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Your #Career : How To Become Indispensable At Work This Year…You can Gain some Job Security and Maybe even a Promotion by Taking these Actions.

Virtually every office has one: that employee who is the go-to contact and seems to knows everything and everyone. The office can’t run without her. No one wants to think about what would happen if he ever left.

Being such a critical part of the team has a number of benefits, including a measure of job security. But those indispensable team members don’t get just that way through arbitrary means. If you want to join their ranks, here are seven ways to get there.

CHANNEL ELITE ATHLETES

Elite athletes are constantly trying to improve their performance. They fine-tune the details that allow them to compete at the highest level—and that practice holds some valuable lessons for people who are trying to become exceptional at their jobs, says Porter Braswell, cofounder and CEO of Jopwell, a technology platform that helps black, Latino, and Native American students and professionals unlock opportunities for career advancement.

“What I mean by that is not the ability to run fast, jump high, and all the other physical attributes that come with being an athlete. But more of the tactical, being a good teammate, communicating well, knowing how to work hard, being disciplined, being able to multitask—all the things that come with that athletic mind-set. Competing: That’s the mind-set one has to be in before I believe they can perform well,” Braswell says.

 

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DO YOUR OWN REVIEW

You may get regular feedback and a performance review from your supervisor, but it’s also important to do your own regular review to ensure you’re on track with your own goals and expectations, says Carolyn Birsky, founder of Compass Maven, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, coaching firm. Keep track of your accomplishments, training, feedback, projects, and overall numbers related to your job. We often think we’ll remember all of these things, but it’s easy to forget pieces here and there, she says.

Then, periodically and honestly review your progress, set new goals, and look at what it’s going to take to get to your next milestone, she says. These self-checks can help you ensure you’re keeping on track with your own career development and shore up areas that may need improvement. This practice will also keep you ready for the next time you’re up for a promotion.

“One of the mistakes employees often make is forgetting to hold those all together in some sort of file. That can be some of your best leverage to put your case forward and say, ‘This is why I think should be promoted. This is what makes me really good at what I do,’” she says.

TRACK YOUR METRICS

As you set your new goals, look at the metrics that are going to matter and include them as part of your plan, Birsky says. Whether it’s bumping up a sales quota or improving efficiency or cost controls in your business unit by a certain margin, be sure to look for positive measures to which you can contribute and how you can be most productive in contributing to them. Companies value employees who are focused on finding ways to raise the performance bar.

DO AN ALIGNMENT CHECK

It’s also a good idea to ensure that the areas you’re prioritizing in your career and development are consistent with what the company values, says licensed therapist and career coach Jessica Sweet. You may have a sense of what’s important to the company, but it’s essential to actually be clear that your efforts are moving initiatives forward that the company cares about, she says.

“I would be looking at what the company’s goals are for 2018, and be looking at how my skills and experience align with those goals, and how I can set myself up on any projects that are going on, to add the most value to those upcoming projects,” she says.

SPEAK UP

When employees are afraid to show that they’re imperfect or they don’t know something, it gets in the way of their performance, Birsky says. Learning how to effectively communicate with your boss and team, including asking questions and ensuring that you fully understand assignment instructions and ask questions when you don’t is essential to ensuring you’re performing in the best possible way for your company.

Beyond that, ask for opportunities to get better. “Be vocal to your boss about the fact that you are open to learning. Ask for opportunities to collaborate with another team, or be vocal about your ideas, or you might see a training [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][you need to get better]. Make your case for it,” she says.

ACT LIKE YOU OWN THE PLACE

Ownership is essential to being invaluable, says Andy Chan, founder of Seattle-based career coaching center Prime Opt. Take ownership of your work—whether it’s a project assignment or even a simple spreadsheet. Think about it in terms of the bigger picture of the company and what its goals are. When you take full responsibility and apply strategic thinking to your work, you’re immediately supporting your supervisor and team in a new and more valuable way. “Every time, when it comes to you learning new skills, it actually opens up a conversation for you to ask for a raise or a promotion,” he says. So, think about what you can take ownership of in your work environment, and treat your work as if you own the company and are acting in its best interest.

MAKE YOUR BOSS LOOK GREAT

One of the most important things you can do to be indispensable to your boss is to help them excel, Braswell says. People value those who help them do their jobs better.

“Really get in the mind-set of the person you’re working for or alongside and really figure out, ‘What are they trying to achieve?’” he says. “Through having an understanding of what they’re trying to achieve and having the context, you can then say to them, ‘What can I be doing to help you achieve that goal?’” Once you know where you fit in and exactly the metrics on which you should be focused, you can rank or prioritize your efforts on those tasks and initiatives, he says.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gwen Moran writes about business, money and assorted other topics for leading publications and web sites. She was named a Small Business Influencer Awards Top 100 Champion in 2015, 2014, and 2012 and is the co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Business Plans (Alpha, 2010), and several other books.

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FastCompany.com | January 2, 2018

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Your #Career : 4 Warning Signs Of The Next Recession—And How To Tell If Your Job Is Safe…Recessions are Cyclical, and There are some Foreboding Signs to Watch. Now’s the Time to Hash Out How Much you’re Worth to your Employer.

The U.S. economy may have added more jobs last month than experts had predicted, but while that’s something to cheer, it isn’t cause for getting too cozy. A recent J.P. Morgan economic model, based on a broader range of indicators, puts the chances of a recession occurring within the next 12 months at roughly one in three.

question mark signs painted on a asphalt road surface

Recessions, after all, are cyclical. So the question is less whether we’re in for another one than when. I’m not an economist, but my many years in the staffing industry have taught me that there are some warning signs. Here are four potential pressures to pay attention to.

1. AN AGING WORKFORCE COULD SLOW THE ECONOMY

A report published last month by the National Bureau of Economic Research(NBER) claims that, based on historical trends, a 10% increase in the number of Americans over 60 slows per capita GDP growth by around 5.5%. In the last 20 years, census data shows that the U.S.’s older population grew by 16.8%, putting us on track for slower growth over the next two decades. (Just last week the New York Times noted that slower economic growth seems to have become the new normal across the developed world.)

“This dramatic shift in the age structure of the U.S. population,” the NBER study’s authors write, “has the potential to negatively impact the performance of the economy as well as the sustainability of government entitlement programs, and could result in a decline in consumption for the population as a whole.”

 

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2. THE UNDEREMPLOYMENT RATE IS STILL AT 10%

It’s usually fluctuations in the unemployment rate that get the most press, but theunderemployment rate—which describes those working part-time but who want full-time work, plus people who’ve stopped searching but still want a job—remains at 10%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That suggests there’s a significant chunk of recent college grads and experienced professionals out there who are still finding it tough to land jobs that meet their skill levels.

3. THE TEMPORARY JOB MARKET IS LEVELING OFF

Temporary staffing companies are typically the first to see growth after a recession. So when hiring rates in that market start to slow down—or, as happened this June, when hires actually decline—it can be a sign of a downshift in the economy. The decrease in the use of temporary workers is usually related to cost-cutting measures, since these are more expendable workers than full-time employees for companies that need to tighten their belts.

4. AUTOMATION IS NO LONGER A DISTANT POSSIBILITY—IT’S HERE

Surely by now you’ve heard the premonitions about robots taking your job—and you may not know quite what to make of them. But according to a 2013 University of Oxford study, nearly half of current U.S. workers are at risk of being put out of work by automation within the next two decades. It’s true that forecasts like these can sound overblown or just too distant to do anything about. Yet nearer-term estimates suggest they’re worth thinking about now. Some experts say 5 million jobs are due to be automated within just the next five years. And it’s conceivable that rising layoffs across multiple roles and sectors, thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, could contribute to a recession sooner than we may imagine.

THREE QUESTIONS TO FIGURE OUT WHETHER YOUR JOB’S AT RISK

So what can you do about it? It’s normal to feel anxious or even helpless in the face of economic forces you can’t personally control. But there are a few things you can do right now to weather the next downturn, whenever it arrives.

It starts by getting a handle on how competitive you might be in a job market that’s suddenly a lot tighter than it is today. To help you do that, ask yourself these three questions:

1. Does your job tie directly to how the company makes money?
In order to keep you on the payroll in hard times, your employer will need to validate that you either save or make the company enough money to justify your cost. If you can’t explain how your work impacts profitability, you could be deemed expendable.

So spend some time quantifying your accomplishments, and tie some facts and figures to what you do. The average employee usually costs a company 130% to 140% of their salary. So if you make $60,000 a year, the real cost to your employer is $78,000 to $84,000 year. It’s much easier for an HR rep to do that math—factoring in benefits and other expenses—than it is for the average employee to estimate their own value to their company. But you can still get a rough sense of it.

Keep track of the number of customers your work supports (directly or indirectly) and estimate how much revenue they generate for the company. What would happen if your job function went away? Would the ability to deliver to customers properly be severely impacted—by how much, and by which measures? Create a list identifying what functions would go unfulfilled, needs unserved, and deadlines missed in your absence, then work backward from there to estimate the potential impact on revenue. Even rough, back-of-the-envelope arithmetic like this can be useful to you.

2. Do you fall in a knowledge sweet spot for your skill or industry?
When companies go through a restructuring, their goal is to reduce the cost of the workforce while hanging onto the highest level of knowledge and skills that they can. This usually results in layoffs of the overpaid and the inexperienced.

Do your homework on open platforms like Glassdoor, PayScale, and Salary.com to find out where you fall in years of experience and pay grade for your role. If your salary is a lot higher than average, you could be eliminated in order to save money. If you’re paid a lot lower, it’s possible that your skills aren’t valued enough by your employer and your job could be outsourced or divvied up among temporary or freelance workers.

If you think you might be overpaid, now is the time to bring your expertise up to par. Identify your specialty, then invest in some coursework to help you become even more of a subject-matter or skill expert—just make sure your area of specialization is actually in demand. If you’re on the lower end of the pay scale, you should do the same thing. The rule is simple: The more you know and the more you can do, the more valuable you’ll be to an employer that needs to cut costs.

3. How strong are your relationships at work—with your managers as well as your peers?
Layoffs create a lot of uncertainty and feelings of guilt for those who survive the cuts. Employers will try to keep those employees they feel have a positive mind-set and those they’re most comfortable working with. The idea is that those who remain can rally together and keep their spirits up.

So your relationships across the organization matter. Reach out to managers and coworkers to see how you can help take tasks off their plates or make their jobs even a little easier. When you alleviate pain or solve a problem, you’re appreciated. Your ability to step up and help others feel better about their own jobs will be remembered when the business takes a hit and it’s time to review the headcount.

Today, every job is temporary, and a trait that could most determine your employability over the next decade is your ability to learn. If you aren’t growing and developing your skills according to market demands, the risks to your career may quietly pile up. That would be true even if you never had to worry about another recession ever again.


J.T. O’Donnell is the CEO of CAREEREALISM, a site for “job shoppers.” Her company hosts the new web video series, The Job Shop, which each month showcases the employer brands of companies to more than 1 million professionals seeking new opportunities. Follow her on Twitter at @jtodonnell.

 

Your #Career : Bulletproof Your Position: 10 Tips For Improving Job Security…The Key to Job Survival is to Find Ways to Make yourself a More Valuable Employee, So you Stand Out From the Crowd.

Sometimes, coming to work each day and doing your job isn’t enough to protect you from being let go due to “downsizing.” The key to job survival is to find ways to make yourself a more valuable employee, so you stand out from the crowd.

Free- Time Mans Watch

Question: I’ve worked in the same job for several years, but there are rumors that our company will be laying off employees later this year to cut expenses. Is there anything I can start doing, right now, to help make sure I won’t be one of the employees laid off?

Answer: Most employment in the U.S. is “at-will,” which means an employee can be dismissed by their employer for any reason and without warning. That means the best way to decrease the odds of your employment being terminated is to create a strong relationship with your manager and to clearly demonstrate your value to the company (so your boss won’t want to lose you). Here’s how:

Understand your manager’s goals. Find out his or her objectives and priorities. What keeps your boss up at night? Think about ways you can help achieve these department goals.

Agree on your goals, objectives and projects. Meet with your manager to ensure you fully understand and mutually agree on your goals and objectives for the quarter/year as well as all projects for which you’ll be responsible. Then track and provide progress updates, asking for help or advice as needed.

 

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Create a “Goals and Objectives” document. Take those goals you agreed on with your manager and put them into a simple document where you’ll be able to track your progress. Use a simple format, like an Excel spreadsheet, and include column headers such as: ID#, Project Name, Description, Timing (due date), Goal/Objective (whatever it might be), Stretch Goal/Objective (a slightly more challenging goal or objective), and Progress (such as color coding to denote your progress). Use this document during your progress review meetings with your manager.

Learn your manager’s communication style and flex your style to his or hers. Find out how your manager prefers to interact with you. Do they want weekly, bi-weekly or monthly progress review meetings? Do they want to meet in person or receive email updates and then follow up with you if they have any questions? Adapt your communication style to best fit your manager’s style.

Never miss a commitment. Complete all your projects/assignments on time (and under budget). If you hit an obstacle, “go ugly early” as the old saying goes, by letting your boss know and asking for help.

Do outstanding work. You can’t do mediocre work – your work needs to be exemplary if you want to stand out. Look for ways you can go above and beyond the daily requirements to demonstrate how you add value to the organization.

Think of yourself as an “internal consultant.” Be more than just an employee. Consultants are hired to assess a current situation and then create action plans for improvement. They are paid for their expertise and their calm, professional demeanor, especially in times of difficulty. By thinking of yourself as an “internal consultant” you can use this same frame of reference to demonstrate how you add value to your department, to your company and even to your boss.

Become an expert in something. People turn to the experts when there are challenges and to solve problems. Look for areas in your business where you can put your skills to use and become an expert. Then, volunteer for projects that will allow you to use these skills and show them off.

Offer to help coworkers. Don’t wait for someone to approach you. Offer your help to others when it appears they might need it. Don’t expect any return favors – help others because you want to, not because you expect something in return. Always play nice with others and learn to flex your style so you can get along with any personality type.

Improve your skills every year. Become a more valuable asset by treating yourself like a product that you work on improving, year after year. Define your career aspirations, create a career development plan and then share this information with your boss and ask for his or her help and support.

Lisa Quast is the author of Secrets of a Hiring Manager Turned Career Coach: A Foolproof Guide to Getting the Job You Want. Every Time.

 

Forbes.com | February 15, 2016 | Lisa Quast