Why You Keep Getting Offered Your Old Job

You're at the industry conference. Right room, right people. During the panel discussion, you share the story of how you turned around that struggling division - the tough decisions, the team rebuild, the return to profitability within 18 months. Everyone's impressed. You have three solid conversations afterwards. Several new LinkedIn connections.

Three months later, someone from that conference reaches out. They're looking for a turnaround CEO for a company in crisis. Would you be interested?

Here's the problem: you're exhausted from turnarounds. You've spent the last two years in builder mode - scaling systems, developing talent, creating sustainable growth. That's the work that energises you now. That's the CEO you've become.

But that's not the CEO your stories positioned you as. So you keep getting offered the role you used to play, not the role you're ready for next.

Where This Pattern Actually Starts

Here's what I've learned after 25+ years working for L'Oréal, Colgate, Volkswagen, Ryanair, and then building a practice helping executives with exactly this challenge: the positioning gap doesn't start at conferences or on LinkedIn. It starts much closer to home.

One CEO I'm working with runs a multi-million pound company. He's transitioned from turnaround expert to growth builder. He has the spreadsheet, the contractually agreed targets, the roadmap. But here's what was actually happening in his board meetings.

He'd trained his board over years to believe he could handle everything. When he delivered on impossible timelines, when he said yes to every request, when he took responsibility for it all - he was positioning himself as the executor who never says no. Bang on execution, every time.

That positioning served him brilliantly in turnaround mode. It's what boards need when a company is in crisis - someone who'll handle whatever gets thrown at them.

But now his role has shifted to growth builder - someone who focuses resources, sets clear boundaries, makes intentional decisions about where the business invests time and energy. The problem? When you've spent years positioning yourself one way with your board, they can't suddenly hear you differently. The way he showed up in those conversations - agreeing to initiatives before managing their expectations - could muddy the waters so that his strategic intent gets lost.

The Recognition Gap Exists Everywhere

If your positioning with your own board is stuck in your old role, what's happening externally?

You've evolved. Your positioning hasn't.

When you're at that conference sharing turnaround war stories, you're reinforcing the same pattern. When your LinkedIn profile describes your expertise through the lens of what you used to do, you're positioning yourself for more of it. When people think about recommending you and the first thing they remember is your crisis management skills, that's what they'll recommend you for.

This isn't a confidence problem - you're already competent at the new role. It's not a skills problem - you've already made the transition. It's a positioning problem. The way you show up, the stories you tell, the language you use, all signal where you've been rather than where you're going.

Working with CEOs, MDs, and senior consultants across the UK, the US, and Australia, I see this pattern repeatedly. Executives who've transitioned from operator to strategist, from consultant to board advisor, from turnaround specialist to growth builder - all stuck getting offered their old job because their positioning tells yesterday's story.

What Changed Everything

Jo Loly's story shows exactly what's possible when positioning catches up to expertise.

In April 2024, she was delivering training in local halls. By September 2025, she was designing content for the CEO of Constellation Automotive Group, Europe's largest digital car marketplace.

She didn't suddenly become better at training - she'd been excellent for years. What changed was her positioning. She leveraged the credibility she'd built, documented her journey in ways that made sense to premium clients, and repositioned her expertise so the right opportunities could find her. The expertise existed all along. Her positioning finally caught up.

The Stories You Tell Signal What You Get Offered Next

Let's be honest about what's happening. When someone asks what you do, what story do you tell?

If you're proud of that turnaround (and you should be - it was brilliant work), that's probably the story you lead with. It's the one with the clear before-and-after, the measurable results, the drama that makes for good conversation.

But every time you tell it, you're positioning yourself for another turnaround.

The CEO who wants to move into builder mode needs to start telling builder stories. The systems they've implemented. The talent they've developed. The sustainable growth they've created. Not because the turnaround wasn't impressive - it was. But because the stories you tell train people what to offer you next.

This applies to every aspect of how you position yourself. Your LinkedIn profile. The examples you use in conversation. The expertise you emphasise. The language you choose. All of it either reinforces where you've been or signals where you're going.

What This Costs You

This positioning gap shows up in specific, measurable ways.

You're offered roles that would have excited you five years ago but feel like a step backwards now. Advisory opportunities go to people with less expertise but clearer positioning in the area you're trying to move into. Board seats get filled without your name even coming up because when people think of you, they think of your old specialty.

Here's what's actually happening after you leave that board meeting, that conference, that dinner. Someone mentions they're looking for a growth-focused CEO with experience scaling operations sustainably. Three names come up immediately.

Your name isn't one of them. Not because you lack the expertise - you've been operating in builder mode for two years. But because the last story you told was about a turnaround, your LinkedIn headline still emphasises crisis management, and you've trained your network to think of you as the person who fixes things, not the person who builds them.

Your Expertise Has Evolved. Has Your Visibility?

I get it. You're running a serious business. You don't have time for constant content creation or reinventing how you show up online. You've built your expertise through decades of delivering results, not through curating a presence.

But here's the reality: when your positioning doesn't match your current role, you're leaving your own opportunities unconverted.

The turnaround CEO trying to move into builder mode needs board members, investors, and potential partners to recognise the shift. The consultant ready for board advisory work needs their network to position them at that level. The MD who's transitioned from executor to strategist needs their team, their board, and their industry connections to see where they actually are now.

This isn't vanity. It's a strategic necessity.

After 25+ years in media strategy for global brands, then working with senior executives on exactly this challenge, I've learned that positioning yourself for your next role isn't about becoming something you're not. It's about making visible what you've already become.

The Cost of Waiting

Your expertise has evolved. Your track record proves it. Your day-to-day work reflects it.

But every conference where you tell the old story, every board meeting where you show up the old way, every LinkedIn profile that emphasises yesterday's role - you're training people to offer you what you used to do.

The opportunities you actually want - the ones that match where you are now, not where you were - go to executives whose positioning makes it easy for others to recognise where they actually are. Not because they're more qualified. Because their positioning does the work.

That's the difference between getting offered your old job and getting offered your next one.

About Elaine Walsh-McGrath

Elaine Walsh-McGrath is an Executive Visibility Strategist who helps CEOs, MDs, NEDs, and senior consultants close the gap between the authority they've built and the recognition they deserve. After 25+ years in media strategy with L'Oréal, Colgate, Volkswagen, and Ryanair, Elaine now works with executives whose expertise has evolved beyond how they're currently positioned. Through her Executive Visibility Framework, she helps senior leaders reposition for their next role - so when opportunities arise, their name comes up for the right reasons.

Work with Elaine

If you're a CEO or MD whose role has evolved beyond how you're currently positioned, let's talk about closing that gap. Connect with Elaine on LinkedIn or visit https://calendly.com/elaine-walsh-mcgrath/strategic-discovery-call to explore how strategic visibility can help you get offered the role you actually want.