Put yourself in the strongest position for what’s next.
A two-week positioning programme for senior people deciding their next move.
Moving up. Gone flat. Starting again.
An honest read of where you stand, a decided direction, and a plan for your first ninety days. Fixed price.
You’ll recognise one of these.
Still in the role, but flat. The job runs fine. But you are better than what it now asks of you, and you know it.
You can see the end from here. Maybe two years, maybe five. You know how this chapter finishes. You have not worked out the next one.
Out, or about to be. Redundancy, an exit, your own call. People keep asking what you are doing next. You do not have a good answer yet.
Not ready to answer seven questions? Start by reading what comes next after a senior leadership role.
The strongest position starts here. Free, in 24 hours.
- Seven questions. Take as long as you like over them.
- I read your answers against your LinkedIn profile myself. A real person, not a bot.
- Your Signal: an honest, often challenging read on how ready you are for what’s next, and on the gap between what your profile sells and what the market pays for.
- In your inbox within 24 hours.
Free. No call. No pitch. No mailing list you didn’t ask for.
Your headline sells the last role. Reliable, senior, interchangeable with a thousand others. The market stopped paying a premium for reliable some time ago.
What people actually ring you for is untangling operations that have outgrown their systems. Scarcer. Worth more. Nowhere on your page.
You are selling the wrong thing.
Senior people with real careers behind them.
Most in their fifties. Directors, functional leaders, long-serving specialists, people coming out of big roles. You have done serious work. You are not lost. You are between reads on yourself.
Not for you if you are after interview technique, a CV formatting service, or someone to tell you everything happens for a reason. There are good providers for all three. This is not one of them.
Take a bearing.
Three moves.
Bearings is a short, structured piece of work. Not months of sessions. Not a course. You do the work yourself over a couple of weeks, in the gaps, with the structure doing the digging.
Fix your position
Work out what you actually offer and what the market pays for it now. Not your titles. You end up knowing exactly where you stand.
Set your heading
Weigh the realistic directions and choose one. A decision, not a shortlist. You end up with a direction you can commit to, and the case for it.
Make the move
Plan your first ninety days. In the role you hold, towards the role you want, or into a career you are redefining. Who to approach, in what order, with what to say. You end up moving, not circling.
A decision made, and a route that carries it.
I read what people actually offer.
I am Magnus Wood. Over 25 years in senior commercial roles: CMO and board director in a PE-backed firm, MD of a 200-person business, a career spent reading what companies and people actually offer versus what they say they offer.
The questions Bearings asks are ones I have had to answer with my own name on the line. This is that work, made structured and repeatable.
The person.
I started my career by threatening to turn up to the interview in a Batman costume. I got the interview, and the job. I have spent the years since learning when that instinct is an asset and when it is a liability.
Scottish by birth, London for most of my life. I live some of my time on a houseboat in the countryside, close to water, weather and the kind of walking that clears the head. I have two grown-up daughters. They are the responsibility I take most seriously.
Cooking is how I unwind. I train hard.
Fixed price. Defined output. No open-ended anything.
The Signal is a read on where you stand. Bearings is the work that turns that read into a decided direction and a first ninety days you’ll actually move on.
Bearings, £295
The full programme, self-guided. A rich, structured workbook you work through over up to two weeks, in the gaps: the instruments, the exercises and the worked examples that carry you through the three moves. It makes you think about your career in ways you probably haven’t before. Not a single worksheet, not a video to watch, not a call to sit through.
When you’ve done the work, send it to me and I’ll write back with a real read on it. Written comment from a human, not a live call. You finish knowing your position, with your heading set and your first ninety days planned.
Bearings + Working Session, £795
Everything in Bearings, including the written comment, and then ninety minutes live with me once you have done the work. Written notes can point at the thing. A conversation can push on it. Twenty-five years in senior commercial roles, board director, MD of a 200-person business, and I have made this move myself, in my fifties. You arrive with the work already done. My job is the part that is hard to do alone: naming the edge you have been underplaying, pressure-testing your heading, sharpening the profile until it holds. One session. No retainer, no follow-on pitch.
Not ready to decide? Start with the free Signal and see what it tells you.
The short answers.
Is this coaching?
No. There is structured work you do yourself and, if you choose, one working session. Nobody holds space. We work something out.
How long does it take?
Most people finish inside two weeks, working in the gaps. The session, if you take it, comes at the end.
What if I already know what I want to do next?
Then Bearings makes the case for it sharper. The positioning work is worth it on its own. But most people who arrive certain discover the certainty was covering the question.
I’ve had my Signal. Why do I need Bearings?
The Signal is a read. It tells you where you stand and whether you’re ready. It doesn’t work out what to do about it. That’s Bearings: the structured work that turns the read into a decided direction and a first ninety days you’ll actually move on. The Signal names the gap. Bearings closes it.
What do I actually get?
You leave knowing three things. What you offer and what it is worth now. Which direction you are taking, and why. And exactly what to do in your first ninety days: who to approach, in what order, with what to say.
I’m not ready to do the Signal yet.
Fair enough. Start by reading what comes next after a senior leadership role. It is the fuller picture of what this page is about, and there is no form to fill in.
I have stood where you are standing.
I have made this move myself, more than once, most recently in my fifties. Uncertain of the next step, not clear how to position myself, unsure how to take the leap. Friends want to help, but they are too kind, or too close, to tell you the truth. What I wanted, and could rarely find, was one honest, independent read from someone who had done the work. So that is what I give. The Signal is me handing you the thing I went looking for.
Start with the Signal.
Seven questions, answered in your own time. I read your answers against your LinkedIn profile and send back an honest, often challenging read on how ready you are for what’s next. Free, within 24 hours.
No call. No pitch. Your Signal arrives by email.
The picture is a trig point. You find them on high ground, and use one to fix where you stand before choosing a route. Which is the whole idea.