Future Proofing Careers.
Photography by Michael Clark
This is the third in a series of why adopting “A Company of One Mindset” can help every individual thrive irrespective of the size of company, location or type of industry one works in.
When one adopts “ A Company of One Mindset” it means incorporating three behaviors which include:
a) Being in charge of your own career by being your own Human Resources and Learning and Development Manager ( in addition to any your company provides.)
b) Building a reputation for GENEROSITY internally and externally that signals expertise, depth of relevant skills and ability to work well with others and most importantly as someone who helps others get ahead versus just being focussed on oneself.
c) Investing in 3 key skills that will continue to matter regardless and in spite of what the next generation of technologies or global shocks might bring.
By being a company of one and focussing on controlling your own career, building a world class reputation buttressed by generosity and honing the skills that will endure regardless of technological upheaval ensures that you will future proof your career.
Photography by Michael Clark
Being in Charge of Our Own Career.
Today most people will work for 50 years while most companies last fewer than fifteen.
Even if your company has been around for a hundred years the talent team in any company is focussed on serving the company you work for first versus you. They need to hire to their strategy, retain talent in some areas and exit talent in others, invest in skills the company needs now and for the future which might be not consistent with your career strategy, your continued need for income and different than the skills you need for now and the future.
Human Resource and Learning and Development teams are critical and important and can be a huge benefit to everyone but the individual must decide how to utilize, leverage and strategically incorporate the resources of these teams.
Too many people end up not being prepared when their company downsizes or their career stalls and they find that they do not have the skills that make them marketable and their reputation and network is deeply limited and often over indexing in their own industry which might be in secular decline.
Do not out source your future to your company.
To be in charge of your own career is to have the optionality of leaving your existing company at any time with a high likelihood of improving your position and income.
Paradoxically when you do this you can focus on your job, stay long in your company and even adapt to soap opera drama at work because you know you have options.
And your company by knowing that will also treat you well.
Photography by Michael Clark
Build a Personal Reputation while helping others generously .
a) Every individual should Google or ChatGPT themselves )and work to improve the results by developing their own web presence, by being active on social channels, and participate in industry activities ( Many industry events from Cannes to CES to Davos double as networking and personal brand positioning events as much as generating leads and connecting with Clients.)
b) Ask people who lost jobs what they learned and did to get their new job. You are likely to learn that :
1) being good to people who need help when we had a job will help us when we are in need
2) we should not make the mistake of conflating our company and position with our own reputation. People are genuflecting to our role not us , so we need to build our own expertise and brand in addition to the halo of our company.
3) If one focuses only on oneself without building one’s company’s brand or helping others build theirs it will backfire. We work for companies and if we do not keep them in focus they will note it. And our reputation is built on the quality of our work and relationships not just our postings.
c) Begin another career while you are working on an existing career: There are many parallel careers one can run which are not in anyway conflicted with or need to be hidden from your management.
These include writing, teaching, public speaking, advising non-profits or being active in industry or personal passion boards such as art, music and other civil or charitable events.
These help one build skills, create goodwill by helping others and giving back, expose oneself to new people and thinking which can help one’s current job and much more.
Do the things you would do if one lost a job and had to find one.
Don’t wait.
Till it is too late.
Photography by Michael Clark
Investing in three key skills.
Five major forces from technology to demographic change to the launch of marketplaces to the rewiring of work due to Covid and the rise of an economy of gig work will impact every job. Just one component of one of these areas, technology, which is AI is likely to impact all our jobs significantly in less than three years.
Regardless of what the future will bring including amazing AI here are key skills to future proof ourselves
a) Communication Skills: Get our company to or invest ourselves in building our writing and speaking skills. We will need to be great writers to differentiate from the adequate writing of AI and when everybody has the same knowledge due to AI our ability to take this knowledge and data and add something more to what the machine emits will be key. Forget learning Mandarin or Coding learn how to hone writing skills and become a great presenter in one’s native language. If the future is AI +HI a big part of HI will be world class communication skills. It can be learned and it will make a difference.
b) Making/Creating/Imagining/Building: Sooner rather than later all knowledge will be free so much of our existing expertise will matter less. Also anything that has to do with allocating, compiling, researching , measuring and computing will be be done 100 X faster and 10X cheaper by technology.
So we should ask how much of our time are we spending making and creating things or asking questions to re-imagine our business and ourselves or building other people or our Clients business versus processing stuff and sitting in meetings watching the same powerpoint updated with new numbers every month!
c) Continuous Re-Invention: The day one believes one is a Master is the day one begins the road to disaster.
A key skill will not just be learning constantly but also unlearning and detaching from some past ways or beliefs. There is no going back but only moving ahead and if you came out of school today would we act and behave the way we do or are we doing what we do because we believe 1)) we will retire before change hits us, 2))we cannot learn new things because they are complicated or 3)) because we do not have time.
We should not sell ourselves short.
Everybody regardless of age can re-invent. The ability to learn is cheap and there are many real world and online resources to tap.
Finally growth and learning is key to life since the day we stop learning is the day we start dying.
Unless we plan to end our career in a year or less we will have to begin future proofing right away whether we like it or not.
The 3 Keys: Collaborative. Calm. Connected.
Image by 9400 using Mid-journey
This is the second post in a six part series on helping every professional adopt “ A Company of One Mindset” to ensure one can thrive in their current companies while ensuring optionality in a transforming world.
The first post built the case of for a “Company of One Mindset” and can be read here.
This second post covers the 3 keys required for a successful company of one which requires collaboration, calmness and connectedness.
These three behaviors are key to thrive in a company of tens of thousands too!
Image by eradaab using Mid-Journey.
Collaborative.
A “Company of One” is a mindset that recognizes that every single individual succeeds only if one is highly collaborative with other people (and soon with AI).
This is true in a large, midsized and small companies.
Collaboration is critical for four reasons.
Complimentary Skill Sets: To get any job done inside an organization or by one self it will require other people to contribute their skills, craft, knowledge and labor to help achieve a goal.
Accessibility: In order to scale one’s talent one needs to plug and play into other other peoples super powers. You want a friendly API to be easy to connect to.
Reputation: When one reaches out for help there is an inclination to reach out to people who are easy to work with. Less the drama and soap opera and deep sighing the more one will find there is demand for one’s skills. It is critical to avoid being labeled “difficult to work with”. People will rather work with “very good and easy to deal with” then “excellent but very difficult.”
Speed: Being collaborative ensures speed. Think of how much friction there is when one is dealing with non-collaborative people. Lots of heat but little light. In the future speed will be even more key.
Image by jakob-anim using Mid-Journey
Connected.
To thrive it is critical to be connected.
Connected to and aware of the latest trends in ones field.
Connected to the best tools and technologies that are available.
Connected to the key folks in one’s industry and craft.
Connected to how one’s work drives and is linked to outcomes.
Think about the people you reach out to in your firm or outside it and you will find that you want your key connections to be “connected”.
And connected is a mindset that any person even if they are operating by themselves can engender.
Invest time in learning and being exposed to the key trends in one’s field and take the time and if necessary use one’s own funds to ensure that one is using the latest tools.
Many of the latest tools are very cheap and so do not wait for a company to get them or give them. It is our job to be on the cutting edge so we are not left on the cutting floor.
Read and listen to the the best people in one’s fields. Everyone is accessible everywhere and often for free via You-Tube, podcasts, X, Tik-Tok, LinkedIn and other platforms. Professionals who are passionate about their craft can access and learn from anyone. Leverage everything the Learning and Development teams in your company provide. These are critical people. But if you need more ask for it or go get it on your own.
Connected to outcomes means focusing on the cool shit versus fixating or describing how one’s colon works. A big risk in a company is to confuse process for product or blame the lack of outcomes on some bureaucracy. Clients and the market place do not give a fig if you live in a constipated firm!
Feed the firm some fiber.
Image by Fossil 75 using Mid-Journey
Calm.
"Freedom is a calm mind."
― Shane Parrish
Think about the co-workers you most cherish.
They are likely to be collaborative.
And they are connected.
But it is also likely that many of them are calm.
Work is drama.
That is a fact that few can argue with.
It is filled with surprises from competition, clients, technology, politics, and a myriad number of forces.
Work is a soap-opera.
Each of us are dramatic players emoting, swooning, falling and resurrecting.
That is human.
But since we are at work and have to deliver results and are not actors or actresses in a soap opera or drama we eventually have to chill and calm down and carry on.
Decisions made under emotional stress tend to often be wrong. So it is best to be calm or seek out people who can help one see clearly and feel calm.
This is true in a company of many but particularly if one is working by oneself since calmness signals confidence.
Calmness means not confusing activity with outcome and not appearing desperate.
Just as banks often do not lend money to the people who most need it the likelihood of being hired when you most need a gig or appear desperate is slim since the buyer wonders what is wrong with us.
So calmness is all.
Net to succeed in a company think like a company of one which is highly collaborative, deeply connected and calm filled.
Adopt a Company of One Mindset.
Today, exactly five years ago on June 30, 2019, I ended a wonderful 37 year full-time working career at a 100,000 plus person company (though I am fortunate to continue to work with it in a different way) and began a new career as a company of one.
During the next few weeks, I plan to share my learnings and insights because I have come to believe that, even if one works at company the scale of a Walmart or Amazon, it behooves everyone to have the mindset of a company of one because such a mindset will a) allow one to perform better at a large company, b) ensure a longer career at any company that one loves and admires, c) maximizes options and d) ensures that one is prepared for potential radical changes in the future of work.
My learnings are informed by my own experience, speaking with and observing the experience of others, working with and visiting over 100 companies around the world in the past five years and deep research involved for my next book Rethinking Work.
A Company of One mindset will allow one to stay longer, perform better and be happier at any company from small to midsized to giant while ensuring that one remains relevant and future proofed should one decide to move on or is at the wrong end of a “right sizing” or “delayering” initiative.
Better performance and longer tenure at your current firm while ensuring you are future proofing your career and maximizing your options.
Future posts will cover everything from what, how, when and much more but today is about the “Why a company of one mindset” will be critical.
Why A Company of One Mindset.
It is projected that in 2027, 86.5 million people will be freelancing in the United States making 50.1 percent of the population.
A combination of five forces is driving this re-configuring of the workforce:
Aging: In the United States 10,000 people turn 65 every day and many of this group continue to work because they need to so as to make ends meet, or want to for reasons of identity, community, purpose and/or growth but cannot or do not want to work full time for a company. Many firms which are finding it difficult to access certain skills and experience are now becoming far more flexible in their approaches to retaining their seasoned workforce on a part-time basis.
New Mindsets: 76 percent of Gen-Z want to work for themselves and 66% of Gen-Z who hold a full-time job also have a side-gig or side-hustle. In addition, Covid-19 have many people re-framing the question of how life could fit into work ? with how does work fit into a life?
Remote/Hybrid Work: Remote-Hybrid work provides the flexibility to work anywhere for anybody which can enhance opportunities to get work while moving to locations that cost less which allows for more career options.
The Technology powered Gig-Economy: New marketplaces from Fiverr and UpWork to find talent and work, AWS and Open-AI to access technology, Etsy and Shopify to sell and connect to marketplaces, Tik-Tok and Meta to connect and brand, combined with companies need to remain agile is driving more talent and firms to a plug and play workplace.
AI and Blockchain: While AI may not lead to fewer jobs it is going to change the nature of most if not all jobs and the half-life of skills are going to decay considerably faster. Blockchain while out of favor will eventually be seen to be essential to trust in an AI world and will enable more ownership and equity for individuals. Most importantly many of these technologies are now providing super-computing power to everybody who cares to learn, allowing individuals to get all the benefits of scaled companies.
Whether it is finding work post-full time career, working a side-hustle or passion project to make ends meet, building an expertise, creating an off-ramp from a full time job, or filling the gaps between full-time employment at firms which are often trigger-happy in adding and removing talent from their payrolls, the smart professional prepares to be a company of one.
This includes everybody including the CEO’s, EVP’s, SVP’s and not just mid and entry level executives.
a) Your current job is a gig job: Companies are creating internal marketplaces where opportunities can be identified and applied for and teams of experts can form and dissolve around projects like consulting firms and the entertainment industry have long done. This will make leadership evolve from zone of control to zone of influence. And tenure will grow less important while relevant skills and ability to incorporate new ones will grow more important.
b) Managing is not enough: In an age of “de-bossification” increasingly people will ask senior folks what they actually do, make or build which means enhancing ones craft and skills and relevance. Allocating, delegating and monitoring will grow less important.
c) Knowledge is fungible: AI is making knowledge free and anybody who believes years of expertise are going to be a moat will be surprised if one is not building new skills and new expertise.
As a result, for an individual to thrive in a company they will need to learn how to operate as a company of one by being “up to tomorrow” and “market competitive and relevant”.
Every one must become a super person.
A true power of one.
The combined power of the Avengers is because each of the Avengers is powerful on their own and not just because they learn to work as one.
What this series of posts will cover.
a) Why a company of one is not about one person or an individual focus but is highly dependent on others and on team work. Why collaboration, reputation and connectedness are key.
b) How to future proof your career and take charge of its navigation with a company of one mindset.
c) The challenges, risks and surprises as well as the fun, flexibility and financial upside a company of one mindset can enable.
d) The steps one can take to become a company of one in a way that is transparent, aligned and supported by your large firm or if you find yourself without a job.
e) Why smart companies and leaders of companies of all sizes but particularly large ones will increasingly encourage a company of one mindset to remain competitive, ensure agility and retain talent. A company of one mindset is great for a company of a million!
Rishad Tobaccowala leverages forty years of global experience across dozens of industries to help leaders and companies thrive in transformative times.
Different.
Here are a simple set of three exercises that can be done by anyone, anywhere, and at anytime but will likely leave you seeing, thinking and feeling differently.
1. Making a difference.
At the end of every day we might want to ask ourselves:
How are we different today then yesterday?
Did we make a difference to anybody or anything?
What would we have done differently?
The first question is about our growth.
Did we grow today so we are different than yesterday?
The second question is about our impact.
Did we have an effect on somebody or something today so they came away better or different?
The third is about improvement.
What did we learn that make us better tomorrow?
If we ask these questions to ourselves every day ( or every week or every month) it allows us to re-invigorate ourselves even at the end of tough days and in some cases signal we need to change our jobs, relationships or lives if the answers constantly indicate low growth, or limited impact or little learning.
Try the exercise and you may find it eye-opening.
2. What made a difference.
We are a sum of the decisions we made, the people we met, the things that happened to us and the chances we took.
In most lives just a handful of decisions, people, events and chances have made all the difference.
Understanding these are a key to a life.
Try answering these:
What 3 key decisions in your life have made all the difference? ( eg. a partner, a job, a decision to leave a place or person)
What 3 people have shaped your life and/or career?
What 3 events good or bad have shaped you ?( eg. health issues, financial windfall, accidents)
What are the 3 biggest chances you took that have determined where you are ? ( eg. risks, betting on people, career re-inventions, moving locations)
In life a handful of decision, events and people determine where you end up.
Often though our lives are changed by other peoples decisions to hire us, help us, partner with us and we need to keep in mind that we have less control often then we might think.
In fact the two biggest drivers of a life are two draws of the lottery which we have no control over.
These are a) who we are born to and b) what country we are born in.
Winning the genetic lottery is often greater than any financial lottery.
One of the benefits of the “what made a difference” exercise is that when we ask others for their key 3 decisions, people, events or chances, we tend to form deeper connections and catalyze more meaningful conversations.
3. A different us.
What differentiates us?
One of the most interesting thing is to see people conflate themselves with their trappings.
If you are a senior person in a company is it you or your role, the company reputation or the money you control that people are admiring and genuflecting too?
So many people are shocked that when they leave or lose their position that they are no longer as relevant, sought after, pandered or curtsied to.
There is us the person.
And then there is us the objectified person empowered by another power source ( a company, a budget, a role) that we borrow from.
Important to remember the differences and to realize what will remain that is us after the role or job or position end.
It is a difference that matters a lot.
What makes you different that is uniquely you?
It is usually a combination of a special niche/skill, a voice and true stories that will alway be yours.
To discover yours try this exercise…
Expiration Date.
Image by David Rojkowski using Leica iPhone de Lux.
The most important expiration dates are not those on food, subscriptions, insurance policies or medicine.
These dates are known.
Its the expiration dates that are unknown that matter the most.
Career Expiration.
‘Every career has a midnight hour. The smart people leave at five to twelve.’
This piece of advice by my friend Sanjay Khosla who ran many large companies over his career really resonated.
Regardless of how good we are, how senior a role we inhabit or how irreplaceable one thinks one is, every career comes to an end.
All is well and then suddenly we find ourselves at midnight hour and the carriage of a career turns into a pumpkin.
The key is to leave before the midnight hour.
This ensures that one avoids being shown the door or shuffled into a reduced role .
The difference between early and late is significant because those who over stay often turn bitter or lose the community or connection that come from colleagues because one has left under a cloud.
These midnight hours occur not just at the end of a career but all through a career.
And they can be felt.
Be particularly wary when one or some combination of the following changes happen:
a) a change in management, b) an acquisition or take-over, c) a sudden change in financial results or d) a shift in technology which creates a strategic review.
When one instinctively feels a change in the force one must pay a lot of attention and ask some combination of the following four questions:
a) How to adapt to the new management?
b) How to adjust to the new culture and power shifts of an acquisition or sale?
c) How to re-think ones skills, approaches and role in the shifts that follow a change in financial result?
d) How to reinvent, learn and change to align with new technology?
If one does not adapt or re-invent or one feels that one cannot work under the new changes then be prepared to find one on the wrong side of the midnight hour and it is better to exit with grace.
Companies do not adapt to employees.
Employees have to adapt to the new realities.
If one is not willing to adapt then get ready to walk.
There is one other time when the midnight hour occurs and this is when one stops growing in a job.
The day one stops growing it means one’s career has started dying and the midnight hour has arrived.
Image by Pepitobobito using MidJourney
Financial Expiration.
The underlying basis of much financial planning is based on three unknown expirations:
a) When will you retire?
This number is shifting to much older for most people either because we are living longer, or in some countries pension payments are being pushed out to later years, or because the cost of living has risen forcing one to work longer.
b) When will you stop earning income?
One can continue to make an income after one leaves a full time job though it may be smaller and more variable till one day it stops. Many financial models fail to take this into account.
c) When will you die?
This number is the big unknown but in most countries it is later and later and something that people have not thought about is how a combination of AI and Biotechnology could significantly increase life expectancy due to breakthroughs in medicine.
It is fascinating to understand how many retirement calculations are based on assumptions that may not make sense. For instance the famous 4% rule that one can draw down four percent of ones assets and not run out of money is based on retiring at 65, having no income and living to 95. Even the person who came up with model believes the draw down is too low.
Similarly annuities which pay a fixed sum for the rest of one’s life is a bet by you that you will outlive the calculations of the actuaries at the Insurance companies. And since they have not factored in the impact of AI and Biotech yet it might be a good bet!
Image by Yiplingli42 using Midjourney.
Life Expiration.
“The Meaning of Life is that it Ends”
Franz Kafka’s quote above explains why living forever even it it was possible might make life less special since if there was no loss, no last things, no ticking clock, would any day, anything or any moment be particularly special?
If one knew how many years one had left would we not live very differently than we do today?
Anyone given a bad health diagnosis usually changes the way they live because they become particularly aware of time.
But most of us can determine the time we have left if we want to.
Globally life expectancy is 73 years and in the US it is 78 years.
So assume 75 years of healthy life.
Subtract your age from 75 and multiply it by 365 days and that is what is left.
Most people are surprised how few they are.
Someone at 55 has just over 7000 days left.
At 65 its a little over 3500…
Keep that in mind next time someone does not take your time seriously.