How to avoid REDUNDANCY!


There are just too many scenarios today where many people are caught in a redundancy situation. You may know of someone who is waiting for a mutual separation scheme, someone who is being displaced or transferred into a pool of resources, or someone being cold storaged. Most of the times, it is sadly happening to people who are not prepared for it, and they may be in a shock state and not taking the right recovery action fast enough.

I have been in such situations before, and have been preparing my teams wherever I go. But we can never be prepared adequately, and sometimes you just cannot avoid being made redundant at some point in your career. Top revenue lines are declining, costs are escalating and hence profit margins need to be defended. Businesses are transforming at a fast pace to stay relevant. It needs a lean, preferably digital native team with innovative ideas and ready to explore new things. Here are my 7 thoughts in order to get onboard the right train, and how best to steer away from a redundancy trap.


  1. Having the right work attitude– Ready to learn new things, take up a new role or project, value add and contribute to the team and business. People who are just existing, doing minimal clock work, and as per job description, will now be at the lower part of the ladder and the first to be made redundant. 
  2. Be that enabler, a leader, a team player, a participant. Not the spectator. - Get rid of the toxic attitude, don’t be a back bencher, with folded arms and making remarks without value. Employers are not obligated to pay salary to employees who complain continuously, blame everything, make excuses, run a gossip mill and list out all the things why something cannot be done. People are hired to find solutions and make things work.  
  3. Get onboard the right train. – Stay open, embrace change, and get onboard the right train towards the right direction. If you do not agree or subscribe to the change, attempt to seek understanding or change the usual perspective of things. Many times, there are corporate agendas or vision which may not be fully understood by everyone. But it is a direction which the company has decided to pursue. Either you head along the same direction, or time to get off the train or risk getting ousted. 
  4. Be agile. – Corporate strategic directions change more frequently than before. Some companies only plan out quarterly business plans, and 5 year projections are just too far fetch in today’s fast moving world. Learn to adapt, embrace, change and just keep learning, evolving and progressing. 
  5. Upskilling– These days, digital related skills set are the expected skills set in recruitment, such as data analytics, mobility, social media, digital marketing, and smart embedded devices (IoT) to drive change in customer relationships, internal processes, and value propositions. Hence, rather than resigned to the fact that current skills are becoming irrelevant with automation, take charge of your own self development plan. It is time to go back to school and pick up whatever that is relevant today, if you wish to avoid the redundancy trap. 
  6. Soft Skills for today’s digital work  - new soft skills such as critical thinking, complex communication, creativity, collaboration, flexibility and adaptability, productivity and accountability, and building a team that thrives are skills required to lead today’s team. Managing teams today is way more complicated. Traditional leadership and management traits do not work anymore, resulting in high staff turnover rate, and the inability for the business to transform fast enough. Hence, changing our mindset and perspectives are key before we can upgrade ourselves. 
  7. F.I.R.E.– Ultimately, one will reach a point that it is too much effort to stay relevant, and corporate is no longer your cup of tea. I know many who have demanded a golden handshake so that they can then look for another job. But seriously, what’s next for sustainability? To leave the corporate world, planning for Financial Independence Retirement Early is key to long term sustainability not only financially but to be mentally prepared in one’s life journey. 
  8. An opportunity or threat in a crisis– The Chinese character of “crisis” consist of two words which means danger and opportunity. The natural reaction when faced with a redundancy situation is the initial shock and denial, and followed by anger and depressions. It is normal to feel victimized and immediately take a defensive position. With this, there is a short window where the management is observing if there can be hope for a person to accept, change and adapt. Basically, there are just 3 options when caught between a rock and a hard place;(a) give up and leave, (b) fight to retain employment, (c) quickly figure out a strategy to change the perspective of the situation, adapt, change and catch the wave. Sometimes, it is about how fast we can turn a crisis into an opportunity. This phase is sometimes referred to as Acceptance and Integration


Personally, I have encountered many redundancy situations in the last 10 years of my career, from an employee as well as an employer’s perspective. 


As an employee being made redundant (and I had a team to think about), I was caught in situation where a new management and its own team took over control of my unit to transform the business. My focus was the fate of my team members. I had to quickly change their perspectives, mindset, and focus on new strategies to stay relevant. In parallel, I had to move through my personal initial phases of shock, denial, anger, depression quickly, and took action after assessing my options in parallel.


As an employer in another situation, I had a business to transform fast before it lost relevance in the marketplace. There were urgent and imperative business transformation that had to happen within short span of time. I had to get the current team to change their mindset, skillsets, attitude, and eventually the right culture. I had to also accept that not everyone can come onboard within the tight timeframe, and hence a new set of resources had to be brought in to form a new transformed team. While people needs to change, as a leader, we need to also create the right environment for transformation. 


Whether you are a formal leader or not, transformation impacts everyone. To survive today’s fast pace of change, we need to start our personal transformation first, in order to stay as far away from a redundancy trap. 

I challenge you to Disrupt yourself now! 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5-Step Plan to Reverse Diabetes

Image
Step 1: Remove These Foods to Reverse Diabetes Naturally Certain foods negatively affect your blood sugar levels, cause inflammation and trigger immune responses. To reverse diabetes naturally, the first step is to remove these foods from your diet: Refined sugar: Refined sugar rapidly spikes blood glucose, and soda, fruit juice and other sugary beverages are the worst culprits. These forms of sugar enter the bloodstream rapidly and can cause extreme elevations in blood glucose. (7) Even though natural sweeteners like raw honey and maple syrup are better options, they can still affect blood sugar levels, so only use these foods on occasion. Your best option is to switch to stevia, a natural sweetener that won’t have as much of an impact. Grains: Grains, especially gluten-containing grains like wheat, contain large amounts of carbohydrates that are broken down into sugar within only a few minutes of consumption. Gluten can cause intestinal inflammation, which affects hormones like
Read more

Does apple cider vinegar help people with diabetes?

Image
Apple cider vinegar may have various health benefits, such as supporting weight loss and managing blood sugar. These benefits could help people with or at risk of diabetes. However, scientific research has not yet confirmed them. Scientists have yet to back up the majority of the health claims around apple cider vinegar with significant clinical research. However, some evidence has emerged to suggest that apple cider vinegar may have particular benefits for the management of diabetes. Diabetes is a chronic condition that leads to an inability to manage blood sugar levels properly. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 1980, around 108 million people had diabetes. Its prevalence has significantly increased over the past few decades to an estimated 422 million in 2014. This article looks at the research that links apple cider vinegar and diabetes, as well as ways to take apple cider vinegar effectively. According to scientists, apple cider vinegar has the potential to
Read more

The Dangers of Ego-Driven Spending: A Call for Reality Check

Image
In a world where status and outward appearances reign supreme, it's all too easy to fall into the trap of ego-driven spending. We live in a society where success is often measured by the size of our possessions and the prestige of our lifestyle. As a result, many of us find ourselves chasing after the latest trends and splurging on luxury items in a bid to keep up with the Joneses. But what if I told you that some of the wealthiest individuals in the world eschew ostentatious displays of wealth in favor of a more modest lifestyle? Take, for example, Warren Buffett, one of the most successful investors of all time. Despite his immense wealth, Buffett is known for his frugal habits, driving the same modest car and living in the same unassuming house for decades. Similarly, tech titan Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, is often seen wearing a simple gray t-shirt and jeans, despite being worth billions of dollars. And then there's Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, who fam
Read more