How Senior Leaders Manage Career Regret Without Derailment

Episode notes

Episode 60 of Executive Careers with Fexingo tackles a taboo topic among senior leaders: career regret. Lucas and Luna explore how high-performing executives deal with the emotional and strategic fallout from a decision that did not pan out — a promotion that isolated them, an acquisition that fizzled, a pivot that felt wrong six months in. Rather than treating regret as failure, they examine how to process it without damaging your reputation or stalling your trajectory. The episode centers on a concrete framework: the 'post-mortem reassessment' used by a former Fortune 200 CFO who realized 18 months into her role that she had moved too far from operations into pure governance. Lucas and Luna walk through how she disentangled identity from title, used her board network to quietly recalibrate, and eventually stepped into a COO role that leveraged her true strengths. They also discuss signals that what you are feeling is misalignment rather than failure, and how senior leaders can reset without burning bridges. Practical steps include the 'pre-mortem journal' technique and how to have honest conversations with your chair or CEO without looking indecisive.