Aureve Core · 6 months · AI & Technology
Senior Vice President IT, Forward AI
He had the title. He didn't have the work that should go with it. And the gap between them was making him disappear.
The Situation
He was an SVP. He was also doing work he described as 'a fresher's work — something I had done in 2013-14.' He felt like a postman: following instructions, executing someone else's vision, reporting constantly to people he found neither interesting nor inspiring. The gap between his designation and his daily experience was so wide it had become demoralising.
He came with clarity about what he didn't want — politics, people-pleasing, continuous reporting — and almost no clarity about what he did want. He knew he needed to change direction, had identified something he wanted to do instead, but felt trapped by financial obligations and unable to do the work that a transition would require.
His self-awareness was high and his self-belief was low. He knew exactly what was wrong. He just couldn't move. He had too much experience to pretend the situation wasn't what it was, and not enough conviction in his own worth to believe he could do anything about it.
The Work
Aureve Core with him began with permission — specifically, permission to acknowledge how bad things had actually become. He had been minimising. He used humour and self-deprecation to distance himself from the scale of his dissatisfaction. When we removed those mechanisms and looked at what was underneath, the picture was clearer and the path forward more obvious.
The sessions addressed his relationship with authority — specifically his deep aversion to being instructed, which had come to feel like a personality trait rather than a response to a specific environment. We separated what was genuinely him from what was a reaction to circumstances. We worked on delegation and the emotional experience of giving things over.
We also worked on his sense of purpose: what kind of work actually engaged him, and what he needed to believe about himself to pursue it. The paralysis began to loosen. He began re-engaging with his actual capabilities. The identity crisis didn't end dramatically. It ended quietly — when he stopped needing the title to tell him who he was.
"I feel like I've become a follower. I can't delegate. I can't say no. I don't enjoy this." That was the start of the most honest conversation about his career he had ever had.
Senior Vice President IT · Forward AI · Technology
The Takeaway
Seniority without alignment is a form of invisible burnout. He had the title, the compensation, and the experience. What he lacked was a connection between any of those things and who he actually was. The Aureve work wasn't about finding him a new job. It was about finding him — and then figuring out what came next from that more solid place.
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