Press Release - October 3, 2013

New CEO?

Five Tips To Help You Preserve Your Job
By Louis Gerzofsky, Director of IT Search and Executive Career Coaching

We frequently field calls from CIO’s that go something like this, “A new CEO was hired six months ago and I’m starting to get the feeling that my job may be on the line. Are you working on any searches that I might be interested in? Is there any advice you can give me about saving my job?”

Those are honest and fair questions but unfortunately for most of the callers, they’re probably too late. Our potential candidate probably has one foot out the door, and the new CEO is the one who’s pushing him through it. The CEO turnstile, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, is about to turn faster than ever. The Baby Boomer generation is starting to retire and as the economy picks up, corporate boards are going to be far less patient if profits and stock prices don’t pick up commensurately.

Here are five tips that will help you keep your job:

1. Be proactive. Do not go into a defensive crouch! It’s a basic component of human nature that when faced with a big, potentially unwelcome change, we become conservative in our actions. The new CEO was hired to bring about change. You are begging for trouble – albeit unintentionally – if you choose stasis.
2. If you learn the identities of the CEO candidates or the new CEO’s name has just been announced, do your homework and learn everything you can about their backgrounds, accomplishments, executive teams, managerial style and so forth. Build a dossier and selectively use your professional network as well to get a better sense of their personalities and the strategies they typically employ when they join a new company.
3. Once you’ve developed a profile of the new CEO, start developing a new road map for your organization. Yes, you might be in the middle of your original three to five year plan but the new CEO was hired to take the company in a new direction and your faithfulness to the plan might put a bull’s eye on your back. I’m not suggesting that you automatically dump the original plan; I’m encouraging you to look at your IT organization and your company with fresh eyes.
4. As soon as you have completed the alternative roadmap, schedule a meeting with the new CEO. This becomes your first and best opportunity to establish yourself as a partner to the business, as someone who isn’t simply running a utility. In addition to presenting him with an accurate picture of the most important programs and projects, you now have a unique opportunity to offer him a vision of you as one of the people who can help him move the company in a new direction.
5. After the meeting, follow up: You’ve made one of the most important presentations of your career. What are you doing to ‘close the sale’? If you’re getting feedback and follow up meetings from the new CEO, then you may have re-secured your job. You have also learned a great deal about this person and probably have a sense as to whether or not your executive styles mesh; instead of waiting around for the axe to fall, you have taken actions and accelerated your learning curve. And that’s how effective executives continue to stay relevant.

Thank you again for your attention and interest. As always, if you have an opinion or anecdote to share, Please address them via our Online Contact Form.