For many executives, being removed from their post sends a shock wave through everything. Normally the weekly meeting would be at 8 tomorrow morning. But without you. The night before is long.
The fear of becoming unemployed, or staying unemployed: since almost all of us have been shaped as doers and implementers, the obvious reflex is to approach as many potential employers and intermediaries as possible, straight away.
Quite a few of the emails I receive are copy and paste. That is a very bad idea. Worse still: emails sent by a machine. Chilling.
What I see in real selection processes: whether it works out is not decided in the cover letter, but before it. First process what has happened. Anger, blame, the feeling of having been treated unfairly: all of that needs to be sorted out first.
Your story has to be clear before the first conversation begins. Clients in a search process do not take sides. They want to understand what happened and who played which part. Everyone knows that conflicts happen in working life. Anyone who names their own part and says what they have taken from it earns trust. Excessive self-criticism is bad. Worst of all is: ‘I was fine, the others weren’t’. That is what my youngest son says when he comes home from school with a bloody nose. 🙂
Headhunters look for leaders. They do not place jobseekers. The corporate head of department who writes to us (PE/transformation) has not done their homework.
Long-winded cover letters do not even get read. What counts is the CV. You know most companies anyway, or can form a picture in seconds. Do not present yourself as Superman or Superwoman. Vision, strategy, transformation, operations and entrepreneur on top: this fireworks display of competencies convinces nobody.
Advocates are usually more effective than applications. The most important doors are opened by people who have seen you under pressure. Supervisory board members, advisory board members, consultants. An open conversation with the former chair of the supervisory board is worth more than an application to a headhunter, and it makes clear which reference will actually come later.
One more thing: a CV is not an interrogation. Nobody needs to list a four-month role. Just leave it out. It only creates pressure to justify it. We have all tried something that did not work out.
In private equity, a change of leadership is often part of the investment cycle, not a verdict on a person. What the market really buys is targeted competence and a credible combination of skills. Using AI, a use case you have delivered, is a very clear point in your favour. So is a clear profile instead of the airs of someone who can do everything.
Composure instead of panic. Much more in life than we think is luck. We ignore it when things are going well. Luck cannot be forced. It is not the cover letter that opens the door, but your story and who tells it for you.
