Structuring one's career around one's core skills and developing the ability to market them effectively is the essence of portability, and developing a portable executive mind-set is critical for all executives, be they employed by large organizations or operating on a contract basis.
With today's college graduate expected to average six job changes over the course of their careers-four of which will end in no-fault termination-it is imperative for them to move to adopt the attributes of portability that will ensure work continuity. Continuity of work in the 1990s and beyond will mean having a series of work assignments-often with multiple employers which build on an executive's core skills and offer the opportunity to expand and deepen them throughout one's career.
Attributes of a Portable Executive
Whether operating within or outside an organization, portable executives possess a number of distinctive attributes that give them a unique edge in negotiating the new employer-employee relationships. They have adopted an entirely different approach to work that distinguishes them from other executives, who see their jobs primarily as simply serving the needs of the corporation they work for.
Everything a portable executive does springs from a core attitude of self-direction. Today's portable executives recognize the limits of ceding their identity and the lifetime welfare of their careers to any one organization, and they adjust the relationship they have with any employer accordingly. They accept that they-and they alone-are responsible both for the quality of their work and the continuity of it, and that attitude is evident even among those employed by large organizations.
Matthew Peach, a fifty-seven-year-old manager who moved to AT&T's innovative Resource Link, a division of the company that places those who have been downsized from full-time AT&T positions in interim assignments elsewhere within AT&T, echoes Litt's thinking: "I like the fact that now I'm being evaluated strictly on the basis of my contributions, rather than all the nebulous things ... like how good a politician I was, or how perceptive I was with the boss and in the climate. I'm more self-reliant."
Content over Status
As both Stuart Litt's and Matthew Peach's statements reflect, until very recently, an executive's next assignment within an organization-the proverbial move up the corporate ladder-was in some measure dependent upon political acumen. Now that lifetime commitments and the corporate ladder are disappearing, ex-executives are motivated to do quality work, and politics is subordinated to getting the job done.
Portable executives approach their work as assignment-oriented and are prepared to go in, get the job done, and leave. Often described as "quick studies," they bring an exceptional degree of energy and focus to an assignment, assimilate effortlessly into a team, accomplish the specified task, and move forward. Moreover, portable executives assess the value of any given assignment with a view to its potential to both deepen and broaden their existing skills in a way that will increase their ability to get the next assignment.
As both employers and employees adapt to working relationships that are geared to serve the immediate needs of the organization, it becomes obvious that the perks and other incentives once coupled with increased responsibility to lure executives up the ladder are less important. As Thomas Dooley, former CEO of the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, stated, "I was less concerned with status and more concerned with getting the job done." The lure for today's portable executives is the work itself, and as they approach each new assignment, they must evaluate it in terms of the rewards that will accompany accomplishing it, and the extent to which the assignment will improve their marketability over the long term. "You have to decide," says one marketing executive we interviewed, "whether the space you are allowed to work in makes you feel comfortable, and whether the mission that you have to accomplish within that space is one that you can buy into and make a contribution to. That's what you have to look for in an executive position today. If you have your choice of assignments, you have to evaluate which ones will give you the best experience and increase the breadth of your knowledge and your skill set." Portable executives experience the inner contentment and satisfaction that comes from the confidence of knowing they can rely on their core skills to generate continuity in their work lives.
As that inner confidence builds, many, like former human re-sources coordinator Elaine Bednarski, realize that losing a job is no longer a major threat to their existence. As Bednarski put it, "I'll always be responsible for myself. If I lost my job, I'd just take my skill set and move to another company." The portable-executive mind-set, which values work over the organization, is ultimately an attribute that generates both self-reliance and greater freedom.
