Midlife

Are you struggling with a midlife crisis? Trying to make sense of why so much of what you have achieved in your life doesn’t seem to have much relevance to what you want to be? Wondering what on earth you are going to do for the next twenty years?

 

As someone who (I think) has successfully navigated his midlife crisis, I was fascinated to come across some interesting thinking on this subject by Catherine Fitzgerald, Ph.D., an organisational psychologist and executive coach to senior executives as well as co-editor of Executive Coaching: Practices and Perspectives, edited by Catherine Fitzgerald and Jennifer Garvey Berger (Davies Black, 2002)

 

As Fitzgerald points out, Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist and founder of the school of analytical psychology, recognised midlife as a psychological watershed in life. The first half of life – up to the age of about 35 to 40 – is about “winning a place in society” by focusing on a specialist role, a profession or business. According to Fitzgerald:

 

“In the second half of life…the focus is on being a generalist, on revisiting and incorporating all of the parts of yourself that you had put aside in order to make your way in the world of the first half of life.”

 

The transition from the first half of life to the second can be particularly traumatic – the “midlife crisis” – because it often involves a major adjustment of an individual’s preferences for basic human cognitive functions.

 

Cognitive functions

Jung identified three dimensions of psychological types, each comprising opposing pairs:

 

                        Extraversion    –     Introversion

                                Sensing    –     Intuition

                               Thinking    –     Feeling

 

Jung’s theory, which was enhanced by Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Myers (of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator fame) asserts that people are either born with, or develop, certain preferred ways of thinking and acting.

 

For example, although the Thinking and Feeling functions are both used to make rational decisions, the analysis preceding those decisions is performed in contrasting ways. People who prefer Feeling tend to come to decisions by associating or empathizing with the situation, trying to figure out the greatest harmony, consensus and fit, bearing in mind the needs of the people involved. Those who prefer Thinking tend to decide things from a more detached standpoint, measuring the decision by what seems reasonable, logical, causal, consistent and matching a given set of rules.

 

Crisis time

The problem with midlife is that the transition from a specialist to a generalist also applies to these cognitive types and requires people to start to develop their weaker cognitive functions. The person who has spent the first half of their life preferring a Thinking perspective may find themselves face to face with an under-developed Feeling function. As Fitzgerald explains, such an individual in midlife may find themselves drawn to:

 

·    Focusing on what they care about and value, rather than what’s logical

·    Considering their personal reactions to, not their analysis of, a situation, and taking into account the personal reactions of others

·    Viewing a situation from a more attached and subjective perspective

 

And this can lead to all sorts of angst: “Why don’t I enjoy my job any more?” “What’s the point of all this?” “Am I no longer up to the job?”

 

Solutions

Fortunately there are very positive aspects to these changes. Consider the executive who has carved out a career in some specialist area – a banker, lawyer or engineer – who is moving into a senior management position. Revisiting the three points above for our “Thinker” grappling with their less-developed “Feeler” function might suggest the following:

 

Less preferred “Feeling” attributes	Examples of opportunities for personal advancement
Focusing on what they care about and value, rather than what’s logical	Greater ability to focus on building the corporate brand or to deal with ethical dilemmas
Considering their personal reactions to, not their analysis of, a situation, and taking into account the personal reactions of others	Becoming a more effective and productive manager across a broader range of people and disciplines
Viewing a situation from a more attached and subjective perspective	Better at handling the challenges of managing a whole business division rather than a single unit

 

Myers and Briggs outlined sixteen permutations of cognitive types but although the impact of midlife on each of these types varies a great deal, they all share the common struggle of recognising, adjusting to and taking advantage of these changes.

 

Senior executives need to recognise and understand how “who they are” and “who they are becoming” affects how they address the challenges they face every day. More on this another time…