Offer Protection Builder
Tick the risks you see in your offer. Get a prioritised list of protections to negotiate, ready to copy or print.
How to use your list
- Start with the "Must have" items. They are the conditions for success: mandate, baseline, resources, time, sponsor.
- Bundle the protections. Present severance, indemnity and coaching as a standard package for a high-risk role.
- Put agreements in writing. Follow each conversation with an email summary, and ask for the key points in the offer letter or a board minute.
- Get the contract reviewed. An employment lawyer should check severance, change-of-control and indemnity terms.
The reasoning behind each protection is in How to negotiate a turnaround role.
Questions
Is this legal advice?
No. It is a checklist of commonly negotiated terms. Have an employment lawyer review any contract before you sign.
Will asking for all of these cost me the offer?
Prioritise the 'Must have' items. Serious organisations expect senior candidates to negotiate the conditions for success.
What is a mandate letter?
A short document signed by the appointing body setting out your scope, decision rights and how success will be judged.
Related guides
- How to negotiate a turnaround role: the protections to ask forThe terms that separate a fair crisis appointment from a set-up, and how to ask for them.
- Twelve red flags in a leadership offer, and the question to ask about eachA due-diligence checklist for anyone weighing a senior role in an organisation that is struggling.
- The glass cliff in politics and the public sectorHard-to-win seats, leadership after defeat and the pressures on public servants.