Development Solutions Consultancy

Whatever career path you embark on whether it be entrepreneurship, being a doctor, being a teacher or what have you; most people will engage in employment for a period of time in their lives. Although time spent in employment varies, most people spend the greatest part of their life in employment as they work to retirement. In this sense employment is one's business in which it is imperative to work strategically to ensure a rewarding work life. The fact, as I have mentioned in a previous post , is that employment is not just a place for one to get a paycheck but rather a platform that can and should be used to propel one to greater career advances and personal success.

Below are 2 tips to propel you higher in employment:

Tip #1: Keep improving your abilities.

In employment you are required to deliver certain results and you currently have a certain level of ability in delivering those results. When you improve your abilities by strategically gaining more key skills and working with the right attitude, the quality of your results will automatically improve. This process will make you more valuable both in your organization and in the general market place which will inevitably open more doors for you.

Tip #2: Become very difficult to replace.

A good strategic question to ask yourself in employment is, "Who do I need to become in order to be very difficult to replace?" Asking this question will help you identify the right skills and attitudes you need to have to become more valuable to your organization. The more valuable you become, the more difficult it becomes to replace you and this sets you up to negotiate different opportunities from a position of strength.

Let me give you a practical example: There is a gentleman I know who worked and always maintained very high performance for a certain organization. One day his boss asked him to be his unofficial assistant without a salary increase. This meant the gentleman had to complete all his regular tasks and then after, engage in helping out his boss by putting in overtime with no pay. Although this surprised most of his colleagues, he understood that helping his boss was in fact an opportunity to learn administration which he was not good at. Administration turned out to be the skill that made him more valuable and marketable. To cut a long story short, this gentleman, in a relatively short time, went on to a much higher position in another organization and was able to successfully negotiate a higher remuneration package; much higher than what his former superiors were earning. The key here is that, with a positive attitude, he decided to use employment as a platform to invest and learn new skills for future success.

With strategic working, one can use employment as a platform or a doorway to greater opportunities. The question to keep in mind is not, "how much am I earning here, rather who am I becoming here?" Finally, here is a question for assessing how much personal responsibility you are taking in your job:

"What kind of an organization would my company be if everyone in it was just like me?"