Could you recognise the warning signs of redundancy before it happens? Changes in how you're included in meetings, increased scrutiny of your performance, and a shift in your manager's attitude can all be early clues. None guarantees redundancy is coming, but they may be reasons to start preparing rather than waiting for an announcement.
In this conversation, Lucia Knight speaks with executive coach and former headhunter Adrian Evans about recognising those signals and taking greater ownership of your career.
What are the early warning signs of redundancy?
Adrian suggests paying attention when something about your working environment begins to feel different.
"So first of all, trust your instinct."
Some of the clues he identifies include:
Being excluded from meetings or conversations you would normally attend.
Changes in management's tone or attitude towards you.
Increased micromanagement or unexpected scrutiny of KPIs.
Being left out of important business developments you would previously have helped manage.
These signals don't necessarily mean redundancy is inevitable. But they may indicate that something is changing, and it's worth considering your options.
Why preparing before redundancy makes such a difference
Adrian shares the story of a senior executive, referred to as John, whose redundancy he anticipated six months before it happened.
Rather than waiting, they began preparing. Through Adrian's Executive Advantage approach and access to the hidden job market, John secured three job offers before his redundancy meeting.
That preparation also changed how he handled the meeting itself. He was able to listen, request the proposed terms in writing, and discuss the exit package with his advisors rather than make decisions on the spot.
Adrian describes the outcome as being anti-fragile:
"Anti-fragile means you are even better."
If redundancy has already taken you by surprise, knowing how to process what has happened and decide what comes next is equally important.
How can you take greater ownership of your career?
Adrian's message goes beyond preparing for redundancy.
"It's your career. It's your value. It's your agency."
He encourages experienced professionals to develop clarity about where they want to go next, maintain reciprocal professional relationships, and keep their interviewing and negotiation skills ready.
That means networking before you need something, rather than trying to reconnect with people only when your job is at risk.
It also means considering your longer-term direction, rather than allowing an employer's decisions to determine your next career move.
Taking action before your career options begin to narrow can help you approach your next move with greater confidence.
Two ways to start preparing for what's next
Understand your executive career readiness.
Adrian's Executive Advantage Score offers a starting point for assessing how prepared you are to navigate your next executive career move.
Discover your Executive Advantage Score
Discover what could bring you more joy at work.
Preparing for change isn't only about securing another role. It's also an opportunity to think about what you want from the next stage of your working life.
Lucia's free Boost Your Joy at Work quiz helps you discover your Joy Readiness Score, your easiest quick win, and the blind spot that may be holding you back.
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[00:00:00] How Can You Tell If Redundancy Is Coming?
Adrian Evan: I said to him six months out, John, you're gonna be made redundant .
Now I don't make that up. I'm very forensic with my analysis. And he said to me, how do you know that? I said, okay, here's the clues.
Lucia Knight: If you are over 40, you know that redundancies or layoffs are just part and parcel of a senior career, yet it's so rare that I see anyone being really prepared for it before it happens, so that's why I invited Adrian Evans to be my guest today. He shares how to recognise the signals that redundancy is coming for you, and the first steps that you can take to make the most of this opportunity to negotiate a better exit package and leave with a couple of job offers underway.
Adrian and I have known each other for at least 15 or 16 years. In his podcast and on LinkedIn, he shares brilliantly crafted insights and stories on the complexity of doing work that matters, work that is enjoyable, and work that lets you earn your worth. Also, check out the episode notes to download the free Executive Advantage programme that he mentions.
Let's dive in.
Adrian, when we met last week, you shared a couple of stories of knowing that redundancy was going to happen before your clients knew. Would you mind sharing with our listeners one of those stories, and in particular, I wanna just get under the skin of the signals that made it clear to you
[00:01:45] The Early Warning Signs of Redundancy
Adrian Evan: I think the first thing to do is you just notice that shift and that change. Your instinct tells you. Hmm. That doesn't feel a bit right. So first of all, trust your instinct.
So the clues for me are meetings you would've been involved in that you're suddenly not involved in. Yep. You know those ones and then conversations just seem to be happening you're not involved in, and then just a difference in tone.
But the real killer then is suddenly you start getting a bit more micromanaged and a bit more KPIs than you've ever had before. Let me bring this to life. Lemme give you a story.
[00:02:20] How One Executive Prepared Before Losing His Job
Adrian Evan: So as a client of mine, I'll call him John, we've known each other and worked together for many years now. He's a very senior executive who's has got a phenomenal track record. But I said to him six months out, I said, John, you're gonna be made redundant in six months time.
Okay, now I don't make that up. I'm very forensic with my analysis. And he said to me, how do you know that? I said, okay, here's the clues. I said, you, you're being left out of key meetings that are not happening. There's a merger and acquisition going on and funding round that you are not involved in.
You had previously been involved in all of those things. He's like good point. I said the other thing as well suddenly the commercial focus has got really sharp. It's every week, every single meeting. You live in, long sales cycles, things don't happen over a weekly time, you know this is gonna happen. You can just see the change in attitude as well. Okay, the pressure's coming.
So he said, okay, so if that is the case, let's do something about it.
Lucia Knight: Okay
Adrian Evan: So I said let's do what we've done before together. Let's go through the 14 steps that give you the executive advantage. So what are we going to do? We're gonna access the hidden job market.
So what did we do? We implemented this, put it in place, and over the next three to four months, we effectively generated three different job offers for him.
I'm an ex headhunter, so salary negotiation is frankly a national sport for me. So we got really well rewarded and we got in that wonderful place, which is what I call being anti-fragile. And, having resilience means you get back to a situation before it happens. Anti-fragile means you are even better.
Lucia Knight: What difference did it make to John that he could plan for this to happen? So obviously there was some emotion around it happening, yes. But what difference did it make to him and his life and his work life that he could be ahead of this rather reacting to it.
Adrian Evan: Fast forward a little bit. He calls me one day and says,
[00:04:17] What to Do When the Redundancy Meeting Happens
Adrian Evan: Hey, I've just been called to a meeting from the group CEO, and he wants to meet me at this very prominent place in the city of London. And so I said so I can now confirm you will be made redundant tomorrow.
Okay. It was totally different.
So we just, we planned for this for months. So then we rehearsed and just said, okay, let's just rehearse now. How are you gonna deal with this? So you can go in, you've already got three offers, and we know we're gonna make sure we get a really good package of the result. You get in, you listen, you do nothing else, you just listen.
You say nothing. And then we said, okay, thanks. Can you put all that in writing to me and take the train and you go home. And that was the plan. And that's exactly what he did. He went in, I think the whole meeting lasted less than 10 minutes. He listened, he took it on board. He said, yeah, put all that in writing to me.
The CEO was like, oh, you don't seem surprised or do you know wanna talk about the package we're gonna go to? He said yeah, this obviously is an exit package. Tell me what that's gonna be. I'll work with my advisors to confirm what we want and we'll be back in touch with you about that.
That'll be just be your first offer. And he literally walked 'cause he wanted to clear his head, got back, took his train, went to see his wife. When he called me afterwards, explained it all to me, I said, great. Walked in, told his wife, said, all is well. And by the way, I've got three offers already. And we're probably gonna have a bit of an extended holiday.
Lucia Knight: Oh, what a phenomenal situation to be in. So tell me more. I know, we've talked about it, we're seeing it in the market, redundancies, reshapes, resizing, layoffs whatever on earth you call it, are just gonna be part and parcel of most senior careers beyond a certain age now. What can a listener do who's heard this story of John and who's understood the difference it could make to their lives being ahead of this rather than reacting to it? What can they do to be more practically prepared?
Adrian Evan: First of all, the bad news is we know a career jolt is coming as you just described, the great news is we can prepare for this. So it's just like anything we can get prepared for this. So what it does mean, one of the most important things, like you need to own your career.
It's your career. It's your value. It's your agency. It's not your, it's not your employers, et cetera. It's your career to own. And you're not gonna stay with one employer for, all of your careers. That's not gonna happen.
[00:06:44] Three Ways to Take Control of Your Career
Adrian Evan: So I think there's three things you must do. You must understand where you want to go next. And the way to understand where you want to go next is to understand where you want to be next, next.
If you think of Olympians, I was very lucky. I lived next door to two gold medal winning Olympians. They manage their cycles, four year cycles, Olympics to Olympics. They know what they're doing every day. They're very deliberate about it.
You can do exactly the same with your career. So number one, clarity.
Number two is, look we need to have value to a lot of people. We need a network. The individual I've just described, I've said to him, you never stop networking. You never stop building effective, reciprocal relationships and solving problems for lots of other people.
He made literally seven or eight calls and he got seven interviews and seven conversations. Yeah. And then we need to know that we can interview well, and also we need to know that we can actually close the deal. So those are the imperatives. It's called the executive advantage.
And that's the whole point. It gives you an advantage above everybody else because you're prepared. The worst place to be, the worst place to be is when this happens to you. And then you're suddenly trying to connect with people you haven't spoken to for 15 years. It feels icky. It feels icky because it is icky. It's totally transactional.
Lucia Knight: Absolutely wonderful.
[00:08:07] Finding Joy in Work That Challenges You
Lucia Knight: I'd love to know, Adrian, when you get to do work that allows you to feel joyful, how would I notice if I was looking at you that you were doing work that makes you feel joyful?
Adrian Evan: I don't know. It'd be quite difficult for me 'cause I'm a pretty happy chap anyway. Yep. Yeah, I think you definitely see a, a furrowed brow, you'd see an intensity. Yep. So it's just interesting as a client of mine, she's got big meetings today and I've connected with her and said, how are they going?
And she's oh going really well. Can we speak tomorrow morning? Straight away? Big smile on my face. I'm ready. I'm in the zone, now I'm ready. And I believe what hits the flow for me is where high skill, where I use my high skills, my highest skills meeting high challenge. When those two things could come together, I get inflow.
So whether it's, whether I'm podcasting, whether I'm on stage, whether I'm producing a product or I'm dealing with a really difficult, challenging situation for the executives I have to work with. And it's complex, it's difficult, it's stake. Big levels of stakeholder engagement or a really complex negotiation.
I love doing that work and I'm completely in that work and there's nothing else going on in my world.
Lucia Knight: When you're ready for more, take the Boost Your Joy at work quiz. I built it for experienced people who know that more joy at work is possible, but they're just not sure where to start. This is where to start. You'll discover your joy readiness score, your easiest quick win, and your biggest blind spot so that you can start moving immediately towards work that you might want to do forever.
