#18: Managing Career Growth After Layoffs And Strategy Changes

Join me in this  episode of "Unleash Your Leadership" as we dive into the challenges and opportunities that arise from career transitions, particularly with recent layoffs and strategy shifts. 
With the evolving landscape of the tech economy and the role of AI in shaping the future, there are lots of opportunities. I'll share insights on navigating the shifting dynamics within organizations, including changes in management chains and the decentralization of certain functions. I share strategies for managing career growth amidst these transitions, from resetting goals and envisioning positive outcomes to building relationships with new managers and expanding our network. 

Let's unleash your potential for growth and fulfillment, embracing the limitless possibilities that lie ahead.

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Transcript

  Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of unleash your leadership. I hope you're having a wonderful time and thank you for joining me today. As we enter summer  , the days of becoming nice and warm. I also feel a renewed sense of hope, especially with the tech economy. And the future of tech, with AI.

So I know that the last few months have been really tough for a lot of folks. Many of you. Have been in this uncertain situation.  I really want to take a moment to acknowledge that. Yes, this is hard.  Yes there, , the cycle will turn around. In fact with the AI stuff coming in, I feel that.

V might be just starting to see an uptick. I see a lot more new jobs coming up compared to about two years, six months back.  I hope you all keep an eye out. Today I wanted to just share how to manage your career growth after. Layoffs. A lot has happened a lot has changed around you. For many folks they're still looking for new roles, or even if you're in the same company, your role might have drastically changed.

, let's talk about what's going on . These changes don't do.  From what I have heard. Talking to so many people. Lot of your, a lot of the management chain has shifted probably. A lot of people have lost their managers or their manager of managers.  Some offer does the shift with laying off middle management or first-line managers now I'm not going to share my opinion of whether that was right or wrong, but.

As an individual contributor, especially if you're an individual contributor. You are probably going to be left with a wide in terms of your management chain. Another thing that I have seen is functions getting de-centralized. What I mean by that is especially functions that are not in core engineering.

For example, technical program management. Maybe data science.  Or analitics. And in some cases, product, those functions are getting de-centralized. Which means that, for example, in the technical program management space, if you are a TPM and individual contributor, TPM, You might be reporting into a TP manager and then your skip level might also be a TPM manager or TPM leader.

Now you might end up reporting into engineering or small pockets of technical program. Managers may end up reporting into engineering. Or into product.  That is what I mean by the de-centralized. Functions. Which means that your school as a team or as an individual is limited to that engineering or product organization.

One other thing that has happened is especially with the layoffs on the management layer is a lot of managers were asked to become ICS. Because the teams. Strong.  So a manager was not needed because the team size was no longer that big.  A lot of managers were asked to either. Become an IC.

Or a lot of people were asked to shift into a different domain itself because some of the programs or projects were shut down. . Finally a lot of folks also experienced scope change.  Now, all of these things are happening around you with the changes. That you were somewhat fortunate enough to not get laid off, but.

You still are burying certain after effects of the layoff itself.  Today the focus that I want to do is help you with what you can do. With all of these changes and how to navigate these changes and how to manage your career growth. Because one of the single biggest concern that I have heard from people is that.

There courier might get stagnated. That their growth. May not happen at the bees that they were anticipating. Especially, if you think about the last couple of years when hiding was in a movement, lot of. Career growth and development was happening. People who are getting the opportunities. There were roles. There were, , bigger roles, more scope.

All of that is suddenly shrunk down. Which means it impacts your career growth and development and your aspirations, which is totally understandable. You. Good have been thinking of what am I going to do in two years, three years.  That timeline might need to shift.  While this can be hard and it initially discouraging.

There's things you can do. To continue to take advantage of this time. It might mean a slower growth rate, but it could also mean that it gives you other opportunities. So let's talk about what you can do. I want to focus on. A couple of things. First itself is you want to take this time to reset and reflect.

This is the time. Thinking about what does , that you want to do? How can this situation , can turn into an opportunity. So I want you to think about all the different positive things that can happen. Because of your, the changes that you are experiencing. Often we think of all the changes as a negative experience.  So how can we make it?

And turn it into PR opportunities. I do have a success action plan on my website that you can always download and it gives you a template of  one. Guiding you through how you can list out  the. Things that will bring you a positive impact, positive change.  From there on you can go and create very specific action items and then prioritize it.

The reason I ask you to give the template as it gives you. It's a moment to think,  sit 30 minutes and , you might list out three things, but I will encourage you to list out. 10 different things. Because it's really important to keep pushing yourself, keep imaginating.  The only request I have when you do that is don't limit yourself.

With any innocent bites of , oh, I don't know this. Oh, what about this? Just think about what is it that you want. One of the quotes that we used to have at Facebook. One of the posters, well, what would you do if you were not afraid? really think of it like that,  what would you do if you didn't have to deal with any fears or any limitations?  Those are the things that.

You can lean into.  Finally, as you list those things out there, that can be a lot of actionable things that will come up for you. And there are three major action items that I want to tell you.  That you can take so that  you can get started on this. So the first thing is, especially with these changes happening and if you haven't done so already.

You probably have,  have a new manager or you have a new management chain. Connect with them. You definitely want to go ahead and. Started building a relationship with them. Now this could be a temporary relationship. We don't know. Depending on what other changes come by, but it doesn't matter. You get an opportunity to build relationships with more people. 

One of the best ways to get started is especially because they are also dealing with the same changes, right. They might have a whole new set of teams. They go know the subject area or the domain, and they are just learning. The best thing to do at this time would be one.  You're in your meetings, you can just maybe create a one pager about yourself. , what are the main programs you're working for about 

Are your responsibilities. What goals did you have and what might that look like? Given all the changes? Is it good meat? , just a brief one pager for them to just get up to speed with who you are, what you did.  At the same time, there could be things you could ask them. What can you do to help them? Because again, 

They are probably swamped with a bunch of different things as well. . You can share, what are you good at? What can you do? Especially if you have become from a manager to an IC, you have a new manager, but you still have the skillsets of a manager. So.  Shared those as your strengths, here are my strengths. Here's what I have done. 

And this is where I can help. If you need help with anything.  So that's a great way to connect and start building a relationship with your new management chain.  The second thing is build out your network.  There are two things here. One is connect with the people that are around you within your company, your team, your partner teams, all of them again are in the same boat as you are, where they are dealing with a lot of changes. So continue to build out the relationships. Building relationships is one of the most important things that you can do. 

In your career. Because these relationships. These connections. 

When done right. Will last you a lifetime. They go beyond any layoffs beyond any company.  Especially in this trying times, if you are all in the same boat, you have that connection already, you understand what's going on for each other. So meet with as many people as you can, especially if, if there is a lot of uncertainty around what programs you're supposed to do, what you're supposed to. 

Deliver on. This is a great time while that is being ironed out. You can consider building relationships as part of your job, right? It is part of your job.  Just think of it as another deliverable for yourself. 

The other thing around the network is start building connections outside your current company. So that you can get, , you form these things and you never know in the future. Who might be able to help with what, especially when the job market improves and you need reference. Now the idea is that you're not just building out your network. 

 You're not just using people as an opportunity. You are still forming true connections and building out relationships either based on how you can help, how they can help. It might be just other common things about working in the same team or domain or. Technical area. It could be anything, find a common ground and  just build out your network. 

 The other thing is that are, there can also be people who are laid off, even though you were not laid off, they might've been laid off. So go. , talk to them. Maybe you worked with these team members. Keep your relationship alive with them. Even though you may no longer work with them. 

All of this connection, this network. We'll eventually. Come to fruition. 

 Finally. Assess your skills. 

List out all your strengths and accomplishments that you have had. Right. You might not necessarily actively looking for a new job, but it's great to build out. Listed an inventory of your strengths and accomplishments. This will give you the new confidence.  Then I says, okay, what are the new things I want to do? 

What are the new skill sets I want to build. For example, if your role has changed. What aspects of the previous role can be leveraged in different contexts. And then what aspects of the new role do you still need to work in and develop your skillset? 

You can also think about what are the aspects of the previous role that I enjoy doing? And that you can still do. So, for example, if you shifted from a manager role to an IC at all, There was a lot of people development work that you were doing, and maybe that is your strength. So, how can you still continue to do that? Even though you have lost direct reports? 

This is your opportunity to go mentor a lot of folks on your team or another team, because you have had that experience of mentoring and building people and developing people. So that is something you can leverage from your boss role, or if the roles have changed into the new role. 

Finally learn about all the latest trends. Of course, , AI is the whole big, new thing that what you can do if you're an engineer, there's a whole bunch of courses coming up on prompt engineering. If you are. In other functions like technical program management. Think about, start using it, start building out. 

What kind of prompts work so that you can become more efficient and be more productive in terms of program management and tracking programs and tracking deliverables. There is so many things you can do.  Of course, outside of that too, there may be other skills. It could be as simple as you want to develop public speaking skills, but you never got the opportunity or you were too busy and maybe now you actively seek how to do that. Maybe you join something like Toastmasters. 

So think about all the skills. That you can build. Or based on the latest trends or just other things that you need to develop that will be needed based on your eventual career goals. . This will allow you to become a strong candidate. Whenever you may start looking for a new job.  This becomes really important. You're planning for the future. So that's exactly your career growth rate, miss low down because of the changes around you. But that doesn't mean you're learning. 

And your development has to slow down. So that's something I really want to keep oh, for you to keep in mind, is that whatever the layoffs do in terms of your titles, your job role, your job description, your career development. Your own personal learning and development does not stop. Nobody can. 

In quotation, lay that off, right. Or make that obsolete. No, you. When you grow, you develop, you will be able to do so much more and you will grow in ways that you may not have anticipated. And that's what I want you to understand that. And really take in. Is be open to the different opportunities and try out new things. 

This is the time to do it. So I hope this was helpful to you. I would love to hear what worked for you. What have you tried if there are any other things that I didn't share that you have done that. I've usually helped you navigate these uncertain times.  Here's the thing I'm really hopeful. And I hope you can see that too. 

Things are going to shift around. I really see  the light at the end of this tunnel. So I hope you see that too. And I wish you all the very best in whatever you're trying to do. . If you need support, if you need help, if you need. To someone to help you build out your long-term goals and vision and how to navigate these times. 

I'm always up for a conversation. So feel free to get in touch with me. Thank you for listening. Bye.