From leadership to ‘eldership’: psychological growth in the second half of career
In my private practice work, I increasingly encounter midlife professionals who are not suffering from failure, but from success without meaning.
Many have achieved the milestones they once pursued, including leadership positions, financial stability, professional recognition, and organizational authority. Yet beneath these accomplishments, a quieter psychological question often begins to emerge:
“What kind of person do I want to become now?”
The recent article “From Leadership to Eldership: Die zweite Karrierehälfte gestalten” by Weidling and Wolters (2026) from Egon Zehnder on the transition from “leadership” to “eldership” speaks directly to this developmental shift. The authors describe how the second half of career may involve moving away from identity structures built primarily around achievement and toward a more reflective, generative, and relational orientation.
From a psychological perspective, this transition aligns closely with Erik Erikson’s theory of ‘generativity versus stagnation’, in which mature adulthood is characterized by the desire to guide, mentor, and contribute to future generations (Erikson, 1950). Contemporary developmental psychology similarly suggests that adult growth does not stop in early adulthood. Rather, later adulthood can involve increased emotional complexity, self-awareness, integration of life experience, and the development of wisdom (Kegan, 1994; Vaillant, 2002).
Research on midlife development increasingly shows that many adults experience a reevaluation of meaning, identity, and priorities during the second half of life. This process is not necessarily a “midlife crisis” in the stereotypical sense, but often a developmental recalibration involving deeper questions of authenticity, mortality, and purpose (Lachman, 2015).
In counselling practice, these transitions may present as burnout despite external success, loss of motivation after decades of achievement, existential anxiety, or identity confusion following a career plateau. Many individuals describe a growing longing for contribution over competition and meaning over performance. Importantly, these experiences are not signs of pathology. They are often signs of psychological maturation.
Psychological Flexibility in Midlife Leadership
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) offers a meaningful framework for understanding the movement from leadership to ‘eldership’. ACT proposes that psychological wellbeing depends less on eliminating discomfort and more on developing ‘psychological flexibility’: the capacity to remain open to difficult inner experiences while acting in alignment with deeply held values (Hayes et al., 2006).
Many high-achieving professionals spend the first half of life organized around performance, productivity, achievement, and external validation. While these strategies may support career advancement, they can also create what ACT describes as ‘experiential avoidance’: the attempt to avoid vulnerability, uncertainty, aging, or existential anxiety through continual striving and control.
Midlife often disrupts these patterns. From a phenomenological and existential perspective, midlife often brings an increased awareness of mortality, freedom, meaning, and the limits of control. Individuals may also try to question their relevance and make sense of their identity beyond professional success. From an ACT perspective, this period can become an invitation toward values clarification, acceptance of impermanence, and a shift from achievement-driven living toward contribution, stewardship, and relational depth. What once provided psychological stability such as achievement, status, or professional identity, may no longer offer the same sense of fulfilment.
From a phenomenological perspective, midlife can also be understood as a shift in lived experience and subjective meaning-making. Heidegger (1962) described human existence as fundamentally shaped by our awareness of temporality and mortality. Individuals may begin recognizing that achievement cannot fully protect against impermanence, aging, or existential uncertainty. From a Jungian (1954; 1966) perspective, midlife represents an important developmental transition rather than simply a period of decline. Experiences such as burnout, restlessness, or loss of purpose may therefore reflect not dysfunction, but a psychological call toward greater authenticity, emotional maturity, and inner alignment beyond professional success.
Yalom’s (1980) observations echo that existential concerns may frequently become more psychologically salient during periods of transition and self-confrontation. While this can generate anxiety and uncertainty, it may also create the conditions for values-oriented living.
Phenomenologically, the movement toward 'eldership’ may therefore involve a transition from living primarily according to externally defined structures of success toward a more reflective engagement with one’s own lived values and existential reality.
ACT, phenomenology, and Jungian psychology converge around the idea that mature development requires a more flexible relationship with identity, uncertainty, and impermanence. In this sense, ‘eldership’ is not about decline, but about becoming more psychologically integrated, values-oriented, and relationally grounded in the second half of life.
The question gradually shifts from “How do I continue proving myself?”to
“How do I live and lead in a way that is congruent with what truly matters?”
Leadership Research and the Emergence of ‘Eldership’ in the age AI
It is increasingly emphasized and recognised by various leadership training institutions that emotionally mature leadership capacities are becoming more valuable in complex organizational environments. The current AI transformation adds another layer to the psychological importance of ‘eldership’.
Successful organizational change depends less on technology itself and more on leaders’ ability to navigate uncertainty, emotional intelligence, behavioural adaptation, and human systems. The AI era requires leaders who can integrate human judgment with technological capability rather than simply accelerating automation. AI transformation is reshaping leadership toward ethical stewardship, adaptive learning, psychologically safe cultures, and human-AI collaboration.
These themes align remarkably well with the idea of “eldership.” Increasingly, organizations require perspective rather than impulsivity, wisdom rather than speed, discernment rather than reactivity, and relational maturity rather than dominance.
Paradoxically, the more technologically advanced organizations become, the more valuable distinctly human capacities may become. Ethical judgment, emotional regulation, reflective thinking, mentoring, contextual wisdom, and tolerance for ambiguity cannot easily be automated. Human-AI collaboration is potentially most effective when leaders retain reflective judgment rather than surrendering entirely to automation. In this sense, ‘eldership’ may become not less relevant, but more necessary. And human capacity is fascinating. Gignac and Zajenokwski (2025) study indicates that
human peak mental functioning occurs between ages 55 and 60, suggesting that individuals are at their absolute best for complex, high-stakes leadership and problem-solving between their 40s and mid-60s!
The Relevance of “The 100-Year Life” perspective
The themes explored here also resonate strongly with the ideas presented in “The 100-Year Life”by Gratton and Scott (2016) who argue that increasing longevity is fundamentally transforming how individuals need to approach career, identity, learning, and adulthood itself. Rather than following a traditional linear model of education, work, and retirement, many people may now experience
multiple developmental stages and career reinventions across a much longer lifespan.
This shift makes the transition from leadership to ‘eldership’ particularly relevant.
If careers increasingly extend into later adulthood, then psychological adaptation, meaning-making, emotional flexibility, and generativity become essential capacities rather than optional luxuries.
Counselling Psychology and the Second Half of Career
Counselling psychology can play an important role in supporting this developmental passage. Rather than focusing solely on symptom reduction of distress or performance optimization, counselling and conversations with a purpose, and a reflective space can help individuals explore evolving identity, changing values, potential grief around aging, legacy, purpose, and enhance the possibility of a psychologically richer adulthood.
The transition from leadership to ‘eldership’ may represent one of the most meaningful stages of adult psychological development.
REFERENCES
Egon Zehnder. (n.d.). From leadership to eldership: Die zweite Karrierehälfte gestalten (2025). Egon Zehnder. https://www.egonzehnder.com/de/unsere-profession/individuelle-weiterentwicklung/insights/from-leadership-to-eldership-die-zweite-karrierehalfte-gestalten
Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. Norton
Gignac, G. E. and Zajenokwski, M. (2025). Humans peak in midlife: A combined cognitive and personality trait perspective. Intelligence, 113, 1-17, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2025.101961
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289625000649
Gratton, L., & Scott, A. (2016). The 100-year life: Living and working in an age of longevity. Bloomsbury.
Hayes, S. C., Luoma, J. B., Bond, F. W., Masuda, A., & Lillis, J. (2006). Acceptance and commitment therapy: Model, processes and outcomes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44(1), 1–25.
Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time (J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.). Harper & Row. (Original work published 1927)
Jung, C. G. (1954). The development of personality. Princeton University Press.
Jung, C. G. (1966). Two essays on analytical psychology (2nd ed., R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). Princeton University Press.
Kegan, R. (1994). In over our heads: The mental demands of modern life. Harvard University Press.
Lachman, M. E. (2015). Mind the gap in the middle: A call to study midlife. Research in Human Development, 12(3–4), 327–334.
Vaillant, G. E. (2002). Aging well. Little, Brown.
Yalom, I. D. (1980). Existential psychotherapy. Basic Books.