Issue #9: You are more than your Job Title

Tag: Career development, Growth mindset

Auditor

Associate

Financial Analyst

Cost Accountant

Business Partner

Regional Lead

Project Lead

Manager

Some of the job titles I have had over the past decade+.

It has certainly helped to scope responsibilities, work areas and boundaries. Detrimentally however, it had also, for a moment in time, “scoped” my mindset.

It is easy to advise that we shouldn’t let our job titles define us,

And yet turn around and reject work that lies outside our job scope’s boundaries.

“Surely that work must belong to someone else”, would be the thought running through your mind.

Fair enough.

But perhaps a little shortsighted?

Why should we be more than our job titles?

Except for a handful of bosses who get blindsided by superficial relationships, promotions are largely handed out based on potential.

Most of the time, you don’t get promoted for doing your job,

You get promoted for showing potential for doing the job you got promoted into.

“But, that wasn’t my job scope!”

Precisely the point.

For example: If you want to become a people manager, start thinking like one.

How do you win hearts and minds?

(And the answer isn’t simply to bribe your way through or to help your people “tank saigang” - aka do the dirty work)

How do you show big picture thinking by not simply focusing on the existing state of work, but a more efficient way of working that helps to showcase each team member’s strength?

How do you read your boss to understand his/her pain-points managing the team, and structure your deliverables to address them?

Do not be mistaken,

I do not advocate single-sidedly taking up a scope of work without being “assigned” to it.

There are ways of working in every organization that we shouldn’t be overstepping, less it backfires upon us or steps on some toes.

But I do believe that there are enough gaps and grey areas in-between that allow you to work on projects/ initiatives/ improvements/ collaborations to showcase your ability beyond what your existing job scope dictates.

Pitch it to your bosses and gain buy-in when in doubt.

But, let’s go beyond, shall we?

Portfolio careers, Why not portfolio jobs?

There is a recent surge in discussions of and interest in portfolio careers.

Portfolio careers are created by mastering seemingly unrelated skillsets to provide a unique blend of solution to your clients.

For instance, a real estate agent who is also certified on inheritance law.

A photographer who can also plan a kickass event,

Or a human resource consultant proficient in personal branding.

But what does it mean to a 9-6 employee?

Moonlighting and side hustles aside,

Let’s consider the possibility of a Portfolio Job.

Can we have a career in

Finance and Engineering

Human resource and Sales

Operations and Safety

IT and Security

At the same time?

Maybe you’re going to write this off as bulls**t and start scrolling to your next read at this moment,

But, just.

Ponder this for a moment.

Increasingly we are starting to see Data Analytics roles integrated within Finance.

And Product Cost Specialists working within R&D to do product teardowns.

Human Resources positioning themselves as profit centers to deliver internal stakeholder value KPIs.

And many of these hybrid roles seeking to solve cross-functional problems.

I prophesize that in the Future of Work, portfolio job scopes that span across traditional operating functions will start to be the trademark of highly agile corporations.

Breaking down the silos of traditional thinking to find new ways of enabling and empowering employees to deliver to their best potential.

Empower yourself to design the work you envision

Because the alternative to that, is to allow someone else to design and scope your work for you.

The ever changing landscape of our workplaces may induce stress in that we are constantly wondering whether our jobs will be replaced or made obsolete,

But consider the flip side as well.

The possibilities of what makes up “our jobs” are now up for grabs.

What is stopping you from picking up seemingly unrelated skills and then fusing it into a scope of work that doesn’t yet exist?

Rather than worrying at my desk about whether that next job made redundant could be mine,

I spend that additional time thinking instead of how I can fuse areas I am passionate in, with the work I am currently doing.

And how I can design away the parts of my job that does not add value to me, either by embracing efficient systems or fusing those with some other employee’s work scope to create a more coherent and valuable portfolio.

For instance, would you see “Employee Engagement” as a job scope?

“No way Jevon. No one has ever seen that as more than employee CCA.”

(CCA = co-curricular activity, meant to reference work that is taken up out of interest but not compensated for)

But here’s what.

When organizations start discovering the value that employee advocacy can have on their businesses, and how culture can enable people-centric organizations to stand out in the talent marketplace,

Then perhaps they may rethink how seriously they would want to take this “CCA”.

Can there possibly be any relation between Finance and Employee Engagement?

“NO WAY.”

Why not?

The CFO office of big finance organizations is responsible for strategy and organizational design, and I don’t see it too far away from picking up responsibilities in employee advocacy and culture alignment should those become key organizational goals of the company.

Simply put, whenever the chance arises, we should possess ideas to design a portfolio job scope that plays to our strengths rather than our traditional ways of working.

The curse of prior experiences

We are limited by the paths we have taken.

Perhaps we think that a portfolio job is not possible simply because no other company we know has done away with the traditional functional silos.

Perhaps because we have always performed jobs within our specific functions, we cannot envision one that taps on a multitude of our skills, no matter how seemingly unrelated they are.

But lest we forget, the smartphone didn’t simply “happen” because we held on to the belief that a reliable phone should only be connected by cable.

If we can free ourselves from the shackles of our prior experiences,

We allow ourselves to venture into unexplored territory, and develop valuable solutions not yet visible to the naked eye.

My vision of the Future of Work

Lies in one where people are empowered and encouraged to bring their best selves to work.

They are not simply limited by their job titles and job scopes, but are able to seek beyond boundaries, collaborate openly with other parties, to design new ways of working.

They embrace a learners’ mindset, and approach the workplace with curiosity and a zest for creating value where they see it.

And enabling this all, a group of new age leaders willing to unlearn the ways of the old world and embrace the excitement, challenges and opportunities of the one to come.

Idealistic?

Yes.

But do you dare believe?

Hold On, Don't go yet!

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Cheers!