SL021 When Your Leadership Role No Longer Fits
How to Shape a Professional Transition
Your contract still runs for another two years. You are successful in your role. There is no immediate crisis. And still, something has changed.
Another contract extension does not sound particularly attractive. Other subjects catch your attention, and your current position increasingly feels like something you can do very well, but perhaps no longer something you want to continue doing.
Does that sound familiar?
Welcome to a new episode of Self-Leadership with Dr. Bensmann. My name is Burkhard Bensmann. I work as a consultant and executive coach, mainly with leaders in situations of change.
This is the second episode of my four-part series on professional transitions. In the first episode, I asked three questions: How future-proof is my current role? How future-proof am I? And do I actually want to remain in this role? Today I want to continue from there. How do you recognize that a professional passage may already have begun? And what can you do while you still have room to decide?
1. A transition often begins quietly
We tend to recognize professional transitions by visible events. Someone resigns. A contract ends. A company is sold. A restructuring is announced. A new CEO arrives. But in my coaching work, I often see the real transition beginning much earlier. Nothing visible has happened yet. The person still performs well, and colleagues may notice nothing. But internally, the connection to the role begins to change.
From my experience, there are three signals worth watching.
2. Signal one: You identify less with your role
You know your organization, you understand the business, and you know the people, the informal rules and the history. You may still be highly respected, and because you have done the job for years, much of it has become familiar.
Then you notice something. You can see the next twelve months quite clearly, and instead of giving you confidence, that picture starts to feel repetitive.
I have seen this with experienced executives more than once. Their competence is not the problem. They can still perform the role extremely well. But internally, the role has begun to move away from them.
That distinction matters. Being able to do something does not automatically mean that you should continue doing it.
3. Signal two: Your energy moves elsewhere
The second signal is energy. Certain meetings begin to cost more energy than before. You lose patience with conflicts you have solved many times, and tasks that once interested you start to feel repetitive.
At the same time, something else attracts you. Perhaps board work. Perhaps building something of your own. Perhaps mentoring younger leaders, teaching or working in a completely different field.
I take such shifts seriously. Of course, everybody has periods of frustration. A difficult quarter does not mean that you need a new career.
But when the same pattern continues for months, I would examine it. Two questions help: What currently drains my energy? And where do I notice new energy?
I find these questions more useful at this stage than asking: What should my next job be?
That question often comes too early.
4. Signal three: Possibilities become more interesting than status
Many successful executives have spent years moving through a clear professional system: more responsibility, a larger organization, a better contract, a higher position. There is nothing wrong with that. But at some point, the criteria may change.
You start asking different questions. What else could I do? Where else could I use my experience? How much responsibility do I still want? With whom do I want to work? How much freedom do I want? And what do I definitely no longer want?
One question I sometimes use in coaching is this:
What would I seriously consider if my concerns could take a short break?
Of course, concerns matter. Financial questions matter. Your family situation matters. Risk matters. But if every new idea is immediately subjected to all possible objections, there will be very little left to examine. Open the field first. Evaluate the options afterwards.
5. Three perspectives for clarification
My model of the Seven Fields of Self-Leadership gives me a useful structure for this work. At the beginning of a professional passage, I often focus on three fields.
One is Vision and Mission.
What should the next phase of your professional life look like? Which topics deserve more of your time? With whom do you want to work? What kind of responsibility suits you? And if you looked back two or three years from now, what would make you say: That was a good phase. You do not need a complete vision at this point. An outline is enough.
Another is Skills and Self-Development.
Remove your current title for a moment. What remains? Which abilities have you built over many years? Where do others rely on your judgment? What could you contribute outside your current organization? And what would you like to learn next?
For senior executives, this is sometimes difficult because their professional identity has become closely connected to one company and one role.
A passage requires some separation. You are more than your current position.
And finally: Added Value.
For whom could your experience create value in the future? Perhaps your next step really is another operational leadership role. Perhaps it is a board mandate, selected projects, teaching, mentoring, entrepreneurship or a combination of several activities.
The question is where your competence, your motivation and a real need meet.
6. Two examples from my coaching work
Let me give you two examples. The first concerns an experienced C-level executive in an international company. His departure had been developing for some time. He had strong industry knowledge, an international network and an excellent track record. The obvious move would have been to find a very similar position quickly. But that was precisely what we wanted to examine. His previous role should not automatically become the template for the rest of his career.
So we looked backwards first. What did he want to preserve? What had given him energy? What had repeatedly frustrated him? Which situations did he no longer want? And where might his experience create value outside an almost identical executive role? Over time, his criteria became clearer.
For me, this is one lesson from such cases: After a senior executive position, speed is not automatically an advantage. The quality of the next decision depends on the quality of your criteria.
My second example is quite different. It concerns a younger member of a family business who was preparing to enter a managing-director role while an external managing director was already in place. Here, the transition was not about leaving leadership. It was about developing an independent leadership identity.
Which decisions should really become his responsibility? What were his own strengths? How did he want to lead? And how could he avoid simply copying the external managing director or fulfilling expectations connected to the family?
Different situation, but the same basic question:
How do I want to shape the next phase?
7. Recognize. Clarify. Shape.
I use three verbs for professional passages: Recognize. Clarify. Shape.
Recognize what is already changing. Pay attention to your energy and your identification with the role.
Clarify what you want to preserve and what you want to change. Look at your capabilities, relationships, options and your definition of success.
Then start shaping. Have selected conversations, explore possibilities, use your network, test ideas, develop skills where necessary and make visible decisions when the time is right.
This process is rarely linear. That is one reason I like the image of a passage.
8. Bensmann Passage
When I developed my coaching format Bensmann Passage, I had the image of an ocean liner crossing the Atlantic in mind.
You have left one harbour. The next one is still somewhere beyond the horizon. For a while, you are between two places. That is the quality I want to use.
A professional transition does not have to be treated as a problem that must be solved immediately. It can be a period of deliberate reflection and experimentation.
Bensmann Passage is mainly designed for CEOs, managing directors, owners and senior executives who want to work on such a transition before external pressure takes over. The process extends over several months and combines intensive personal coaching sessions, shorter online sprints, self-assessment and individual work between our meetings.
My Seven Fields of Self-Leadership provide the framework. We examine your vision, your energy, your capabilities, your relationships and networks, your working structures, possible future projects and the question of added value.
The objective is clarity that allows you to act.
9. Reflection questions
I want to leave you with three questions:
Which part of my current role have I already started to leave internally?
Where is my energy moving? And:
Which option may I have rejected too quickly because it does not fit my previous career pattern?
Do not force a decision. But do not ignore the answers either. A passage needs some movement. And it needs time.
Closing
This was the second episode of my four-part series. In the next episode, I will focus on personal vision. What happens when the future picture that guided you for years no longer fits? Sometimes the next phase does not begin by defining a new goal. It begins by acknowledging that an old one has completed its task. If you are currently working through such a transition, you will also find information about Bensmann Passage (https://bensmann-consulting.com/passage/) on my website.
My final question for today is: Which decision may be approaching before others make it for you?
Link:
Intro and outro music: excerpt from “Almost Original (Instrumental)” by Joakim Karud
https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud
Originally made available for credited use via Joakim Karud / Audio Library.
