Jeff Altman, Big Game Hunter
In this two-part series, I describe five lessons from my thriving friends, and I learned the hard way so we can pass them on to Xers Gen so you don’t have to learn through trial and error. Here are the next five courses:
6. Recognize that there is no security and no job security in your career.
When the baby boomers start their careers, we are taught to believe that we can climb to career success, once and forth. As a result, many baby boomers have become extremely professionally dedicated, learning to devote countless hours to their expectations of career development, just through the sad learning of the Great Depression, and now, in the age of pandemic, job safety is a myth that companies will ultimately be in their own interests rather than employees.
It can be safely played when managing a career, thus enabling professional risk aversion, with few workplace risks, and generally considered homogeneous work and behavior to be the right way to act on oneself. There is actually nothing like the truth. With my experience, Lean, Six Sigma, Transformation and Industrial Operations approaches workplaces bring repeatable processes and one-time employees to the company.
7. Don’t forget to stretch yourself.
I am a person who spends a lot of time in pursuit of perfection. Constantly working hard to remind yourself that perfection is impossible. Excellence is possible. As the grammar reminds me, “For Err is human. Editing is divine.”
That might be a sarcastic software, but‘Yes: Everyone makes mistakes. Not making mistakes means you‘Don’t push the envelope toward new possibilities. You always need to push the envelope. Whenever the envelope is pushed, we stretch ourselves and understand ourselves and our abilities more, while we stay within the limits of rigidity.
Just like in yoga, smaller stretching can help you increase your flexibility over time. Learn to stretch and focus on stretching.
8. Know that you will do the same work from now ten years later, not to mention doing it the same way.
Looking back 10 years ago, smartphones just started to become an integral part of our work. Ten years from now on, you will work in a different way than today – it’s just a fact of life – but it seems like our behavior has evolved in a limited way, even if the change seems infinite.
For the most part, the baby boomers are essentially skeptics about new things, but prefer standardization. Gen X, you still have time to think and be at the forefront of the trend. If you take the time to stay connected with them, not just talking to your generational peers, your millennials and Gen Z staff can teach you a lot about trends.
Most of you have at least 10 years of workforce. You don’t want to kick and scream like a baby boomer because they’re pushed away. One way to avoid this is to be slightly ahead of each curve, keep yourself trained, experienced and fluent, and full of new trends and abilities. This is a trendy generation, as you get older.
9. Don’t let yourself become “invisible”.
This may seem interesting, but becomes essential in the character and can lead to someone being taken for granted. Inside and outside the organization, there are many ways to professionally promote yourself within the organization. You can write from LinkedIn, midsize and countless other platforms. You can take interviews with a podcast or someone’s YouTube channel. You can be active in professional associations or groups.
Being a member is like being a lurker – you are watching rather than attending. Too many older workers have taken a relaxed approach and never develop their “celebrity identity”. They never reveal their thoughts and thoughts outside a small group of individuals. They hide. They hide because they worry that they have nothing to say, and in fact, they have much more than they thought.
Does it sound familiar? It’s time to challenge yourself, step up and be seen as who you are, because the more you allow yourself to see, the more you are seen as a gear. The gears turn rusty. The gears are replaced. Many baby boomers make themselves a gear. Don’t make the same mistakes.
10. Don’t be dissatisfied with never meeting new people and never learning anything new.
There is a famous book titled Eat, pray, love. Most of you might write this book, Commuting, working, and eating. In a pandemic, it may be called Work, work, eat. In other words, it is repeated every day. No one comes into your life because you never let yourself meet with the newbie with the people you talk to.
New people and new situations are part of your growth and evolution. Especially as you look forward and the nature of the work will continue to develop, the importance of professional and personal relationships will determine your age in the workplace and whether you have the convenience of quality work in the workplace or if you choose. There are many ways to put yourself in new situations where you can learn and get to know others. Don’t waste time. Start experimenting and see what works for you.
As proven here, baby boomers often make mistakes when managing their careers. There is no reason for you to repeat these errors.
ⓒThe Big Game Hunter Company in Asheville, North Carolina 2020, 2021
