What is your number one corporate career fear?
The one fear that rises above all of the others.
The one that is like a punch to your stomach making you feel like you can’t inhale.
I am sure your brain has immediately jumped to situations like:
- saying something not so intelligent
- tripping on a chair when going to shake someone’s hand
- forgetting about a deadline
- not having the right answer when called upon in a critical meeting
All of those fears are normal career fears for sure.
But those fears aren’t your deepest fear.
Those events, if they all happened at once multiple times over, are actually the events that would CAUSE your deepest fear to come true.
It’s why when you are told you are “too much” you strive to fix it as quickly as possible because that feels like a risk to you.
So what is your deepest career fear?
Being fired.
Our Biggest Career Fear Identified
Losing your career and your paycheck, which really means losing a piece of your identity and your financial security, is your biggest career fear.
That’s the worst-case scenario that we all work diligently to avoid, right?
Unfortunately, that’s a fear that 99% of employees have and live with on a daily basis.
Why?
Because we have accepted the fact that a career means working for someone else and working for someone else means living with the risk of not having a paycheck one day.
This is just a part of life.
But what if that’s not true?
What if we could feel secure?
What if you felt so secure in your position that you could give your all and share your opinions freely?
What an amazing feeling that would be!
The reality is that the security you want is achievable, it will simply take some work on your part.
Eliminating the Fear
You see, to get to that level of security you must become an irreplaceable asset to your organization.
Now look, I get it.
If you already feel like you are doing everything you can to feel secure and yet you don’t feel it, me saying “just become an irreplaceable asset” probably sounds like me telling you that you can climb Mt. Everest tomorrow and it will be a breeze.
I’m not telling you that it will be something you achieve with the snap of your fingers.
It will take intentional action.
I’m simply telling you that it is possible.
Why is it possible?
Because first, you are amazing and if you set your mind to it, you can do anything. So if you decide to become an irreplaceable asset, you will.
Second, your company absolutely wants and needs you to be that asset.
It’s true.
But I’m not going to try to convince you of that because you won’t believe me.
You have to find that truth for yourself.
So let’s do this.
I want you to spend some time observing others in your organization.
What do they do that you don’t?
I’m not talking about kissing a$$ or being the teacher’s pet.
That’s not your style and I don’t want it to be.
No, I’m talking about seriously observing the talent around you and seeing if you can find what makes others in your company an asset.
In the next blog post, I will share with you the two ways I believe you become an irreplaceable asset and hopefully what I share with you will reinforce what you have observed.
For now, be the people watcher, the silent observer, and let’s see if you can identify any “asset” patterns around you.