How to Take Care of Your Career (Because Nobody Else Is Going To)
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
A guide for executives who want to stop leaving their career future to chance and start managing it intentionally.
After years as a professional headhunter supporting CEOs and founders in building leadership teams, I shifted my focus from executive recruitment to create a needed industry service. Ten years on, after coaching hundreds of senior execs and leaders through transitions, I can comfortably say I was right.
Initially, I relied on my executive search skills, but soon realised expertise alone wasn’t enough. My consultative style and calm counsel became my main strengths.
More recently, amid rapid change and frequent restructures, I’ve focused on teaching people to look after their own careers, mainly because nobody else will.
Career Strategy for Senior Leaders
This is not about quick wins. It's about longevity with a focus on sustained career development, not just immediate successes.
Most senior leaders are pretty good at developing talent, promoting the right people and building careers for others. Yet when it comes to their own, they have the same rigour, but only up to a point, after which their thinking narrows and their options shrink.
I don’t think anyone considered preparing their careers for disruption pre-pandemic. Nowadays, career disruption needs to be on your radar and considering your plan B isn't about having a safety net; it's a power move.
And the executives who navigate change best aren't lucky; they've already mapped the alternatives and are ready to face their fears.
Playing the Long Game: Why a Strategic Approach Matters
Careers aren't linear; they're strategic. The leaders who thrive in the current market aren’t planning their retirement; they’re diversifying and moving with the times.
Taking a higher perspective
Rather than reacting to what's in front of you right now. Start designing what comes next. That shift from operational to strategic thinking that you use at work applies to your career, too.
When Times Are Difficult
Nobody at the top talks about this. But there’s a growing anxiety when you feel like you’re losing your edge. The nagging sense that the market is moving, and you might not be moving with it. Plus, there’s exhaustion to cope with.
Burnout in senior leaders often doesn't look like collapse. It looks like over-control and protective behaviours that shrink your world. We see that job-hugging is on trend, and social platforms have turned into noisy echo chambers full of anxiety rather than solutions.
Redundancy feels personal
And while we’re here, let’s note that redundancy isn’t just a professional event. It’s a business decision made about your career, and that feels personal.
Losing a role you've built your identity around is a loss. Acknowledging that isn't a weakness.
The Strategies That Matter
Risk assessment and protecting your career. Understanding your career risks is the starting point for everything else. It's not pessimism; it's professionalism.
Embrace change rather than fear it, treat disruption as data, not a threat. The question isn't whether change is coming. It's whether you'll be positioned ahead of it or behind it.
Self-promotion is a skill, not arrogance. The right people not knowing what you're capable of isn't modesty, it's a liability. Visibility must be part of your career strategy.
Future-Proofing Your Career
Relevance is not guaranteed. Continual growth is essential to maintain career relevance. How will you remain sought after at every stage of your career?
Whether it’s diversifying from a big leadership role into an NED, advisory, or fractional role, knowing you have options and a strategy is reassuring.
Retraining or rethinking without starting again. You don't need a new career, but adjacent capabilities can make your existing expertise more powerful and transferable.
Sector switching without losing credibility. Your skills are more portable than you think. What's holding most leaders back isn't capability; it's the story they tell about what they're qualified for.
The Uncomfortable Zone
Growth lives here. Embrace discomfort as a signal of genuine career progress.
Get professional support before a crisis point. The leaders who navigate transitions most effectively seek guidance when things are good, not only when they're falling apart.
Transitions feel destabilising even when they're the right move. Because your identity, status, and sense of certainty are all disrupted in a career transition.
Moving through discomfort without losing momentum. The goal isn't to eliminate the discomfort. It's about stopping it from making decisions on your behalf.
The Most Powerful Thing You Can Do
Self-leadership starts the moment you make your own decisions about your future. To build a strong second and third act, take ownership of your visibility, options, and direction.
Plan Your Career Like a Business
My top ten moves
01 Audit last year's goals
Look at what you didn't achieve. Not your team's goals, yours. Why didn't you go for that promotion? Make it all about you.
02 Define three non-negotiables
What three things do you wish you'd done differently? This isn't about regret; it's about clarity and your next 12 months.
03 Know your market position
Where do you sit in the leadership landscape? What's your competitive advantage? If you can't answer in 30 seconds, that's your first problem.
04 Build your personal board
Not cheerleaders, strategists and mentors. People who tell you the truth, challenge your thinking, and open doors you didn't know existed.
05 Invest in R&D (you)
What percentage of your time goes to developing yourself? New skills, network expansion, thought leadership? Less than 10% means you're on borrowed time, but watch out for too much learning and not enough action!
06 Track your metrics
Salary progression. Scope expansion. Network growth. Sector visibility. Skills acquisition. You can't improve what you don't measure.
07 Create multiple revenue streams
Advisory roles, speaking, board positions, consulting. No smart business relies on a single client, so why is your career dependent on a single employer?
08 Market yourself relentlessly
The best product fails without marketing. You are the product. If decision-makers don't know what you're capable of, you don't exist.
09 Plan for pivots
Your career will pivot by choice or by force. The question is: are you ready? Do you have options, transferable skills, and a next chapter mapped?
10 Set real revenue and lifestyle goals
What do you want to earn? How do you want to work? Write it down, make it concrete, then reverse-engineer the moves that get you there.
Free self-led tool
Take the Executive Risk Assessment
It's not a checklist. It's not a personality test. It's designed to help you diagnose hidden career risks and surface real opportunities before circumstances force the conversation.
→ If your role disappeared tomorrow, how employable would you genuinely be?
→ Does the right market know who you are and what you stand for?
→ Who are you without your job title?
→ How many credible paths do you genuinely have right now?
→ If something changed quickly, would you be ready?
If you want to protect your career, it’s time to be strategic and purposeful.
Sign up for my private career letter: The Insider (Behind the Scenes of Your Executive Career)
Tracy Short is a former executive headhunter turned leadership coach and career strategist, specialising in senior executives within fashion, luxury, and lifestyle sectors. Through her Career Accelerator programme, she helps leaders navigate transitions, build authentic careers, and create purpose-driven next chapters.