3D Coaching

3D Juggling 430: Market Trader

Claire writes: 'We move into our new office next week. It's in a Business Centre. We're looking forward to getting to know the neighbours and I'm wondering what will be different about my working style on office days which are spent in the hub of a business centre and not the home office.

When are we doing a job? And when are we running a business? Is your approach to work like the team member in Tesco - it's a job? Or like the market trader - it's a business? Most organisations that we work in have an internal market now where work is commissioned and supplied almost on a tendering basis. If you don't put in the best bid, someone else gets the work. If you don't have a clear offering with clear returns on investment, someone else will get the work. This is a huge shift from the working style which you may be comfortable with. And it also has benefits for the business - people are clearer about what they do and how they will do it.

In an internal market, you also need to begin to sell yourself in a different way. In Creating you and Co, William Bridges recommends that we stop simply looking for jobs and start seeing ourselves as Me PLC by noticing the markets where our skills can be used in our workplace, creating that into a product that the business wants and then selling that internally in our organisation. If your job is under threat you can choose to sit and wait to discover whether the hatchet hits your post. Or you can start seeing what Me PLC brings to the market.

And if you hate your job, Me PLC has another benefit. Imagine that today is the first day of a new contract between Me PLC and your current employer. What else do you need to be doing now to develop Me PLC?'

Love this? Do us a favour and send it to five people. Who thinks like you? You could send it to someone who works in an organisation with internal markets!

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