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.02.016Froidevaux, A., Hirschi, A., & Wang, M. (2019). Identity incongruence and negotiation in the transition from work to retirement. Organizational Psychology Review,9(4), 247–270.Harris, A., & Fasbender, U. (2025). Gender differences in retirement decisions and outcomes: A systematic literature review and recommendations for future research. Work, Aging and Retirement. Advance online publication.https://doi.org/10.1093/workar/waaf011Moore, S. M., & Rosenthal, D. A. (2025). The psychology of retirement (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003611783Wang, L., Hall, D. T., & Waters, L. (2014). Finding meaning during the retirement process: Identity development in later career years. In M. Wang (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of retirement (pp. 562–584). Oxford University Press.https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935291.013.25Wang, M., Henkens, K., & van Solinge, H. (2011). Retirement adjustment: A review of theoretical and empirical advancements. American Psychologist, 66(3), 204–213.

This episode opens the third section of Season 2 byseparating two ideas that are often treated as one: identity and purpose. For women leaders approaching retirement, staying busy, useful and engaged does not by itself answer the deeper question of who you are apart from the role. Theepisode explains why retirement is better understood as an identity transition than a financial event, and why the research points to identity first and purpose later. It introduces the main lenses researchers use to study this shift (process, identity, resource-based, role and meaning-making theories, and personality and values frameworks), reassures listeners that struggling to build a new identity is a predictable psychological process and not a personal failing, and closes with a short weekly exercise: look at your last three yesesand ask whether each is about who you are becoming or about avoiding the silence.

You can know yourself inside out and still reach retirementunderprepared, because self-knowledge doesn’t build a social network or fill 2,500 newly empty hours. This episode closes the section with three exercises: the Social Convoy Map shows how much of your circle exists only because of yourworkplace, the Retirement Resource Inventory scores your health, finances, social ties and sense of self, and the Time Use Audit leads you to the dreaded blank Tuesday at 10 a.m. Your assignment is to draw the circles, score yourself, and build one honest mock Tuesday. Next up is Section 3, where we explore retirement as an identity transition.ReferenceLeung, C. S. Y., & Earl, J. K. (2012). Retirementresources inventory: Construction, factor structure and psychometric properties. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 81(2), 171–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2012.06.005

Podcast notes: This episode explores how the Bold, Leisurely, and Excitable patterns can turn leadership strengths into transition risks during retirement, and invites listeners to identify which pattern emerges for them under stress so they can recognize and manage it early.References Hogan, R., & Hogan, J. (2001). Assessing leadership: Aview from the dark side. International Journal of Selection and Assessment,9(1–2), 40–51. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00162Hogan Assessment Systems. (2020). Summary technicalinformation for validity and norm groups: HPI, HDS, and MVPI. https://www.hoganassessments.comLöckenhoff, C. E., Terracciano, A., & Costa, P. T.(2009). Five-factor model personality traits and the retirement transition: Longitudinal and cross-sectional associations. Psychology and Aging, 24(3), 722–728. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015121Topa, G., Moriano, J. A., Depolo, M., Alcover, C. M., &Morales, J. F. (2018). Personality and perceived retirement adjustment: A multilevel meta-analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 104, 293–316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2017.11.009

Episode notes: This episode explores how the Big Five personality traits shape the transition into retirement, with high neuroticism emerging as the strongest predictor of a difficult adjustment. Extraversion and agreeableness cansupport social connection, while conscientiousness may become challenging when familiar standards and measures ofachievement disappear. Openness to experience can help make reinvention easier, especially for highly conscientious women leaders. ReferencesLöckenhoff, C. E., Terracciano, A.,& Costa, P. T. (2009). Five-factor model personality traits and the retirement transition: Longitudinal and cross-sectional associations. Psychologyand Aging, 24(3), 722–728. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015121Topa, G., Moriano, J. A., Depolo, M.,Alcover, C. M., & Morales, J. F. (2018). Personality and perceived retirement adjustment: A multilevel meta-analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 104, 293–316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2017.11.009

Retirement is not only a financial transition—it is a testof identity, purpose, security, and the values that shaped a career. Through three archetypes, this episode explores what different women may fear, seek, or overcompensate for as they approach life beyond work.It then reframes money as a conduit for deeper values such as performance, power, status, and safety.·      Schwartz, S. H. (1992). Universals in the content andstructure of values.·      Schwartz, S. H. (2012). An overview of the Schwartz theoryof basic values.·      Hogan, J., & Hogan, R. (1996). Motives, Values,Preferences Inventory (MVPI).·      Hogan Assessment Systems. (2020). Summary technicalinformation for validity and norm groups: HPI, HDS, and MVPI.·      Fischer, R. (2017). Personality, values, culture: Anevolutionary approach.

Podcast NotesThis episode looks at why retirement rarely triggers the deepvalues overhaul people expect: research on more than five thousand workers finds that your values stay largely intact after you stop working, but the everyday outlets for expressing them disappear, turning what looks like a“values crisis” into an “expression crisis,” and why leaders with the strongest intrinsic connection to their work often report lower retirement satisfaction; it introduces the Hogan Motives, Values and Preferences Inventory (MVPI) as atool for getting precise about what you value, and walks through four of its ten dimensions that matter most in a retirement transition — Recognition (theneed for visibility, and the risk of feeling invisible once the title and audience are gone), Power (the need for real, not honorary, decision-making authority), Altruism (the drive to contribute, best channeled into generativity like mentoring or building something lasting rather than token volunteering),and Hedonism (the capacity for pleasure and fun, often suppressed after decades of deferred gratification) — before closing with a one-minute exercise: rankingthose four values from most to least true of yourself and checking whether your current retirement plan makes room for the one at the top.References Dingemans, E., & Henkens, K. (2014). Involuntaryretirement, bridge employment, and satisfaction with life: A longitudinalinvestigation. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(4), 575–591.https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1914Fischer, R. (2017). Personality, values, culture: Anevolutionary approach. Cambridge University Press.https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316091944Hogan, J., & Hogan, R. (1996). Motives, Values,Preferences Inventory (MVPI). PsycTESTS. https://doi.org/10.1037/t03372-000Hogan, R., Hogan, J., & Roberts, B. W. (1996).Personality measurement and employment decisions. American Psychologist, 51(5),469–477. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.51.5.469Hogan Assessment Systems. (2020). Summary technicalinformation for validity and norm groups: HPI, HDS, and MVPI.https://www.hoganassessments.comKim, J. E., & Moen, P. (2002). Retirement transitions,gender, and psychological wellbeing: A life-course, ecological model. Journalof Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 57B(3), P212–P222.https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/57.3.P212Leung, C. S. Y., & Earl, J. K. (2012). Retirementresources inventory: Construction, factor structure and psychometricproperties. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 81(2), 171–182.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2012.06.005Löckenhoff, C. E., Terracciano, A.,& Costa, P. T. (2009). Five-factor model personality traits and theretirement transition: Longitudinal and cross-sectional associations. Psychology and Aging, 24(3), 722–728.https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015121Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W. (2006).Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: Ameta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 132(1),1–25. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.1.1Schwartz, S. H. (1992). Universals in the content andstructure of values: Theory and empirical tests in 20 countries. In M. P. Zanna(Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 25, pp. 1–65).Academic Press.Schwartz, S. H. (2012). An overview of the Schwartz theory ofbasic values. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1).https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1116Topa, G., Moriano, J. A., Depolo, M., Alcover, C. M., &Morales, J. F. (2018). Personality and perceived retirement adjustment: Amultilevel meta-analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 104, 293–316.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2017.11.009

This episode's central metaphor—that identity in retirement is not a single trait but a layered "constellation" built from foundational, active, synthesis, and aspirational group memberships—rests on well-established ground in values and personality research. The claim that culture is absorbed rather than chosen, and that it shapes an internalized "inner critic" about what a respectable exit looks like, aligns with Schwartz's cross-cultural framework on how values are structured and transmitted (Schwartz, 1992; Schwartz, 2012) and with Fischer's (2017) account of personality, values, and culture co-evolving across a person's life. The episode's warning that imagined future identities (the "aspirational" layer) may clash with a person's actual temperament—e.g., an efficiency-driven executive struggling with an unhurried travel life or a slow-paced nonprofit board—is well supported by findings that personality traits (particularly conscientiousness and openness) shape how satisfying a given retirement lifestyle actually turns out to be (Löckenhoff, Terracciano, & Costa, 2009; Topa, Moriano, Depolo, Alcover, & Morales, 2018), and by evidence that retirement adjustment is not just an individual choice but a socially and structurally embedded transition shaped by gender, career stage, and life-course context (Kim & Moen, 2002). The exercise at the end, inviting listeners to separate "authentic self" from "internalized group voice," also echoes Roberts, Walton, and Viechtbauer's (2006) work showing that personality itself continues to shift across adulthood, meaning the "who I am now" question the episode poses is empirically, not just rhetorically, a moving target.

Episode SummaryAre you retiring toward something, or away from something? In this episode, we unpack why "I'm ready to retire" is really two separate questions hiding inside one — and why most retirement planning only ever asks one of them.Question one: your relationship to time. Are you future-oriented, present-oriented, or past-oriented? Future-oriented women plan and save well, but the same forward-leaning wiring that built a career can make it nearly impossible to ever say "I've arrived." Present-oriented women may embrace retirement's freedom more easily, but risk being financially underprepared. Past-oriented women often feel the future is out of their hands — and tend to arrive at this transition the least prepared and the most anxious.Question two: your core motivation. Are you being pulled toward retirement (relationships, creative work, freedom you've designed) or pushed out (burnout, being sidelined, ageism)? The research is clear: people who feel pulled report meaningfully higher long-term satisfaction, while people who feel pushed often experience retirement as something that happened to them rather than something they authored.Most retirements are a mix of both — and the goal isn't to eliminate the "push" side (including anger, which is simply information, not something to feel guilty about) but to name it honestly before walking into the next chapter.Reflect On ThisFinish the sentence, just for yourself:"I am partly running from ____, and partly running toward ____."Coming Up NextNext episode goes one layer deeper — into the cultures that shaped you, and why the voice in your head defining a "dignified exit" might not actually be yours.ReferencesCarstensen, L. L., Isaacowitz, D. M., & Charles, S. T. (1999). Taking time seriously: A theory of socioemotional selectivity. American Psychologist, 54(3), 165–181. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.3.165Dingemans, E., & Henkens, K. (2014). Involuntary retirement, bridge employment, and satisfaction with life: A longitudinal investigation. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(4), 575–591. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1914Kim, J. E., & Moen, P. (2002). Retirement transitions, gender, and psychological wellbeing: A life-course, ecological model. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 57B(3), P212–P222. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/57.3.P212Topa, G., Moriano, J. A., Depolo, M., Alcover, C. M., & Morales, J. F. (2018). Personality and perceived retirement adjustment: A multilevel meta-analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 104, 293–316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2017.11.009Zimbardo, P. G., & Boyd, J. N. (1999). Putting time in perspective: A valid, reliable individual-differences metric. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1271–1288. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.77.6.1271

Episode SummaryWhen the executive title comes off, where does your voice go? This episode shifts the focus inward, moving past the external cultural narratives of women leaving power to examine the internal architecture you take with you. We explore howtraits like high conscientiousness drive career success but can create a surprisingly sharp adjustment in retirement, especially for women. Featuring contrasting real-world exit perspectives from Indra Nooyi and Jacinda Ardern,this episode invites you to examine which work habits and assumptions you are carrying into your next chapter.Key Sources & Further ReadingNooyi, I. K. (2021). My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future. Portfolio.Ardern, J. (2023) Statement Announcing Resignation as Prime Minister of New Zealand. New Zealand Government.Hogan, R. Hogan, J. & Roberts, B.W. (1996). Personality measurement and employment decisions. American Psychologist, 51(5), 469–477.Kim, J.E. & Moen, P. (2002). Retirement Transitions, Gender and Psychological Wellbeing. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 57B(3), P212–P222.Löckenhoff, C.E., Terracciano, A., & Costa, P. T. (2009). Five-factor model personality traits and the retirement transition: Longitudinal and cross-sectionalassociations. Psychology and Aging, 24(3), 722–728.Topa, G., Moriano, J. A., Depolo, M., Alcover, C. M., & Morales, J. F. (2018). Personality and perceived retirement adjustment: A multilevel meta-analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 104, 293–316.Reflection Question for This WeekWhat part of how I am at work do I assume will just come with me into retirement? And is that assumption actually true?