Career Twist: The Pivot I Didn’t Plan, But Had to Make
A personal reflection on LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index—and what happens when your purpose calls louder than your job title.
In 2019, after a tumultuous three years, I signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and walked away from a high-level leadership role as a CIO.
What followed was not an immediate pivot, but a reckoning. For 18 months, I tried to secure another senior IT role. This was after being named one of the top 20 most influential CIOs in 2016. And yet, not a single interview.
During that time, the side-of-the-desk project I had quietly launched in 2017—then called CAF Services—kept calling to me. I’d chosen the name simply because I didn’t know yet what service I was truly offering. But by 2020, I realised what I did know: I would love my boss.
Me.
And so I gave myself permission to make that work my full-time focus.
When a Passion Project Becomes the Path
At the time, I wouldn’t have described it as changing industries. But that’s what it was. I shifted from digital transformation and technology leadership to human transformation and inclusive leadership.
I still think in systems, still love process. But the work now lives in a different space—one where people, not platforms, are the priority. The questions I ask leaders today aren’t about performance dashboards; they’re about belonging, psychological safety, and whether the systems we’ve built are serving everyone they’re meant to.
It wasn’t a career ladder I climbed. It was a career trail I cut.
A Story Behind Every Statistic
LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index shows that nearly 60% of UK professionals are considering changing industries, and 13% are already doing so. Those numbers reflect a deep appetite for change, but they also hold personal stories like mine.
Stories of burnout. Of values misalignment. Of unseen labour. Of brave pivots, sometimes born not of ambition, but of necessity.
From Resignation to Realignment
What the data doesn’t always show is causality. It doesn’t tell us what people are walking from. For many, like me, it’s not just a job—they’re leaving behind a version of themselves that no longer fits.
When I left that role, I didn’t know exactly what was next. But I knew the cost of staying. And I knew I had work that mattered waiting for me, even if it had lived quietly off to the side for years.
What began as CAF Services has now grown into The FORTLAGE Collective—a place where people and process meet in service of inclusion, courage, and cultural change.
If You’re Standing at the Crossroads…
You’re not alone.
Career pivots aren’t always clean or comfortable. They can be messy, driven by burnout, ethics, health, or hope. Sometimes, all at once.
If you're in that space—rethinking, reimagining, or recovering—I see you. I’ve walked that path. And I’m here if you’d like someone beside you while you find your footing.
💬 Let’s Talk: I support leaders in transition—those ready to move from surviving to aligning. If you're exploring what’s next or seeking a work life that reflects who you’ve become, I’d love to hear from you.