Editor's note: This article appeared in the February 25, 2009, edition of Quirk's e-newsletter.
The January 28th e-newsletter featured tips regarding how to stay prepared and networked for potential layoffs in 2009. However, according to Scott Halford, author of Be a Shortcut: The Secret Fast Track to Business Success, the secret to job security is positioning oneself so integrally that a layoff becomes a near impossibility. Here is an excerpt from Halford's book, detailing the steps to becoming indispensable in the workplace:
Due to economic conditions, a sort of "Business Darwinism" is taking over in most organizations - survival of the fittest - as excess is trimmed and only the necessary survive. This means companies are making decisions about who will keep the organization afloat during lean times. Thus now, more than ever before, employees have the ability to secure their own futures by making themselves an indispensable, go-to resource their company can't live without. In other words, a Shortcut.
It makes good sense to take stock of your worth and influence as a business professional during these scary times, and as you do, take notice of those who are making it and living the lives they want. Chances are they're all remarkable Shortcuts to their internal and external clients ... not shortcuts of the easy-way-out variety, with shoddy quality or questionable ethics, but rather Shortcuts with a capital "S."
Five quick tips to be a Shortcut:
1. Find your area of expertise. It should give you a good deal of passion. Study it. Read at least an article or chapter a day in that area. In 12 months, you'll be smarter than most about that topic.
2. Ask co-workers what they think you're best at. It may surprise you. Your natural talents may not be apparent to you.
3. Find a mentor in your area of expertise and learn as much from them as possible.
4. Learn about emotional intelligence (EI). Get your EI measured and then work on getting better at it.
5. Daily, do something that makes someone else successful. You will become magnetic and more successful yourself.