Traditional outplacement programs for employees and middle managers focus on providing support in the search for a new job and professionally managing the application process in all its facets This is exactly what most employees and managers affected by a separation need: support in the continuation of their professional career and in the transition to their next job.

Executive-level managers – by contrast – are specifically distinguished by the fact that they have developed very diverse and complex skills and experience from working at various management levels within a company. In terms of age, they are often in the late 40s to late 50s with a correspondingly rich “job history”. They have helped shape corporate processes and usually have a complex set of professional qualifications, management skills and leadership competencies.

Our approach

With this in mind, executive outplacement is strategically oriented for executives when they lose their position: The next career step should be based on a clear understanding of the personal “career capital”, i.e. the skills, experience and networking potential that have been built up over the course of various leadership activities up to and including senior management. 

Reflecting on one’s own career history and exploring and evaluating career advancement is therefore the focus of executive outplacement.

Further development may mean seeking a new role, a more senior executive position, or even a move into a new field of activity that may lead out of management. Often, at this turning point in their career, executives also reflect on whether they have become “stuck” professionally and whether a fundamental change is now possible for them, which can also include greater life satisfaction.

OTP has many years of intensive experience in outplacement for executives at the highest levels of the hierarchy. They have worked in top positions and experience that even they are not immune to job loss. Triggering causes can be restructuring and strategy changes, shifts in the personnel portfolio of senior management or personal and conceptual disagreements with the previous manager. It is almost always a bitter setback for top executives, which often resembles a defeat and is difficult to cope with.

Our client

One of the clients we coached was the CEO of the Swiss company of a large international chemical company. He was unexpectedly dismissed from his position from one day to the next, his emotions alternating between anger, frustration and disappointment. It is not unusual for top managers to fall into a deep hole. Our client felt the same way as many managers: The termination was far more than just the loss of his job. Performance-oriented personalities like him define themselves by their professional position, their leadership actions. If they have to leave the company, this not only affects their self-image, but also – as in our case – has a drastic impact on their private life. Managers who are dismissed are seized by self-doubt, by a sense of shock that can reverberate for weeks, and by a depressed mood that also becomes a burden on their families and friends.

Our process

In a first step, OTP’s coaching process was aimed at absorbing the experience of loss and at understanding and reflecting on the constellation that led to the termination. 

In retrospect, it became tangible that there were own parts in the process that forced the separation. It also became tangible that there were structural changes that could not be influenced by the client. As a result, the client opened up to develop a new, forward-looking career strategy together with the coach. In the beginning, it was essential to create a new reading of his own “job history” as a manager and to develop a suitable brand that underpinned his attractiveness and competence.

The now initiated career transition turned out to be a time of reflection – of clarifying the client’s specific needs and requirements with regard to future activities. In a careful diagnostic phase, the individual competencies and “success stories” as well as the understanding of leadership were captured and identified in the perfected CV as the track record they represent.

The coaching used creative coaching techniques such as evaluation and decision matrices to evaluate variants of the future career path and to check their suitability for the client’s life concept. A continuation of the management position was considered as well as specific variants as a board member or interim manager. 

It was important for our client to understand that the classic application processes for top managers are hardly effective. Top positions, such as the ones mentioned, are rarely advertised in job portals.

OTP used its own network to open up discussions with private equity companies, board members and interim managers for the client. The end result was that the client decided to change direction.

The result

The analysis of his current situation had revealed an extensive national and international network in his industry, in customer companies and supplier companies. Intensified contacts in this network led to the fact that he was approached several times in his phase of reorientation from the network to support personnel search projects. Our client decided to work full-time in this field, which was new to him. 

Our coaching changed his character. The client was supported to take the first steps in an international consulting organization and to bring the broad spectrum of his management competencies into the HR business.

The client has gained a good foothold in his new area of responsibility and is very satisfied with his professional development.

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