The year 2025 has felt like a gut punch for a lot of smart, capable people. Rolling layoffs, AI reshaping roles overnight, and a steady drumbeat of uncertainty have left more than half of leaders burned out and nearly 70% of executives more stressed than they were a year ago.1
If that’s you, the shock is not “in your head” – it’s a rational human response to more than a million layoffs, constant reorgs, and a sense that the old promises between employers and employees have quietly been rewritten, without consultation, without meaningful communication.
This blog is an invitation to treat that visceral hit not as a verdict on your worth, but as a signal that something important is ending so that something more aligned, more hopeful, and more sustainable can begin.
Through eight practical practices, you can take that punch-in-the-gut moment and turn it into a disciplined “What’s Next” – one where you reclaim agency, redesign your work, and facilitate purpose-driven change.
1. Anchor in Hope and Agency
Normalize disruption as a systemic reality, and treat Hope as a discipline—a foundation for how you think, work, decide, and build, not a vague, amorphous emotion. Frame your transition as a series of choices you can influence, supported by strategy, partnerships, and technologies as enablers.
2. Connect Past, Present, and Market
Use concrete metrics and stakeholder impact to communicate what you’ve done for whom specifically, so your real value is visible beyond job titles. Then map that history against current market opportunities and needs, especially where your technical depth plus leadership experience solve cross-functional problems like AI adoption, security, data, and platform shifts.
3. Clarify the New Direction
Separate “what I no longer want” from “what I want more of,” focusing on the intersection of your passions, strengths, and market demand. Identify 2–3 “next chapter” hypotheses (for example, scale-up CTO, fractional CTO/board advisor, startup coach, impact venture) instead of searching for a single perfect answer.
4. Design Experiments, Not Just Plans
Translate your hypotheses into low-risk experiments such as advisory projects, pilot consulting, teaching a workshop, leading technical due diligence, or mentoring a founder. Give yourself clear “homework” between steps—specific conversations, draft artifacts, and small commitments—to build evidence and momentum rather than staying in analysis.
5. Attend to Identity, Healing, and Confidence
Make space for the identity shock of stepping away from a big title, and honor what is ending before over-focusing on “rainmaker” goals and initiatives that build. Use tools that rebuild confidence—strengths storytelling, stakeholder feedback, mock interviews, narrative reframing—so your new story is grounded, not performative.
6. Sharpen Story and Communication
Craft a concise “What’s Next” narrative that explains the journey from past roles to future value in language non-technical buyers and boards can easily understand. Practice it in mock interviews, LinkedIn updates, and intro emails, highlighting your mix of technical credibility and strategic, cross-functional leadership.
7. Orchestrate Networks and Partnerships
Re-engage with your ecosystem with intention. Selectively connect with former colleagues, investors, founders, and communities aligned with your next chapter. Look for roles that let you be both “healer” and “rainmaker”—advisory boards, startup/scale-up coaching, or Boomer–Gen X–Gen Z collaborations where you can both give back and help build new ventures.
8. Create a Practical Roadmap
Build a 90-day roadmap that sequences reflection, exploration, and execution into concrete milestones. Use the Hope → Resilience → Clarity → Agility framework to stay centered, purposeful, and forward-moving as you navigate what’s next.
If any part of this landed for you, let’s make it concrete. In a complimentary 15‑minute What’s Next call, we will pick one of these eight practices and drill down together, then I’ll send you a tailored homework assignment so you can immediately turn insight into action.
Ongoing What’s Next coaching is available at $200 per half hour, typically meeting weekly for at least one month.
Regardless of whether you sign up for What’s Next complimentary or ongoing calls, I hope that reading this blog helps you to reclaim your agency, redesign your work, and facilitate purpose‑driven change in your own life and in the communities you touch.
A 2025 survey of executives by Sentry/Wakefield reported that roughly two-thirds of executives (around 60–70%, depending on segment) said they were more stressed in 2025 than in the prior year, citing economic uncertainty, labor issues, and external threats. https://wakefieldresearch.com/3-in-5-executives-are-more-stressed-in-2025/