It’s widely expected that we’ll be working for longer than ever before, so it’s likely to be important that we’re able to understand how our performance changes over a longer time period. Indeed, in a recent article, I explored the work of Arthur Brooks, who argues that our abilities tend to go in waves, and once we understand that we can tailor our lives and career accordingly.

Research from Nottingham Trent University aims to help us do just that, and strives for us to understand how our proactivity, proficiency, and adaptability change during our lifetime.

“Many of these changes across the life span vary between individuals and are not universal,” the researchers explain. “However, they help us to understand changes in performance across the life span, expect any possible negative changes, and build on positive changes at different life stages. In turn, this can help us to support job performance and, more broadly, life adaptation.”

The researchers tracked over 900 employees from a local government organization and found that being proactive and taking the initiative at work was linked with slowing any deterioration in our performance from early life until midlife (defined as being around 40 years of age). This then remained stable for around 15 years before decreasing when we reach 55 or so.

Protected from decline

This decline in proactivity can be buffered against when we perform highly complex jobs. The researchers found that when we do such roles, proactivity would increase from midlife until retirement. This midpoint in our career seems to be important as our proactivity appears to dip around this time if our role is not complex and rise if it’s more complex.

Interestingly, the researchers also found that our ability to adapt to any changes that emerge in our work decreases up until around 42, before then flipping and increasing until the end of our working lives. In other words, we were least adaptive to change in the middle of our lives, and most adaptive at the earlier and later stages.

The researchers found no real change in task proficiency across our life span, which they believe shows that our capabilities remain fairly stable throughout life and aren’t impacted by other changes we may experience.

“There is evidence that work performance may increase or decrease with age, but that evidence is inconclusive and often contradictory. Some research shows that performance increases and other that it decreases over time across our working life span,” the researchers explain. “Our findings reveal that it is possible that performance both increases and also decreases depending on what stage one is at in their working life and how complex their job is.”

Different priorities

The researchers believe that our changing priorities at different stages of life play a key role in understanding the changes in performance. The accumulation of experience also plays a part, as does the accumulation of various skills and expertise, which can help to buffer any declines in our physical and cognitive capabilities as we age.

The researchers found that when we’re in the “early exploration” stage of our careers, which they define as between 18 and 30, we typically focus on exploring our role and our identity. This coincides with furthering our education and possibly starting a family.

During midlife, this is often a critical period in which the various types of performance can go up or down, with the study suggesting the complexity of our job is a key determinant of which way things go. They highlight that it’s common at this stage to take on more responsibility in all areas of our life, and the conflicts between the various parts of our life can be challenging.

The latter stage of our career is then a period in which our goals shift towards family and leisure more as we often enjoy stable relationships and fewer responsibilities. It’s often a period of some success in the various aspects of our life.

“For example, older workers are better able to deploy resources to cope with demands, prioritize goals, and adapt to change,” the researchers explain. “They use their mental, physical, and social resources to deal with age-related losses, which can have a positive impact on work performance.”

A complex picture

The results suggest that our performance is a highly complex thing and should not be looked at as a single concept. Instead, we should look at the various different types of performance, such as our levels of proactivity and adaptability, and be aware that we have not only different needs at the various stages of our life but also different strengths.

“Older workers may also focus more on the development of social relationships and supporting the younger generation, whereas younger workers may be more motivated by career goals and further developing their skills and knowledge,” they explain.

When we understand this, we can better provide people with the support they need at each stage of their life so we’re getting the most out of the talent we have.

“This can help us to support job performance and, more broadly, life adaptation,” the authors conclude. “The balance and timing of gains and losses across the life course are important. Here, midlife is a critical point for mapping how resources change across the working life span.”