1. The future of work is flexible: Know how you want to work

When the pandemic started last year, millions of people found themselves working remotely whether they were ready or not. The number of remote workdays doubled in 2020, reports Gallup.¹ Regulatory barriers to telehealth were quickly removed due to COVID, enabling Providence Healthcare to jump from 10,000 telehealth visits per year to 10,000 per day by the middle of the pandemic, according to a presentation on their cloud migration success during Microsoft’s Resilience at Work Summit.² Harvard University migrated 20,000 students to online learning in five days.

Interestingly, 83 percent of employers say that remote work has been a success, according to a recent PWC survey.³ What’s more, now that they’ve gotten a taste of flexibility, 55 percent of employees surveyed by PwC want to work remotely at least three days a week, even after it’s safe to return to the office.  

Now that remote, flexible work seems to be here to stay, talent has more options than ever. The pandemic has further opened the door for those who want or need an alternative to the traditional nine-to-five office model. You have the power to determine how, when, and where you want to work: full- or part-time; remote, onsite, or some combination of the two; on-demand, project-based work or traditional salaried employment.

Also, at the Microsoft Resilience at Work Summit, Tsedal Neely, professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and Remote Work Revolution author, posited at the Microsoft Resilience at Work Summit that the “sweet spot” of a hybrid work model is 90 percent remote and 10 percent in person. Therefore, she said, it behooves all of us to understand how to maximize our ability to work effectively and successfully.  

To thrive in the future of work, you must know how you work best and define how you want to work.

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2. The future of work is on-demand: Know your personal brand and tell your story consistently

In the future of work, companies may increasingly move toward smaller core teams of employees, supplemented with on-demand external talent. In an on-demand world, managers need specific skills—immediately. Whether it’s SEO and paid search expertise to boost a startup’s visibility or program management chops to ensure the successful global launch of a new product, companies will quickly need to identify the right talent with the right skills at the right time.  

To succeed in this on-demand world, you must identify your unique strengths. But it doesn’t stop there: Success and happiness exist at the intersection of your strengths and passions—your personal brand.  

Find yours with my Personal Brand Playbook, and then tell your story consistently and regularly to stand out and attract the right roles at the right time.  

For actionable tips on creating brand integrity across your resume, LinkedIn profile, and pitch, I recommend this free on-demand workshop with career coach Julie Schaller.

3. The future of work is ever-changing: Know what skills are in-demand and embrace continuous learning and development

I recently spoke with Dr. Sandeep Krishnamurthy on the post-experience economy—the idea that we’re moving  away from in-person experiences in favor of convenient, instantaneous transactions devoid of social interaction. 

In this new world, said Dr. Krishnamurthy, marketers must adapt their tactics from broadcasting to narrowcasting. New tactics require new skills, such as marrying targeting and messaging to get the customer what they want before they even know they need it.  

183 million new jobs will emerge by 2022 through AI, predicted the World Economic Forum's 2018 Future of Jobs Report,⁴ and two-thirds of today’s primary school students will have jobs in the future that don't exist yet.⁵ The institution also noted that we’ll all require an additional 101 days of learning by 2022 to keep pace with the rate of change.  

In the future of work, continuous learning and upskilling is a necessity. Keep abreast of the latest trends and in-demand skills and educate yourself accordingly.

4. The future of work is intentional: Know what you want your life to look like

Technology and remote work have rendered location nearly irrelevant. After all, if you’re working remotely, does it really matter if you’re 20 or 200 miles from the office?  

This decoupling of work from location, said Neely, is going to play out in extraordinary ways. She predicts that people will begin moving out of traditional employment hubs or spending chunks of time working from beautiful places. In fact, it’s already begun.  

Spotify’s new Work-From-Anywhere program allows employees to do just that—while still receiving San Francisco and New York salaries.⁶

When Barbados offered visas to remote workers during the pandemic, Microsoft’s vivacious Dona Sarkar tweeted that she’d be working from the Caribbean island for three months just because she could.  

This is the visa info: https://t.co/XA2tIkWtff

— Dona Sarkar (@donasarkar) October 10, 2020

Know what you want your life to look like, and fit work to your life, not the other way around. 

5. The future of work is diverse: Know your worth and find a company that aligns with your values

Spotify’s global head of diversity, inclusion, and belonging, Travis Robinson, believes that the company’s new remote work program will promote inclusion and support equity.  

"Black employees historically have been discriminated against when it comes to pay and growth opportunity, and it is likely the local market pay is lower than a comparable city with a large white population," Robinson told Business Insider. ⁷

The move will indirectly benefit customers, too, Robinson said: "With even more diverse experiences and perspectives, spread across additional communities, we have the opportunity to bring more stories to life, through original content and other curated audio experiences that resonate culturally.” 

Diversity and inclusion continue to be important focus areas for many companies. Find a company that aligns with your values and recognizes your worth.

Upcoming Masterclass

Ready to learn pragmatic best practices for digital transformation? Register for our digital marketing masterclass with Elissa Fink, former CMO of Tableau Software.

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In summary, we are living in the future of work and the best way to thrive is to get clear on what work you love to do, where and how you want to work, and what organizations align with your values. You can create your ideal life so why not jump in with both feet and make it happen.

To learn more about how to thrive in the future of work, register for our digital marketing masterclass with Elissa Fink, former CMO of Tableau Software. You’ll learn pragmatic best practices for digital transformation and effective digital marketing.

The adage is true: You’ve got to network to get work. According to LinkedIn¹, referrals are nine times more likely to get hired than non-referrals. Every consultant I interviewed for my upcoming book, Work, Your Way: Reinvent Yourself, Create the Life You Want, and Thrive as a Consultant, spoke to the importance of networking. Here are their top tips for working your network to thrive as a consultant.

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1. Focus on them, not you

The term “networking” can have a bad connotation. Some people think of it as meaningless small talk and endless elevator pitches. But I approach networking with a different perspective, which is that it isn’t about me. It’s about building relationships, not selling. It’s getting curious and determining how and where I can add value to others. This is the secret of great consultants. They realize it’s about their clients, not them, and they keep their clients’ needs front and center.

2. Reframe networking as relationship building

Rupali, a communications strategist I interviewed for my book, reframed networking as connecting with others. “I love connecting with people,” Rupali shared with me. “I love listening to their stories, learning about what they’re going through, getting their advice and guidance, and finding ways I can help and support them.”

3. Always be connecting—not just when you’re looking for work

“Don’t just reach out when you need something,” Rupali told me. Make relationship building and maintenance part of your regular routine. For example, Rupali sets aside thirty minutes a week to reach out. “Set a goal for yourself, whether it’s weekly or monthly,” she advised. “Otherwise it’s one of those things that will slide.”

Deanna, a training and development consultant I interviewed, keeps in touch with her contacts when she comes across news or updates that they’d find interesting. For example, she emailed a former client after learning about a new e-learning platform. It prompted a quick virtual demo-date for them to test drive the new tool. It didn’t lead to a new project—yet!—but that’s not the point. Their ongoing communication cultivates a meaningful relationship that’s fulfilling and mutually beneficial.

When you do land that new project or role, send a quick note to update anyone who helped you along the way, Deanna recommends. It’s a great reason to reach out, and it shows that you appreciate their help and value the relationship beyond just what they can do for you.

4. “Never make the person across from you work harder”

When it comes to referrals, “Never make the person across from you work harder,” Deanna cautioned. That’s why I stress the importance of telling your personal brand story clearly and consistently, so it’s easier for others to remember and retell it. It also helps to provide the person you’re asking for help with a clear, concise description of who you are and what you’re looking for, so it’s a lighter lift.

5. Ask for referrals and intros

Rupali always asks for new connections, even when she’s not actively looking for work. To continuously expand her reach, she asks everyone she speaks with in her network if they know of anyone else she should connect with. It’s as simple as tagging, “Is there someone else you recommend I talk to?” to the end of every conversation. Rupali makes clear that in this introduction, she’s not asking her network to simply recommend her for a job.

6. Plant seeds

When it comes to networking, you have to play the long game. In fact, it’s rare to reach out to someone and find a project just waiting for you to find it. Focus on building relationships, adding value, and keep the faith that your efforts will yield results over time. I call it planting seeds.

Another consultant I interviewed, Christopher, told me about how he plants seeds, one lunch at a time.

He routinely schedules lunch with former colleagues or acquaintances just to catch up on life and work. He goes in without an agenda or expectations—he’s focused on relationship building. More often than not, when his colleagues do have a need months later, they’ll think of Christopher and call to see if he’s available.

Now it's your turn...

What’s one way you can activate your network that feels authentic to you?

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Work, Your Way

Preorder my third book, Work, Your Way: Reinvent Yourself, Create the Life You Want, and Thrive as a Consultant, publishing August 2021 from Harper Collins Leadership.

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Flexibility, freedom, and focus are the three core reasons why professionals choose and stick with consulting. In the last of this three-part series, let’s explore the power of freedom. We’ll hear from three successful consultants who I interviewed for my upcoming book Work, Your Way: Reinvent Yourself, Create the Life You Want, and Thrive as a Consultant.

Take a look at the first two posts in this series: Why flexibility and focus are key reasons why professionals love consulting.

The myth of security

There are no guarantees in life or work. Many still believe that full-time employee roles are more secure than consulting contracts, but layoffs have become commonplace. The COVID-19 pandemic is the most recent example. Roughly one in six US workers, or more than 26 million people, filed for unemployment during March and April 2020 ¹, and the unemployment peak in April of last year (14.8 percent) was the highest ever recorded since the government began tracking unemployment in 1948.

Just as we saw in the Great Recession of 2008, a subset of these newly unemployed professionals with marketable skills and expertise will turn to consulting or gig work. For some, it will be a short-term stopgap. Others will embrace the benefits of the consultant lifestyle and never look back.

Loyalty is a two-way street

Deanna, a training and development expert, experienced this firsthand. Before she started working with me, a teammate’s layoff helped her realize that she was more loyal to her employer than they were to her.

“We had a round of layoffs in our group, and I shared responsibilities with a woman who’d been on the team longer than me,” she told me in a video interview. “They let her go. It was the first time I’d been in a group where someone was laid off. I realized that I wanted more control. I thought, If it’s so easy for them to let her go, why am I holding on?”

Deanna was tiring of her job for many reasons, but she stayed out of a sense of loyalty. Seeing her teammate let go—someone with a solid performance record and more tenure than her—was freeing for her. She realized that her loyalty wasn’t reciprocated by her employer. At the end of the day, as an employee at a global organization, she was ultimately a line on the budget.

As harsh as that sounds, it’s the truth. I have seen too many professionals shocked by an unexpected layoff. They never saw it coming, no matter how good their work was.

Creativity in full supply

For Alyssa, a longtime marketing consultant, consulting frees her up for creative pursuits. While her side hustles haven’t always taken off, they’ve been a creative outlet for her to try new ideas and skills—which she often funnels into her future consulting contracts.

As a military spouse and mother to an energetic two-year-old, the freedom and flexibility of consulting are essential to Alyssa. That flexibility enables her to work remotely and block out family time each afternoon. It’s also given her the freedom to fully embrace her new role as a working mom, thanks in part to her latest side hustle, Little Supply ².

The company offers monthly “excuses to celebrate” in the form of ready-to-go activity kits designed with working parents in mind. Alyssa and her sister created Little Supply to give parents those memorable, Pinterest-worthy moments without the stress.

Her side hustle is at once rewarding and challenging. Alyssa is getting closer to her goal of having more quality time with her daughter while exploring new areas of marketing.

YOLO?

“Our generation has to be flexible because the world opened us up to the possibility that things can change at a moment’s notice,” said Hai when I asked him why millennials choose alternative career paths like consulting. “We have to plan for the future, but also plan for those plans to fall apart. Rather than scaring us from living to our fullest potential, those challenges made us realize that we need a plan B (and C) for everything.”

Most everyone I talk to has a before story—the career they had or roles they did before getting into consulting—so I was fascinated to learn that Hai doesn’t. A marketer at heart, Hai found a niche as a social and digital marketing expert with a passion for empathy. Consulting is the only way he’s worked since graduating from business school.
Hai has an interesting theory on why his generation is drawn to contract work.
“The collective challenges we’ve faced have shaped how we approach work,” he said, citing monumental events like the advent of the internet, 9/11, the Great Recession, and the global economic impact of COVID-19.

The pandemic has proved Hai’s theory. The New York Times recently reported on the “Yolo Economy”³ (as in, you only live once) in which burned-out millennials are realizing that life is about more than a stable job. “For a growing number of people with financial cushions and in-demand skills,” writes Kevin Roose, “the dread and anxiety of the past year are giving way to a new kind of professional fearlessness.”

Some are abandoning cushy and stable jobs to start a new business, turn a side hustle into a full-time gig or finally work on that screenplay. Others are scoffing at their bosses’ return-to-office mandates and threatening to quit unless they’re allowed to work wherever and whenever they want … a daredevil spirit seems to be infecting even the kinds of risk-averse overachievers who typically cling to the career ladder.

My hunch is that, as more millennials and Gen Zs take root in the workforce, there will be fewer consultants with before stories. It will just be the way we work.

Find your freedom

To hear more stories from successful consultants like these and actionable tips for how you, too, can work flexibly, preorder my latest book, Work, Your Way: Reinvent Yourself, Create the Life You Want, and Thrive as a Consultant, publishing August 2021 from Harper Collins Leadership.

Special offer! Receive a FREE download of the Work, Your Way Playbook when you preorder a copy of the book!  

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When’s the last time you got into flow while working? You know the feeling: everything around you fades away, time somehow warps, and you’re singularly focused on the task at hand. Do you have the ability to focus and dig deep on a project or area of expertise? If so, does it energize you? Ignite your best work self? And if not, how does reflecting on that void make you feel?

As I said in my earlier post on flexibility, there’s no right or wrong answer. But if your need for focus is unmet, I want you to know that you have options. In the new world of work, you can work differently—you can work your way.

In my upcoming book, Work, Your Way: Reinvent Yourself, Create the Life You Want, and Thrive as a Consultant, I spoke with a number of successful, long-term consultants. Their stories aligned with the many consultants I’ve worked with since starting Simplicity Consulting in 2006.

There are three primary reasons why people choose and stick with consulting: flexibility, freedom, and focus. Here we’ll explore focus.

Work, not politics

Kate is a writer. She quit her corporate job to raise her two young children and write the book that had been swirling in her head during her daily commute. Now, as a consultant, she lights up when talking about her communications projects and geeks out on the ability to lose herself in the topic du jour.

“I just want to do the work,” Kate told me when I interviewed her for the book. “I don’t want to have to worry about all that other stuff.”

That “other stuff” differs from company to company, but it includes things like performance reviews, office politics, administrivia, and endless meetings.
So many consultants that I’ve talked to share Kate’s perspective. They all just want to focus on doing the work they love and doing it well. It’s one of the reasons I chose consulting, too.

Kate not only likes doing the work, she likes the opportunity to get into flow. She recently spent eight weeks wading through accessibility materials—and she was thrilled about it. Her client hired her to refresh the company’s accessibility storytelling, an important project that her client didn’t have bandwidth to take on.

“I was able to completely focus and own it end-to-end,” she raved. That focus paid off. Within the first five minutes of her client’s annual summit, the company’s chief accessibility officer used Kate’s content on stage. “Thousands of people saw that,” Kate said. “It was great.”

Focus breeds success

Like Kate, I remember realizing the power of focus after my first consulting project. I had handed off my deliverables, and my client was showering the work with praise. While I was proud of my work, I couldn’t help thinking, I was successful because I could focus. It was my whole job to do that one thing really well.

Employees don’t have that luxury. Employees are pulled in a million different directions responding to incessant emails and requests. They manage multiple workstreams and competing priorities. Endless meetings. Company trainings. Management responsibilities and annual reviews. As a consultant, you are freed up to focus on meaningful work with impact and only that, without those other distractions.

Plate-spinning fatigue

Deanna is another longtime Simplicity consultant who started her career in corporate.
“I got tired of spinning plates,” she told me. “I was in meetings all day and ‘spinning plates’—moving things forward and not actually doing the work. I missed that part of it: being strategic and having a work product.”

Sound familiar? As professionals, our days are often packed with (virtual) meetings! It’s all too common to spend more time sitting in meetings than actually working—in fact, that’s why some clients want a consultant in the first place. While the consultant lifestyle isn’t entirely meeting free, it does have considerably less. When consultants do have meetings, they’re often relevant to the task at hand, freeing them up to focus on the outcome.

As a consultant, Deanna is empowered to call the shots in her life and work. “I’m the CEO of my own career,” she says … for better or for worse. It’s a non-traditional career choice filled with flexibility, variety, endless learning, and focus that she’s proud of.

Consulting has also enabled Deanna to focus on new and different areas. “I just really enjoy doing different projects and being exposed to new pieces of the organization,” she told me. “My last role was change management--I’ve never done it before and got really excited about that and learning about it.” As a full-time employee, Deanna wouldn’t have had the same ability to explore, dig in, and focus on a new area of the business.

In the third and final post in this series, we’ll explore why freedom is one of the top three reasons professionals choose consulting.

Focus, your way

To hear more stories from successful consultants like these and actionable tips for how you, too, can work flexibly, preorder my latest book, Work, Your Way: Reinvent Yourself, Create the Life You Want, and Thrive as a Consultant, publishing August 2021 from Harper Collins Leadership.

Special offer! Receive a FREE download of the Work, Your Way Playbook when you preorder a copy of the book!  

Preorder book

In the third and final post in this series, we’ll explore why freedom is one of the top three reasons professionals choose consulting.

Check out the previous post in this series: Why flexibility is the number one reason professionals choose—and stick with—consulting.

Since starting Simplicity Consulting in 2006, I’ve seen it all. Professionals from all backgrounds, for all reasons, seeking out a new way to work. While every person and story are different, the reasons people choose and stick with consulting inevitably fall into predictable themes.

When I sat down last year to write my third book, Work, Your Way: Reinvent Yourself, Create the Life You Want, and Thrive as a Consultant, a number of successful, long-term consultants shared their stories with me. And, just as I’ve observed over the last decade and a half, those key themes emerged.

There are three primary reasons why people choose and stick with consulting: flexibility, freedom, and focus. Let’s start with the most commonly shared reason—flexibility.

Flexibility is queen

It is difficult to quantify the value of flexibility. Whether requisite, such as parents of young kids or caregivers of sick or aging parents, or a desire to own their lives and control their time, flexibility is queen. It’s consistently the number one reason I hear for why professionals transition to consulting.

Consulting, or contract work, is inherently flexible. You choose how and when you want to work. You can choose to work part-time, full-time, every day, or a few days a week, half days or full days, moonlight on the side of your current full-time job, or any combination of those. Contract work is expansively flexible and dynamic, and you are in the driver's seat.

Let’s hear from three consultants who I interviewed for my upcoming book—Jeannine, Allison, and Stephanie—for whom flexibility is non-negotiable.

On the road... again and again and again

Ten years ago, Jeannine took a leap of faith. She left her salaried, full-time role at a large tech company to work with her husband at his new business. Within a few years, she realized that she missed her old role, and so she returned, but as a consultant.

Three years ago, she leapt again. This time, she and her husband sold their home, bought an RV, and hit the road. Since then, they have crisscrossed the country—from the western US to the east coast and back again—jumping from National Park to National Park. Though they’ve hunkered down for much of the pandemic in the Sonoran Desert, they’ll soon resume their roving lifestyle, destination Montana. In the pursuit of their dreams, flexibility is everything.

Jeannine negotiated her contract wisely: 32 hours a week, remote, with Fridays off for travel. Despite trading her office and employee role for a workstation in her roving 42-foot home, Jeannine approaches work the same way she always has. It doesn’t impact the kind of work she does or the value she provides. It’s been a big change, but life is short, she says. Follow your dreams now while you can—create the freedom, even while you’re still working.

Kick the commute

Others take advantage of the flexibility to work from anywhere and move to places that feed their love for the outdoors or desire to live near family. Allison, a Montana native and marketing consultant, recognized this in her own lightbulb moment. One day, she realized that she didn’t have to keep putting up with a nightmare commute, far away from her family—she could live anywhere.

Allison traded her corporate job for a consulting contract, and a few months later she moved back home to Montana. She wanted work to fit into the life she desired, and she was determined to make it happen. To Allison, success is living in Big Sky Country, near her friends and family, doing work she loves for clients and a consultancy that share her same values. She’s been successfully—and happily—consulting for more than a decade.

The longest shortest time

Stephanie was tired. She was tired of rushing, tired of wasting hours each week commuting and away from her young family, tired of cramming quality time into the precious thirty minutes between her two-year-old’s daycare pickup and bedtime, tired of feeling like she was failing on all fronts.

So, like Allison, she decided to work her way, on her terms. Stephanie left her full-time-employee role and picked up a few part-time consulting contracts. She now shares the home office with her six-year-old remote learner. She spends far less time rushing from meeting to meeting and far more time doing the work she loves. And while she hasn’t fully found that mythical work-life balance, she is intentional about building each day’s schedule around her work, herself, and her family.

Flexible or...?

I’ve met with countless professionals over the years who loved their corporate careers but didn’t love the inflexibility. They tried to carve out the flexibility they needed to stay, but their employer wouldn’t budge. They weren’t willing or able to continue down a rigid path that didn’t allow for the fluidity of life, so they left and found what they needed in consulting.

Think about your own career. Do you crave more flexibility or does your role afford you the flexibility you need and want? Could you carve out more flexibility in your existing role? And if not, are you willing to compromise in that area?

There’s no right or wrong answer. Be true to yourself, your working style, and your situation. But if you’re not getting the flexibility you need, I want you to know that you have options. In the new world of work, you can work differently—you can work your way.

Want to work flexibly?

To hear more stories from successful consultants like these and actionable tips for how you, too, can work flexibly, preorder my latest book, Work, Your Way: Reinvent Yourself, Create the Life You Want, and Thrive as a Consultant, publishing August 2021 from Harper Collins Leadership.

Special offer! Receive a FREE download of the Work, Your Way Playbook when you preorder a copy of the book!  

Preorder book

Next up, we’ll explore focus in part two of this series.