These words from the Lemonade Movement, a video about making lemonade out of the lemons dealt to you when you find yourself among the ranks of the unemployed, really struck a chord with me ... “I never saw it coming.” It's a familiar refrain since few ever do see it (the pink slip) coming until they are escorted to the curb.
If you are wishing and hoping (isn’t that a song?) or trusting and believing that your job is safe and secure, you are choosing to embrace a false sense of security. Every CFO is only as safe as a satisfied board, a congenial CEO, and a healthy bottom line. Do you “really” know whether you have the support of your Board, or is your relationship purely superficial based on board room conversations? Does your vision align with the CEO’s or are you constantly butting heads? Are you playing it too safe or are you being too risky for the shareholders? Is the bottom line healthy “enough”?
Make a career survival plan and then work your plan. You don’t ever have to say “yes” to a move, but wouldn’t it be great to be respond to a great opportunity rather than be forced to react to a pink-slip? Don’t let the words, “I never saw it coming” be prophetic. After all, in the words of Douglas MacArthur, “There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity.”
