Can There Be Life After Power? - From Business to the US Presidency

Decades ago, current Yale academic Jeffrey Sonnenfeld systematized how difficult it was for business leaders to let go of power when the job ended. That was the book "The Hero's Farewell." Recently, after his retirement from Disney Bob Iger managed to be rehired again as CEO. The results of the coming proxy fight will determine if that move was reckless and a better course of action would have been to build another kind of post-power kind of life.

Now we have the 2024 perspective on post-power in terms of US presidents. That's the book "Life After Power" by bestselling author and cohead of applied innovation at Goldman Sachs Jared Cohen. 

The reality of what Cohen documents is palpable. Yesterday, former US presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton seemed all too happy to be back in the spotlight during the gala fundraiser for current US president Joe Biden in Manhattan. It is legend how one-term US president Jimmy Carter did extreme reputation restoration through global good deeds. Of course, former US president Donald Trump seems unaware that he no longer officially has that job. Or, its power. Streaming on Hulu is the three-part miniseries "FDR" which captures the leader's drive, despite ill health, to opt for a third term. 

Some US presidents, explains Cohen, such as George Washington and George W. Bush were truly able to move on. The former returned to the satisfactions of farming. The latter, except for some hustling for money through giving talks, found contentment in ordinary life and discovered a talent for painting. 

But will Cohen be really able to bring the taboo subject of power out of the closet? The code word for that is "leadership."

Thought leaders such as Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Jeffrey Pfeffer have struggled to do that. His 2010 expose had been "Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't." He lectures law-school students about the need to understand, get and grow power in order to put together successful careers. Over in the trenches of Big Law, way beyond the mandatory retirement date Jones Day's Stephen Brogan held such power. At Paul, Weiss chair Brad Karp's signature is about balancing the position of power with a record for social justice and achieving progressive change. 

Until power enters the mainstream conversation as something we can share everywhere the suffering will continue to be profound for too many of those whose lives no longer embed so much of it. 

Believe me, the transition is usually emotionally brutal. When I attempted to talk about power lost when I gave up the highly demanding role of influencer to launch another kind of enterprise I was met with blank faces. Not one person got it. Nowhere could I find relief.

Face it, the dominant narrative is about work per se and how much it pays and how to get better-paying work. If we introduce the power factor associated with how we earn a good living not only can rites of passage be less traumatic. We could become, as Pfeffer predicts, more successful. Man is a political animal. 

Limiting beliefs? Self-defeating? Stuck? Complimentary consultation with Coach Jane Genova (text/phone 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com)