Master many skills and make sure you look good doing it.

One of the great things about being on the downswing of a career is not to have to master many new things and not having to look hat good while doing it. I can't be promoted any more.


I am really skilled at a few things, so I get to wear Hawaiian shirts while doing those things. Some things I'm not so good at (and maybe do care more about), for those things I wear the requisite jacket and tie, but no white shirts.


On more than a few occasions recently my ties (selected and bought by my wife) get compliments.


So here goes.

The pundits are now saying, get used to 10% unemployment. What does that mean for you. It means continued job stresses and a convenient hammer for employers to do two things to you:

• Make you work more hours and be more productive
• Pay you less for the privilege of work.

How can you cope? Well, there are plenty of examples from history to help us. Even some relatively younger folks (like me) who did not experience WW2 or the great depression have some ideas from when  those two ideas were the operative mode in U.S. business.


So if you are going to work longer hours for less pay, how can you succeed and even thrive.


Most importantly, make sure you pick up some new Project Management skills that will increase your productivity in those extra hours. Just working longer hours without added productivity won't help you move up.  Make sure your previously normal days are productive and not distracted.


PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENTS

• Turn your personal cell phone off. Maybe permanently  (we had our home phone disconnected, no ringing in the house now).
• Stop reading anything but direct work email: I delete 90% of my email without reading. That's the first thing I do when I fire up the email.
• Turn your email off for most of the day. Open it only a few selected times each day, so that you don't get side tracked. Maybe your email has a sound that pings when your boss sends a message or team mates send messages, that might help you to read only the most important messages.
• Skip playing office politics unless you are a master of it. Amateurs always get burned.
• Work your first eight on you present job assignment only.
• Work you extra hours on the extra work you are given. When the extra work is produced in a timely manner, when you behind on the regular work it will be overlooked for a time. (Anyway if you eliminate the distracters from your first eight hours, you get more work done in your second eight hour shift.

NEW SKILLS

• Go spend a Saturday or a few week nights at the community college or other learning venue for some new computing skills.
• If you are Project Manager, maybe database management or some great graphics program.
• Take a course in presentation creation and giving. Maybe a theatre class would be great. (I can't tell you how many junk powerpoints I have seen) Even the simple act of standing Down Stage Right (that's to the left looking forward) is not often followed. If we read English from left to right, your eyes naturally return to the speaker if she is on stage right.  Chinese might be different. Join Toastmasters and learn how to speak in public.
• If you business has lots of social events, brush up your ballroom dancing skills (I'm not kidding). Early in my career I was in a black tie business and being able to make a not so painful "Fox-Trot" around the dance floor with my wife or an amenable female colleague was a way to set myself out in front of others.
• Use your new skills to ask for new and exciting assignments. Your extra hours will be more challenging rather than drudgery.

SELL YOURSELF FOR SUCCESS

• Always dress one or two steps above your position. More would look phony.
• If you are a man get an expensive suit or jacket to wear when you might meet board members, officers and executives of your employer. In my day I had $1K suit for special occasions, and always a suit in my office (I still do today) for emergency calls. Nothing says, "Don't promote me!", like scuffed shoes, and a wrinkled shirt or tee shirt.
• If you are a woman, check out what successful women in your business wear: my guess women executives do not wear "uniform suits' above a certain level. Skip the uniform black suit and dress like an executive. Be easy on the makeup, very easy on perfume, and no cleavage please, unless you are in a specialty niche in sales or entertainment. (Women employed by WWE ignore this, maybe!)
• For both men and women: shop discount stores, vintage, used clothing or on-line. You don't need to be this year's fashions with boutique labels, but very wide lapels and poodle skirts will tip off the boss. My guess, for most businesses your boss and their spouses are NOT fashionistas and won't know what the latest NY/Paris fashion is. Last years fashions and colors will be fine if its well made and suits your physique.
• Get a three hundred dollar watch (no more than that, a Rolex will look phony on a PM and maybe will be perceived as fake.
• Keep a newer cell phone on hand, it doesn't need to be an iPhone or a Blackberry unless they improve your productivity. But a shiny new cell will say, I keep my technology up.
• Unclutter your work place. No excuses.  "I know where the stuff is".. as a quote.. doesn't cut it when your boss walks by and its a mess and you are out of the office, what will they think. At least clear your work space every evening before leaving.
• Be the first employee in each day and NOT in the first group to leave. If you are productive you don't need to be the last to leave.

In summary:

• Become more productive, stop letting others steal your productivity.
• Learn new skills, especially social skills.
• Present yourself well but not over the top.