End of Work As You Know It: 8 Strategies to Redefine Work on Your Own Terms: 8 Strategies to Redefine Work in Your Own Terms - Softcover

Sindell, Milo; Sindell, Thuy, Ph.D.

 
9781580089975: End of Work As You Know It: 8 Strategies to Redefine Work on Your Own Terms: 8 Strategies to Redefine Work in Your Own Terms
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1580089976 ISBN 13: 9781580089975
Verlag: Ten Speed Press, 2009

Inhaltsangabe

MAKE YOUR JOB WORK FOR YOU
 
In today's often-challenging job market, many of us want to feel more engaged with our current jobs rather than try to find the "perfect" position. Veteran leadership consultants and authors Milo and Thuy Sindell share eight thought-provoking strategies to help you create the end of work as you know it--their phrase for the ideal state of harmony among what you do for a living, why you do it, and the results you achieve.
 
Strategies such as Initiate Change, Create Meaning, Spark Creativity, and Build Legacy will empower you to make your job work for you--instead of the other way around. Real-world examples and practical exercises put the strategies into context and are sure to inspire you to take action, transforming the daily grind into lasting, meaningful accomplishments. These tools can help you regroup whenever you find yourself disengaged at the office, regardless of your field or career stage. So when you're ready to quit singing the 9-to-5 blues, The End of Work as You Know It guides you toward aligning your values with your professional goals in order to fundamentally change your experience of work.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

MILO SINDELL and THUY SINDELL, PhD, are leadership consultants and the authors of Sink or Swim and Job Spa. Together, they founded the employee performance software companies Hit the Ground Running and Knowledge Genie. They have been featured in Fortune, CNN Money, Business Week, Forbes, the Washington Post, and NBC News.

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1: Share Expertise
 
CASE STUDY: After two years on the job at his PR firm, Philip was slowly becoming frustrated that new projects and opportunities were not happening quickly enough. Maybe, he thought, it was time to move on to a new company. He was spending too much time waiting for the firm to use his knowledge. He took a step back and decided to no longer be a victim. Although he wasn't working sixty hours a week like at his last job, he was certainly underutilized by his current employer. Philip determined how he could take initiative to share his knowledge with others in the company. He also realized that in his current situation he was working fewer hours and getting paid more money. Isn't this what he wanted anyway? Philip concluded, "Hmmm. More money, fewer hours, and it's like I am a consultant on retainer sharing my expertise when the company needs it."
 
Liberate yourself by making the shift from indentured employee to expert on retainer. Share Expertise to use what you know, maximize your effectiveness, and manage your energy. You have a unique and specific set of skills and knowledge. This is why your company employs you.
 
Is This Strategy Right for You? The Share Expertise strategy is likely to work for you if
 
• You feel confident you've got what it takes.
 
• You're ready to contribute your expertise to provide solutions.
 
• You enjoy continually sharpening your skills.
 
• You want to position your skills so they'll be put to maximum use.
 
When to Apply: Breathe a fresh and liberating perspective into your work. It's time to recalibrate your expectations of your job—what you give, how you give, and what you expect in return. Share Expertise to manage your expectations of your work and to maximize your unique skills and knowledge.
 
What Sharing Expertise Will Do for You: Sharing expertise will help you to effectively contribute what you know, reevaluate your relationship with your work, and appreciate your workplace in a whole new way. You'll experience a transformative shift from simply being an employee to redefining yourself as a paid expert. You will feel liberated because you will contribute on your terms. Making this choice will also help you save and manage your energy for when you need to step up and put your knowledge, skills, and talents to use.
 
Do you go to work feeling like the knowledge you bring is not always used by your employer? Does it seem that, although you are engaged and motivated, only a small percentage of what you have to offer is used? Maybe you feel tired of extending yourself—volunteering for projects, suggesting new initiatives, and working way too hard, yet not reaping the rewards. Sometimes you need to step back, evaluate the true value of what you bring to your job, and identify the most efficient way to contribute—even if it means working less.
 
What Is Expertise?
 
Imagine a world of work where you get paid for your ideas. In fact, people depend on you to share your expertise with them. Wouldn't that be a great world in which to exist? Wait a minute—you already work there! That's what you are paid for: contributing your ideas and knowledge at work. It is challenging to have this perspective when your work environment feels out of your control: customer demands, team dynamics, market shifts, projects that come and go, and demands that are placed on you can push you from too much down time to no time to think. What if you stepped out of your current perspective and put yourself in the driver's seat? For a growing number of people, their workplace is viewed as a customer; they are available to that customer when and how they are needed: as experts on retainer. As hired experts, they share their expertise to their employer when and how it is required. In making this shift, your perspective changes from floating adrift in the demands of your workplace to a self-defined relationship with your work.
 
In the context of this little book, expertise is defined as having a body of knowledge, perspective, or methods that are transferable. You have expertise. Recognize yourself as someone who has unique and useful ideas to contribute to others. Most of us assume that expertise is defined as having a depth of knowledge in one particular area. Although this is true, for the purpose of creating your end of work as you know it, we expand on this definition to include "unique and useful knowledge"—because everyone has ideas to contribute. Each idea is unique, because we all have different experiences that color the lens through which we view the world. As such, each idea holds possibilities. Each idea has value.
 
Share Expertise is a strategy to manage and deploy your ideas and add value to your organization. Granted, every day will not always be an expertise day. Sometimes it's going to be "organize your files day" or "empty out your email inbox day," which are the mundane tasks of even the most exciting job. Other days, you will be asked to be the hero or take initiative to jump in and save the day with a great solution that draws on your expertise. Therefore, consider yourself on retainer. You'll be called on for your expertise when needed.
 
Our expert, Philip, wanted his capabilities to be put to maximum use by the organization. He wanted to make great contributions on a regular basis to feel like he was adding value. He wanted to add value regularly because it gave him a sense of accomplishment, but his expectations were not realistic, given shifting company priorities, a chaotic work environment, and a chorus of other employees seeking attention. What the company needed was for Philip to be generally reliable and engaged and, when they needed him to be a star, to step up and perform admirably. Once Philip understood that this process was about the organization's timing, not their judgment of his worth, it liberated him to see himself in a different light. He was an expert on retainer. This shift in how he saw himself and his role enabled him to be less focused on competing for attention, less personally attached to a single soon-to-be reprioritized initiative. He would instead focus on what he could control and where he could add real value.
 
This particular definition of expertise is intended to shift our current paradigm for how we see ourselves and our contribution to our employer. Not every moment at work is going to be a career-defining moment. Sometimes, as employees, we become "defining-moment junkies." We want every moment and every day at work to feel like a rush. Although this could be exciting, it's not necessary or realistic. If you see yourself as an expert on retainer, you shift to acceptance of being the hero and getting the rush only when needed by the organization, not because you need it every day. Even the most high-achieving experts need slow days to regroup, catch their breath, and even refresh their expertise in a subject.
 
The Principles of the Share Expertise Strategy
 
Here are three principles to help reinforce your expertise perspective.
 
First, you need to define what knowledge, experiences, and insights make your ideas and contributions unique. Then look to see when you can impart this unique knowledge so that it's most useful to your organization. Finally, determine how to manage your contribution through a targeted effort.
 
Here's a deeper dive into the three principles.
 
 1. What knowledge, experiences, and insights do I hold that make my ideas and contributions unique? Most of us have followed a singular path to reach our current situation in our job and career. What was your path? What training, courses, degrees, or certifications did you pick up along the way? What...

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Verlag
Ten Speed Press
Erscheinungsdatum
2009
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1580089976
ISBN 13 
9781580089975
Einband
Taschenbuch
Auflage
1
Anzahl der Seiten
122
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar