Difference in leaders in their 30's vs 60's

Let's say you are striving for excellence. Unfortunately, the strengths you rely on in your 20s will be different from those in your 60s.  Behavioural scientist Arthur Brooks explains why the skills that carried high achievers through their 20s and 30s inevitably wane—and how a different set of abilities can make a leader more impactful and purposeful in the second half of life.   

Drawing on his book "From Strength to Strength" and decades of neuroscience research, Arthur provides practical guidance for navigating the mid-career transition, escaping burnout, and leading with tough-minded compassion. Fluid Intelligence vs. Crystalised Intelligence. Your strengths change over time, and Arthur explains this phenomenon using the concept of fluid and crystallised intelligence.

 

https://www.simplypsychology.org/fluid-crystallized-intelligence.html 

Rooted in Raymond Cattell’s psychology research, Arthur shares how people before age 40 rely on fluid intelligence, which is characterised by the natural rapid focus, working memory, and novel problem-solving you experience in the first half of life. However, fluid intelligence typically peaks around the age of 39.  

This is why high achievers experience burnout in their mid-40s. What used to be easy now feels hard, and what used to be hard now feels impossible.  Progress slows even though the effort stays high. 

Yet as the fluid intelligence curve slopes down, crystallised intelligence shoots up in your 40s and 50s.  Crystalised intelligence turns decades of experience into skills like teachability, pattern recognition, coaching, and mentoring.  

At this stage, you’ll face problems you’ve never seen before, yet you’ll know how to solve them because of the deep well of experience within you. Arthur recommends you be the innovator when you’re 30 and the instructor when you’re 60. Move from star litigator to managing partner, startup founder to venture capitalist, autonomous leader to teaching leader. 

Crossing the Curves 

Crossing the intelligence curves at the right time is essential for successful leaders. Typically, you can change your role or your job to accommodate this change. Leaders who stay on the fluid curve for too long eventually experience burnout, commonly referred to as a mid-life crisis. They may grow anxious, chase shortcuts, or feel a threat to their identity when their old strengths no longer work.  

High performers who base their worth on achievement may struggle in midlife, reacting with anger, turning to addictions, or making reckless choices. Here’s the key: how you succeed is going to change.  The healthy response is to redesign your job. Delegate speed work to the younger generation, make space for strategy and mentoring, and publicly hand off projects so your team understands why the leader now spends more time coaching than grinding. 

A Balanced Definition of Success 

The psychological phenomenon behind burnout is what Arthur calls success addiction, which stems from the psychological rewards you experienced in childhood applause. The limbic system of the brain becomes hardwired during childhood to look for success and praise. As a result, you have workaholics whose identities are dependent on successful outcomes. The secret is not to be successful so you become happy; it’s to become happier so you’re successful enough.  

The world says money, power, pleasure, and fame are key to happiness. But if you do the work to become a happier person, you will find that you’re successful enough. Arthur explains the happiest people are evenly divided between a four-domain portfolio—faith, family, friendship, and work.  

If you put all your excellence into work alone, you’ll be mediocre everywhere else.  So, how can high-achieving leaders fight against workaholism? You’ll need to find a balance and a higher set of desires beyond work success to achieve happiness. Arthur recommends functional cross-training as a way to combat workaholism. 

By choosing to become a student at something you’re bad at, you simultaneously grow in humility and confidence when learning new things. For example, physical fitness can enhance intellectual prowess. Your body needs to support your cognitive activity, and physical fitness is associated with better cognitive health, especially during the crystallised intelligence stage.  

Compassionate Love as Leadership 

So what about leading others? The most successful leaders know how to lead with love. Love is to will the good of the other. To have love at the center of your leadership is the hardest and most rewarding thing you can do. However, Arthur draws a bright line between empathy and compassion.  

Bad leaders are excessively empathetic; great leaders are always compassionate. Empathy is to feel somebody else’s pain; compassion is to understand what needs to be done and to have the courage and skill to do it without degrading any other person. 

Consider an underperformer in your company. An overly empathetic leader postpones the tough talk, hoping they will improve; a compassionate leader tells the truth early, clarifies the gaps, offers coaching, or facilitates a graceful transition.  Lying about performance is uncompassionate, even if it feels kind in the moment. 

Telling the truth early and making tough decisions as a leader can be a lonely experience. But you can still be happy. If you’re only working for yourself, you won’t be happy in loneliness. If you love others, you can do your work with joy even when it’s hard.