Current Commentary
Controlling your career as a business
Prepared by T.K.Hill
Do we need to take better notice of controlling our careers in Cayman. On balance, employees competing in different countries have the edge, because they have eliminated the hoper-floater theory.
What do we mean by hopers and floaters? According to a study done by the Council of Management, they are the folks who come in wondering what has happened to their jobs and careers.
They've either been downsized out, or let go because of personality clashes with supervisors, or their management styles weren't right and now they're on the outside looking in. Hopers and floaters have gone through their entire careers hoping they would get a raise, hoping they would get a promotion, and simply floating through their working lives. They've never taken control of their careers and run them like the business they are.
In short, they didn't become the CEOs of their careers, and do for themselves what CEOs and managers do for companies -- assess their strengths, strategically plan their futures and market him or herself like a product or service.
Thus, on the day of dismissal, or at the end of their working years, they wonder what's happened to what was supposed to be a promising career. So, how can such a calamity be avoided? How can we control our careers? Well, according to the Council of Management there are eight keys to running a career like a business, and thus not becoming a hoper or a floater.
1. Realize your career is your own small business -- don't turn it over to anyone else to run. Take control of your own working life. Don't assign its management to your boss, your spouse or a human resources department. If you hand it over to others, they will run it to their best advantage, not yours. Instead, turn it over to YOU, INC.
2. Define who you are and what you can offer. This means discovering your interests and strengths. It's certainly what any successful business does. There's an old saying, "you do best what you best like to do." In other words, you must find your passion -- what you really love to do -- and go do it.
3. Know your customer/employer. If you run a business, you'd better know your target customers, as well as their needs. So it is with employers -- you must decide to whom you will sell your expertise and for how much money. My opinion is to try to be as indispensable as possible.
4. Understand your "value added" issues. Why should a customer buy from your business? Is it high quality you offer, low price, great service? An employer will buy from you on the same basis. What are the qualities that make what you offer unique?
5. Quality and customer/employer satisfaction are paramount for your success. If customers are not satisfied with your product or service, as well as with the buying experience, they will go elsewhere.
An employer also will shop elsewhere if your service isn't up to expected standards. And that goes for a boss or others in the organization with whom you work
6. Know what's happening in your industry, as a business owner or an employee. Is your industry growing, shrinking or stagnant? Individual businesses and careers can boom in any one of these scenarios, but only if they are carefully planned.
7. Be your own R&D department -i.e. research and development- keep your skills at cutting edge at all times. If you own a business, you must constantly bring out new, better, higher quality products and/or services. The same is true with managing your career. You must go back to school continually to learn new skills, methods, techniques, strategies and tactics.
8. Always be able to change direction. This means, be ready to start a new business or career when the time is right. If a business is failing and it can't be saved, get out! Sell what you can and start something new.
If you're an employee in a failing organization and it can't be saved, don't go down with the ship, get out! If your career is soon to be outmoded due to technology, get retrained and move into a growth industry and function.
If reorganization and/or a downsizing is coming, and you aren't absolutely indispensable (and very few of us are!), begin looking for opportunities elsewhere.
If you follow these eight keys to running both a business and career, and if you truly become your own CEO, you'll never be a hoper or a floater.
Instead, you'll be using solid business practices to successfully manage YOU, INC. The findings suggest that using the prior suggestions provides some mental buffer in the challenges of having a lucrative career. Therefore ones career can adapt by strengthening its competitive ability.