Monday, September 16, 2013

From HBR - how to recover from being fired

This post from John Beeson on the HBR Blog Network has some good advice on bouncing back from losing your job:

You've just received word that you've been fired. Or perhaps the company has gone through a re-structuring and eliminated your job — and you've been told that none of the managers you've worked with over the years have a position for you on their team. This comes as a shock to your system, especially if you've enjoyed a record of success up to this point in your career. While there are some practical things to attend to — negotiating your severance, signing up references, and agreeing with the company on a storyline about the reason for your exit — your most important action item is managing your own attitude to the situation....

As you dust yourself off, think through those parts of the situation you need to own. In a highly emotional state, it's too easy for you to curse the darkness: "I had a bad boss." "The place was rife with organizational politics." "My colleagues were non-cooperative and had it in for me." There may be some truth to this, but you also need to ask yourself, "What do I need to accept about the experience to avoid making the same mistakes so I can succeed in the future?"

Losing your job is a very particular type of failure. It's likely the most emotionally painful event of your career. Analyzing your role in the situation is not natural; you will want instead to lash out and place blame on others (as Beeson writes, this may very well be the case), or to fall into a funk of despair. But to bounce back, better to "own" the outcome and figure out what lessons you can take into the rest of your career.

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