Should I Go for the VP Promotion or Leave Corporate?
Should you go for the VP promotion or leave corporate? A former investment banker turned executive coach on the two things that decide it....
11 November, 2026 No comment
For Directors & VPs
Is this it?
You got the career: the title, the team, the results. And underneath, a question you keep pushing under the carpet.
I help Directors and VPs decide whether to stay, step up, or step out, and then make the move well, with Executive Coaching and Executive Astrology from an ex investment banker who takes your fears as seriously as your finances.
‘A promotion to a role I had been working toward for a long time.’
Marianna Bezler, Engineering, Anthropic
Is this you?
You have done well by every measure that used to matter. People rely on you, you are good at what you do, and from the outside nothing needs to change.
And yet something has shifted. Perhaps it is a push from outside: a restructuring, a colleague’s farewell post, a promotion that went to someone else. Perhaps it is a pull from inside, a sense that the chapter you built is coming to an end while the next one has not yet taken shape.
You are not in crisis. You are just not quite okay either.
Is this it? Do I stay, step up, or step out?
This is one of the hardest decisions a senior leader makes. Everyone you could ask has a stake in the answer, and while the thinking happens in your head, the fear lives in your body. So the question goes back under the carpet, and it keeps coming back.
Why me
I have sat on both sides of this decision.
The number on the table was very big, one of the largest mandates I had worked on, and I realised I did not care any longer. Another sale would not change anything. The passion was gone, and I knew I was done with that chapter.
That was after fourteen years in investment banking across four countries, leading business development for Scandinavia and advising high net worth clients. I had been asking myself is this it? for years, and everyone I could have asked had a stake in the answer.
What I needed then was someone with no stake in it, who could help me decide and then plan the move well. That is the work I do now.
ICF PCC coach · LSE · MBA in International Management · Trained in body psychology · 3,100+ coaching sessions
Read my storyStay, step up, or step out.
Stay
Staying becomes a choice rather than a default, and the role feels like home again.
Step up
The bigger role, inside your company or elsewhere, without overdelivering to get there.
Step out
Leaving well, now or in five to ten years, for a new role, your own consultancy or business, or an earlier retirement, with your numbers and your family’s security mapped.
There is no right answer built into this work. What my clients have in common is that they chose.
How I work
Decide with your head, your body and your numbers.
Your head
Corporate strategy from someone who knows your world from the inside: positioning, stakeholders and the conversations that need preparing.
Your body
Body psychology, so the decision is one you can feel and not only argue for. Fear and real want become easier to tell apart.
Your numbers
Your income, savings, pension and timing mapped month by month, so everyone at home knows what the move means.
Your timing
Executive Astrology shows how you are built and what this moment in your career is asking of you.
Ways to work together
Personal Blueprint
An Executive Astrology reading: an 8 to 12 page written analysis and a 50 minute call. CHF 599, credited towards The Turning Point.
Explore the BlueprintThe Turning Point
Eight steps over six sessions to decide whether to stay, step up or step out, and take your first steps.
Explore The Turning PointThe Integration Method™
Three months to carry your decision through: the promotion, the exit plan, or both.
Explore The Integration MethodNot sure which one fits? That is what the Turning Point call is for.
Book a Turning Point callWhat followed for clients
Stay · Senior Leader, Consumer Goods
Said no to three major projects. Their reputation grew.
Step up · Director, Tech
Promoted to VP within six months, with CHF 75K more in total compensation. Stopped working weekends.
Step out · Senior Leader, Consulting
Left a Big 4 firm for a boutique. €180K package, up from €140K.
Step out · Senior Leader, Tech
When AI restructuring hit, found their value beyond the title. Now building their own consultancy.
In their words
Free quiz · 3 minutes
Stay, step up, or step out?
Answer a few questions to see which move is calling you, and what is most likely keeping the decision on hold.
Take the quizBy taking the quiz you will receive your result by email and join my newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time.
From the newsletter
Exceptional & Exhausted
Letters for senior leaders on careers, decisions and the patterns underneath them.
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Danguole Litvinskaite is an ICF PCC executive coach and former investment banker, based in Switzerland. She helps corporate Directors and VPs facing a big career decision choose whether to stay and reshape their role, step up to the promotion or a bigger role, or step out to a new company, a business of their own or an earlier retirement. Danguole’s clients make this decision with their head, their body and their numbers, then take the first concrete steps to make it happen. She is the founder of Coach and You, works with clients across Europe, spent fourteen years in investment banking across four countries and has held more than 3,100 coaching sessions with senior leaders since 2017. She works with senior leaders at S&P 500 companies, European blue chips and tech firms. Contact: info@coachandyou.com
Begin with a Turning Point call.
A free 30 minute conversation to look at where you are, what is pulling or pushing you, and which next step fits.
Book your Turning Point callBefore we speak, one question worth sitting with: if you pictured yourself at seventy, looking back at this year, what would you want to have done?