Working yourself out of a job

This may sound like the worst advice you’ll ever get, but it’s the reality: Job security increases when your mindset is to eliminate your job.

How can it be? Employees who are actively looking for ways to eliminate the need for their particular responsibilities find creative ways to get work done faster, easier, and more productive than previously accepted. They look for redundancies and unnecessary tasks and seek to find the place where a task or decision is best made. This added value rarely goes unnoticed by a talented supervisor. They see creativity and a positive work ethic geared towards a productive and profitable company.

Bob House, now president of the RG House Group in Acton, Massachusetts, taught me this important lesson. He told me that I always lost my job. Admittedly, it was terrifying at first to take a career path toward the unemployment line. However, when I practiced the theory, it soon proved successful. Every time I was left out of a job or project, another was waiting for me.

According to the Harvard Business Review, one in four managers at Fortune 500 Companies changes roles each year. These are executives with full resumes touting a wide range of experiences. If their change is voluntary, they have the wonderful option of becoming more complete leaders. However, many changes are lateral or downward movement caused by failure to perform at acceptable levels or failure to meet departmental goals.

Managers who are trying to get out of a job also change positions frequently to some degree. Your resume is one of the success stories as they eliminate corporate waste.

So, what do you say? Can you find a way to work yourself without a job?