Senior Professional with Senior Insights . . . Where is the Value?

I have lived in Saudi Arabia with valid residency for more than 35 years. This living experience has

included annual return home to the US, and occasional short visits whenever possible.  I am grateful for the years, experience, insights, and especially the relationships that I have gained over those years. 

I have been blessed to have garnered a professional career that has demonstrated competence, professionalism, management, and leadership in a wide range of situations.  I have had the wonderful opportunity to develop and sustain relationships based on professional and personal bonds, many of which have lasted for the decades that I have lived in this society. 

I have benefited from managers and colleagues who have offered support, collaboration, and mentorship that provided valuable insights to develop skill sets to address different organizational challenges, and development initiatives.  I have had the pleasure to provide mentorship to young students and corporate management trainees that have witnessed many of them excel in positions of management and leadership in their respective organizations. 

I have traveled to different lands, collaborated with professionals with a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and services to help bring about successful completion of different initiatives that brought success to our respective organizations, sometimes resulting in additional lasting professional and personal relationships that have spanned the years.

Over those years, I have designed, developed, delivered, produced, and supported initiatives for my respective organizations.  In many of these initiatives, I took a “back-office” posture to support the success of the initiative, and ultimately the primary sponsor of that initiative in front of higher executives and such. Presentations, training materials, training, coaching, mentoring, and other pursuits were delivered with the fine collaboration of other team members, and in many cases the appreciation of superiors and colleagues.

As a senior professional – in both age and experience, organizational dynamics have changed with time, and circumstances.  As an expat professional, one expects that situational placement will eventually come to a limit.  This can be due to regulatory retirement policies, changes in business goals or processes, or in many cases, the need to make placement for younger entry-level st, many at the beginning of their professional career after having completed some level of academic achievement. 

This is the right – and duty – of the society for its future generations.

High points in one’s career come in witnessing the accomplishments and progress of younger professionals who may have come under your tutelage, mentorship, or training.  There are brief moments of satisfaction, joy, and pride when reading about the assignment, promotion, or achievement of an individual with whom you had once supervised or mentored at the beginning of his . . . or her professional journey. 

The stark reality is when you face that void in your life and professional journey where opportunities for employment become more and more limited, and the challenge to “stay relevant” becomes more for personal development and satisfaction rather than marketability or the potential to add value to an organization’s development. The challenge however, for many organizations is how to prepare young professionals for long-term corporate commitment, growth in professional maturity, and balance between corporate mission and personal career pursuits. 

If I were to describe this “post-career” phase in my professional journey and my life, I would say that I would look to use my skill sets and insights to help organizations continue to drive forward in their development of processes and human capital.  Mentorship and coaching programs, documentation and compliance initiatives, training and development would be areas of interest with focus on targeted outcomes and objectives. 

In a vibrant diverse market, the senior professional might transition to consultant, facilitator, or other role that provides short- to long-term support to organizational development and dynamics. 

In one of my previous endeavors, collaborating for global consulting initiatives with US-based colleagues, we used to coin a sustained statement of purpose and mission when pursuing potential clients.  I end this article with that same statement . . .

Let’s have a conversation.