admin“Feel free to let me know . . . if there is a job opening up soon, I need one. If I can help you with anything . . . if you would like for me to prove myself on the job . . . if I can maybe get an internship at your company . . . if you ever need a babysitter . . . if you would like me to do that for you and . . . if you would be willing to come down on price or have more favourable terms.”
The world is looking for people who are problem solvers, position creators, artists who make great art no matter the naysayers.
They are looking for you to rise up and say “Let me tell you what I can do.” It is time to stop sitting back passively awaiting a magic e-mail or phone call. No “random position” is going to pop up — and if it does, it won’t be reserved for the “feel free” crowd.
“Feel free to let me know what you can do to solve my problem.” Answer that statement and you will have people knocking down your door, begging to work with you. Stop putting the ball in the other person’s court.
Their court is so full of balls from everyone else at the moment it looks like a lawn tennis practice session. What they are looking for is someone to step up and say, “Hey you see all these balls floating around, I can take them and turn your drill session into a Wimbledon tournament.”
Take responsibility for yourself. No one is going to let you know if they need your services. No one is going to remember to call and ask you to prove yourself. The last thing people need is one more CV to file.
Here is why. For centuries (well two of them at least) the world has conditioned you to fit in to the factory system.
“Be a worker, be a minion, follow the model behaviour and we will take care of you. We will pay you, feed you, clothe you and give you a retirement package. You do not have to be extra special, you just have to conform.”
Schools and universities fed this model, creating nice little template employees who would never buck the system, never do anything extra. Factories treated employees like the mass production machines they worked on, interchangeable and expendable.
That has all changed. The crunch has come. Economies teeter on the brink and the only way for factories to continue making money is to do what they have always done-cut their margins.
That means sacrificing a minion for a machine, downsizing, cutting back wages. When you all look the same it does not really matter which minion gets fired because you are all replaceable.
There is no security in a job anymore. How scary and at the same time how deliciously exciting. Suddenly there is a new opportunity for you to make yourself stand out. Where before standing out got you reprimanded, today standing out gets you rewarded.
In a system where people are tired of “I am not the one”, a voice screaming “It is me, I am here and here is how we can fix it” is like a cold Coke at the end of a long hot day.
The old system created the “Feel free” crowd.
The new system won’t tolerate it. It will reward people who solve problems.
It will reward the company that investigates what their prospective client really wants and then offers it to them. Those that do not wait for the magic phone call, but being proactive and getting into their client’s thoughts with a creative pitch and strategy.
People who will not settle for not the first time round, but find out why, refine and re-offer.
Of course this takes more effort than sitting back and waiting for someone else to move.
It was easier when people did it all for you. It will also probably invoke criticism from those who would rather not take responsibility. But the results are so worth it. And the same people who criticised you will be the same one dropping their CV’s on your desk later. You can choose to stay as you are with the same mindset though.
The problem with the mentality of “Feel free to let me know” is that one day someone may call, but you will be waiting a long time.
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