Do you have leadership longevity? 3 distinct qualities can help — in your work & personal life.

The needle is moving upward for the age of the nation's CEOs. I've found certain attributes build endurance to stay relevant in whatever capacity you lead.

Warmup

I’ve been on the road for the past two weeks meeting with top leaders in different industries.

Nearly all have been in their mid 50s to 70s.

Some are active CEOs.

Others are seasoned executives deeply reflecting upon what their next pivot will be.

None are eyeing retirement in the traditional sense — even though most certainly could afford to.

What struck me was, despite how different these leaders are, most possess a few core attributes helping power their ability to remain competitive.

These attributes also cross over into leadership longevity outside the workplace: Aging athletes. (Raising my hand here.) People leading and negotiating their family’s affairs or volunteering for a community group.

To endure, make the best decisions and be taken seriously you must continually cultivate the right strengths.

Post

How old is too old to lead?

At The Wall Street Journal Leadership Institute, where I work, our president recently noted in his newsletter how in 2024, half the CEOs in the S&P 1500 were older than 60. In at least one high profile case, the mandatory retirement age was lifted to 85. It’s part of a trend toward more experienced, older CEOs.

Certainly in times of great uncertainty and change, as we’re experiencing now globally, continuity and experience feel like a safer bet — particularly at the top.

Yet, I’d suggest executive endurance also is a result of a changing culture that is doubling down on, and rewarding, certain leadership qualities in many walks of life.

Three stand out to me: adaptability, physical preparedness and perspective.

Recently, I witnessed these attributes on display in Santa Fe, New Mexico where I co-taught a weeklong curriculum at the Modern Elder Academy called “What’s Next!? Strategies for a Powerful Pivot.”

We drilled down on the attendees’ (most in their 50s and early 60s) personal qualities — what I call their “edges and equalizers” — that will help them flourish in the next stage of life. Those three mentioned above stood out.

And then I saw these attributes surface again this past week at a small sit-down dinner in Washington, D.C. where WSJ hosted an intimate conversation for CEOs under Chatham House Rule. (I.e., you can talk about what was said but not disclose who said it.)

Certainly these aren’t the only attributes that matter for leadership longevity. But people who stay relevant generally seem to check these boxes in some capacity.

And not surprisingly, these attributes matter for enduring in efforts of many sorts — workplace, racecourse or other personal pursuits.

1. Adaptability

The ability to adjust to new conditions is a powerful tool.

There’s a longstanding belief that as we age, we get more set in our ways.

Yet I see things trending in the opposite direction among seasoned leaders and workers still deep in the game.

There are the more obvious ways this manifests: a willingness to embrace new technology such as AI, rethinking a company’s historical structure, responding to a vastly new political environment by identifying both risks and opportunities.

But it’s also about subtler behaviors they exhibit — things we all can learn from both in and out of the workplace:

• Deeply engaging in current battles and issues versus telling old war stories and hoping someone admires them for the Previously Important Person they once were.

• Adopting emerging communication tools versus expecting the people around them to default to their longstanding preferred methods.

• Consistently inviting dissent and listening with a “strong opinions, loosely held” mindset.

In many ways, workplace adaptability isn’t that different from athletic adaptability where the wild card might be weather, injury, faulty equipment or an unexpected surge by a rival.

Adaptability = Survival.

2. Physical Preparedness

This one’s obvious in athletics.

But I’ll wager one reason so many executives can stay in the corporate game longer is because they are taking better care of themselves physically and cognitively.

There’s been at least one study that correlates a CEO’s fitness to company value. The findings suggest that fitness moderates stress and positively impacts cognitive functions and performance.

Anecdotally, this squares for me in the healthier behaviors I see among certain older leaders of high-performing companies.

• Rarely do I see these executives consume a lot of alcohol when they gather.

• They brag about optimizing their schedules to get eight hours of sleep versus getting by on four. They aren’t attempting to outwork the job.

• They wear Oura rings and other biometric trackers.

• At the WSJ dinner last week, I spoke with one CEO in his mid-60s who is competing in Hyrox, a very ambitious type of physical competition.

• My boss is 70 and walks 30 minutes to the office each day. He’s fit enough to maintain a travel schedule and work ethic that outpaces that of our younger team.

One goal of this newsletter is to inspire all of us to take “physical preparedness” more seriously — so we can better face unexpected challenges such as a health crisis and continue to do what we love, with the people we love, for as long as possible.

Fair or not, people make judgments based on appearance. Physical preparedness is key both to staying competent in any role for longer — and to convincing others’ of your competence.

3. Perspective

This one’s about seeing the forest for the trees. That is, the value of understanding the broader picture or context of a situation, particularly when things are chaotic, intense or fast-moving.

The older you are, the more you’ve witnessed the arc of history and may possess this lens. It’s one of the most important “edges and equalizers” of age I talk about in my book “Not Too Late.”

I’ve worked for CEOs and managers both older and younger than myself. From the younger bosses, I’ve learned to stay hungry, ask for forgiveness versus permission and believe in the impossible.

But there’s the undeniable edge an older executive brings when they leverage their perspective to help a ship stay the course or avoid an iceberg.

When profound change is afoot, as it may be for many of us right now, this attribute is invaluable.

Cooldown

Short-read: “The CEO as elite athlete: What business leaders can learn from modern sports.” This article comes from McKinsey & Co. and underscores how executives can learn from leadership practices of great athletes.

Long-read: If you want to better understand how attributes versus skills fuel success, I recommend (again) former Navy Seal Rich Diviney’s book: “The Attributes: 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance.”

His experience and reflections helped me really understand the difference between a “skill” and an “attribute” and when to lean on each.

Music Snack

We’re building a N2L member “Not Too Late” music playlist.

This is audio fuel in the “Let’s get it done” spirit. (Read kick-off post.)

You can listen:

• On Spotify.

• On Apple Music.

Note: You may need to create a Spotify or Apple Music account if you don’t have one already.

Today’s N2L Member Pick Spotlight

These two songs come from someone who emailed me anonymously but describes themself this way (which feels just right for today’s newsletter):

“I’m 73 and lift weights, do rope flow, use the Weck Method RMT club and am trying to relearn to run and jump again. I'm not big on listening to music when I'm working out but if I had to pick two songs to get revved up, they might be:”

“Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young” by Fire Inc.

“Badlands” by Bruce Springsteen.

I’d love your 1-2 song suggestions either by email or in the comments below. I’ll add them to the playlist and highlight your pick in a future newsletter.

Thanks for reading. As always, find something you love. Dig in. Stick with it when things get hard — and lean on your attributes.

Wendy