Plan B

It never amazes me how business leaders do such a great job in putting together three and five-year plans for their companies but they forget, or perhaps choose to ignore, the need to plan for their own careers. Of course, like most things in life, there will always be the exceptions, and I can easily name several prominent business leaders who chose to 'retire' when they were at the peak of their careers. Many of them are now comfortably sitting on business boards, and chairing voluntary/ community-focused bodies. Incidentally, many of them happen to be women.

While you are busy wiping away the dust on your work-in-progress-from-the-Asian financial crisis - Plan B, or starting off on a clean new page, do focus also on the following key strategies to stay afloat and sane, and sleep much better at night.

• Continue to do a great job, and whenever possible, take on additional responsibilities. The idea is to make your boss as reliant on you as possible. During challenging times, even your bosses worry about their ability to keep their own jobs. So, if you can make them look good by continuing great work for the team, there is always a better chance that your name will not be on the list. Be audible, as well as visible, to the right people, at the right time, and at the right place.
• Upgrade your skills and knowledge. Companies are almost always quick on cutting training budgets during tough years. Be prepared to invest in your own training and development (T&D). If you are not already doing so, set aside a sum of money each month for your T&D fund. Go for that MBA that you have always wanted to do but could not because of your heavy travel schedule, and the prospects of having to miss classes. Well, now that travel budgets have been curtailed, go sign yourself up. You will not regret it.
• Continue to build your network of contacts, both within and outside your company. This is a 'must-do' that you have to invest in, both in terms of time and financial resources. Networking does not happen by accident but by careful planning.
• It is easy to know how to react during good times when the headhunter calls. But what do you do should they call now - do you go listen to what they have to say, and potentially change employers, or do you try to play safe, and not rock the boat for now?

My advice is that your reaction should not be any different in good times or bad. Go listen to what the headhunter has to say, and discern if the opportunity is one that you should or should not pursue. Forget about the often-misguided approach about going forward only if the potential employer is 'stable' - what is that? Which company is stable? Century-old institutions like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch?

Instead, focus on issues such as whether you will be learning new things, acquiring new experiences and making new contacts in the new opportunity. If so, move forward another step.

If the offer comes in eventually, consider it, independent of what is going on in the world - you should have enough confidence in your own capabilities to reassure yourself that you will succeed in your new job/company.

• Stay healthy. Remember to watch your diet too. Focus on activities that will make you feel good about yourself, and have adequate rest and sleep.

In general, focus on those issues where you have a fair chance of influencing the outcome. As for the rest of the world's bigger problems where you have limited chance of making a difference, do whatever you can but leave it to the experts to resolve them.

The author is founder and career coach at NeXT Career Consulting Group, Asia

This article was first published in The Business Times on November 21, 2008.