"Yes This Is Me"

When Knowing Your Worth Isn't Enough

I was out on my morning walk this week, ironically listening to a podcast about Immunity to Change, when up popped a LinkedIn notification. A recommendation from a client I've just finished working with.

I stopped mid-stride to read it.

"Yes this is me. Yes I can do all that."

Those words hit differently when you know the journey someone's been on to say them.

The Transition That Gets Stuck

This client is a Senior Sales Director. Stellar career. Tangible results. The kind of person who's been the reliable one, the go-to expert, the person others turn to when things need sorting.

She was ready for her next chapter. She'd done the logical work of evaluating her skills and experience for a portfolio career. She'd even run it through AI tools to create an impressive Non-Executive Director CV. On paper, it looked brilliant.

But here's what she told me in our first session: "I just have a real blocker believing it's little old me. My skills and experience have value to others, but I can't live up to the CV."

If you're a senior leader navigating a transition right now, you probably recognise that feeling. You've got the track record. You've delivered results. You've built teams, navigated complexity, made tough decisions. The evidence is there.

But when it comes to stepping into something new, or positioning yourself differently, something blocks you. You downplay what you've done. You qualify your achievements. You can't quite claim your experience with the conviction it deserves.

It's not about competence. It's never really about competence.

The Hidden Force That Keeps Us Locked in Place

Researchers at Harvard have a name for this: Immunity to Change. It's not that we don't want to change. It's that we have competing commitments - hidden beliefs that keep us locked in familiar patterns even when they're no longer serving us.

The irony of listening to a podcast about this exact phenomenon whilst receiving a recommendation from someone who'd just worked through it wasn't lost on me.

For my client, the surface issue was straightforward: she needed to believe in her value as she transitioned into a new phase of her career. But underneath that was a complex web of competing commitments.

She wanted to step forward confidently. But she also had deeply ingrained beliefs about who she was allowed to be. About what "people like her" could claim. About the danger of being seen as too confident, too forward, too much.

These competing commitments were invisible to her. They felt like truth rather than narrative. And when you're inside them, it's almost impossible to see outside.

This is what I see time and again with senior leaders in transition. You're not lacking capability. You're not lacking evidence. You're caught between wanting to move forward and unconscious commitments that keep you exactly where you are.

The Work That Actually Creates Change

I won't share the depth of what we worked on. That's hers, and confidentiality is the bedrock of my coaching practice.

But I can tell you this: she worked hard. She brought her true, vulnerable self to every session. She was willing to sit with uncomfortable questions and look at the parts of her thinking that weren't helping her move forward.

We used the Immunity to Change framework to map out what was really going on. Not the surface story about confidence, but the hidden architecture of competing commitments that was keeping her stuck.

What do you get if you step forward boldly? Recognition. Impact. The next chapter you want.

But what do you risk? Being seen as arrogant. Being rejected. Being exposed as not good enough after all.

When the hidden commitment to avoid those risks is stronger than the visible commitment to move forward, you stay stuck. No matter how much you want to change. No matter how much evidence you have of your capability.

The work is about making those hidden commitments visible. Examining them. Questioning whether they're still serving you. Choosing whether to keep them or not.

It's slow work. Uncomfortable work. But it's the work that actually creates lasting change.

What Senior Leaders in Transition Actually Need

If you're navigating a transition right now - between roles, between organisations, between phases of your career - you're probably carrying a similar tension. You know intellectually what you're capable of. You've got the evidence. But something's blocking you from stepping forward with conviction.

Maybe you're moving from a technical role into broader leadership and struggling to let go of the expertise that got you here. Maybe you're leaving a corporate identity behind and aren't sure who you are without it. Maybe you're stepping up to a bigger role and the voice saying "who are you to do this?" is getting louder.

These aren't confidence problems. They're immunity problems. Competing commitments that made sense at one point in your career but are now holding you back. You can't solve them with positive thinking or pushing through. You have to do the deeper work of understanding what's really going on beneath the surface.

That's where coaching makes the difference. Not because I have the answers, but because I can walk alongside you whilst you do the work of finding your own clarity.

The Transformation She Found

After several months of working together, this is what my client wrote:

"Working with Mark has helped me recognise, understand and unlock the way I thought about myself and self-sabotaged with imposter syndrome. He has also enabled me to reframe and articulate in positive, decisive, forward positioning language. I am now in a place where I can say 'yes this is me and yes I can do all that' with confidence, humility and authenticity. That's quite a transformation."

Confidence, humility and authenticity. That combination doesn't happen by accident. It comes from doing the deep work of understanding yourself, challenging the stories that limit you, and rebuilding your sense of who you are on more solid ground.

She didn't become a different person. She became more herself. More able to own what she brings. More willing to step forward without the old stories holding her back.

That's what this work does when you're navigating a transition. It doesn't give you answers. It helps you find the clarity that was there all along, waiting for the space to emerge.

If You're Navigating Your Own Transition

I'm working with several senior leaders right now on transitions like this. Directors and VPs navigating the gap between who they've been and who they're becoming. People moving between roles, between sectors, between identities. Accomplished but stuck. Capable but blocked.

If that's where you are, and you're tired of trying to figure it out on your own, maybe it's time to have a conversation.

Not about having all the answers. But about creating space to examine what's really keeping you stuck. About mapping out those hidden competing commitments and deciding whether you want to keep carrying them.

Because you deserve to be able to say "yes this is me" and actually believe it.

If you'd like to explore what working together might look like, book a time to talk. No pressure, no pitch. Just a conversation about whether coaching might help you move forward through your transition.