When chief executives retire, they leave behind entire frameworks of identity built over what’s often decades of leadership. A new article by Mark Lamberti and Charlene Lew of the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science examines this transition through interviews with 17 retired CEOs from South African public companies. The executives represented companies with revenues and market capitalization greater than $6.15 billion at the time of their retirement.
The study, published in the journal Personnel Review, analyzed over 34 hours of interviews conducted by Mark Lamberti as part of his doctoral thesis to uncover common themes and experiences connected to personal and professional identity reformation.
Stages of Identity Reformation
Previous research has extensively documented the practical aspects of retirement planning and financial preparation. But Lamberti and Lew wanted to tackle a more nuanced question: How do people who have operated at the highest levels of corporate power psychologically adapt to life without that mantle of authority?
What emerged was a portrait of retirement as an often subtle but profound identity crisis that unfolds through specific, identifiable stages.
The process begins with what Lamberti and Lew call “liminality,” a psychological threshold state in which former CEOs find themselves caught between their old identity and an undefined new one. This period often triggers what the article terms “epiphanies”: sudden, sometimes jarring realizations about the magnitude of the change they’re experiencing.
“There were some days where I actually thought I was going to sort of fall apart completely,” one participant reported. “There was no diary, and nobody was talking to me. And so, what next?”
These moments of crisis force retired CEOs to confront fundamental questions about their worth and purpose. The study found that this questioning occurs simultaneously across multiple dimensions: their perception of themselves, their relationships with others, and their place in society.
Lamberti and Lew found that the very characteristics that made these executives successful in their careers — their drive, their leadership of others, their appetite for responsibility — often complicated their retirement adjustment. Many participants described struggling to find appropriate outlets for these deeply ingrained traits.
The study identified six interconnected processes that shape how retired CEOs reform their identities:
First comes the recognition of identity cues: signals from family, former colleagues, and society about expected retirement behaviors. These cues often conflict. A spouse might hope for more family time, while professional networks push for continued business involvement.
Second is an evaluation of resources, both tangible and intangible. While financial security was important, the study found that health, relationships, and professional expertise were considered equally crucial resources for navigating retirement.
Third is sensemaking, the cognitive work of interpreting and understanding a new reality. For CEOs, this often involved extensive reflection and consultation with other retired executives who could relate to their experience.
Fourth is the construction of new narratives about who they are and what they do. These narratives needed to be both personally meaningful and socially credible, often incorporating elements of their former executive identity while acknowledging their new circumstances.
Fifth is identity enactment, testing new roles and ways of being. Lamberti and Lew found that many participants went through several iterations of “provisional selves” before finding comfortable new identities.
Finally, there is the emergence of stable new identities that successfully integrate past experience with present reality. The most successful transitions maintained some elements of contribution and impact while releasing the need for constant control.
Resources Don’t Guarantee Easy Transitions
Despite their considerable resources and strategic capabilities, many CEOs found themselves unprepared for retirement’s psychological impact.
As one participant noted, “I’ve got a bunch of resources. I know I can read numbers. I know I’m a good manager.”
Yet these professional competencies didn’t necessarily ease the transition.
Another participant explained how the very wealth and status that marked their success created new pressures: “So, we need to make sure that we are able to live a productive life for as long as we have our faculties and if we don’t, that we can afford to pay for our care and not expect somebody else or our children to have to deal with that.”
Many described discovering that their spouses had different expectations for retirement. “You soon learn that because work defined so much of who you are, and because you’ve run your life in a certain way, that you actually run a big risk in the first instance on a personal level with your spouse,” said one. “What are those common and shared interests? You quickly find out that there aren’t many.”
The study revealed that successful transitions often involved reimagining one’s relationship with work and purpose. One participant explained this shift in perspective: “Whilst I still have energy, I should try and build the next chapter of my life. Initially less lucrative, but highly rewarding intellectually and emotionally and socially and otherwise.”
However, this process isn’t without its risks. One participant warned, “One can just think about depression, too much alcohol … You can see it when people start losing their sense of purpose; that is when these habits creep in.”
Another expressed concern about talented peers who failed to find meaningful engagement: “I think it’s slightly sad, you know. There are people who have talent and have just switched it off for the sake of, you know, enjoying themselves or taking it easy or being with the family. And they are just less, you know, just less interesting people.”
Giving Back
Several participants noted that the South African political and economic context added unique challenges. With an unemployment rate of 32.9% in 2024, many retired CEOs felt a strong obligation to continue to contribute to the country’s economy and society.
“Society, my friends, my colleagues would expect me to give back,” said one participant. “If there are corporates that you can play a role in as a nonexec and add value, you should do that, because it is needed. And if you can give back to the country, society would be happier if you are giving back 90%. Society is not too excited if I spend 90% of my time looking after the pot that I have built up.”
“And what I’m trying to work out now is some of my personal passions, which I had which were not related directly to work,” said another. “Can I make a contribution to people who might benefit from a degree of commerciality?”
Lamberti and Lew’s article offers insights relevant beyond the executive suite. In an era of increasing career mobility and changing work patterns, many professionals face similar challenges of identity reformation, albeit on a different scale. The processes identified in this research, from recognizing identity cues to testing provisional selves, could provide a useful framework for understanding any major professional transition.
Perhaps most importantly, the research highlights retirement as not merely an ending but a complex process of psychological reconstruction. Understanding this process can help both organizations and individuals better prepare for transitions that, while challenging, offer opportunities for meaningful personal growth and societal contribution.
