Achieved Strategies

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.