Leadership expert discusses life’s competing roles during law school presentation

Each role a person plays supplies energy, but also uses energy,Campbell said. By the time most people are 40, they are immersed inmany different roles, and are often assuming a leadership role at workfor the first time. “A true promotion leads to incompetence,” Campbellsaid, noting many people are overwhelmed when they are given control ofa budget and people. “You have to be in a new job for at least oneyear, one budget cycle, before you figure out what’s going on.”

Also, the arrival of 40 signals a midlife crisis for many people.”You’re grappling with major family responsibilities, work is requiringa tremendous amount of time and effort, and at the same time, you haveto come to grips with the fact you’re middle-aged,” Campbell said.

But there’s hope for those facing a midlife crisis, Campbell said.Noted psychologist Daniel Levinson “calls 50 the ‘age of regainedserenity,'” Campbell said. Ray Kroc started McDonald’s when he was 52;Colonel Sanders founded Kentucky Fried Chicken after he started drawing Social Security. In our 50s, Campbell says “we sometimes see peopletake off, because they are more secure in who and what they are.”

Campbell co-authored the widely used Strong-Campbell Interest Inventoryas a faculty member at the University of Minnesota from 1960 to 1968.He joined the Center for Creative Leadership in 1973. His lecturing andprofessional activities have taken him to dozens of U.S. corporationsand universities, and to many foreign countries, including Russia,China, Peru, Saudi Arabia and much of Western Europe. He is the authorof three popular books: “If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, You’llProbably End Up Somewhere Else”; “Take the Road to Creativity and GetOff Your Dead End”; and “If I’m in Charge Here, Why Is EverybodyLaughing?”