Breaking Down the Walls: How I Help Executives Escape the Silo and Discover Their Next Industry
Let me guess. You've spent 15, maybe 20 years becoming the absolute master of your domain. You're the go-to person. The one they call when things need fixing. Your LinkedIn profile reads like a greatest hits album of your industry.
And now? You're bored out of your mind. Or burned out. Or both.
Here's the kicker: when I ask executives like you what else they could do, most respond with some version of "Well, I've only ever done this."
Congratulations. You've built yourself a lovely prison with a corner office view.
This, my friends, is what we call siloed thinking—and it's the number one career killer for executives who want to make a meaningful pivot. You might know what you don't want to do anymore but be unsure what you actually do want to do next. As author Herminia Ibarra notes, people "don't know how to search when they don't know exactly what they're searching for."
But here's the good news: those walls you think are concrete? They're actually made of assumptions. And I'm about to hand you a sledgehammer.
Here's the thing: you only see what you've already done. I once worked with a VP of Operations from manufacturing who was convinced she could only work in manufacturing. When I asked why, she looked at me like I'd suggested she become an astronaut.
What she actually knew was how to optimize complex supply chains, reduce operational costs by millions, lead teams through transformations, and navigate regulatory compliance. You know what industries desperately need all of that? Healthcare. E-commerce. Green energy. Government contracting.
But she couldn't see it, because she was looking at her career through a keyhole instead of opening the door.
And here's what this tunnel vision is costing you: While you're Googling "VP of [Your Exact Title] jobs in [Your Exact Industry]," you're missing the Chief Innovation Officer role at a healthcare company, the VP of Customer Success position at a SaaS startup, the advisor opportunity with a private equity firm, and the fractional executive gig that would let you work with five companies at once.
Everyone in your industry with your background is applying for the same twelve jobs. You're all fighting over scraps while ignoring the feast happening at adjacent tables. Companies in growing industries are desperate for someone with real operational chops—someone who's seen some things and won't panic when things get messy.
That's you. But they'll never find you because you're speaking in industry jargon they don't understand, and you're certainly not presenting yourself in a way they can recognize your value.
Critical Factors to Evaluate Before Making Your Move
Before you start firing off applications to every interesting role you find, let's pump the brakes. You need to do a reality check, assess your strengths and weaknesses, identify the challenges, and build a strong support system for the transition.
Here are the questions most executives completely skip (and later regret):
Does This Actually Fit How Your Brain Works?
This is the one that gets people every single time. As a career psychologist might tell you, many professionals chase careers based on market trends, salary, or passion—only to find themselves unfulfilled or burned out because the role doesn't align with their natural thinking patterns, work preferences, or decision-making style.
Ask yourself:
Do you thrive in structure or chaos? (Startup vs. established company matters more than you think)
Are you a big-picture strategist or a detail-oriented executor?
Do you light up in collaborative environments or do your best thinking alone?
What types of work environments and problem-solving approaches actually suit your brain chemistry?
I've watched executives make lateral moves to "better" companies only to discover they're miserable because the work style was all wrong. A structured, process-driven executive in a fast-moving startup will want to strangle everyone by month three. Trust me.
Can You Actually Transfer Your Skills—Or Will You Be Starting Over?
Understanding skill transferability is crucial—you need to identify what core skills you can leverage in your new career, and which gaps need to be filled through training or certification.
The executives who succeed in pivots aren't starting from scratch. They're finding industries where their expertise is desperately needed but in short supply.
For example:
Manufacturing operations leader → Healthcare logistics transformation
Retail CFO → E-commerce finance strategy
Banking compliance officer → Fintech regulatory affairs
Traditional media executive → Digital content strategy
Notice the pattern? You're not abandoning your expertise. You're relocating it to where it's more valuable.
What Are Your Actual Non-Negotiables?
Be brutally honest here. You need to understand what you are willing to sacrifice and what you expect to gain.
Most executives lie to themselves about this. They say "I'm flexible!" and then three months into the new role they're miserable because:
The commute is killing them
The company culture is toxic
The travel is unsustainable
The compensation isn't covering lifestyle needs
The mission doesn't actually matter to them
Write down your non-negotiables before you start looking. Not after you get an offer and have to rationalize why you're taking it.
Do You Have Any Career Capital in This New Space?
Here's an uncomfortable truth: you need career capital to make a successful transition. Can you leverage your skills, your contacts, and your professional brand?
If you're trying to break into an industry where you have:
No relationships
No demonstrated interest
No relevant projects or experience
No understanding of the landscape
You're going to have a very hard time. Which brings us to...
The Strategic Approach: How We Actually Make This Happen
Phase 1: The Translation Project
First, we're going to take everything you've done and translate it from industry-speak to universal business language.
Remember my manufacturing VP? Here's what we did:
Before: "Spearheaded lean manufacturing initiatives across 14 facilities, achieving 18% reduction in cycle time and 12% improvement in OEE through implementation of TPM and 5S methodologies."
After: "Led operational transformation across 14 locations that cut production costs by $8M annually while accelerating delivery speed by 18%, proving that efficiency and quality aren't trade-offs."
See the difference? The second version:
Leads with business impact, not methodology
Uses dollars and percentages anyone can understand
Tells a story about capability, not just activity
Makes you sound like someone who solves problems, not just implements programs
Nobody's going to deduce how or why you "may" make sense for any particular role or career path. You have to make it "smack in the forehead obvious" on your resume, your LinkedIn profile, your cover letter—why you make perfect sense for the roles you're applying for.
Phase 2: The Skills Excavation
Next, we're going to dig through your experience and find the gold you've forgotten you had.
I use what I call the "So What?" technique. You tell me something you did, and I respond, "So what?"
Not because I'm being rude, but because I want to know what capability that demonstrates.
You: "I managed a $50M budget."
Me: "So what?"
You: "Well, I had to forecast demand, negotiate with vendors, reallocate resources when priorities shifted..."
Me: "So what?"
You: "I had to make strategic decisions about resource allocation with incomplete information and competing priorities."
Me: "THAT'S the skill. And it works everywhere."
We map out:
Core competencies (what you do exceptionally well)
Transferable skills (capabilities that work anywhere)
Domain expertise (what you know that others don't)
Adjacent applications (where else do your skills matter)
Suddenly, you realize you're not just a finance executive in healthcare. You're an expert in:
Complex stakeholder management in highly regulated environments
Translating between technical teams and business leadership
Building financial models for scenarios with high uncertainty
Change management in organizations resistant to transformation
Know where all of that is valuable? Literally dozens of industries.
Phase 3: Strategic Intelligence Gathering
Now we get to the critical part: learning about potential industries before you commit.
The most valuable thing you can do is connect with people already in the field, learning from their successes and mistakes.
I don't ask "What do you want to do?" That question is useless for siloed executives because you don't know what's possible.
Instead, I ask:
What problems get you excited to solve?
What type of growth stage energizes you? (Startup chaos? Established company? Turnaround?)
What values are non-negotiable? (Work-life balance? Innovation? Social impact?)
What do you get passionate about in your spare time?
What industries do you actively complain about as a consumer?
Some executives who were so annoyed by an industry as consumers decided to fix it as leaders.
We research:
Growing industries with tailwinds behind them
Adjacent spaces where your expertise transfers easily
Mission-driven sectors if impact matters to you
Emerging categories that need experienced leadership
Then we test them. Not by applying to jobs (that comes later), but by:
Informational interviews with people in those spaces
Advisory work or board positions to get your feet wet
Industry events and conferences to understand the ecosystem
Thought leadership to signal your interest and expertise
Many people make the mistake of quitting their job too soon, assuming they'll find success quickly in their new career, only to realize it's not the right fit or they weren't fully prepared for the challenges ahead. A gradual transition not only minimizes financial and emotional risk but also builds confidence.
Phase 4: Building Your Transition Story
Now we craft your new narrative. Not a lie—we're not inventing experience you don't have. We’re reframing your experience to position you as a valuable outsider with a fresh perspective.
Be radically honest with yourself and think things through about why you want to change. Your story needs to answer that question authentically.
Here's the narrative structure I use:
Origin: "I spent 15 years in [Industry], where I [Major Achievement]."
Insight: "But I realized that the problems I'm best at solving—[Universal Capability]—aren't unique to [Old Industry]."
Expansion: "In fact, [New Industry] faces even more complex versions of these challenges because [Specific Insight]."
Proof: "That's why I [Specific Action That Demonstrates Commitment—like advisory work, research, personal project]."
Future: "I'm looking to bring my expertise in [Capability] to [New Industry] because [Authentic Reason That Connects Your Values]."
Let me show you this in action with a real example:
"I spent 15 years in retail operations, where I led the digital transformation of 200+ stores while maintaining profitability during massive industry disruption. But I realized that the problems I'm best at solving—leading teams through technology adoption while keeping the lights on—aren't unique to retail. In fact, healthcare faces even more complex versions of these challenges because they're dealing with life-or-death stakes, legacy systems, and regulatory constraints that make retail look easy. That's why I joined the board of a digital health startup and completed a certificate in healthcare management from Vanderbilt. I'm looking to bring my expertise in change management and technology implementation to healthcare because I'm tired of just selling things—I want to help save things."
See what we did there? We:
Acknowledged the career shift honestly
Reframed expertise as universal, not industry-specific
Showed knowledge of the new industry's challenges
Demonstrated commitment through concrete actions
Connected to authentic motivation
Phase 5: The Methodical Execution Plan
Finally, we create a systematic approach so you're not just randomly applying to things.
You need to assign yourself daily or weekly tasks so that you know exactly what you'll be doing when you sit down at your computer. You don't want to freewheel this. As you complete these tasks, you'll also likely notice how small steps tend to have a snowball effect and give you both momentum and confidence.
This includes:
LinkedIn Optimization: Your headline can't be "VP of Supply Chain at [Company]" anymore. It needs to be "Supply Chain Leader | Expert in Scaling Operations in Complex, Regulated Industries | Open to Healthcare, Logistics Tech, and Government Contracting."
Thought Leadership: You need to start publishing content that demonstrates your thinking applies beyond your silo. Write about universal principles, not industry gossip.
Strategic Networking: Build connections in the new industry. Make connections with leaders or HR people in the career you want to transition to. Ask them what you need to do to transition.
Board Positions and Advisory Work: Nothing says "I'm serious about this pivot" like actually working in adjacent spaces. Even unpaid advisory work builds credibility and connections.
Targeted Applications: Now—and only now—do we start applying. But we're not mass applying to jobs. We're strategically targeting roles where your "outsider" status is a feature, not a bug.
Track Everything: Respect yourself enough to track the effort. Monitor how you're doing and what you need to be doing next. Set up reminders so you follow up on things when you need to. If you're going to invest time and energy to make this happen, invest the time and energy to track your progress.
What Happens When You Break Free
Here's what I've seen when executives finally escape their silos:
They Find Better Opportunities
Not just more opportunities—better ones. Roles with:
More growth potential (because you're coming into a growing industry)
More impact (because you bring a fresh perspective)
More compensation (because you're no longer competing in your old, tired market)
More excitement (because you're actually interested again)
They Become More Valuable
Turns out, being the executive who brings lessons from Industry A to Industry B makes you fascinating. You're the person who says, "When we faced this problem in manufacturing, here's what worked . . ." and everyone leans in.
Cross-pollination of ideas is incredibly valuable. Companies will pay premiums for it.
They Rediscover Their Career Joy
Remember why you got into this in the first place? Before the politics and the bureaucracy and the same problems for the 47th time?
A successful industry pivot can reconnect you with that.
I've watched executives go from "I'm counting down to retirement" to "I can't believe I get to work on this" in six months.
This Is Scary, And That's the Point
Look, I'm not going to tell you this is easy.
Career transitions are like onions. They're complex, and there is usually a lot more to them than we see on the surface. They require careful planning and thinking through the why, the what, and the when.
Leaving your silo means:
Admitting you don't know everything (terrifying for successful executives)
Starting conversations with "I'm exploring..." instead of "I'm the expert in..."
Potentially taking a step sideways to move forward
Facing rejection from people who can't see past your resume
Doing the work to learn a new industry's language and norms
It's uncomfortable. It's humbling. Sometimes it's downright painful.
But you know what's more painful? Spending the next 10-15 years of your career sleepwalking through the same role in the same industry, watching younger competitors leapfrog you, feeling that gnawing sense that you're meant for something more.
The executives who successfully pivot aren't the ones with the perfect plan. They're the ones who:
Get comfortable with uncertainty
Stay open to the possibility of being transformed
Take small steps before big leaps
Build credibility through action, not just aspiration
Tell a story that makes sense of the transition
Your Move: Stop Building Walls, Start Opening Doors
If you've made it this far, you're probably one of two people:
Someone who's ready to blow up the silo and explore what else is possible, or
Someone who's going to close this article, sigh deeply, and go back to searching for your exact same job title in your exact same industry
I can't make that choice for you.
But I can tell you that if you are willing to make a paradigm shift, a career pivot is possible.
Your skills are more valuable than you think. Your options are broader than you've allowed yourself to imagine.
The walls of your silo aren't keeping you safe. They're keeping you small.
So here's my challenge: this week, do one thing that breaks the pattern:
Reach out to someone in an adjacent industry for coffee
Rewrite your LinkedIn headline to be industry-agnostic
Attend a conference outside your comfort zone
Apply for one "stretch" role you're interested in
Join a board or advisory position in a new space
Just one thing. See what happens.
Because here's what I've learned after years of helping executives make successful pivots: the difference between executives who thrive and executives who just survive isn't talent, experience, or even connections.
It's the willingness to see beyond the walls they've built.
The question isn't whether you can make a successful industry transition.
The question is: are you brave enough to try?
Your career is not a narrow hallway. It's a building full of rooms you haven't explored yet. Let's go find the interesting ones.
Bibliography
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Hellyer, J. (2022, June 16). 4 steps to making a successful career change. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2022/06/4-steps-to-making-a-successful-career-change
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