CAREER ADVICE: Deciding whether to stay or go

Dear Aoife

I'm one of five divisional directors in a medium-sized services company. I've been in the post for the last five years and business has been growing steadily. The only cloud on the horizon was that we were a bit exposed to the property sector, and now that chicken has come home to roost.

Last week we were told that the five divisions are being downsized to three and divisional directors - among others - will be invited to reapply for their positions. I'm gutted by this. Two of the other directors are golfing cronies of the chief executive and another is "very well got" with the chairman.

I don't know what to do. Rather than take part in a race I cannot win, should I look for an exit package, and leave with some of my dignity intact? There are no indications that there is anything on offer beyond statutory redundancy, which would not support my lifestyle for long. I'm also unhappy about competing for a job with people whom I like and respect. If I win, a friend loses, and vice versa. Either way I lose a friend.

Dear Mick

You truly are in a difficult position and one that is becoming all too common. Your job, career prospects and friendships have all become tangled up because of the way the recession has hit your business. The way you tell it suggests to me that you need to apply some very clear thinking before you make any decisions.

In my experience, I can tell you that most people who tell me that they have been invited to reapply for their job in circumstances like yours have not. They have been invited to apply for a position which contains elements of their existing job, but if the term "rationalisation" means anything, and it must if the business is to survive, there will be changes. Added responsibilities, different emphases, perhaps even a radical refocusing of the business.

Item one on your agenda is to find out what the new job really involves and you need to look carefully at the job description. In fact, you might find it helpful to try to think about this as if you were an external candidate, rather than an internal one. I cannot overstate this - so many internal candidates fail to make their case clearly at interview because they think "ah sure everyone here knows me and what I'm like".

The job spec will list the requirements of the new position and you need to be able to prove that you meet and exceed them. So if, in your current job, you have responsibility for logistics, but that moves to another section in the new regime, you don't want to waste too much time on that aspect of your skill set at interview, until you have shown that you have met the basic needs of the job. When you have forensically examined what will be asked of you in the new role, you will be better able to make a decision on whether to go or stay.

If you choose to try to stay, rather than comparing yourself to the other candidates, you need to prepare yourself thoroughly for the meeting. Work out how you personally will contribute and deliver in the new role. Know the personal strengths and skills you bring to the role and have a plan outlining how you will address the challenges you'll face if successful.

Remember, your chief executive and the others on the interview board will be assessing each candidate's ability to successfully deliver in the new role. They'll be looking for candidates who will deal with the challenges that will follow this rationalisation - both the operational and people aspects, and move the new organisation forward.

It's up to you to provide the evidence that you are professional and business-focused and that you have the relevant skills, experience and commitment to successfully lead the new division to deliver the results required. Good luck!

Being recognised as a capable successor

Dear Aoife

I need an objective view. I'm coming up to 30 - the only child and obvious heir to a successful family-owned manufacturing business. My grandfather started it, my father consolidated it, and I began working in it during school holidays and have been there or thereabouts since.

I say thereabouts because I had time out for college; I did business studies, then my father thought I should do an MBA, so that was another two years, then he thought I should see how similar businesses operate in the US and Australia.

I couldn't argue with any of that as I was getting valuable experience, but I now think that it was more about putting off the evil day when he had to give me a serious role in the running of the business. That, or he was hoping that I'd meet and marry someone who could take over the business. If he couldn't pass it on to a son, a son-in-law would be the next best thing.

It should be clear from this that my father still actively runs the company, does it well, and isn't showing any signs of letting up. After a lot of persuasion, I'm now installed as a director of the company, but I am the classic "minister without portfolio".

In my father's words, I'm getting "valuable exposure to different aspects of the business"; in my mother's, I'm "like a priest without a parish".

I believe I'm capable of being an excellent director of the company if given the brief, and eventually taking over as managing director.

I have gone away and learned a great deal about the business. I know that I am liked and respected by the people who work here, who have always seen that I've been willing to learn, willing to pitch in, and that I do not expect or assume anything because of who I am.

But the person who seems least willing to accept that I might be capable of taking over at some point is my father. What would you advise?

Dear Toni

Let's start with the business side of the issue before we have a look at the family issue.

You are working in a business that you now know well. By education and training you are fitted for serious management responsibilities. You are now a director - and, even though that wasn't easily attained, it has to indicate, surely, that there is a growing recognition of your ability.

Making someone a director is not something done lightly in any organisation, bearing in mind the duties and responsibilities attached to the title.

I don't believe you want to leave - at least, that doesn't come through in your letter. You want to be able to make a meaningful contribution and continue to earn the respect of your colleagues. You obviously don't want to be in a role where people would say, "sure she's only there because of who she is".

You say that you now know and understand the business. It may be worth finding a mentor - someone who can give you some independent assessment of your skills and who can work with you to ensure that you are presenting your business case internally in a professional and unemotional way.

It would also be worth speaking to someone in another family business. Family businesses have an additional dimension: there is a great deal of the personal invested in growing and developing them, and that has to be taken into account. There are many examples of family businesses in the country where family members have successfully taken up leadership roles. It sounds like both you and your father would benefit from having some discussion with someone who has been through this before.

Meanwhile, add value. Find ways of adding value, particularly in your new role. You may have to spend a bit more time proving yourself before your brief is extended. Your father may unconsciously be seeking reassurance that you can do it. Show him. But the only pressure you put on him is through sound evidence-based arguments - yours, and others who have encountered this before you.

AOIFE COONAGH

is head of the career development unit at Carr Communications. The case histories published are true, but details have been changed to avoid identifying individuals and companies. If you have a problem you would like to see featured, or wish to comment, e-mail askaoife@irishtimes.com