BE A DISRUPTOR
Barely a week goes by without a story emerging about a likely disruption to the world of work – often near-apocalyptic predictions about the decimation or eradication of jobs. In truth, the pace of technological change means there are few certainties – although if your work relies on creativity, linguistic communication and/or fine motor skills, you’re in a reasonably good position. What is more certain relates to a second set of challenges: younger people will live, and likely work, for longer than their parents, with more transitions in and out of different work settings.
What can you do? Focus on being the most effective, engaged, eager-tolearn version of yourself, always absorbing new information because you never know where and when you might need it. In fact, you might want to think less in terms of a career path (the end point of that path is ever more difficult to anticipate) and more in terms of a set of skills to apply to any job, workplace and task. Here are ways to approach honing your skill set.
Have a twin focus – what you are doing now and where you want to be in five years. People are unlikely to give you responsibility if they don’t see you acting with commitment and purpose in the present.
Learn from everything you see around you. Sportsmen and women do this all the time when they are spectators, rather than participants. Ask yourself how you would handle what you see someone else grappling with. It’s all training for the mind.
Don’t put yourself down. You may have doubts about yourself, but not everyone needs to hear them.
Develop authority. It comes from gathering knowledge and being prepared to use and share it. It may be in relation to your profession or private passion, but find a way to demonstrate what you know.
“YOU MIGHT WANT to THINK LESS IN TERMS
of A CAREER PATH – MORE a SET OF SKILLS TO APPLY to ANY JOB”
Mishal is the author of The Skills: From First Job to Dream Job, What Every Woman Needs to Know (Fourth Estate), out now