Renew
with Ros Handley, The Exec Renewal Specialist
Career Transition and Wellbeing
Moving through change with confidence and renewed purpose
Ros Handley
The Exec Renewal Specialist
Qualified Career Transition Coach
Experienced wellbeing & change navigator
The Smile Generator
with demonstrated ability to bring joy to conversations and her own experience of career change from Seeing Eye Dog trainee
Hello
I'm Ros Handley.
My role as a career transition coach builds on a combination of professional and life experience, formal study, a variety of research, and a passion for making our time count.
Past experience ...
Throughout my career, I have served as a trusted advisor to decision-makers.
It started with my communications and media relations roles including five years at The Royal Melbourne Hospital. I later served three years as a Company Director on a health sector board. Following Victoria's 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, I moved into emergency management policy, project and assurance roles where I contributed to the evolution of Victoria’s emergency management arrangements through a period of significant sector reform. I later moved to roles managing corporate services, business planning, risk management, and workforce planning.
At times, I also served as a workplace coach, a mentor, or a peer supporter, complemented by the relevant professional development training. A highlight was establishing and facilitating a capability-building network in the emergency management sector. I studied to become a qualified Career Transition Coach and later had a unique opportunity to facilitate a career workshop for science graduates working in government.
My Catalyst for Change
It often takes a catalyst relating to personal or work life to shift our perspective and our priorities. For me, the catalyst was a cancer diagnosis in 2018.
There’s nothing like conversations with doctors about your life expectancy, to sharpen your focus on what’s important to you.
In shock, I discovered the status quo was no longer an option. I made a number of significant changes to my life in the years that followed. I learned to successfully navigate various forms of change – lifestyle change, workplace change, and my own career transition.
One of the most important things I learned from the cancer experience was to spend my time in ways that are meaningful to me. And now here I am, encouraging others to do the same.
The Seed was Planted
I initially established The Exec Retirement Coach service in recognition of those at the height of their career wanting to create their next chapter.
The seed had been planted years earlier. It started with one of the decision-makers I mentioned earlier.
One day, during a chance meeting, this decision-maker told me he was planning to retire. I asked him about his plan for moving from a CEO role in a dynamic environment to …….. what? He didn’t have a plan. He had been so consumed with his work, he hadn’t considered the need to have a plan for what's next.
That was the last conversation we had. I heard on the grapevine that he had retired and within six years or so, I heard he had passed away.
We will never know whether the outcome might have been different if he’d had a plan, but it got me thinking.
I had known the million-dollar question to ask, ‘What’s your plan?’.
Upon the news of his passing, I started researching the experience of others who had made the very significant leap from the height of their career.
In some cases, the plan was an encore career or a portfolio career. For some, the plan didn’t unfold as expected. For many, there was a sense of grief, an unnerving silence – the phone had stopped ringing and the emails, the deadlines, the meetings, the networks were no longer part of the rhythm of daily life. For some, there was a loss of confidence about their place in the world now.
I established The Exec Retirement Coach service in recognition that moving from a thriving, dynamic work life can be a significant career and life stage. It may be the end of an era, it may feel like the end of life as you know it but with potentially 20 or more years ahead of you, it is a magnificent opportunity for renewal - for taking charge of change and creating your path forward.
The Focus on Renewal
I noticed others were approaching me too – including those who were experiencing some other form of change.
Some simply felt a nudge that this was their time to thrive – time for them to initiate positive change and create their own path forward.
Some had experienced a health scare. Burnout and cancer are astonishingly prevalent. Added to that, the nature and pace of change is creating new challenges for wellbeing.
In my life and my work, I’ve chosen to focus on the concept of renewal because it provides a sense of positive energy, inspiration, progress and wellbeing.
Renewal is a natural phenomenon, as part of the natural cycle of the seasons, and it applies well to this era of increasing longevity with so many options for how we live and work.
I've renamed my service to The Exec Renewal Specialist, to reflect the relevance for people at any stage of their career.
Whatever the catalyst for change may be for you, I provide structure for your thinking, exploring and planning to enable you to move forward feeling more confident, more energised and ultimately, more fulfilled.
Let me know if you want to chat about where you're at.
Ros