One Year On: What Leaving 40 Years of Corporate Life Brought Up for Me

There's a moment, somewhere around month five or six of leaving a 40-year corporate career, when the silence stops feeling like freedom and starts feeling like a question. Who am I?

After four decades building businesses, leading high performing teams across continents, and defining myself by what I did, I stepped off. No grand plan, no safety net. Just a sense the next chapter needed to be different. Here's what really struck me:

Identity - you are not your role. After 40 years leading global commercial organisations, I was the title, my shorthand, my answer to every "so, what do you do?" at dinner parties. When that disappears, you're left with a tough question: Who are you without it? The answer took time and sits at the intersection of: What you're good at, what you care about, the value you create for others (and what genuinely rewards you). Most people skip this work; they go straight to the next role. That's the opportunity for future potential.

Continuous growth - I signed up for college. Not "back to college", I never went to college (I started working aged 19 on 'Fleet Street' at The Daily Mail). I enrolled at Henley Business School to attain my professional coaching qualification. Sitting in rooms with my fantastic cohort from all types of backgrounds being challenged, being assessed, being a student - it was humbling, exposing and energising in equal measure.

Early in the programme, a simple question "Who am I?" interrupted my long-held assumptions. We had to introduce ourselves with our humanity, not our pedigree. I became aware of how strongly my identity had been shaped by roles and achievement, and how little I had explored who I was beyond professional identity. That question hit harder than I expected. This was a big opportunity as my world opened up…

Time - is the only real currency. Corporate life is a masterclass in busyness. Full diaries, back-to-back meetings, constant motion and the next goal. It feels like progress, it isn't always. This year I've had dinners without distraction, weekends that feel like weekends and time with family that isn't squeezed between flights or different time zones.

Our sons are grown now, both in London, building their own lives. I missed more of their growing up than I'd like to admit. The decade I spent working in America was rewarding and challenging professionally but it came at a cost - time with my family I can't get back. That's something I think about a lot. Time is the one thing you cannot recover. This year, I've finally tried to start spending it more knowingly. Time and how you spend it = what you truly value.

Reinvention - your best work might still be ahead. The transition wasn't smooth, it felt less like freedom, more like detox. When you step away from scale, structure, and teams of thousands you feel it. But something else happens - your experience comes to the fore, it doesn't disappear, it just needs a new direction.

My new work life is less certain than a salary. It is more meaningful, without question. Today, I work with a small number of amazing leaders navigating growth, complexity, transition - isn't everyone navigating this?

And I see potential differently now: It's not just what you've done, it's your awareness, your beliefs, your willingness to keep evolving. The real work isn't starting again. It's understanding who you are now and where you create the most value next, for you and others.

If you're leading growth, navigating change, or approaching a transition and want to do it with more clarity and intent, I work with a small number of leaders each year on exactly this. Because when you truly understand who you are, how you use your time, and how you operate at your best, you don't just optimise today - you unlock what's possible next.