Reinvention by Design
Imagine reading the next restructure email calmly. Right now, everything rests on one employer, and no one has ever helped you see the whole picture. In 90 days, you will. Your Reinvention Readiness Scorecard shows exactly where you’re exposed. We deal with the fear that keeps capable leaders stuck. And you leave with a personal plan to build options beyond one employer, with me, a small group of peers and an accountability partner making sure it happens.
Already in transition? Book a free one-to-one consultation
One place for the whole picture
A financial adviser sees your money. A recruiter sees your CV. A LinkedIn expert sees your profile. Together, we work on all seven.
01 Where you are now
You’ve built a career most people would envy. The title, the team, the respect. And yet something has shifted. What once felt certain now feels conditional.
There’s rarely a single reason. There are usually several, tangled together, and the day job leaves no time to untangle them. You might recognise more than one of these.
The ground is shifting
Another peer “leaving to pursue other opportunities”. AI is changing the work, and senior roles are being merged. You’re fine, for now.
“Every time there’s a restructure, I hold my breath until I know my name isn’t on the list.”
The spark has gone
The work that once stretched you now runs on autopilot. Some days you notice you’re going through the motions, and you wonder what you’d do if you had a real choice.
“I’d like to stay in my job because I want to, not because I have to.”
Something new is calling
You can picture it, but you don’t have the skills, the contacts or the track record yet. And after years of being the expert in the room, starting from zero feels exposing.
“I don’t want to be a beginner again.”
The title has become you
Your status, your confidence, even the shape of your week come from the role. It’s hard to tell where the company ends and you begin.
“Am I really as good as people think, or is it the company’s name doing the work?”
One salary carries everything
You’re well known inside your company and almost invisible outside it. There’s no income beyond your salary, and your runway is a guess.
“If I lose this job, I don’t know how quickly I could replace the income.”
Without the title, who am I?
Whichever of these sounds most like you, the way forward starts in the same place: building options beyond a single employer, while the choice is still yours.
What you’ve already tried
The day job always wins, so the future keeps sliding to next January. Meanwhile, the ground keeps moving.
US job cuts announced in 2025, the most since 2020. Technology led the private sector.
Challenger, Gray & ChristmasYou took the calls, carefully, and heard the same things. “The search is on hold.” “They’re restructuring the team first.” “The role’s been merged.” “They want someone who’s done exactly this, in their industry.” And when a role does appear, it’s at a company facing the same restructures and the same AI changes. You’d swap one employer for another, with the same dependency.
Job postings for management roles were still 42% below their 2022 peak. Many of these roles are being removed for good.
Revelio LabsWhen the spark faded, you tried to fix it from the inside: a stretch assignment, a bigger team, a better title. It helped for a while. But when your identity, your meaning and your income all come from one employer, every fix still depends on that employer.
of managers worldwide are engaged at work, down from 30% the year before. You’re far from alone.
Gallup, State of the Global WorkplaceYou’ve bookmarked courses and wondered about going back to study. It feels like years of catching up, for something that might not work. Yet the skills now in demand sit right next to what you already have. Boards and businesses are short of people who can lead change, govern risk and make sense of AI, and senior judgement plus one new capability is a rare combination. A far more useful question than “What should I become?” is “What should I add?”
of board members and executives say their board has limited or no knowledge of AI. Employers also expect 39% of core skills to change by 2030 (World Economic Forum).
Deloitte, Governance of AI, 2025You read far more than you post. You’ve started a post and deleted it. Your profile still describes your job, not you. For years your title did the positioning for you, but good work can’t speak for itself if nobody can find it. I once hired a senior leader I found through a podcast. She wasn’t on any shortlist. She was the most visible qualified person.
LinkedIn users studied. People you know only moderately well led to more new jobs than close contacts.
Science, 2022Boards want proof you’ve already done board work, and the door for newcomers is narrowing. That first role usually starts somewhere smaller, long before you need it. I joined a charity board within a month of leaving Dell. In my experience, that kind of role is where the paid ones begin.
of new S&P 500 directors were first-time directors, down from 31% the year before.
Spencer Stuart Board IndexIt felt sensible, and in many ways it was. But it tied even more of your future to one employer: your salary, your bonus and your savings, all riding on the same company.
of Enron employees’ 401(k) savings, about USD 1.2 billion, was in Enron’s own stock when it collapsed in 2001.
Economic Policy Institute“It’s a financial adviser here, a LinkedIn expert there, a recruiter somewhere else.” Each was good at their piece. Nobody looked at your identity, income, runway, skills, network, visibility and meaning together.
In your words. Every expert saw one piece of the picture.
None of that was a failure of effort. Each fix dealt with one piece, on its own, usually too late. What was missing was one place to see the whole picture, and a plan you could act on while still doing the job.
02 Why listen to me
I was sitting in a café with my boss, just back from a global event that had gone well. Despite waves of redundancies across tech, I believed I was somewhat insulated. Then she said, “It looks like your role may be made redundant.”
I had led others through change for years. Restructures, cost optimisations, town halls. I knew the language. I had used it myself. And my children were both still very much on the payroll.
The money wasn’t the hardest part. A few days later, someone asked me, “So, what do you do?” A question I had answered without thinking for thirty years. This time, I paused.
In that pause, I saw how much of my identity I had tied to my title and my role: my confidence, my sense of belonging, even the rhythm of my days. So I did the harder work. I separated who I am from what I did, and began rebuilding an identity that doesn’t depend on any one employer.
What carried me through was preparation I had made years earlier. I had invested in income-generating property and other investments, and their income covered our basic costs. I had also invested in myself, with AI, board and coaching certifications. It was a crossroads, not a crisis.
I could also see what I wish I had started sooner: building entrepreneurial options and skills while I was still employed, more income beyond property, and far more visibility outside the company. That’s what I now help leaders build, before they need it.
When your title disappears, you discover whether your confidence was internal or rented.Karen Holland, Reinvention by Design
On the book
“In times of uncertainty, our decisions are too easily guided by fear of what we don’t want, rather than the brave choice that gets us the impact we do want. Reinvention by Design is a practical guide for any leader who struggles to make that brave choice when it matters most, and is at risk of caution becoming their ceiling.”
03 The Girl Guide principle
As a Girl Guide, I learnt a simple motto. It has turned out to be the best career advice I know.
Preparation is not pessimism. It is a professional discipline. We insure our homes. We diversify our investments. We prepare for storms in real estate. We rarely prepare for storms in our careers.
You don’t need to feel ready to begin. You act, and then you begin to feel confident. Readiness usually arrives after the first step, not before it.
If your world changed tomorrow, how long would it take you to regain control?
The answer depends almost entirely on what you build before it happens.
04 The new way
Seven stages, in order. Each one builds on the last, so you never try to fix everything at once. You stay in your role the whole way through.
Score yourself on the seven Reinvention Readiness areas and work out your runway in months.
Find out what matters to you, who you are without the title, and how you want to create value.
Face the fear and the 3am worrying that keep you stuck.
Take stock of your skills, assets, network and visibility: what’s still in demand, what you already own, who knows you, and where it could all take you next.
Choose one or more of five tracks: Asset, Governance, Skills and Capability, Visibility or Network.
Build your 90-day parallel path action plan: the steps you’ll take alongside your job, including how to strengthen your runway.
Keep going with an accountability partner, then score yourself again at day 90.
Why it works
Most advice starts with tactics: polish the CV, post more, find a board seat. This starts with facts. Your runway in months. Your seven scores. Then who you are without the title. Only after that do you choose a track, so the plan fits your life. You’re not starting over. You’re building forward from everything you already know.
05 Your numbers
Most people I ask don’t. Not approximately. Precisely. Your Survival Number is the least you need each month for the essentials. Once you know it, the problem usually becomes far more solvable.
The starting figures follow the worked example in my book. They are examples only, not facts about you or anyone else.
Your runway
Why it matters
I once spoke with two executives in almost the same position. Both found themselves between jobs. One needed any acceptable role, fast. The other had a rental property and some investments covering part of the bills, so she could wait for the right one. That difference changed everything.
06 The founding group
Eight Thursdays, a small group who understand, and me alongside you until day 90. Here’s everything you get, and what it means for you.
Every stage of the OPTIONS Method, step by step. Miss one and you can watch it later, so a late meeting never puts you behind.
One after your Scorecard to set your tracks, one at the end to lock in your 90-day plan. Your situation, in private.
You see exactly where you stand across seven areas, then you see what has changed, in numbers. Low scores don’t mean failure. They show you where you’re exposed.
The Identity Shift Framework, Skills Adjacency Map, 90-Day Parallel Prototype Plan, Asset Ladder and the Financial Resilience Dashboard, where you work out your Survival, Stability and Thrive Numbers. You’ll be guided every step of the way.
Someone at your level who keeps you moving when the day job gets loud. Reinvention should never be a solo sport.
Quick answers from me on weekdays, so you don’t get stuck between sessions.
Your plan stays on track after the live sessions end.
Specialists chosen for the tracks your group picks. Expert input in one place, instead of a financial adviser here and a LinkedIn expert there.
A live session that turns the 3am worrying into your next useful step, using Jack Canfield’s Event + Response = Outcome and the rumination exercises from my book. What happens next depends far more on your response than on the event itself.
Jack Canfield’s Rule of 5 built into a 90-day tracker: five small actions each day towards your chosen track, each small enough to fit around a demanding job. It comes with my quarterly Reinvention Review, so you keep going long after day 90. Small, consistent actions compound.
Build your own AI agent for LinkedIn, set up to reposition you around the future you’re building and raise your visibility. It helps you draft posts in your own voice, so being visible fits around a demanding job and reads as thought leadership in your field. It includes visible without raising eyebrows at work: how to grow your visibility in ways your employer would see as good leadership, not a job search.
07 Is this for you?
Already in transition?
If you’re being made redundant or moving on, your first thought will probably be “I need another job”. A better question is how to create something with less dependency.
Book a free 20-minute one-to-one consultation. We’ll look at your runway, your options and your next step, in private. No obligation.
Book my free consultation08 The guarantee
Come to the first two sessions, on 12 and 19 November, and complete your Scorecard. If you decide the programme isn’t right for you, tell me before session 3 on 26 November and I’ll refund you in full.
Come to the sessions, live or on the recording, and do the exercises. If you finish session 8 without your runway worked out in months, your tracks chosen and a 90-day plan you’ve already started, I’ll give you up to three extra one-to-one sessions, free, to get you there.
What I don’t promise: a board seat, a new job or a second income by a set date. I promise momentum, not outcomes I can’t control.
KarenKaren Holland, Reinvention by Design
09 In their words
This space is kept for the founding group’s own words, added exactly as they say them.
10 Your questions
It’s built for demanding jobs: one hour a week on Thursdays, recorded in case you miss one, and the Rule of 5 Tracker breaks your plan into small daily actions. Most people wait until a restructure forces the decision, and by then the luxury of time has gone. Starting while you’re still in your role gives you time, and time gives you choices.
Building options isn’t the same as leaving. Nothing in the programme asks you to tell anyone at work, and the group agrees at the start to keep what’s shared private. The LinkedIn Agent Build helps you become visible in a way that reads as thought leadership in your field, the kind of profile any good leader keeps up to date.
Those fees are the reason to do it. Right now they rest on one salary. The Financial Resilience Dashboard shows your runway in months. There’s a payment plan of 3 monthly payments of USD 900, a full refund if it isn’t right after two sessions, and the founding price is half what future groups will pay.
It’s a small group of up to 12 peers facing the same questions. You choose what you share. The private conversations happen in your two one-to-one reviews with me.
Your Scorecard measures where you start and where you are at day 90, so you’ll see the change in numbers. Your accountability partner keeps you moving. And if you do the work and still don’t have your runway, tracks and a started plan, the momentum promise gives you up to three extra one-to-one sessions, free.
It can be. The group helps you build options whether you’re staying or going. If you’re already on your way out, start with a free 20-minute consultation with me, one to one, and we’ll work out the right next step together.
The book gives you the ideas and the frameworks. The programme is where you use them on your own life, with me, a small group and an accountability partner, until you have a plan you’re already acting on.
No. The whole point is to build options while you’re still in your role. You may well finish and stay. The difference is that you’ll stay because you choose to.
Stripe emails your receipt and invoice straight away. Then I’ll email you personally with your joining details and your Reinvention Readiness Scorecard, so you can complete it before the first session on Thursday 12 November.
Three monthly payments of USD 900, with the first taken when you join and the last one two months later. Email me and I’ll set it up for you personally. The try-it refund applies to the plan too.
11 Your next step
Already in transition? Book a free one-to-one consultation