A decade ago, during the economic collapse - I recall a discussion with my then-teenage son and my college-age daughter about trends in the workforce, economy, our lifestyles, and how they perceive themselves living and working in the future.
The keyword was "diversify". Even at that early age, they could see it. My daughter mentioned how the term “You are your own brand..” was something all her colleagues were talking about and we all recall the rise of the “influencer” in those years. Then and now their experiences around them gave them a clear view of the necessity to stay agile, assess, and reinvent quickly.
This trend was already growing in momentum as many scrambled to find work during a flat economy and we saw the influx of co-working spaces sprouting up in metropolitan areas. It was an answer to the isolation experienced -a way to be amongst others while still working independently.
I know that in my own business, years before the ’08 economic fallout, I had already started diversifying and using independent contractors for various aspects of work that needed to be done. I first did it out of necessity as my own life had shifted. But for me, it was a perfect solution as it kept my overhead down and simplified my workload. I could hand off tasks to others who were working from home or a small office and I didn’t feel the pressure of managing them.
I could expand up and down to accommodate the workload of clients and projects. It was ideal for me. And for the people that I worked with, they could take on as many clients as they could handle or scale it down whenever their life required it.
I loved the simplicity of it – truly.
To be honest, most of the people I worked with were women. Happy to work from home and have the flexibility to get tasks done around their schedules. And they always delivered on time!
Also, I learned to keep many connections and continue to reach out to them. In this way, I could scale up and not overload one person. It was a secure way to best cover my workload when needed.
Now, during the pandemic and the requirement of many to work from home and many others scrambling because of job loss…. We are again having to rethink and redesign how we work. (and live but I will save that for another time)
This piece from The Gartner Report provides some insight into the forecast of the post-pandemic workforce. Many corporations will have to rely on contingent workers and technology, diversify into other markets and switch from designing for efficiency to designing for resilience. And the focus will have to become more employee-centric rather than work-centric. With roles that move in and out of various skill sets. Everyone is becoming their own brand.
This could appear as bad or good. But the truth is the changes are here and are developing. How will you adapt? You may be in a place in life where you choose to not run that race and pivot out of career and instead into a purpose you have been interested in.
OR, you could evaluate your skillset, your successes, your strengths, and how you want to live your life. Then see where you can best deliver your work.
Now more than ever, we are getting time to really evaluate how much we actually need and how we want to live our daily lives.
If we are no longer “work-centric” but are “our own brands” we can scale up and down and create what the work and lives we want. But it will take a willingness to let go of what was and develop resilience to remain relevant. Yes there are pitfalls to this but things evolve and develop.
Every switch, change, and decision offers the upside and downside. Most often, there isn’t a perfect solution. Understanding where you might best be able to tip the scales in your favor is an opportunity you may never have considered but because we are heading that way…you may be glad for. Don’t wait too long for the “old ways” to come back. Get in front of this and let change work for you.
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