CAREER SNAG OR FATAL BLOW:
The Choice is Yours

March 2003

Do most executives know how to navigate through their career challenges as effectively as their business challenges? Not in my experience. See if this scenario sounds familiar.

John was a senior level manager at a Fortune 500 company. Throughout his career, John had enjoyed good working relationships with his immediate managers. He knew how to get his job done. He knew how to work well with management --- or so he thought. Then he hit a career snag named Bob.

It is a story many executives have experienced directly. Under a corporate re-organization, John was newly assigned to head up a division staff function for a former colleague, Bob. The two executives had risen in the company, but with very different leadership styles and strategies. Amidst great external and internal pressure to improve company performance, John and Bob did not find a meeting of the minds in their new reporting relationship. For the first time in his career, John got a poor review. And given John’s level and the financial pressures facing the organization, this had all the signs of a job-ending situation.

John was faced with two choices: (1) Leave the company he had worked so hard for and still believed in; or (2) Learn from this snag in his career and turn the situation around.

Having coached hundreds of professionals in my career, I have found that most executives face this juncture at least once their career. People come to me expressly for help in figuring out what to do. Should they resign? Should they try and turn the situation around given that they don’t have a good relationship with their current boss, who might be a key ingredient in the company’s future?

My job is to help these executives make a smart decision and a smart plan to implement their decision. Not surprisingly, the approach I teach mirrors, for the most part, the steps executives take in leading their own companies:

1. Assess the situation: The emotion is running high when these high-achievers hit a snag. What is primarily involved in this step relates to differentiating the thinking/feelings that come with a bruised ego versus the thinking/feelings associated with a smart forward-focused plan.
2. Decide on the best outcome: You need to be clear on what your short/intermediate- and longer- term career plan is. If you don’t have a current career plan (and I don’t mean a resume, but a thoughtful assessment of career interests, skills,values which has been objectively translated into a series of options for compatible career assignments), consider getting help to develop one (ask yourself: would you lead without a business plan?). In a career snag situation, there are two basic alternatives:

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