Goodbye Bernard

Last week I felt a mixture of outrage and sadness at the news Bernard Looney had resigned from bp owing to non-disclosure of personal relationships with colleagues. It also reminded me of that quote:

The corporate world is more transparent today than even just a few years ago (with still much room to improve).  Executive teams and boards are driving more accountability.  Individuals are being called out when they promote one set of behaviours externally and live by an entirely different in real life.

But my sadness was more directed towards the people left behind, many of my former colleagues, the people left to pick up the pieces, the people who don’t have the luxury of just walking away.

When I was in my corporate job, I didn’t really think of myself as trapped, but now I realise I was: my salary funded my day-to-day living, my annual bonus paid for my holiday and maintenance on my house, my share options funded my children’s education – and my company pension funded my future.

And what is more, my job fed a big chunk of my confidence and how I felt about myself.

Did someone mention eggs and basket in the singular?

Should I stay or should I go?

If you’re developing, progressing, moving up the career ladder – it might be worth staying put.  There may still be more to gain than to lose.

But if you’re not, if you’re plateauing, or worse, you might not be feeling quite so comfortable right now.

You might want to take action, take back some autonomy.

But fear might hold you back.

You might have seen I launched the Corporate Escapology podcast (& on Spotify) this week. I’m going to release my first proper one with a real life guest later this week – it’s with Steve Cook, former technology VP, now part-time potter, part-time board member and startup advisor.

Steve and I talked about this fear that can in some cases stop you looking outside – and keep you stuck inside:

“Outside there's a risk that that you may not be valued in the same way and the fear of that playing out is enough sometimes to keep you in a job that may not be making you happy”.

Been there. Have you?

Different perspective

Now I’m working for myself, I am embracing a new kind of freedom: financial, time, the work I do and when I do it.

And many others, who have left their corporate jobs, tell me the same.  They get more time with their family, more money to enjoy that extra time, more choice over the work they do, a stronger sense of purpose.  More enjoyment because they have more autonomy.

And more self-confidence.

As Steve says in the podcast, he’s found himself becoming quite evangelical about this way of life.  Like a reformed smoker.

Cashing in

The thing is we can be evangelical because we’ve seen it play out.  We’ve seen how we can access this freedom because of the skills, experience and knowledge we acquired and developed during our time in corporate life.

The question is when is the time to cash in that investment?

Like a net present value calculation, you need to weigh up the discounted sum of your future value by staying against the discounted sum of your future value by leaving.

Which is bigger?

And how much discount should you apply to a scenario when you’re not in control?  When one man, one manager, one board, faceless investors could control your future.

Use this experience – even if you don’t work for bp – as an opportunity to ask yourself some hard questions:

1.     Is the value I’m gaining from my corporate job increasing, plateauing or is it falling?

2.     Am I prepared to be patient to wait for change?

3.     Do I have a back-up plan?  Do I even know what I might do?

4.     How high is my confidence right now?

5.     What could I start doing now to create options?

Because the worse thing is to be taken by surprise, caught off guard, fall victim to someone else’s bad judgement and thoughtlessness.

Take back your power.  Build your Escape Plan.

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A few more of you have bought my Escape Plan course this week – thank you.  It means a lot to me and provides validation that the book is required.  The comments you’ve made to me on LinkedIn and by email tell me that – how you’re feeling and how the blog is helping.  I’m really pleased – I’m writing this book for you.

If I can help at all, drop me a line at adam@corporateescapology.com.