Page 221 - Executive Warfare

Position

Yet I’ve seen many, many people in deteriorating organizations that
were about to be sold, busted up, go bankrupt, or get merged sit there as
if they were watching a movie instead of
being one of the principal actors. They
are paralyzed. Even really smart people YOU MUST BE
often don’t see upheaval coming, and a PREPARED TO GET
lot of them don’t wake up even after OUT OF A SINKING
they lose their job. SHIP WHILE THE
It’s completely remarkable to me that SHIP IS STILL
adults will actually lie around feeling ABOVE WATER.
sorry for themselves because there was
a merger and the new bosses booted them out with a year’s salary. Some-
times they are completely devastated, as if they’d lost their entire family,
and are never the same again.
That is ridiculous. You must be prepared to get out of a sinking ship
while the ship is still above water, because if hundreds of you are suddenly
thrown off at the same time, you’re just another head among many bob-
bing in the sea.
I suggest that you start positioning yourself in the wider world today.

BUILD A NETWORK ON THE OUTSIDE
Get to know people outside your organization. From very early in my
career, I’ve served on nonprofit boards, including the boards of universi-
ties, arts organizations, and hospitals.
I never bothered serving on the boards of other corporations, assum-
ing that I would just meet the usual suspects there. But on nonprofit
boards, I met people from different walks of life—environmental lawyers,
scholars, scientists, philanthropists, theater impresarios—and there is no
question that they broadened my horizons.
I also learned to build a reputation for leadership by doing good for my
community. When I say “doing good,” I don’t just mean something

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