Finding a new direction

The techniques I’ve developed for Maslow’s Attic draw on my own career as a senior executive headhunter.

For 18 years I quizzed, analysed and advised very talented leaders in most walks of life (except sport!): private, public, academic and voluntary sector; people moving from large to small organisations, and vice versa; entrepreneurs and bureaucrats; troublemakers and conciliators; brave people and scared people. I learned a lot from them all.

Most headhunters share some ability to dig beneath the surface of people’s claimed achievements and abilities, to see what really drives them (which is not always what they say). They also look at what’s possible in a jobs market – usually just one highly specialised jobs market. I was particularly fortunate to help lead a firm that dealt with an exceptional range of sectors, and types and sizes of role – many completely new or unique; many where money couldn’t be the primary motivator.

And I’ve been where you’re standing. I was 30 when I made my first jump – from the Treasury into headhunting. Ten years on, I started working four days a week. Now I’ve shifted again – to do a doctorate, write and help people find their own new paths.

Which led me to Maslow’s Attic. I’ve refined a systematic process to help you to examine your strengths and enthusiasms and to map out a new sense of direction.

Discovering your own time

One of my clients was surprised to find I wasn’t a typical consultant, who “borrows your watch to tell you the time”. But since it’s your life we’re working on, it’s no use me telling you the time by my own watch. Together we’ll build a new watch by which you’ll tell your own new time.

How does it work?

See Douglas explain how the process works.