In order to protect yourself from the next round of layoffs,
you need to convince your employers that you're valuable and that your
existence alone benefits the company.
"Today's business environment doesn't allow for
satisfaction with the status quo. It requires constant growth and change,"
writes Mark Samuel in his book Making Yourself Indispensable: The Power of
Personal Accountability.
"Being indispensable means that you are adaptable,
learning and growing with your organization as it changes and evolves...at the
end of the day, you are either working to make yourself indispensable or
working to make yourself obsolete."
Samuel provides seven tips to help you become the most
valuable person to your employers:
1. Never take the
shortcut. Have you known many highly-successful people to be lazy? In order
to be truly irreplaceable, you have to work hard. You can't take shortcuts and
still expect tremendous respect.
2. Be adaptable, not
rigid. Samuel says that being rigid is the fastest way to losing your job.
In an age where technology, workplace environment and strategy techniques are
constantly changing, the most pernicious thing you can do for your career is to
cling on to something from the past and refuse to change.
"The good news about rigidity is that it gives you a
sense of control — it is predictable. You understand it, know it, can explain
it, and can even teach it to others," he says. "The bad news is that
the sense of control is often a false one or temporary at best."
"You can always tell when someone isn't adaptable to
change. They demonstrate their paralysis through resistance, advocating for the
old way, talking about the "good ole' days," or undermining current
change efforts through their lack of cooperation and cynicism."
3. Being a
perfectionist will be your downfall. Most people think that being a
perfectionist is what they need for success, but, in actuality, it prevents it.
"Perfectionism fosters inaction — waiting until we can
guarantee success before we take action. And this negates accountability and
prevents success. We wait for the perfect plan, the perfect decision, and the
perfect action that won't fail."
4. Be of service to
others without expecting anything in return. Most of us only do things for
other people if we get something in return, but a truly irreplaceable employee
is someone who makes decisions and solves problems for the good of their team
and other departments in the organization.
The more you become "we-centered" rather than
"me-centered" the more indispensable you become. Samuel quotes
Stephen M. R. Covey's book The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes
Everything:
"Trust grows when our motives are straightforward and
based on mutual benefits — in other words, when we genuinely care not only for
ourselves, but also for the people we interact with, lead, or serve."
5. Be purpose-driven,
not goal-driven. At work, you will have goals to achieve, but Samuel says
that these goals are often "established without a clear sense of
purpose." And since most people are often too busy to go above and beyond
their daily tasks, they're not making an effort to produce actual changes.
Samuel quotes Daniel H. Pink in his own book Drive: The Surprising Truth About
What Motivates Us:
"Substantial evidence demonstrates that in addition to
motivating constructive effort, goal setting can induce some unethical
behavior."
So don't stress out about finishing every single step you've
written down on your checklist or it'll become a never-ending cycle.
6. Be assertive.
Life is a game, so play big or go home. Take charge, stand apart and don't be
afraid to speak up during meetings for fear of sounding unintelligent or being
wrong.
7. Forgive others
quickly. "The measure of accountability is based more on how you
handle mistakes, mishaps, and breakdowns than on getting everything right all
the time," Samuel says. "It's about how fast you can pick yourself up
when you fall; how quickly you correct a mistake that you made; that little or
no harm comes to your customer, family member, or friend."
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