This one caught my eye

The Economist has published a book review (subscription required) that caught my attention this morning. “Firing Back”, by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Andrew Ward, on how executives can rebound from being sacked. Here's an interesting section:

There is a five-point plan, which begins with “fight not flight”: it is
crucial not to become so preoccupied with coping with failure that you fail
to pursue a new career seriously. The story is told of how Mr Dimon decided
to seek out his former mentor, Sandy Weill, who had fired him from
Citigroup, a year later. “I wanted to get this event behind me so I could
move on. I made my own mistakes. I acknowledged I was partly to
blame.” The ousted boss also needs to “rebuild heroic stature”, prove his
mettle to regain credibility and rediscover his “heroic mission”. Much of
this boils down to reputation management. Despite Mr Dimon's admirable
private candour, the authors urge executives to devise a plausible narrative
about their failure that includes “clearly denying culpability, shifting
responsibility for the mishap, reducing the offensiveness of the act, giving
the appearance of reasonable behaviour and offering acceptable motives.”
Head-hunters may be a more important audience for this story than intimates
or the broader public. Some sources of failure are better than others: get
fired during a merger, a political clash or over a strategic disagreement,
and you have a two-thirds chance of returning to corporate leadership within
two years. Best avoid being sacked for poor performance, unacceptable
personal conduct or illegal behaviour, however.

Cheers,

David Rotor