Be Emotionally Intelligent and You Just Might Survive the Next Layoff

For 17 years in the Eighties and Nineties, I worked for CMP Media Inc., a publisher of technology magazines based on Long Island. The company’s founder had an expression he liked to use in times such as these: “There’s a recession but we’re choosing not to participate.” Those were very motivating words to hear in scary times. CMP did have occasional layoffs during the years I was there. While each layoff was difficult for a time, the company always grew stronger shortly afterward. By cutting 5% of the work force, performance improved because it was weakest 5% who left.

I noticed that among the layoffs were people who were respectable performers in their jobs, but not as emotionally intelligent as others. I came to be in that camp a few years later, at a different company, Ziff Davis Media. I was there for just a year, hired by someone I had worked for at CMP years before. Rather than paying a lot of attention to the new corporate landscape, I insulated myself. I didn’t reach out to other senior executives because I felt that I had a rabbi in the right place so I was free to focus on doing my job. I failed to appreciate that perception management–particularly among high-level executives where the long knives are out of sight but never out of reach–was critically important to survival.

When a big downturn hit Ziff in late 2001, I had few allies in the company. The division I headed was eliminated and about 200 people were let go, including me. Had I been a more astute manager of my image within the company’s executive suite, my guess is they would have kept me. Not that I’m sorry I left—I didn’t particularly enjoy the job or the company culture—but I could have left on my terms instead of theirs.

So, here is a quick exercise for those of you in corporate jobs who may be uncertain about the future. I borrowed it from the Five O’Clock Club, a career-coaching organization I’m affiliated with. You should do it quarterly.

1. Make a list of your bosses (6-8), peers (12-14), subordinates and clients.
2. For bosses, ask yourself: “What do these people think of me, and what should they think of me?” What is the single message (8 words max) you want people to know this quarter? Look for opportunities to convey that message.
3. For peers, ask yourself: “What is my relationship with each of these people and what should it be?” What can you do (coffee, lunch, phone call) with each?

Reflecting back on my years at CMP and other organizations, I can say definitively that the people who were sensitive enough—emotionally intelligent would be another way to phrase it—to do active perception management lasted much longer than those who didn’t. Friends close, enemies closer. And try to make friends of the enemies.