Why senior employees need more leadership, not less

While sitting in a lengthy meeting recently, I found myself reflecting on the age and seniority of the attendees.

In HR, we often teach that younger, inexperienced employees require more guidance and a hands-on leadership style than seasoned professionals. (While we could argue that this isn't true for everyone, let’s shift our perspective for a moment.)

What about truly senior people? Those who have accumulated decades of experience and know their roles—and the company—inside out? Specifically, those who are 5–10 years away from retirement?

5–10 years? That is a long time! You might ask, "Agnes, how can you put them in a 'pre-retirement' bucket?"

Don’t worry—I won’t. But for the sake of my theory, I need to define this period as a specific phase.

I’ve illustrated my theory in the graph below:

In orange: The amount of leadership attention an individual requires over time.

In blue: The amount of freedom that same individual should have during their career.

You’ll notice that close leadership is necessary at the beginning. The curve dips over the years but rises again by about a third toward the end. Conversely, individual freedom starts low for juniors, grows significantly, but then tapers off slightly in the final phase.

Why?

My theory focuses on a healthy, sustainable, and future-oriented culture. To keep a business environment healthy, it is vital to retain and value your most experienced experts. However, you must also ensure flexibility and an open mindset for the future. If an organization is dominated by the "status quo" of pre-retirement experts, it risks losing its connection to future innovations.

I want to emphasize: this does not mean you don’t need your senior experts.

Rather, the question is how to embed them in a way that keeps their knowledge as a competitive advantage while still making room for new approaches.

This is why my graph shows that leadership attention should increase toward the end of an employee’s career while their unrestricted freedom decreases. This ensures a sensible balance of mindsets and decision-making styles as you lead the company forward.

Higher leadership attention ensures that senior individuals feel guided toward the future. This is a distinct style of leadership; it is not the "hand-holding" a junior needs, but rather a "guiding-toward-the-future" approach. This style requires more time and intentionality than simply giving a senior employee full, unmonitored autonomy.

In my experience, most loyal, senior employees welcome discussions about evolving their roles as they approach their final career phase—as long as they feel valued.

Never underestimate the power of small signals from managers or teammates. If there is a lack of trust, senior employees may become closed-minded or focus solely on their own benefits, silently "waiting out" their retirement.

However, if your cooperation is rooted in trust, you will benefit from their expertise and see them as true assets until their very last day.