It took hard work to build the career you have. You’ve amassed expertise and prestige. Though, if you’re like many leaders, the cost has been sleepless nights and missed family dinners. A life out of balance.
If you feel sick of the pressure and anxiety, and you want to start living a more well-rounded life, you are not alone. And you have options.
There are ways for you to leverage your experience to cut your stress in half without giving up everything you’ve worked so hard to create.
In this guide, we'll explore lower-stress roles you could transition into, where you can still have impact but with far more peace of mind.
The 4 Factors of Low-Stress Jobs
When we talk about low-stress leadership positions, we’re really talking about four key factors: distress (or lack thereof), autonomy, work-life balance, and strategic focus.
Distress. When work is too stressful, it eats at you. You can’t sleep, you get sick, it’s just too much. Psychologists call it “distress” when you’re feeling that constant anxiety, as opposed to “eustress,” which is a positive stress where it’s not too much, and you feel challenged but in control.
Autonomy. Autonomy means you can work when you want and where you want, so long as you get your work done and make your meetings. This often means the ability to set blocks of time for uninterrupted deep work and the freedom to take the afternoon off to make your kid’s piano recital.
Work-Life Balance. This is ultimately about having a role that sees you as more than an output machine. This might mean you get nights and weekends off or can work remotely.
Strategic Focus. This is when you’re zoomed out, and you get to focus on a few meaningful levers. The alternative is when you need to constantly react to put out fires. And that’s usually far more stressful and less fulfilling when you feel busy with endless details, though none of which are actually moving the ball forward.
Often, as impact goes up, so does stress. But there are positions you can find where you still have influence, but you have less distress and more autonomy, balance, and strategic focus. And in the rest of this post we’ll go into the top roles that hit those marks.
8 Low-Stress Jobs for Execs and Senior Leaders
1. Executive Coach
As an executive coach, you can directly apply every bit of hard-earned wisdom you’ve learned over the years.
Instead of helping a company succeed, you’re helping an individual succeed. You’re teaching them what you know and empowering them into the best leader they can be.
Many find it fulfilling to invest in another person’s journey and to help them grow and evolve.
Stress Manageability: 4/5 – Low Stress: As a coach, you can either work for yourself or for a company. Either way, the stress is much lower than in an exec role because it’s a much simpler operation: you are your only employee. That said, if you do work for
yourself, it can be more stressful at the beginning as you’re building your client load.
Autonomy: 5/5 – Total Autonomy: As a solopreneur, you choose your clients, set your hours, and design your work process. If you work for a company, you’ll have more fixed hours and client rosters, but it's still more autonomy than most traditional roles.
Work-Life Balance: 4/5 – Very Good Work-Life Balance: Coaches who work for themselves have full control over their schedules. Though, running a solo coaching business does involve a lot of marketing and admin tasks. If you coach within an organization, you'll work more structured hours, but they're typically predictable, reasonable, and boundaried.
Strategic Focus: 3/5 – Balanced: You definitely get to look at the big picture, but you also have to do all the granular work to get your business running.
2. Board Advisor
Working on a board can be the best of all worlds: you get to think high-level strategy, your voice carries weight, and it comes without the daily grind of running a company.
Stress Manageability: 4/5 – Low Stress: There will be moments of stress when you’re facing critical decisions, shareholder disputes, or crises. But on the whole, the stress levels are fairly low considering you’re not hustling on the day-to-day.
Autonomy: 4/5 – High Autonomy: You have significant control over when and how you provide input. And if there’s room to get more involved if you want.
Work-Life Balance: 5/5 – Exceptional Work-Life Balance: Advisory roles are typically flexible, with minimal time commitment beyond quarterly meetings or as-needed consultation.
Strategic Focus: 5/5 – Highly Strategic: The focus is entirely on guiding high-level decisions and company strategy without getting bogged down by operational issues.
3. Consultant
Consulting can be a dream role for former corporate leaders. You leverage your experience to solve specific challenges while enjoying the freedom to choose your projects.
And because you work for yourself, you get to avoid the endless meetings and politics that come with the corner office.
Stress Manageability: 4/5 – Low Stress: If you've already got the expertise and network, consulting can be remarkably freeing. You bring solutions, and you’re not fully tied to the weight of the problem. The role can be stressful because of deadlines and client expectations. But overall, it’s a huge step down in levels of stress from executive work.
Autonomy: 4/5 – High Autonomy: You typically have control over which projects you take on, when you work, and how you approach problem-solving for clients.
Work-Life Balance: 3/5 – Good Work-Life Balance: Consulting is definitely flexible. But there are client deadlines and deliverables, which means some sprints of intense work. Your work-life balance will be a direct reflection of your own boundaries.
Strategic Focus: 4/5 – Very Strategic: Much of your work will be high-level solutions and strategic advice. However, building your own business will require some on-the-ground tactics.
4. Fractional Executive
This is the sweet spot between full-time executive demands and retirement. You get to keep your executive impact while scaling back the time commitment.
You might serve as a part-time CFO, CHRO, or CMO for multiple organizations. You’ll get to offer your expertise without feeling fully hooked to the company’s ups and downs. And you’ll get quite a lot of freedom.
Stress Manageability: 4/5 – Low Stress: While you’ll operate on deadlines and cary responsibility, the stress load is pretty manageable, given that it’s a part-time commitment and you get to control your schedule.
Autonomy: 5/5 – Total Autonomy: You have control over which organizations or projects you take on. Plus, as a contractor, you can pick your hours and negotiate the scope of your role
Work-Life Balance: 5/5 – Exceptional Work-Life Balance: You get to work part-time. And with as many (or few) companies as you’d like. Which means you can finally let your personal life breathe.
Strategic Focus: 4/5 – Very Strategic: You’ll definitely be responsible for making strategic decisions. However, sometimes (especially for smaller companies), you may have to dip into on-the-ground work.
5. Chief Learning Officer (CLO)
For those who feel a passion for human development, a CLO position can be invigorating.
You’ll take charge of the company’s learning and development approach and cultivate leaders within the org.
It’s still a strategic and high-impact role, and it doesn’t require constant firefighting.
Stress Manageability: 3/5 – Moderately Stressful: The role holds a lot of responsibility and will require budgeting, timelines, and organizational change. But your scope will focus on just company development initiatives.
Autonomy: 4/5 – High Autonomy: You’ll have significant control over your teams and learning initiatives. However, you will still need to collaborate with other senior leaders for budgeting and vision alignment.
Work-Life Balance: 3/5 – Good Work-Life Balance: The role will likely be more flexible than other C-Suite positions, but as a leader, you may still need to put in extra hours, especially during major training initiatives or evaluations.
Strategic Focus: 4/5 – Very Strategic: You’ll take a bird’s eye view of the company and get to align development strategies with company goals.
6. University Lecturer
It's not uncommon to leap from navigating corporate challenges to teaching others how to do the same.
Depending on whether or not you’re shooting for tenure, academia can feel pretty cush compared to the corner office. And you get the satisfaction of sharing your lived experience to inspire the next generation of business leaders.
Stress Manageability: 3/5 – Moderately Stressful: Teaching is generally low-stress since you’ll have a predictable schedule without many high-pressure deadlines. That said, grading papers, preparing lectures, and dealing with student challenges can feel stressful. And if you decide to go for tenure, that’ll up your stress level significantly because you’ll need to regularly publish papers, secure funding, and network your way to the top.
Autonomy: 3/5 – Moderate Autonomy: In many institutions, you get to choose your courses, research what interests you, and structure your classes how you want. As long as you show up and get your job done. However, some schools have tighter reigns and will give you less control.
Work-Life Balance: 4/5 – Very Good Work-Life Balance: With structured semesters and predictable schedules, you’ll get a fair amount of downtime. Howeve,r there will be bursts of busy periods when you need to grade papers or exams.
Strategic Focus: 3/5 – Balanced. You’ll get to plan your course how you want and strategize how to effectively teach your students. Though there won’t be much high-level strategy like you’d see in business.
7. Content Creator
Creating content can be fun and extremely creatively fulfilling.
You could write books, record a podcast, or take to social media.
One challenge many creators face is creating content that they are credible to speak about. And that’s where you have a huge advantage: you’ve already been a successful executive, and you can teach others to do the same.
This is one of the paths I’ve taken for myself. I used to work as a VP of HR, but I couldn’t do it anymore. I made the shift into career coaching and content creation. I’ve since written several books and amassed a following of 100k across social platforms. I’ve even been fortunate enough to get 3M views on TikTok.
All this to say, that even if you're a more senior executive, there's an audience for you (even on the platform you think is only for your niece or nephew).
Once you clarify your personal brand, target audience, and value proposition, your strategic background should give you a huge advantage.
Stress Manageability: 3/5 – Moderately Stressful: Content can be stressful because you’ll have to hit consistent publishing deadlines. And, like being an exec, it can be hard to turn your work brain off. But unlike working for a business, the only person you have to answer to is yourself.
Autonomy: 5/5 – Total Autonomy: You’re at complete liberty to decide what you create, when, on what platforms, and how often.
Work-Life Balance: 4/5 – Very Good Work-Life Balance: While you will have to hit your publishing schedule, you can have excellen work-life balance if you set strong boundaries between work and the rest of life.
Strategic Focus: 3/5 — Balanced: To succeed at content, you need a winning strategy. But you are also the one to execute it, so you’ll be playing both the boss and the employee.
8. Philanthropic Advisor
This is a role where you can use your expertise in analyzing ROI and driving results. But instead of contributing to a company’s bottom line, you’ll be advising organizations and wealthy individuals on how to donate their money in the most effective way possible.
If you’ve long had an interest in philanthropy, here’s a direct way to apply your skillset to better the world.
Stress Manageability: 4/5 – Low Stress: You’ll do research and advise companies and individuals. It’ll involve strategy and meetings, but it won’t be a super high-stress environment.
Autonomy: 4/5 – High Autonomy: You have significant freedom in structuring your advisory work and choosing the causes you support.
Work-Life Balance: 5/5 – Exceptional Work-Life Balance: You can cusotmize your own schedule and client-load however you want. Though depending on your clients, there might be some pressure to meet timelines or urgent requests. But it’s still flexible and low stress compared to corporate leadership roles.
Strategic Focus: 5/5 – Highly Strategic: This role is all about high-level strategy and maximizing impact. You won’t need to scramble to put out fires.
The Challenges of Transitioning to a Lower-Stress Role
I’ll be honest with you. For some high-achievers, it can be difficult to move to a lower-stress role. Here are a few challenges to expect and plan for:
Your identity will shift
If you’ve been climbing the corporate ladder long enough, then it’s possible your title has become a part of your identity. Being a CEO or CFO might just feel like a part of you. And heck, you might even enjoy introducing yourself with your title at industry events.
And there’s nothing wrong with that. However, if you transition to a role with a different title (possibly a less prestigious one), be ready for the shift.
It could bring up questions like "Who am I if I’m not an exec?" You may have already figured out how to disentangle your worth from your title—but if not, be ready to do some inner work.
Your finances will change
Let's address the elephant in the room: often, lower stress means a smaller paycheck.
Now, that’s not always the case. But it’s wise to be ready for an income shift and to alter your lifestyle accordingly.
For some, the tradeoff isn’t worth it. But for others, swapping stress and money for hobbies and family time is a no-brainer.
You’ll have a lot of time
After years of back-to-back meetings and constant urgency, you might suddenly find yourself with a lot more time than you’re used to. And this can be both liberating and uncomfortable.
Some executives take to this newfound freedom like a fish to water. They finally write a book, pick up tennis, or enjoy slow mornings with their spouse. But for others, that open calendar can make them feel aimless and anxious.
If you find yourself in the second camp, welcome the growth opportunity. If such feelings arise, they can be a call to explore your relationship with productivity and purpose.
You’ll have to find the stress-sweet spot
Studies suggest that when you’re overstressed, you’re more likely to get depressed, struggle with sleep, and even age faster.
But you actually don’t want a life with zero stress either. Research suggests that an absence of stress is bad for your health and resilience.
There’s a sweet spot. When you have the right amount of stress, it keeps you sharp, alert and engaged.
So when taking on a new role with less stress, be careful not to swing the pendulum too far and eliminate all challenges from your life to the point where you feel restless and understimulated.
Success Stories: Examples of Executives Who Transitioned to Lower-Stress Roles
Here are some personal stories from a few of my prior clients.
From Top Designer to Sales: Liv's Journey to Slowing Down
Liv was known in the industry as one of the top production designers in entertainment. All of the top shows, Liv was probably the person who orchestrated every single art, design, budget, location, on-set, and post-production activities.
They worked non-stop. Seven days a week, missed every holiday, family milestone for the past 25 years.
With the industry rapidly morphing, Liv was, for the first time, without a job.
Today, Liv works for a large conference center selling top spots for global events and works with companies to ideate a phenomenal visual experience. They are still required to work some weekends but now find themselves a bit bored.
When asked what was the toughest transition, Liv said, “Stopping myself from stirring stuff up to fix.” Like an ER doctor, Liv was always “on” and found it tough to turn off.
From Corporate Success to Nonprofit Impact: Riley Found Purpose in Chaos
Riley, Chief Commercial Officer for one of the biggest eSport conglomerates, found themselves fired after an acquisition by a major tech company.
The new firm brought in all their own top leaders, which is a very common event, and Riley thought it was time to transition to a lower-stress role.
Riley joined a nonprofit as the Chief Marketing Officer and realized that it was completely chaotic. Unlike a billion-dollar firm with lanes and resources, the nonprofit was kind of a fiasco.
Riley spent most of their time implementing structure and processes that she hadn’t had to do for decades.
When asked the toughest thing about the transition, Riley said, “I don’t regret my move. I am part of a team helping people and that makes up for all of the disorganization.”
From Corporate Heights to Classic Cars: Now Traded Prestige for Passion
Noah left their 25-year career, their last job in a C-suite role at Mattel, to open a Chevy Camaro repair shop with his dad.
They turn rusted-out shells of cars into glistening beautiful vehicles beyond their original conditions.
At a business mixer, Noah confided that they struggle with the loss of prestige from his glory days, leading a team of over 33,000 people at Mattel. But when asked, “Are you happy?” Noah said without a pause, “Heck ya. I love my life.”
Making the Transition
You may just be flirting with the idea of de-stressing your career but aren’t ready to take the leap. Or you might be at the end of your rope and feel clear that you need to change up your work life.
Either way, if you want support considering your options or moving through your transition, you might appreciate working with a career coach.
If you’re interested in taking the first step, you can learn more about career coaching here.
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