Praise for CODE
“Elizabeth brings an entrepreneurial mindset and out of the box process to career change. Whether you are looking for a new position or starting your own business, Elizabeth's CODE program will provide an efficient process for achieving results. While attending a pilot program presented by Elizabeth, I learned transferable skills that have already increased my productivity. If you want to take your potential to the next level, CODE is the program to enable you to deliver results for yourself or your employer.”
– Holly L.
*****
“[Elizabeth’s] content has helped me to be targeted and focused in the various paths I am pursuing – from re-entering corporate America to branching out into my own life/management coaching business. I now have a definitive language to utilize, a process to keep myself on track, and resources to potentially help my clients and colleagues be as successful as I will. I highly recommend Elizabeth Allen and the unique and thought-provoking CODE training to anyone who truly wants to make a difference in their own performance and the results of those with whom they interact.”
– Peter D.
*****
“…because of Elizabeth and the CODE system, I was able to do something I thought was impossible – turn down a great offer. In evaluating the position, company, responsibilities and potential for growth I realized that many of the key priorities I had established were missing, even though the salary and overall package were excellent. Searching for a job is tough and turning one down is even tougher. Based on the knowledge and skills I developed in working with Elizabeth, I took that step and came out ahead. Almost immediately after turning down the first offer I received a second, and much better, offer. The CODE system is an outstanding tool to apply in any process in which prioritization is required to achieve maximum results.”
– David R.
*****
“Elizabeth Allen understands the fundamental inner workings of the sales/marketing process and has aptly abstracted it to apply it in a variety of settings. Her CODE methodology will transform your job search paradigm, especially if you are from a non-sales profession.”
– John P.
*****
“I was fortunate to work with Elizabeth who led a group of professionals in transition. Her passion and program were a winning combination that gave those of us privileged to work with her the tools to take our search to the next level. Elizabeth is a breath of fresh air and hope in a climate of fear and transition.”
– Nancy O.
*****
“CODE not only helps you prospect for job leads but also requires you to set and align your life goals and passions with your search. In the short time of using CODE I have found it to be invaluable in providing a structure for organizing and prioritizing my job search activities that gets results quickly. I would recommend CODE to anybody that is looking for their next career opportunity and is serious about aligning their job or new business with their life goals and passions.”
– Tom C.
*****
“The methodology developed by Elizabeth has helped me examine not only where my strengths and talents lie, but how I can identify the opportunities to capitalize on them – and then reach the decision makers who most need what I have to offer. I WHOLEHEARTEDLY recommend Elizabeth and her CODE methodology to any person or organization that wishes to improve their prospect conversion ratio – be it in a career transition or the sales force.”
– Angela T.
*****
“[Elizabeth] has developed an excellent program for optimizing the sales process – most notably on the importance of developing an appropriate pipeline and then asking the hard questions to move the right prospects forward. Those individuals and companies that embrace the program will find CODE to be an excellent tool to move careers and organizations forward.”
– Hal F.
*****
“Elizabeth Allen’s CODE is revolutionary in its approach for any person or company who wants to increase their sales effectiveness through smart marketing. Prior to the initial approach, all the way through the final hoped for result being obtained, this training program is appropriate whether you are looking for a job offer or your goal is to accelerate and increase your sales and accounts receivable cycle time. The tools and the knowledge attained through this program will prepare you, as it has me, to answer the call all companies have of ‘All Hands on Deck’ where each employee must justify their organizational cost while realizing that everyone is in sales regardless of their title.”
- Ed H.
*****
“Elizabeth Allen is a wonder. Her mind is as quick as lightning. Her heart is as big as thunder. Her impact on me and the work I do has been profound over a number of years, and will continue to be. There is no one better to see through the confusion that surrounds most of us, to discover the gold within it.”
– Michael E. Gerber, Author of The E-Myth
THE ECONOMY OF ONE
CODE for Free Agents
Elizabeth Allen
---
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2011 Elizabeth M. Allen
More books, information, forums, and resources are available at: http://Eof1.com
Trademarks: CODE, Communicate-Organize-Document-Evaluate, The Economy of One, CODE for Free Agents, MAP, Marketing Action Plan, YBR Pipeline, 4-3-2-8-1, Free Agent Pyramid, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of MarketSmartz, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Marketsmartz, Inc. is not associated with any product or author mentioned in this book.
The author publishes her books in a variety of formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.
This book is available in print at most online retailers.
Library of Congress Copyright Registration Number: TXu 1-756-936
---
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Published by MarketSmartz Books
Table of Contents
Chapter One -- Step 1: Think like an Entrepreneur
Chapter Two -- Step 2: Find an Accountability Partner
Chapter Three -- Step 3: Write Your Perfect Job Description
Chapter Four -- Step 4: Create Your Personal Brand
Chapter Five -- Step 5: Develop Your Map
Chapter Six -- Step 6: Use Your Map to Discover Opportunities (Whites)
Chapter Seven -- Step 7: Identify Golden Opportunities (Yellows)
Chapter Eight -- Step 8: Evaluate Opportunities in Play (Blues)
Chapter Nine -- Step 9: Close the Deal (Reds)
Chapter Ten -- Step 10: Post-Sales Follow-up (Greens)
Note: In most electronic forms of this book, the start of each chapter is linked back to this Table of Contents for easy navigation within the book.
~~~~~
Dedicated to Zachary and Nichole
~~~~~
Introduction
"I need help" are the three hardest words to express. To me, the entire process of job seeking is very difficult. It forces me to be a "sales person" and moves me out of my comfort zone. I am very hard-working and dependable but I am not comfortable in advertising the fact. Are there others who struggle with having to "sell themselves"?
– Karen S.
If you are reading this book now, there is a very good chance you or someone you know is in transition – either from the loss of a job or out of fear of losing one, or perhaps from the desire to explore other options. Research suggests as many as 80% of people currently employed are looking for new opportunities.
I remember the day, with exceptional clarity, I met a group of people in the same uncertain place, perhaps as you might be now. I was waiting to make a presentation, a first-time event, sponsored by a non-profit; the number of attendees was expected to be small, so I was somewhat casual in my approach to it. But as I waited, people continued to stream in – all either out of a job, underemployed, or simply searching for options. Every face registered fatigue and expectation. I could see they were looking for answers.
A microphone was passed around to the dozens of people assembled and they introduced themselves one by one. Together, they represented a wide range of industries and professions. Listening, it suddenly struck me that, amongst them, was a virtual Fort Knox of intellectual capital and experience – literally thousands of dollars in billable hours going to waste.
How could I help them?
The enormity of their situation struck home as I was acutely aware of the problems they faced. The job market had flattened – the entire economy had changed – but these were the people who represented the actual human fallout of the crisis.
I typically do not work with individuals. I am a consultant who works with businesses in applying CODE, the sales methodology I developed after years of working with leaders of multi-million dollar companies. CODE addresses the current need for employees – across the spectrum – to “think more like sales people”. Initially, a member of the New Landings Workforce Development Organization asked me if I would volunteer to present CODE to a casually gathered group of unemployed people, mostly mid-management white collar workers. After this was well-received, I was asked if I could expand the concept to teach a group of former executives how to sell themselves to potential employers. In light of the on-going economic crisis and in the spirit of giving back, I did; the invitation to the seminar was extended to all members of the club.
I opened my presentation with a simple yet essential truth: The only difference between an unemployed person and an entrepreneur is one has decided he or she has something to sell. Entrepreneurs do not wait for business to come to them; they use whatever skill set they have to generate sales for themselves.
I understood this from personal experience. Years ago, early in my career, I was abruptly laid off from my job at a small ad agency. One minute, I was trying to hustle in new accounts for my boss, and the next minute I found myself trying to hustle in new accounts for myself. I had taken a personal hit but at that point, I decided to take control of my life. Armed with my technical copywriting skills and a business card which read, “Edit me, you know you want to,” I went out seeking anybody I could negotiate with to buy my capabilities. Over time, I ended up in advertising and marketing management and, recognizing I was a strong strategist, became a sales consultant. During those years, I paid particular attention to entrepreneurial methods in the field and across the business spectrum. From there, I developed the sales system of CODE.
But as I stood that day before all these people whose lives were hanging in the balance, I experienced a profound shift in perspective. “Do you realize your value?” I said to them. “That you represent an enormous accumulation of wealth – of all your collective knowledge and experience?”
This book was born from that moment.
Through teaching CODE, I am determined to change the way people think about their careers and about themselves in this new era of outsourcing and expendability. There are now millions of people in transition who represent not only America’s but the world’s largest, and growing, uninvested asset.
Are you one of them? Do you know someone like them?
The economy and the way businesses operate have, by and large, fundamentally changed. We must adapt.
I am here not only to offer hope but a way to take charge of your life. If you give yourself permission to begin thinking like an entrepreneurial Free Agent, using CODE as the strategy by which you can move your life forward, you will discover the solutions which may now seem beyond your reach. As an Economy of One, you have something unique and valuable to sell – your skills, your knowledge, and your experience.
A Brief Overview of the Economy of One
CODE:
Communicate – Organize – Document – Evaluate
CODE essentially breaks down the process of taking action into an organized sequence. Whatever you may have been doing intuitively (or haphazardly) can be done with clear intention through CODE’s systemized approach. Doing so can quickly impact the outcome of your searches.
It begins with you, the Free Agent, learning to rethink your position in life and to reclaim your value as it relates to your career. Perhaps your ultimate goal is to find employment in a chosen industry as a full-time employee or contractor. Or perhaps you will make the decision to start your own business. This methodology is designed to give you the tools to take control of your life’s direction.
The following is a brief overview of the CODE process. Do not worry now about the details of the steps or understanding all the concepts. The subsequent chapters will guide you through each step and familiarize you with the concepts important in completing them.
Step 1 involves learning how to think like an entrepreneur while approaching your new career path. This does not mean you necessarily become an entrepreneur; it simply means you understand the mindset of one.
In Step 2 you find an accountability partner or group. Ideally, your partner is a peer who can offer objective feedback, advice, and encouragement as you go through the entire CODE process.
In Step 3, you’ll write your Perfect Job Description. By aligning the marketable skills you already have with your passion, you’ll identify what types of opportunities you should be hunting for.
In Step 4, with your target opportunity in mind, you will construct your personal brand. Your brand projects both your image and lifestyle, which should align squarely with your Perfect Job.
In Step 5, you start developing your MAP (short for Marketing Action Plan). Your MAP is simply a list of people (or contacts) who you know personally and/or professionally and who may have, or may know of, an opportunity you want to pursue. The list can also include people you wish you knew, or companies in which you are interested, as they align with your Perfect Job.
In Step 6, your action is to establish connections (via email, phone, or in person, etc) with those contacts from your MAP you decide are most likely to lead to an opportunity (a job or contract) that exists or might be created. These designated contacts are known as Whites and are distinct from the rest of the people on your MAP.
From here, you will start one more list or spreadsheet: the YBR (Yellow-Blue-Red) Pipeline. The YBR is a sales pipeline – essentially a color-coded list – in which you put a confirmed opportunity at one end (Yellow) and work it through to the stage when you are actively pitching your skills or capabilities to a prospect (Red). Each step is described in more detail below.
Step 7 involves Yellow Opportunities, or Yellows. These are confirmed opportunities (not just ones you hope exist) which, ideally, align with your Perfect Job. Yellow opportunities may stem from Whites (contacts) you first identified in Step Five or Six while others may come from hearing or reading about a current job or contract opening. Your primary action in Step Seven is to begin communicating with a person connected to each Yellow to see if there is a need and fit for your skills.
In Step 8, once a Yellow opportunity, (for example, a company representative), signals he or she would like to discuss the possibility of hiring you or offering a contract, it is reclassified as a Blue. At this stage, your action would be a thorough evaluation of the opportunity to determine how much of a match there is with your Perfect Job, beyond the paycheck.
In Step 9, when the opportunity moves beyond the interview/evaluation stage, it is reclassified as a Red. This is the point where you are in final discussions or actively working toward forming an agreement either as a potential employee or as a contractor. It is also the point at which an opportunity may close down because the position has been offered to someone else or because you decide, for some reason, the position or opportunity is not what you really want.
In Step 10, once the outcome is decided – either a yes or no – the opportunity is removed from your YBR pipeline and converted on your MAP as a Green. This is an important step because, no matter the outcome, you want to nurture the relationships and contacts you made during your engagement with each opportunity.
In moving to Green, you begin the entire CODE process again, including reworking your YBR pipeline, if you are continuing to look for opportunities. Even if you are successful in finding a position, your task is to continue to maintain and update your MAP for the duration of your career. As millions of unemployed people can attest, there is very little job security. It is vital to maintain contacts – just in case.
CODE: 4-3-2-8-1
As a way to help remember the primary elements of CODE, there is an actual number sequence: 4-3-2-8-1. You will learn more about the significance of these numbers in the following chapters, but here is a quick introduction:
The 4 phases
There are four phases for your opportunities in the YBR pipeline:
•Phase 1: Opportunity generation (Whites, that once contacted, may result in Yellow Opportunities)
•Phase 2: Opportunity qualification (Blue)
•Phase 3: The Sales Pitch (Red)
•Phase 4: Post-sales (Green)
During each phase, you engage your opportunities in three very different ways.
The 3 roles
The three roles help you remember how to engage during the different phases of the YBR pipeline. Like any entrepreneur who must wear many hats, you will play different roles as you work to move your opportunities forward:
1. The Prospector – finds and/or generates opportunities
2. The Technical Expert – evaluates opportunities as they apply to their skill sets
3. The Closer – negotiates and wins opportunities
It is not important you perfectly understand the differences between these roles– just keep in mind you will play three different roles during the CODE process.
The 2 lists
CODE is a process and is basically summed up in activities or actions which move you between two lists:
•The MAP – a detailed list of everyone you know as well as the people you want to know (based on your hunt for your Perfect Job)
•The YBR Pipeline – a list of all the opportunities (existing jobs or contracting positions) you are currently engaging
There is a lot of information involved in working through your various contacts as well as in converting opportunities from one color to the next but, for now, just remember: there are essentially two lists which summarize your actions and areas of focus – essentially everything you do during the CODE process.
The 8 Critical Questions
When engaging with Blue opportunities, you need to thoroughly evaluate the employment or contracting position to make sure it is a viable opportunity or a good fit. There are eight questions you should be able to answer before moving on to final negotiations with each opportunity:
1. Is there a definitive timeline in which the job or contract will become available?
2. Have I met and spent time with the decision maker(s)?
3. Do I know the criteria which will be used to make the decision?
4. Who is the competition?
5. Have I addressed the proprietary nature of the solution I provide?
6. What are the prospect’s assumptions about price and definition of value?
7. What is the timeline for a decision to be made?
8. What are my next steps to move this opportunity through my pipeline? Or should I take it out altogether?
In answering each of these questions, you will more clearly understand what the employer or client is looking for and thereby position yourself as uniquely able to provide the solution.
The 1 goal
To put it simply: your one task as a Free Agent is to work your MAP and YBR pipeline to become an Economy of One. If you commit to consistently work your pipeline as outlined in the steps of this book, everything else will fall into place.
*****
In the pages ahead, you will learn about the process of CODE in much greater detail. You will also hear the stories of people perhaps like you, who were unemployed or underemployed and struggling to find the solution to the question of what do I do now? You will see you are not alone. You will see you ARE the solution.
Follow them, learn from them, and become your own Economy of One!
*****
Chapter One
Step 1: Think like an Entrepreneur
The world is not changing. It has changed. The question is: what can you do about it?
In becoming the Economy of One, the very first step is accepting the fact we do not live in a world where a job will be waiting for you as soon as you graduate high school or college. Chances are you will not work for a single company your entire life and retire with a nice gold watch and a decent pension.
According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor, the median time a person stays in one job is 4.1 years (2008). The average person will have seven to ten jobs in a lifetime. A much smaller percentage will have three to four jobs depending on education, age, and gender.
Vicky, a member of the New Landings Workforce Development Organization, used to live in the old reality. She started working for a large telecommunications company immediately after college and stayed there for twenty years. She assumed her company was stable and her job was secure. That all changed.
“I had been celebrated as employee of the month only a few days before. Then the rug was pulled and I was carrying twenty years of my life out in a box. Everything I had associated for those twenty years was no longer real. The minute I exited out the door, I had to figure out, ‘Where am I going, how do I reinvent myself, and what do I get to be when I grow up again?’ The network I made, everything I worked so hard for, stayed behind.”
Vicky described her reaction to the experience as grieving – grieving for her old job, her old life, and her old identity. She went from feeling like an adult who had it all figured out back to a child who had no idea where to go or what to do.
All the training and education she had received over the years had pertained to specific functions at this one company. Unfortunately, it didn’t equip Vicky for life after the loss of her job.
In her severance package, she had the option of exploring entrepreneurship. To qualify for the program, she underwent an assessment but discovered she did not quite fit the profile. She later joked she had “flunked” the test to be an entrepreneur.
In spite of this, Vicky went on to found the New Landings Workforce Development Organization which is dedicated to helping people just like her.
“The nonprofit I started was to help unemployed people in the professional sector get back to work. I wound up doing something entrepreneurial even though my assessment indicated I wasn’t exactly the ‘type.’ It makes sense that the assessment might have been off because I was still grieving for the life I used to have. I wasn’t in the mindset to be an entrepreneur then. I believe there are many missed entrepreneurs here [in the club] who would become one if they could shift their mindset.
Elizabeth taught us that each of us is an economy of one. We can solve problems! She offered us a different point-of-view – a different frame of thinking. She provided solutions and tools to get back out there. That’s vitally important, especially for the professional sector.”
That shift in mindset is exactly what the Economy of One is all about. You do not have to be an entrepreneur like Vicky. All you need to do is think like an entrepreneur.
Why?
To survive and thrive in today’s job market, you stand to achieve greater success by being entrepreneurial, regardless of your job situation. In February 2010, The Wall Street Journal published an article by Dr. Richard Greenwald, How to Succeed in the Age of Going Solo. It addressed the reality of the approximately one-fifth of the American workforce who is currently self-employed:
Evidence now suggests that this is our new economic condition. Today, in fact, 20% to 23% of U.S. workers are operating as consultants, freelancers, free agents, contractors or micropreneurs. Current projections see the number only rising in coming years.
The implications for the American workplace are profound. Imagine one in four workers, of all collars, working on a contingent basis. Whole career paths and professions have shifted from stable full-time jobs with definable career ladders and benefits to almost completely contingent work forces that shift from project to project.
The new reality is one in four of these professionals who are currently unemployed or underemployed will never again hold a “traditional” position. While they will continue to participate in the economy, they will do so as freelancers, independent professionals, contractors, consultants, or as the self-employed – a.k.a. “free agents.” By 2020, they are expected to comprise about 40% of the workforce. There is a “new normal” most people are unprepared to address and it is this new reality the Economy of One concept addresses.
A key point in Greenwald’s article is the people who are successfully transitioning act like entrepreneurs. Their approach to their new-found working arrangements – whether having arrived there by choice or by necessity, or whether in a short-term position or having gone solo for good – is to treat their interim efforts seriously. Rather than waiting around for something to happen, they act: by getting a new business card made, or by setting up a home office and installing a dedicated phone line.
The core concept of the Economy of One is that in order to act like an entrepreneur, you must begin to think like one.
We are not going back to the old ways – ever. This is the new normal. The question is whether you continue to cling to your old mindset or whether you choose to embrace this new reality and think like an entrepreneur.
“We’re used to coloring inside the lines in Corporate America. We follow the hierarchy. Only now, there is no hierarchy. We came to work eight to five every day, knowing our routine, and knowing the expectations. Now it is totally different. What Elizabeth did was help define areas that were gray to me on how Corporate America has changed.
Elizabeth says we drank the corporate kool-aid too long. You thought you were working for a company that was going to be there for you in the same way you were there for them. For twenty years, you were inside that box, and then suddenly…there was no box...and all you wanted to do is to get back in! We are being required to evolve differently. We have to prepare ourselves and somehow engage.”
– Vicky W.
Ideally, everyone – not only the newly unemployed, but even those currently employed – should operate as Free Agents under these new conditions. This is a proactive strategy. Jobs are fairly fluid these days; a majority of people will likely find themselves flowing from one type of arrangement to another during the course of their careers, as the following model illustrates:
The Free Agent Pyramid
There are six career positions: freelance contractor, employee, business owner, or some combination of two (such as an employee who freelances in the evenings, or freelancer in the process of expanding and becoming a business owner. The Free Agent Pyramid applies to everyone, whether an IT developer or a skilled machinist. The most successful career professionals will learn how to actively navigate their options while moving from one type of position to another.
We must be responsible for our own lives and success. We cannot rely on our employers, the government, charities, or anyone else to see to our needs. We need to be ready to change as circumstances dictate.
Jim Cathart, lifelong sales professional and author of Relationship Selling, said it this way twenty years ago:
Excellent salespeople think and act as the owners of their careers. Mediocre salespeople think and act merely as representatives of their firm.
Let’s update this statement for twenty-first century Free Agents:
Successful Free Agents think and act as the owners of their careers. Mediocre Free Agents think and act merely as representatives of their firm.
What is your choice? Are you going to become the owner of your career – a Free Agent in the Economy of One – or are you going to continue to hand over control of your career (and, to a large degree, your life) to someone else?
Lamenting the difficulties of adjusting to the new normal and bemoaning the loss of job security are natural reactions. But as the saying goes, “You can only depend on yourself – the cavalry ain’t coming.” There is no one better than yourself to guarantee your income, well-being, or security.
A poem that inspired Nelson Mandela reads:
I am the master of my fate / I am the captain of my soul.
– William Ernest Henley, Invictus
Do not wait for life or someone to tell you where to go. Take control. You have unique skills, talents, experience, resources, and personal capital which only you can deliver. Take inventory of your capital and use it. Act as a Free Agent. Be the Economy of One.
“If you can solve a problem then you are hirable. It is not just about listing your qualifications or being technical – you need the rest. You need to think in a new way about solving problems and getting into the mindset of asking what an employer needs. All too often, you feel like you are on one side or the other. You either start a business or find a job. CODE for Free Agents offers an in-between.”
– Vicky W.
Your personal capital is not only the number of hours you have available to work or even a unique skill you might have. When you present yourself to a prospect – to a contractor or person hiring who has a need, and who is willing to pay for the solution you can uniquely provide – you are not only offering to perform the task he or she might have listed in a job description or contract. You are offering to bring your entire arsenal of assets to bear on the problem. The capital you have available to invest may include:
•Human capital – your energy, discipline, passion, and commitment
•Intellectual capital – your intellectual property, experience, skills, talent, and creativity
•Network capital – your professional and personal relationships, resources, and social networks
•Financial capital – your financial assets available for investment
As a Free Agent, your focus is not simply to secure a paycheck – you are selling a custom-crafted solution to a company’s problem, uniquely created from your wealth of personal assets. You are not just landing a job – you are investing your personal capital into a company and looking for a return on that investment.
“My background is technical. For many years – since the late 70s – I’ve always done tech stuff. I was laid off in March of 2008 and found it was very difficult to be out in the market. Before this, my technical experience and a clutch of endorsements from previous employers always got me jobs but this round was different. I came to the conclusion employers have fundamentally changed the way they deal with the whole employment process. Everyone now is very focused on the value-add of any resource.
For instance, take a type of printer a company is considering to purchase. They do their research. They want to know how it is going to perform, what the mean time is between failures, or whatever specifications they can get their hands on. With a person, they conduct an interview. Most likely, they’ll engage predictably – so you better be prepared. That’s what CODE does – it gets you well-prepared for the process with your eyes wide open instead of, ‘Well, I will just go in, throw my resume down, and see what happens.’ That’s not enough these days.”
– John P.
Every time you invest your personal capital into an opportunity, you offer some benefit; conversely, you should expect a return on your investment, as the following illustration suggests:
Say you owned a company and two consultants approached you. Which one would you want: the one who was clearly after the most money he could get out of you, or the one who was interested in cost-effectively solving your biggest problem? It is a no-brainer – yet too often, people approach potential employers more concerned with how much they will get paid than how they might be uniquely qualified to contribute to the company’s objectives. It is just as much in your interest, as well as the company’s, to determine this.
Money is a function of the value you provide. The more value you contribute – the more problems you resolve and the more you enrich others – the more you enrich yourself. With this mindset, you will make more money.
This is especially true in today’s economic reality. More and more, there is a blurring of lines between sales and technical staff. Whether it is because a sale is so complex it requires the input of technical experts, because a company is so cash-strapped it needs people to fill multiple roles, or because everyone is expected to help the customer no matter his or her position, non-salespeople are being forced to take on traditional sales responsibilities.
On the flip side, the business principals – the rainmakers – are increasingly exhausted. They need more people to take on more responsibility to help shoulder the demands of the business. An ownership mentality is what they are looking for in their employees. What they do not need is another employee who only wants to focus on the things he or she is good at.
You must be adaptable to the needs of the organization and the circumstances of the day. Company leaders are looking for people who are not only willing to do what is defined in a job description but to go above and beyond in servicing the customer because customers are the lifeline of the business. The number of satisfied customers an enterprise has is its ultimate definition of success. It is any company’s most important scorecard.
In whatever position you find yourself, you need to be invested. Your investment of personal capital – financial, intellectual, social, and experiential – is often directly proportionate to the size of the problem you are solving. If you see an opportunity, invest yourself fully and you will likely reap a great return on that investment.
Blake Mycoskie of TOMS Shoes is a terrific example of this, as described on the company website:
In 2006, American traveler Blake Mycoskie befriended children in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One. Blake returned to Argentina with a group of family, friends and staff later that year with 10,000 pairs of shoes made possible by TOMS customers.
Mycoskie was inspired by children who could not afford shoes. He then came up with an entrepreneurial solution which resulted in a profitable enterprise dedicated to addressing the problem worldwide.
Whatever your position, remember: you have something exceptional to offer others. Be willing to look beyond what you may have considered your normal boundaries to be. The greater the problem or problems you seek to address through the investment of your currency (skill set or experience), the bigger the responsibilities you are able to take on, and, eventually, the more you will likely get in return.
“CODE is not just for the entrepreneur. If anyone learns these entrepreneurial skill sets before reentering the workforce, they will have a different way of looking at things. CODE equips you to see how important it is to keep a customer and how important it is to help keep your company profitable so you can retain your job and help the company move forward – that it is not just about doing your little piece. Just think if everyone had that mentality, how much better we would be at moving ourselves, our companies, and even our nation forward!
I was the classic ‘technical expert’. The last thing I could see myself doing was leading an organization and trying to solve problems which are so much bigger than myself. Elizabeth gave me the hope that perhaps I could do something beyond what I had thought – and I did!”
– Vicky W.
It is essential to grasp this new reality for CODE to make sense. If you maintain an employee’s mentality – I am here just to do my time, get something for me, and go home – CODE can still help you, but you’ll be missing a fundamental point. If you take ownership of your career – of your own economy – and start thinking like a Free Agent, CODE will provide you with the tools to become an Economy of One. In effect, by selling or leveraging the unique assets you own, you will produce success for yourself while effectively investing in others.
“The skills that make the entrepreneur successful are quite similar to what will make the job seeker or anyone in transition successful. Elizabeth helped us understand how these things are more related than not. It is your business to find a job. You need the same skill sets, whether operating a business or marketing yourself.
Maybe all of us are not going to be entrepreneurs, but I will tell you this: CODE is not just for the entrepreneur – it is for those who need to find work as well. Those skills are still the same and they are critical.”
– Vicky W.
Welcome to the new normal.
Welcome to CODE for Free Agents!
*****
Chapter Two
Step 2: Find an Accountability Partner
There is a chance you may be feeling isolated, but working toward becoming an Economy of One does not mean you have to go it alone. As you engage in CODE, you need someone who will both encourage and challenge you – an accountability partner.
CODE is essentially a sales process, in which you, the Free Agent, engage to sell your capital (capabilities and experience) to potential employers or clients. You are the salesperson for yourself and every salesperson needs a sales manager or coach. An ideal manager knows how to support the salesperson’s efforts while requiring him or her to push for greater success. That is the idea behind your accountability partner – someone to help you stay focused and motivated and, at the same time, who will remain objective during your process of becoming an Economy of One.