7. Mentoring While Letting Go: Later Adult (Ages 60 to 100+)

While later adults inevitably face physical and mental challenges, this life-stage can last longer than ever, as life expectancy grows. Later adults have plenty to learn and to offer the family enterprise, including as wisdom-keepers and members of a generation thoughtfully letting go of ownership and leadership while grooming the rising cohort. Development goals for later adults are: managing the aging process while letting go with grace; continuing to strengthen the family through culture, tradition, and fostering of family leaders; advanced continuity planning for the enterprise; evolving as an individual leader and professionalizing the family enterprise. Effective development opportunities include: reflection and planning with regard to individual and family purpose and goals (such as ownership succession); “fertilization” of next generation family talent; addressing of long-term family wounds; creation of development systems for governance and business leadership; and understanding the impact of one’s transition on the family and business systems. The best starting point for development in this stage is having the right mentality: one marked by self-awareness, honesty, acceptance, and a comfort with the “in-between.” Watch out for the tendency to become a “boomerang owner” (one who struggles with identity beyond the enterprise) or to let family expectations become one’s own (such as giving into the family’s fears about losing the later adult’s influence).