“The biggest mistake that you can make is to believe that you are working for somebody else. Job security is gone. The driving force of a career must come from the individual. Remember: Jobs are owned by the company, you own your career!”

Earl Nightingale

Job security has now become an idyllic delusion in my opinion; so much so that I believe we need a wakeup call. I want to recommend that every woman (after reading) intentionally remove the concept as she knows it from her thoughts, then redefine it for herself.  As we unwillingly embrace our changed world and realize that this pandemic isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon, we must begin to think differently.

We can create the ultimate job security by becoming less dependent on the organization for which we work and more dependent on our own resources.

Bo Bennett

The last quarter of 2020 is upon us, amidst trying to achieve or hold on to the goals we have for ourselves, employers and businesses, we must think about US, our jobs, the role we play, the value we bring to the table. We must answer and pass the relevancy test or we may be in a bit of “hot water”. So the question now is how relevant are you? How easily replaced are you? Irrespective of the answer the encouragement is to rethink your definition of Job security. Then begin to do the things that support you as you move beyond the comfort zone of what was past performance, into what the changes we are currently experiencing demands. We must begin to think outside of the box. We must place a bold foot outside of the comfort zone and test the waters of the unknown.

This by no means excludes women entrepreneurs who will also need to go through the relevance test. Consumers and clients need for product and services and how they are fulfilled will change. We must recognize that adaptability and boldness are our companion as we venture into the unknown.

So How Do Women Show Up As Relevant

1. Become Your Best Brand – Show up as YOUR OWN BRAND packaged and ready with your game face on. Know how you will contribute and make an impact then go the extra mile. BE UNFORGETTABLE. Essentially, becoming your own brand says you are a master at what you do and over what you know. You present yourself in such a way that people understand that they need you; while you understand that you need them. It goes both ways. Read one of our past articles here on how to create a memorable brand.

2. Relevance – As you show up as your best self, you must study your role and once again, master it. Do you stop there? Of course not – begin to learn the organization inside out. Silently look at the competition so you are ahead of the game. Essentially, be the expert inside as well as outside of your organization. So when suggestions to improve the business are made, they are readily accepted simply because they originate from an informed position.

3. I recently came across the following book; Disrupt Yourself Or Be Disrupted: Escape CONFORMITY, Reinvent Your Thinking and Thrive in an Era of Emerging Technologies and Economic Anxiety ” by Nicky Verd. A fitting book and reminder to us. Gone are the days when we think and do things the same “ole” way. Ten years ago we could not imagine our lives as it is today. We have had to adjust to unending changes in technology. Do not believe that in the next ten years we will be operating as we are now. If you have time you can read this article on “50 things that never existed 10 years ago and be surprised”.

And so we must look to the next ten years WITH EYES WIDE OPEN. We must look out for trends and adapt quickly to be ahead of the game in our organizations as well as our businesses. Be your own disruptor, disrupt every old way of thinking and habit that has kept you safe and secure all this time. Challenge yourself. If you do not do that then you just might be on the receiving end of disruption. You get to choose.

4.  If you never took “multiple streams of income” seriously before, the time is now; especially the kind categorized as passive income. You know that one that works for you while you sleep because you have a system in place that supports it. If your current lifestyle is important to you and must be maintained; then you must be venturing down this road towards increased financial freedom. Assess all the gifts, talents and resources that you have available to you and create various income streams. It doesn’t matter how small, start with what you have then increase it’s capacity and indirectly your pocket.

5. Stop thinking mainstream, and that “the undertaking is unglamorous or unconventional or out of your league“; you can’t do it. In a world that demands everything to be pretty and picturesque, this may be hard. Can I share that a lot of what we consider to be “unconventional” are pulling in huge profits. Just recently as I perused LinkedIn, I came across a story of a woman who left her job after 10 years to learn wood work and furniture making. She now runs a furniture making, construction and interior design company.

It may start unconventional but I assure you with consistent hard work, things will pay off. Life should not be segmented into what makes sense and what does not. What is glamorous and what is not, unconventional or otherwise. This is how we create the “boxes” that places limits on us and in our lives. There are many opportunities to avail oneself of if you follow your dream while remembering relevance. It doesn’t matter what others are thinking or saying. What matters is you and all that you invest in your business or position to ensure that it pays you. Be Different, Stay Different.

Relevance is the new success whether we are in a 9 to 5 or otherwise.

“A shift in mindset is required to thrive in the current era and this cannot be achieve at an academic level, social latitude or political sphere but at a personal level.”

― Nicky Verd

How we move forward is on us and up to us. We hear it all the time “take up space”; create your own opportunities, if there is no seat at the table, create your own table. We must approach all that we do from a personal level; because as far as I can see Job security has everything to do with the man who owns the business. Is that you?

Start seeing yourself as a business. You have the control, you redefine, create and increase your own job security by what you do going forward.

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