Filled with excitement, Betty Taylor pushed the elevator button. She was on her way to meet with her boss, Peter Grometti, chairman of the company, and she had a good idea what they were going to be talking about. Grometti was chairman of Marcus Publishing and he had just closed the deal to sell the company to LDGT, a large holding company that owned magazines, newspapers, and broadcast properties. Betty was President of Consumer Magazines, a position she had held for ten years, during which time she had doubled the readership and profits.

Betty walked into the meeting fully expecting to take over the acquiring company’s magazine division, and she was excited about the prospect of increasing her responsibilities and power in the industry. But the conversation with Grometti took her completely by surprise. In a quiet and firm voice, he told her that the new owners didn’t want her to stay on. Instead, they expected her to shut down operations, dismiss most of her staff, and leave the company in six months. It was really very simple. They already had a President of Consumer Magazines, he was their guy, and they wanted him to run the combined operation.

As Grometti continued on with the details, Betty realized that her whole life was about to change. As she rode the elevator back down to her floor, she began to take stock. She hadn’t looked at her contract in years, hadn’t taken a call from a headhunter in over eight months. Even worse, she had stopped actively networking as her travel and work load had taken over and consumed her life. She realized that she just hadn’t “seen it coming” and, even worse, she had no idea what to do. 

Are you prepared to react quickly to major changes within your organization? If you were to lose your job tomorrow, how prepared are you? Are you ready to walk if the writing on the wall is unacceptable? We posed these questions to 120 CEOs, presidents, and senior executives of Fortune 500 companies at several large symposia in the U.S. and Canada. Amazingly, none of those leaders—not a single one—had a plan in place. And it gets worse.. None of them had spent any time thinking about where they would go next, what kind of work they’d find fulfilling, or even whether they were prepared emotionally or financially to leave their company. 

To sum it up, none of these executives, no matter what their level, had what we call an exit strategy—a well-thought out, tactical plan that prepares you for making your next career move and gives you control over your career no matter what happens next. You wouldn’t allow your division, department, or company to simply run along aimlessly, without a forward-focused business plan that includes several contingency scenarios, would you? The same should be true of your job. If you don’t have an exit strategy, you’re effectively abandoning control of your career and leaving your future flapping in the wind. Without an exit strategy you’re jeopardizing your—and your family’s—fiscal and psychological health.
There are several key reasons why every executive, at every level of his or her career, needs an exit strategy.

We often refer to them as the three C’s

• Change

No matter how long you’ve been with your current employer or how secure you feel, no job is permanent. We have seen, time and time again, proof that the old adage, “change is the only constant,” is true. To compete in today’s tumultuous marketplace, companies that have any dream of growing must continually innovate. And we’re not talking about just coming up with innovative products. Innovation also includes streamlining processes, and hiring the people who can help you meet the new challenges you’ll face as you move forward. Unfortunately, with the new reality of mergers, acquisitions, downsizing, and restructuring, many managers, no matter how experienced or skilled they are, will find themselves left by the side of the road. Now don’t get us wrong; we’re not trying to convince you that you’re always one short step away from the unemployment line. Not at all. We just want you to be aware that things can change overnight, and that those changes may require you to reinvent yourself.

• Confidence

It is impossible to be a truly creative, innovative, out-of-the-box leader if you’re afraid of losing your job. Knowing exactly what you’d do if the ax suddenly dropped gives you a sense of security that allows you to lead more effectively. A viable exit strategy gives you the confidence to say, “What’s the worst that can happen? I’m ready to leave if this doesn't work.” If you’re not completely confident that you can survive for a while without this job, you won’t have the confidence to take the risks necessary for success.

• Control

An exit strategy puts you in control of your professional life. It affords the opportunity for you to be on a path that you choose, not one that others have chosen for you. Being in control also affords you the opportunity to take risks and make decisions in your own best interest.

So it’s all about taking risks. Growth occurs from calculated risk, and you can’t truly move forward in your company or career without taking it. Yet at the same time, if you are afraid that you could lose your job and be helplessly out on the street, you cannot take risks. In today's turbulent marketplace it’s critical to have a smart, savvy plan for moving ahead—whether it’s to a new position in the same organization or out the door entirely. Once that plan is in place, it will shape the way you respond to bosses, peers, subordinates, shareholders, boards of directors, and everyone else. And, most importantly, it will allow you to do what you think is necessary in the service of growth-both yours and your company’s.

Excerpted with permission from I Didn't See It Coming