My 'top cover’ has moved. What should I do?
The issue of what to do if your 'top cover’ at work changes has come up twice in quick succession with my coaching clients. Your ‘top cover’ is typically the person in the firm who recruited you, protects you, and lobbies on your behalf - they’re the one who always has your back. If that person changes or moves on, it’s important to take a step back and consider if you too need to make a change.
Consider this scenario. You’re hired into a firm by a senior person to help them roll out a specific initiative. You do your due diligence and it seems that the leadership team has bought into this strategy. You have full confidence in the hiring manager. For a while, perhaps two or three years, all is well. Your ‘top cover’ had your back. They were your sponsor and always looked out for you, ensuring you got paid and that great opportunities came your way. This gave you a sense of security and the ability to perform to your best, allowing you to meet your side of the bargain and live up to the faith they placed in you.
Then, for whatever reason, your boss leaves, is moved internally, or is increasingly and obviously sidelined. The importance of the initiative you work on seems to be lower, and behaviours around you change. You’re no longer invited to meetings and the ‘vibe’ is different. Attempts to gain clarity about what’s going on are stonewalled.
If this sounds familiar, there are a few things to consider:
You can persevere and keep trying to understand what has happened. Perhaps speak to people who are outside of the immediate situation to get their read on what’s going on. Then, armed with this knowledge, act accordingly.
Speak to your ‘top cover’ to see if you can to gain more insight on what’s going on.
Test the internal market, using the high level of goodwill that you’ve nurtured through your consistent internal network, to better understand why this change has happened. Is it about you and how your abilities and employability are perceived? Or, is it more about a wider shift in firm strategy and leadership?
Where appropriate, use that goodwill to explore roles internally.
If the above leads you to consider a more drastic change, it may be time to start a job search and look for roles elsewhere.
In my experience of seeing this over the years, not only as a Career Coach, but also in my 22 years in Executive Search, many people remain stuck until they’re asked to leave. That’s almost never at a time and in a way of their choosing. They seem to have given up their power to act and surrender it to the firm.
Why would someone who is otherwise very capable do that?
I think that there are a number of reasons that we can look at:
Blind optimism. Hope springs eternal and although the person knows better deep down, they ‘hope’ that the situation will simply resolve itself and we can all get back to normal.
A sense of helplessness. Having been put through the ringer, their morale is so low and they feel so disempowered that taking any action is beyond them.
Inertia. There’s a sense of being stuck and ‘where do I even begin to start with a job search?’. It may have been a very long time since the person has had to conduct a job search campaign and, frankly, it’s not easy.
Nothing in place. Despite knowing the need to ‘network’ both internally and externally, the person has done nothing over the last few years. They have no network to draw on. And even if they do know some people, there’s no bank account of goodwill because little has been done to add genuine value to others. Furthermore, their CV hasn’t been updated for years and the prospect of doing so is daunting. Their LinkedIn profile hasn’t been optimised and their activity on the platform hasn’t worked to improve their findability.
Not really appreciating that the furniture has moved. Here’s another example. A senior manager notices that the firm’s culture is changing quite rapidly - and not necessarily for the good. Senior leaders are being brought into the firm and it’s not quite clear why but things are definitely changing. Rather than getting really curious about what’s going on, people often adopt the mindset of ‘it’s easier just to keep my head down and do a great job. After all, my results will speak for themselves and I’ll be looked after’. Or maybe not - this is a risky position to take up.The senior manager hasn’t really appreciated the full extent of the changes and has certainly not thought through the consequences and likely outcomes.
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Closing thoughts
My advice is to see what’s going on and if things have changed, then you may well need to make changes yourself. That doesn’t mean one has to be paranoid and twitchy about everything that’s going on but an intelligent and critical appraisal of the way things are developing is necessary.
Second, get yourself prepared. Have a Plan B. You might be surprised by just how many of our Coaching Clients work with us for that reason alone. When things change, they can do so very quickly. In my view, it’s imperative to be on the front foot and ready, whatever comes your way.