Leadership for Older Adults: Aging With Purpose And Passion

As we enter the 21st century, the challenge addressed in this volume is to give older people back their rightful place in history. Every older person is a leader by virtue of his or her longevity. Their rich experiences are a treasured legacy. Society can no longer afford to pay lip-service to this abundance of life but must create the conditions under which people around the world can learn, grow and develop their potential to the end of life. This book tells the tale of two retirement organizations that reflect common leadership issues throughout the western world, issues that are just beginning to emerge in many developing countries and have yet to be experienced in others. Wherever rapid population aging is coupled with a view of old people as useless and a burden, challenging questions arise: How do we develop the resources and leadership potential of our aging population? How do we turn old age from an expensive wasteland into a fertile period of growth and development? Drawing on soundresearch and intimate knowledge of retirement, the authors use two specific organizations to highlight common issues: portraits if leadership-in-action to illustrate how leaders develop. The first example serves as a model for what is possible. The second represents a typical retirement organization that embodies a traditional form of leadership. The challenge for this organization, like many of its kind around the world, is to transform leadership with the focus on developing seniors as vital, dynamic leaders in their groups and in society.