WHAT FOLLOWS

A senior role can end without the next one being clear

A senior role can end without the next one being clear

What comes next may be another role, or it may be something quite different. There does not have to be an immediate answer. In some important ways, there should not be.

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A lot can disappear at once

ROLE

PEOPLE

RHYTHM

ACCESS

STATUS

PURPOSE

Some people experience this as loss, and others as liberation.

There is no single “next”

There is no single “next”

Another role

Advisory work

Mentoring

Board work

Learning

Time with family

Retirement

Building something

Contribution

…or something not yet visible.

The obvious next step may not be the right one

The NED route is often presented as the obvious answer for senior people. Sometimes it is, but treating it as the default betrays an impressive lack of imagination.


Board work can also be useful for another reason: it provides a secure connection to the old world while somebody experiments in the new. But the obvious sidestep, while being the easiest route, rarely gets to develop the parts of a person that have never been encouraged to flourish.


The further one travels from familiar ground, however, the shakier one’s identity can become.

Thinking isn’t enough

It's crucial to realise that the answer may not be visible from inside the old role.

At this point, some of the information needed to decide what comes next simply doesn't exist yet. You cannot see around a corner before reaching it. A few coaching sessions and a skills assessment cannot manufacture clarity.

It comes from action: trying things, meeting different people, noticing what happens and reflecting on it. That takes time, and benefits from guidance and peer support.

Try something
Meet different people
Notice what happens
New information
Adjust / try again

Try something
Meet different people
Notice what happens
New information
Adjust / try again

SEQUENT ATRIUM

Much conventional career-transition work begins with the professional identity already in place and asks how it might be redeployed. Sequent offers that work too, including coaching and practical help with board, portfolio and other career routes. But on its own it can miss the larger question of identity progression.

A long senior career develops some parts of a person extraordinarily well. Other capacities may have had very little room to develop because the role did not require them. The obvious next move can therefore be the one that requires the least change of identity, rather than the one that reveals what else might be possible. That restricted territory is often behind the feeling that “there must be more than this”. Finding out whether there is requires going further than outplacement alone.

Sequent Atrium is Sequent Advisory’s post-exit ecosystem for senior people. It provides the conditions in which possibilities can be explored rather than selected prematurely. There is no requirement to decide too early.

The process is practical: meeting people, trying things and seeing what begins to fit.

Much conventional career-transition work begins with the professional identity already in place and asks how it might be redeployed. Sequent offers that work too, including coaching and practical help with board, portfolio and other career routes. But on its own it can miss the larger question of identity progression.

A long senior career develops some parts of a person extraordinarily well. Other capacities may have had very little room to develop because the role did not require them. The obvious next move can therefore be the one that requires the least change of identity, rather than the one that reveals what else might be possible. That restricted territory is often behind the feeling that “there must be more than this”. Finding out whether there is requires going further than outplacement alone.

Sequent Atrium is Sequent Advisory’s post-exit ecosystem for senior people. It provides the conditions in which possibilities can be explored rather than selected prematurely. There is no requirement to decide too early.

The process is practical: meeting people, trying things and seeing what begins to fit.

Peers
Experimentation
Coaching and career support
Life Design
Relationships
Specialist help

Exit doesn’t have to mean the end

Exit doesn’t have to mean the end

Departure changes the relationship with the firm, but it does not necessarily end it. Former senior people may still have a useful role with successors, clients and colleagues, while the firm can remain an important source of connection, contribution and occasional work. The former firm can stay in the picture or not. Either way, it’s better to make the relationship deliberate than discover six months later that nobody ever discussed it.

Departure changes the relationship with the firm, but it does not necessarily end it. Former senior people may still have a useful role with successors, clients and colleagues, while the firm can remain an important source of connection, contribution and occasional work. The former firm can stay in the picture or not. Either way, it’s better to make the relationship deliberate than discover six months later that nobody ever discussed it.

That relationship might include
Successor support
Contacts and introductions
Mentoring
Selected client work
Advice when useful

Start with what is actually happening

A senior exit can begin before the next direction is clear. There may be possibilities in view, but no reason to decide among them yet.

A senior exit can begin before the next direction is clear. There may be possibilities in view, but no reason to decide among them yet.

That is enough to start a conversation.

Discuss a senior transition →