Expert’s view... how can you risk-proof your career?

If disaster strikes, what immediate action should be taken?

If it isn’t your fault, get a good lawyer. If it is your fault, get an even better lawyer. I am amazed at how many executives fail to get legal representation when negotiating departures. From what I have been told, good lawyers more than pay for themselves.

What should be avoided?

A lack of transparency. If you’re to blame, acknowledge it (after talking to your lawyer, of course). Better to leave gracefully, learning from your mistakes, than to hang on indignantly, only crystallising why you ought to have left in the first place.

How would you turn a career disaster to your advantage?

Again, much depends on the disaster. Being made redundant is an opportunity for a new start. Being sacked for incompetence is more of a career-challenge. Most of what careers throw at people can be dealt with. How you deal with them is, in many ways, a reflection of who you are. If you can cope with most things, you will have less to worry about.

If you’re inflexible, you should certainly think about investing in the skills required to avoid disasters. Get a mentor or coach, quick!

What key skills and attributes are required?

Much depends on who you are and what you do. But being flexible, having the capacity to learn, deliver against targets (setting them when you are not provided with any individual ones), and energy makes a big difference.

Don’t neglect your networks or the polishing of your CV. Manage down, as well as up to your paymasters.

Dr Anthony Hesketh, specialist in HR careers, Lancaster University Management School

This article first appeared in Personnel Today magazine