Auditing the Future of Workplace Coaching

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.

Reference

Leung, 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/10.1111/1468-2389.00162

Hogan Assessment Systems. (2020). Summary technicalinformation for validity and norm groups: HPI, HDS, and MVPI. https://www.hoganassessments.com

Löckenhoff, 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/a0015121

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. 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.

References

Löckenhoff, 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/a0015121

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. 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 Notes

This 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.1914

Fischer, R. (2017). Personality, values, culture: Anevolutionary approach. Cambridge University Press.https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316091944

Hogan, J., & Hogan, R. (1996). Motives, Values,Preferences Inventory (MVPI). PsycTESTS. https://doi.org/10.1037/t03372-000

Hogan, 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.51.5.469

Hogan Assessment Systems. (2020). Summary technicalinformation for validity and norm groups: HPI, HDS, and MVPI.https://www.hoganassessments.com

Kim, 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.P212

Leung, 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.2012.06.005

Löckenhoff, 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/a0015121

Roberts, 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/10.1037/0033-2909.132.1.1

Schwartz, 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/10.9707/2307-0919.1116

Topa, 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 Summary

When 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 Reading

Nooyi, 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 Week

What part of how I am at work do I assume will just come with me into retirement?

And is that assumption actually true?

Show notes: In this episode of Auditing the Future of Coaching, we turn to fiction, film, and television to ask what popular stories reveal and conceal about women leaders leaving power. Through novels, memoirs, films, andseries, the episode explores the inner experience of retirement as more than a financial or career transition: it is an identity shift shaped by role, visibility, ambition, duty, grief, and the search for where one’s voice belongs next.

References

Books

· Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

· All Fours by Miranda July

· Outline Trilogy by Rachel Cusk

· Exit Interview by Kristi Coulter

· Untamed by Glennon Doyle

· Becoming by Michelle Obama

Films

· Tár

· The Last Showgirl

Series

· The Crown, Season 6

· Hacks

· Succession

In this episode of Auditing the Future of Coaching,we examine what academic research reveals about women leaders navigating retirement, especially the hidden identity disruption that can sit beneath a seemingly smooth transition. Drawing on studies of meaning-making, professionalidentity, career pathways, relational loss, organizational conditioning, and continued work after traditional retirement age, the episode explores why retirement for high-achieving women is not simply an ending but an active process of renegotiating purpose, relationships, contribution, and self-understanding.

References

• Borrero, L., & Kruger, T. M. (2015). The nature and meaning of identity in retired professional women. Journal of Women & Aging, 27(4), 279–298.

• Duberley, J., & Carmichael, F. (2016). Career pathways into retirement in the UK: Linking older women's pasts to the present. Work, Employment and Society, 30(4), 582–599.

• Price, C. A. (2000). Women and retirement: Relinquishing professional identity. Journal of Aging Studies, 14(1), 81–101.

• Semyonov-Tal, K., et al. (2025). Working past traditional retirement age: Identity, purpose, and continuity among highly educated women. Journal of Aging & Social Policy.

• Wood, R. E., & Pachana, N. A. (2025). The role of meaning in the retirement transition: A scoping review. The Gerontologist, 65(1).

In this episode of Auditing the Future of Coaching, we explore women leaders’ retirement through a philosophical lens, asking what happens when status, visibility, and institutional authority begin to recede. The conversation reframes stepping down not as disappearance or decline, but as a profound transition into judgment, authenticity,contemplation, generativity, and renewed moral authority. Episode 3 invites women leaders—and those who support them—to consider retirement as an opportunity to release attachment to role, reclaim authorship of the self, and carry hard-won experience forward in new forms of mentorship, reflection, creativity, and legacy.

Bibliography

Western Philosophy & Social Theory

· Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. University of Chicago Press, 1958.

· Beauvoir, Simone de. The Coming of Age (La Vieillesse). Translated by Patrick O'Brian, W. W. Norton & Company, 1996.

· Cicero, Marcus Tullius. On Old Age (Cato Maior de Senectute). Translated by Philip Freeman, Princeton University Press, 2016.

. Erikson, Erik H. The Life Cycle Completed. W. W. Norton & Company, 1998.. Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Translated by Walter Kaufmann, Penguin Books, 1978.. Plato. The Apology of Socrates. Translated by G.M.A. Grube, Hackett Publishing, 2002.

· Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Letters from a Stoic (Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium). Translated by Robin Campbell, Penguin Classics, 1969.. Wollstonecraft, Mary. AVindication of the Rights of Woman. Edited by Carol H. Poston, W. W. Norton & Company, 1988.

Non-Western Philosophy

· Confucius. The Analects. Translated by Edward Slingerland, Hackett Publishing, 2003.. Laozi. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Stephen Mitchell, HarperPerennial, 1988.

· Mencius. Mencius.Translated by D.C. Lau, Penguin Classics, 2005.

· Olivelle, Patrick. TheAsrama System: The History and Hermeneutics of a Religious Institution. Oxford University Press, 1993.

· Tutu, Desmond. No Future Without Forgiveness. Doubleday, 1999.

In Episode 1, I set up thecentral question for this season: how can we support ourselves, a generation ofwomen leaders approaching retirement without a shared map, a familiar script,or much public conversation about what that transition actually requires?Today, we’re going one layer deeper — first into the reckoningunderneath the transition, and then into what women who’ve actually led majorcompanies say when the role begins to fall away.

In season 2 of Auditing the Future of Workplace Coaching host Hélène Seiler makes the case — with her own retirement on the horizon — for why women leaders’ retirement is under-researched, under-discussed, and urgent for both the women living it and the coaches who support them. She will take the knowledge that already exists, scattered as it is, and put it to work for the people who need it.

In this episode, we bring our first season to a close, with a call for the coaching community to demand transparency from the developers of AI coaching agents, so that we understand what foundational theories they use.

In this episode we close our exploration of the four coaching theory traditions with client-centered theories. Enjoy listening and feel free to comment on my LinkedIn profile!

In this episode, we continue our journey through the theories that inform workplace coaching. We focus on the coach-developmental journey, that views the coach's primary duty as a journey of self-development.

In this episode, we deep dive into the evidence-based tradition, highlighting its major contributions to coaching research, as well as its limitations for the practitioner.

Today, we're going to concentrate on theories that fallunder the Expertise Tradition. Those who champion the Expertise Tradition generally hold a positivist worldview, meaning they believe we can pursue truth through scientific means, with experts acting as the "guardians of truth." Their knowledge, built on years of education and practicalexperience, is seen as absolutely paramount for successful coaching.

In this episode, my goal is to walk through a categorization of coaching theories. This will help us on our journey to discover each of them in later episodes.