海角大神

Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest to Simple Dollar readers.

The entire argument of Seth Godin鈥檚 book is that there are no longer any great jobs where someone tells you what to do. That鈥檚 not to say there aren鈥檛 great jobs out there 鈥� there are many 鈥� but they now require the ability to basically blaze your own path, creating things and building connections that are indispensable to those around you. That person, in Godin鈥檚 terminology, is a linchpin.

I think, to a degree, this general argument is spot on. We live in a globalized world where most jobs can be shipped anywhere, from Mexico to Indonesia. Jobs in which people are merely following instructions all day are among the easiest to ship and the few that remain in America aren鈥檛 going to be strongly financially rewarding. Success comes from making yourself essential to the operation 鈥� and simply following orders, even if you do it well, keeps you firmly in the 鈥渞eplaceable cog鈥� camp.

How do you stand out? What kinds of choices can you make to turn yourself into someone indispensable? Let鈥檚 dig in and see what the book has to say.

The New World of Work
Most jobs where you simply follow instructions and do a faceless job demean the real value you provide. They鈥檙e faceless jobs, but you鈥檙e not a faceless person. You鈥檙e not merely a cog in the machine of capitalism 鈥� but your job might be. The biggest difference between a follow-the-instructions job and a linchpin is that a linchpin creates his or her own value, whereas an instruction follower doesn鈥檛 add any value beyond a specified task that鈥檚 completed. A linchpin works in ways that improves those around him or her, while an instruction-follower simply follows the tasks at hand. I like to think of it this way: what鈥檚 the difference between a mediocre administrative assistant and the best administrative assistant you can imagine? That鈥檚 roughly the difference between a person who is a linchpin and a person who is not.

Thinking About Your Choice
The choice that鈥檚 on your plate is simple: do you keep merely following instructions and counting the days until Friday or do you look for ways to make yourself transcend those roles and become a linchpin? This is an urgent question, because a global marketplace makes the instruction-follower role more dispensable than ever. Some people are content to fill the role of instruction-follower 鈥� and that鈥檚 fine. However, the career opportunities for such people are simply shrinking 鈥� that鈥檚 a fact of life.

Indoctrination: How We Got Here
Most of what we learn in school serves one purpose 鈥� to make you an effective person at filling an instruction-follower job. Schools do not encourage creative thinking (which is an invaluable part of being a linchpin) 鈥� instead, they encourage lots of rote memorization and repetitive tasks which are scored on standardized tests. It鈥檚 a pretty neat trick to make school funding tied to these standardized tests, isn鈥檛 it?

Becoming the Linchpin
Every workplace has a few people that are simply indispensable. They take very challenging situations and make them work. They seem to solve tons and tons of problems. They鈥檙e the ones everyone goes to when there are crises. Those people are the indispensable ones 鈥� if you鈥檙e not one of them, you鈥檙e a lot more dispensable than they are. The question really is whether or not you鈥檙e willing to work to become one of those indispensable folks.

Is It Possible to Do Hard Work in a Cubicle?
Being a linchpin means a lot of hard work. The biggest part of it is being willing to give all of what you have to doing a great job. This does not mean just filling your hours with whatever task you鈥檙e assigned. It means bringing all of your passion, your ideas, and your creativity to the table whenever you work. It means taking on the hard problems that might scare you a little bit (or more than a little bit).

The Resistance
Our brains typically work in resistance to those kinds of tasks 鈥� we鈥檙e biologically wired to look out purely for number one. We avoid risk. We avoid anything that might be perceived as a threat. We avoid generosity. However, all of these things 鈥� risk, taking on threats, generosity 鈥� are key parts of being a linchpin. We have to work hard to overcome these resistances in order to become something greater.

The Powerful Culture of Gifts
Giving of yourself to others opens countless doors. Our brains often expect immediate reciprocity 鈥� if we give something, we want something in return and soon. The world rarely works that way. Our generosity 鈥� going above and beyond the expectations of others 鈥� builds a strong reputation for us, one that secures our work and builds positive relationships and interactions for us in ways we often never directly see. Quid pro quos rarely work 鈥� but building a strong reputation for great work and generosity certainly does.

There Is No Map
How do you do this? Unfortunately, there is no road map 鈥� and that鈥檚 a big part of the difficulty of it. You have to seek out the challenges in your own situation and take them on head first. You have to seek ways to up the quality of whatever it is you鈥檙e doing. In other words, you have to go off the instruction sheet 鈥� and that鈥檚 the real challenge.

Making the Choice
Linchpin value is created by what you choose to do, not by what you鈥檙e born with. Anyone can become a linchpin 鈥� it鈥檚 not an inborn trait, it鈥檚 a sequence of choices to step beyond the instructions and do things that improve everyone around you. It鈥檚 a scary choice, but it鈥檚 still a choice, one that offers a lot of rewards if you鈥檙e willing to take the leap.

The Culture of Connection
In order to succeed as a linchpin, you have to build a lot of connections with the people around you. Indispensable work is work that鈥檚 connected to the work that others do. You build on their work and they thrive on the work you鈥檝e done. A big part of this is personality and attitude and a big first step is to recognize that negativity towards others will never, ever get you to being a linchpin. Positive relationships are the ones upon which you can build great things.

The Seven Abilities of the Linchpin
Here are the seven abilities, in a nutshell, from page 218:

1. Providing a unique interface between members of the organization
2. Delivering unique creativity
3. Managing a situation or organization of great complexity
4. Leading customers
5. Inspiring staff
6. Providing deep domain knowledge
7. Possessing a unique talent

Linchpins provide at least one of the things on this list and often provide more than one. It鈥檚 key to remember that these things are there to provide value to the people around you and make their work better, because in doing so you make yourself indispensable.

When It Doesn鈥檛 Work
If you鈥檙e trying to be a linchpin and it isn鈥檛 working, blind persistence is usually not the way to go. The value of a linchpin isn鈥檛 in repeating things that aren鈥檛 clicking or working. Instead, they constantly seek out new approaches and ideas and try them, instead. No one has a 100% success rate with their endeavors and ideas, but it is the successful ones that provide so much that they more than make up for the failed attempts.

Is Worth Reading?
If I were to hand a recent graduate or a twentysomething a book on modern careers and how to succed in them today, I鈥檓 pretty sure that would be the first book that I would grab.

The ideas in this book are reflected in virtually every workplace I鈥檝e ever been a part of, from entry-level work to highly technical work. The people that stepped up to help others and solve problems were the ones that were indispensable, while the others merely hoped to hold onto their jobs. I also noticed that the people who stepped up to the challenge tended to be a lot more positive about their job, whereas the people who were dispensable were negative about their job and the people around them.

There are a lot of great ideas about the modern workplace in this book. If you鈥檙e struggling in your career, is probably well worth a read.

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