This may sound like the worst advice you’ll ever receive, but it’s the reality: job security increases when your mindset is to eliminate your job.
How can it be? Employees who actively seek ways to eliminate the need for their particular responsibilities find creative ways to get work done faster, easier, and more productively than previously accepted. They look for redundancies and unnecessary tasks and seek to find the place where a task or decision is best made. This added value rarely goes unnoticed by a talented supervisor. They see creativity and a positive work ethic geared toward a productive and profitable company.
Bob House, now president of the RG House Group in Acton, Massachusetts, taught me this important lesson. He told me to always stay out of work. Admittedly, it was scary at first to adopt a career path to the unemployment line. However, when I practiced the theory, it soon proved successful. Every time I was left out of a job or project, another one was waiting for me.
According to the Harvard Business Review, one in four managers at Fortune 500 Companies changes roles each year. These are executives with well-rounded resumes touting a wide range of experiences. If your change is voluntary, you have the wonderful option of becoming a more complete leader. However, many changes are lateral or downward movements caused by not performing at acceptable levels or not meeting departmental goals.
Managers who are trying to get out of a job also change positions frequently to some extent. Their resume is one of the success stories as they eliminate corporate waste.
So, what do you say? Can you find a way to work yourself out of a job?