HOW DO YOU run your working life and career in the midst of the most profound changes in the economy since the Industrial Revolution? The old-fashioned career path is dead. Now individuals are forced to reinvent success, and most of us are making it up as we go along. No matter where you work, no matter what you do, you are on your own. The only success you are going to achieve is the success that you create for yourself.
This pocket guide is about creating success for yourself in the new economy. It offers you best practices that come directly from the real strategies of real people who are really succeeding on their own terms. These practices are among the most important findings of the ongoing workplace-interview research conducted by Rainmaker-Thinking since the mid 1990s.
The underlying assumption of Career Skills for the New Economy is that, in the new economy, individuals will have to be extremely good at fending for themselves if they are to survive and succeed. The most successful people will position themselves as free agents and sell their skills and abilities on the open market. Even those who work for the same employer for years on end will have to take responsibility for their own success and security.
The best practices outlined in this book are intended to give you an advantage when it comes to maximizing career opportunities, wherever and whenever you find those opportunities. Ultimately, this approach is quite simple:
Make yourself as valuable as you possibly can, and your value will be well rewarded in the marketplace.
Keep building yourself, and you will build the kind of success that is durable even in today’s chaotic, rapidly changing world.
These two points constitute the bottom line. The best practices cover nine career-skills areas, which are introduced in the overview below and form the main body of the pocket guide.
OVERVIEW OF THE POCKET GUIDE
Chapter 1 briefly explains how the workplace of the future has evolved from the very different workplace of the past. It also clues you in on the four realities that are shaping change and details seven important factors of the new economy for you to keep in mind.
Chapters 2 through 10 each cover a series of best practices in a particular area:
How to Create Your Own Success. Focus on the four key spheres of individual success— learning, relationships, work, and personal wellness—and set realistic goals in each sphere.
The Art of Managing Yourself. Clarify who you really are, what really matters to you, what you want to achieve, and how you want to achieve it; figure out where you fit in any situation.
The Critical Thinking SQUAD. Learn a simple method for critical thinking and problem solving that can be applied to the evaluation of almost any piece of information.
Become an Expert in Human Relations. Follow eight simple rules for dealing with people, whatever the nature of your relationship with them.
Build Relationships with Valuable Decision-Makers. Get beyond “networking for the sake of networking,” and reach out to the decisionmakers of value—the ones who can really help you. There are ten steps for you to follow; all of them require that you have actual business to transact—and that you have something valuable to offer in return.
Learn to Manage Your Boss. If you follow these six guidelines, you will be able to help your manager help you succeed.
Get Good at Managing Others. These six strategies will help you bring out the very best in others.
Adopt a Total Customer Service Mindset. Everyone is your customer in the new economy, so focus on identifying opportunities to add value, selling your way into those challenges, delivering the value you promise, and always going the extra mile.
Success Happens One Moment at a Time. Begin taking action right now.
Once you start practicing these career skills for the new economy, you will be at a strategic advantage when it comes to achieving success in your working life.
THE CALL FOR CAREER-SKILLS TRAINING
RainmakerThinking has brought many of these best practices to career counselors at colleges and universities throughout the world. Because the response has been so positive, and because so many people have asked for more resources to teach career skills, I have developed a training program to accompany this pocket guide. Career Skills for the New Economy Seminar will be the latest in our growing line of HRD Press books and training programs.
A FINAL NOTE
To help you get the most out of this material, I have included the following features:
Clear and simple explanations of each career skill, based on real-workplace case studies
Concrete action steps
Exercises for productive brainstorming
Worksheets for applying the ideas and action steps to the issues you are facing (or may face) in your own working life.
If the ideas and strategies in these pages help you improve your working life and add to your success, then I have succeeded with this pocket guide. Please let me know—I’d love to hear from you. Send me an e-mail at [email protected]. Talk about your work at www.winningthetalentwars.com.