Star of Job Security

Job security must be a concern for every employee, even the highly capable and ambitious, and even those at the top. If capable, ambitious employees have more to gain from employment, they must also have more to lose. So they are possibly more vulnerable rather than less.

Your Core Activity

Tracking your position-CG4_B is the central Centre of the Tree and it turns out to be central in your concerns and a constant demand on your time and energy.

It should be obvious that tracking your position is the essential activity in ensuring your security. It is foolish to attempt to do anything to improve or better yourself, or even to help the organization, without having a sense of what is going on and how you fit in. I realize that every employee knows this—but our task here is to make explicit what is often silently assumed or implicit, and then see where such simple observations take us.

The organization needs you to act with discretion, and management actively desires and expects you to be aware of situations—that is why the Centre is balanced. By serving yourself, you serve the organization!

Every Channel that connects to tracking your position-CG4_B is about:

► knowing what is going on around you in some aspect of employment
► altering what you do in accord with your perceptions of employment

The result is a Star, as shown in the diagram.

Remember that this is a dynamic Star. Nothing is static or permanent. Tracking your position must go on constantly, even if the focus is continually shifting amongst the relevant Channels.

Noticeable Features

The omission of seeing challenges-CG1_B.

The Star's axis driver is Satisfaction. You must ask yourself: on balance, is your place in the organization worthwhile in terms of the benefits that you receive and that incline you to stay in your job? If dissatisfied, why would you want security?

The Star's axis servant is Status. It is irrelevant whether you seek status: in an organization, you will have a status, and it will affect your security and success. More

Status determines whom you can influence and how easily you can influence them to get your own work done properly and to have your contribution recognized. Employment work involves getting others to cooperate (whether they are superiors, subordinates, or co-workers), and so you must know your Status. If you don't, there will be humiliation for someone and energies, your own and others', will be wasted.

Lower Channels, dealing with Approval and Reinforcement, are about seeing whether your personal contribution is being validated. e.g.► Is your proficiency respected? Is there approval for how you go about your work and what you produce? When you speak up, are you listened to?  If you make a suggestion, is there a response? Do you get encouragement to think outside your own area?

Upper Channels are more obviously about security. Intelligence and Vigilance (= personal protection) involve actively monitoring and seeking information relevant to your regular activities and to any concerns. You can further enhance security by following those individuals whose leadership star is waxing; and you can also make your own bid for leadership in small and large ways.

In all the Channels, your dispassionate and reflective judgement is what largely determines your success.

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► Move on to the Diamond of Ambition.

Originally posted: 17-Dec-2011