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Welcome to the 360 leadership podcast, the top rated show for driven women in senior leadership with new episodes released every Wednesday. I’m your host, Lucy Gernon, a multi award winning executive coach for women leaders and the founder of 360. Leaders Club exclusive high level membership for career driven family orientated women just like you. I created the 360 leadership podcast to share practical tips, actionable step by step strategies, and inspiring stories to support you to unlock the power and belief within to accelerate your impact and potential. So you can build a life filled with success, balance and happiness. So are you ready to achieve 360 degree success? No more excuses. No more waiting. Your time is now. What should you do if you have been approached by a competitor or another company to have a conversation about potentially a job opportunity? That’s exactly one of the questions one of the members of 360 leaders club asked. And I thought it would be useful to come on the podcast and share what myself on the group how to advise her because I know myself having worked in one company, I was there for like 12 years. And I had started up that company, I literally pulled the plastic off the the furniture, and it felt like my second home. But I was so loyal to that company that, you know, I just wouldn’t have even considered a conversation. And this lady was no different. She was an accomplished VP, she was with her company over 15 years. And this competitor just reached out and said, Listen, can we have a chat, and she really felt guilty. Because she was loyal to her employer, she didn’t have any plans to move, she was happy. She was, you know, being approached about promotions and new opportunities. And her current company was really all she’d ever known for a good portion of her adult life. And all of these fears cropped up around, you know, what happens if my employer finds out. So that was one of the questions that she asked in the membership and 360 liters club to get some support. So in this episode, I’m going to share what I shared with her and what her peers advised her to to in a hole in the hope that if you’re ever in the situation, that you will have some I suppose, resources and some insights into what I think and what other women leaders in positions like you think to. So first, I’ll share some of the insights from some of her peers. So one lady had said that she had been with her company, I think for what about 18 years and she felt, you know, she could really empathize with the situation. This is the beauty of being in 360 liters club is that when you’re in these situations, you kind of feel like you’re on your own. And you kind of feel like I’m the only one going through this. But there’s always somebody who has experienced one of the challenges. And there’s always somebody who’s able to, you know, give that insight, which is really, really powerful. So this particular lady said that she left and it was the best thing that she ever did. But she fully understood. And the advice she gave is actually a completely different perspective is that, first of all, absolutely. She said have the chat. And the fear around her employer finding out was the perspective she offered was actually it can be a good thing, because she’d have leverage. And if she was valued, they’d probably want to keep her. Another one said that she had a chat with somebody too in the same situation. And she quickly realized that actually, the role wasn’t for her and she was happy in her other company. But it gave her again, this new renewed I suppose leverage and confidence to go and have a conversation with her boss about the opportunities that she wanted. So whether you have a conversation, it does not mean that you’re cheating on your company. Okay, so if you’re multitasking come back to me, it can literally feel like you’re cheating on your partner when you have a conversation with another company, but actually doesn’t mean you’re doing anything. You’re just keeping your options open. So they were the perspectives that were shared by a couple of the ladies in the group. And what I shared is that like I said, I worked in the same company for about 12 years, I was a startup I was one of the first employees there. I pulled the plastic off of furniture. I dedicated my life to their cause and I felt like it was my second home and I really felt like I belonged there. But when I left a whole new world opened up for me, your company doesn’t own you. You are your own brand. You are your own entity in your own right. And I believe it’s totally okay to have conversations. It’s good to have a chat and I think you need to know your market value. because we become institutionalized. And as a result, you’re blinkered. And when you’re blinkered, you’re not seeing the opportunities that are around you, you know, you don’t have to do anything about it. But my advice to you is, you know, somebody asked me as well, like, when should we have conversations like this? Or how often should I be looking for new opportunities. And my advice would be, always keep your options open. You don’t have to do anything. But keep expanding your network, keep expanding your network, either in LinkedIn or in person or join my membership. It’s so so important, because that is the great thing about 360 leaders club is that it’s, it’s, it’s allowing these women to build networks, not only in their own industry, but in other industries. Because so often you think I know, I did that, you know, you’re trained in a particular particular industry, or you’ve spent 20 years in tech, or you’ve spent 20 years and in pharma, or you’ve spent 20 years in, in financial services, whatever industry you’re in. And you think, well, this is the industry I’m in what actually, what I’m noticing more and more now is that, as I bring these women together from different industries, first of all, a lot of this, there’s there’s transferable skills there, and a lot of the skill sets are the same. So even just by having conversations, on expanding your network, you might be able to see opportunities that you will not see if you just stay stuck in your current site or your current company, because, you know, you you become part of that culture, right? You become part of the culture, you align to the mission and vision, you live the values there, you know, that into you every single day. Whereas there’s always options out there. And if you’re multitasking, please come back to me, because this is really important. Your company is not your friend. So many people I know, have lost their job unexpectedly, over one mistake, or have been made redundant. And these people have been left stock. They didn’t have any options, because they were so loyal to their company, they didn’t see coming. And when these things happened, they felt like a fish out of water. They didn’t know their market value. They didn’t know the market. They didn’t know what job opportunities were out there with competitors or in other industries. They didn’t understand that they had transferable skills, they didn’t know the opportunities. And it’s all because they hadn’t worked on networking, and creating a personal brand for themselves. So super, super important. I’ll just recap. Go have the conversation. Get to know your market value. You’re only having chats to understand what opportunities are out there. You’re not cheating on your employer. Okay, your employer could get rid of you in the morning. If you if they felt like it. Okay, redundancies happen all the time. And focus on building your network because building your network now will pay dividends in the future when it is time for you to go. So it’s so so important. And these types of scenarios come up all the time in my membership for the female leaders in 360 leaders club. And sometimes the lady say to me, you know, I’ve already said a question, but are never silly. It’s always these little niggly things that we go through that we think we’re the only ones that are experiencing it. And you might think it’s a silly question. It’s not a city question. And that’s exactly what 360 is all about is to help you with those little tangible things that those little things that take up your brain space, those questions that float around that you just don’t have the answer to that’s exactly what 360 liters club is all about. Now, the doors are probably close as you listen to this, but you can still join our waitlist if you’re interested in becoming a member of 360. And if you join our waitlist you will be forced to hear when spots open up again. Visit 360 leaders club.com And you can be added to the waitlist and I look forward to seeing your application come in or when the door is open again. So that is it for this week’s episode of the podcast. Go have the conversation. Go build your network. Go value yourself, my dear and I will talk to you again same time, same place next week. Bye for now
