Independent Agents

Independent agents are already “owners.” They own their business, their time and the choice of projects they work on. Using independent agents means that an organization can assemble teams for temporary periods of time, anywhere form a few weeks to a few years, but each project is essentially a time-bound gig. The best performing organizations have a loose network of folks who they bring together very quickly, and then disband and reform them as needed.

Imagine having an internal Facebook where employees pitch their profile of various professional skills, and can be searched regardless of which department they report to or what their job title is. Internal customers sponsoring the work assemble their team based on their skills profile and price bid. Sponsors may even have the Amazon/eBay like ability to see a social peer rating on the candidates based on previous customers.

Operating this way allows an organization to maximize its investment. Everyone is properly motivated: the organization wants to pick the best ideas and employees want to deliver their best work, because otherwise they lose their security.

Capitalism At Its Best

Society based on a healthy entrepreneurial class creates a resilient economy of small, free-flowing markets that is less prone to wild swings. In a monolithic economy, if one corporation or industry even stutters, as we have seen in the wake of the 2009 economic crisis, there is damaging a ripple effect. No one thing should ever be too big to fail.

Next Steps You Can Take

Organizations that want to engage differently with their workforces should:

1. Look at your current employee base as more of a resource pool rather than pigeonholed specialists bound by a job description or duty statement. Instead, see them as talented individuals with a brain and many facets they could contribute if we – management – could just get the hell out of their way.

2. Shift the ratio of work from manager-assigned, to employees whose job is to identify tasks and pitch them to management, like small-business owners. And then give them the freedom to coordinate with coworkers how to accomplish the pitch.

3. Replace the death grip on roles with a crystal focus on goals. Shift job descriptions to talk more about the goals the company is trying to accomplish rather than scripting the day-to-day activities.

The key that will make this work in modern society is that you tap into a network of resources by quickly searching, recruiting, connecting, pitching, and evaluating the people and their networks’ performance. This may seem radical, but if you look around all the pieces are there. It’s just up to the organization and its leaders – you – to stitch them together.

So, what do you think? Share your thoughts with us below.

The stresses that an organization faces range from pressure to provide more value to its customers, the expectation to be more nimble in the face of change and to keep its costs as low as possible – that means it cannot be saddled with expensive non-performing assets. The major category of “non-performing” or “underperforming” assets is employees. However, an “under-performing” employee isn’t limited to the usually lingering dredges that everyone agrees is past their time to go.  Even your super stars can find themselves under-utilized given the high rate of change.

Ownership

Well intended organizations are taking up the mantra that employees need a sense of ownership with their work. But pushing ownership on someone who by definition isn’t an “owner” sounds like pushing a rope.  How can we work around this and still find ways to foster a sense of ownership for our team?

My argument is that organizations can take advantage of individuals who pursue job security through work flexibility. These individuals diversify their portfolio of unique skill sets so they have the capacity to be productive on more than one type of job. By being more marketable and cross functional, they have a higher resilience to sudden shocks because they can switch to secondary strategies seamlessly. An organization that not only accesses its human talent differently, but also fosters and encourages this shift will be strategically positioned for success when compared to its competitors who may not operate so progressively.

The future of organizations is clear: success will be based on who attracts talent in a fluid fashion and brings the talent together to develop and deliver products on an as needed basis. Why not take the next step to let these intrepreneurs become truly entrepreneurs and have all the ownership they want? By cultivating strategic networks of independent agents, organizations can have the talent they need from folks with a history AND a vested interest to serve at their best.

Tomorrow we’ll conclude and look at what intrepreneurs looks like and what you can do to engage this type of workforce.

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Please share them below.

Although Wake Up & Shake It Up officially ended on June 30th, we’re delighted to share Lee Scott’s 3-part blog series.  Part one looks at the individual level and your contribution to increase your value.  Parts 2 and 3 take the organizational perspective…more on this tomorrow  Lee is an astonishing leader, coach, and human being.  He is the founder of Unleashing Leaders and a partner at Achieved Strategies.  At Unleashing Leaders, Lee works to inspire an epidemic of leadership and integrity by modeling the way.

For too long we’ve operated with false assumptions about the world; mainly that the status quo (the job I’ve had for 10 years) is the most likely future scenario, and major shifts are unlikely – i.e. As long as I’m loyal to my company, I will be rewarded with promotions, bonuses and a great retirement package after the next 15 years or so.

Loyalty is Dead

But if you really think about it, isn’t it unrealistic to expect one organization and one job to be rewarding and fulfilling for the next 30 years? The question doesn’t shock Generation Y, who truly looks at jobs as gigs rather than a life-long career.

If you want to have a satisfying professional life, it’s going to take more than one gig to feel like you’re contributing, growing, learning and interested in your work. Take that one step further: can we even expect that performing the same job over the course of a 5-day workweek will satisfy all of those things?

The illusion of job security through corporate loyalty is thankfully dying, because loyalty is not viable or sustainable through golden handcuffs.

Flexibility Equals Security

True job security is found in individual freedom, or by finding ways to be more flexible with how we work. How do we find work flexibility? It’s a matter of thinking about the unique talents you bring and different ways to express them.

For example, I used to work 70 hours a week for one corporation. Sometimes I took a day off to freelance or do some consulting. It was a coping strategy. Because I had reached a plateau, taking side projects was an outlet for my other interest areas and skills.

What has truly satisfied me is being an independent entrepreneur. I have multiple clients with myriad needs, which provides diversity, and lets me do business based on relationships. Operating this way not only makes me a more marketable contributor, but also it increases my job security – I know there will be future opportunities because I’m not so specialized that I’m a One-Note-Johnny who does only one thing.

In some fields specialization does make the most sense, but even within those fields the best strategy is to be what some folks call a “generalizing specialist.” You have a theme or domain of expertise, but you also have a portfolio of diverse skills that can be played out in different ways to support that specialty.

Next Steps

If you’re an individual who wants to increase your value either in your current job or in the marketplace, try these next steps:

1. Identify your strengths and areas of interest so that you can develop a portfolio of skills.
2. Identify connections or overlap between your interests and skills.
3. Identify opportunities that can enhance those complementary skills.