Be Easy To Do Business With

The main thing people will remember about you is how easy you are to do business with. Let's look at how Hollywood is doing business these days.

A few of years ago, I conducted a series of programs for government agencies on entrepreneurial thinking. Speaking with me was Carolyn Corbin, author of CONQUERING CORPORATE CODEPENDENCE. Carolyn is a futurist, who projects trends and their consequences.

Her theory is that government imitates business, while business uses Hollywood as a model of how to do business. By the year 2005, she predicts 70 percent of the business world will be doing business like Hollywood where, at any one point, a huge percent of the work force is unemployed.

Today, when people come together in Hollywood, it is for a project with a beginning and end. The old studio system allowed steady employment for tens of thousands who worked with each other for decades. That is now a distant memory.

Today's workers may never have seen or worked with each other before. Yet, the pressure is tremendous to get the job done as efficiently as possible. This leads to a Hollywood fact of life: The people who get hired are those with a reputation for BOTH excellence and being easy to work with.

Today's corporations are imitating this Hollywood model, constantly breaking into smaller units for projects or "outsourcing." Few people can or want to work their whole life for one or two companies. The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor sets average job tenure at 4.6 years, and USA Today cites a trend among fast-trackers to change jobs nine times before age thirty-two! That's a year and four months on each job, assuming there is no downtime in between.

Your job is to be employable, not just employed. No matter what you do and
for whom, be the Chairman of the Board of your own career. Be loyal to your
company, of course. It's good for your career, and it's the right thing to do. But while you're being loyal and dependable, be visible in your company, your community, and your industry. Then, if (or when) you are out of work, the word goes out, "Oh, good, there's a wonderful person available."

Within corporate America, as in Hollywood, people may stay employed, but they
will probably rotate among different teams working on different projects. When you earn the reputation for getting things done and "doing the impossible" (that is, doing at least one thing better than almost anyone else), you are more likely to be selected for the fun, high profile projects. The more in demand you can become, the more your fee or salary goes up. That's "Hollywood economics."

People are going to remember if you did a great job, but they'll also remember if you were professional and easy to deal with, or unreliable and a pain in the neck. Either way they won't forget you, but being a professional will get you hired again. Think about that as you plan your career.

by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE