As I prepared to retire from the professional service firm I’d been privileged to be a partner of for more than 20 years, I embarked on a program very much assisted by Tim and Michael.
Michael made me think, and Tim actively challenged me about what’s next. Through many sessions, initially with my favourite person joining me and then just one-on-one, Tim forced me to challenge myself. Amongst the many moments, one sticks in my memory. We were at a retreat ( my firm referred to it as Pinnacle, but for me it was always God’s Waiting Room) for partners and spouses designed to prepare us for leaving the firm and my favourite person and I were sent off to discuss an aspect of my leaving the firm. As usual, we defaulted to discussing the children. Tim checked in and said he’d be very annoyed if we were discussing the children the next time he came by instead of what we were supposed to be chatting about. It was a wake-up call and set me on the ‘What’s Next’ path.
I’ve been on that path for more than a decade. This blog, started in 2013, is just one element. Like my reading of Herminia Ibarra’s Working Identities, it came out of one of the many coaching conversations with Tim.
So, as I click through more than ten years of ‘What’s Next,’ I feel like another change is before me.
