A person leaving a career keeps the judgment built through years of ordinary decisions.

What you take with you is not the role. Years of ordinary decisions leave behind a way of reading situations, knowing what is likely to go wrong, and sensing when something is off before you can say why. That is portable and does not expire when the job ends, even though it can feel worthless in the week afterwards, when nobody is asking you anything.

Give the judgment somewhere to go rather than waiting for it to be requested. Mentoring, a committee, a neighbour’s problem, a much smaller version of the same work. It stays sharp by being used, and being asked is the part that has to be arranged.