5 Skills to Succeed in a Squiggly Career

Modern life requires us to shift roles continuously, industries, and locations – something which can be stressful but, with the appropriate tools, can open up opportunities that lead to freedom, purpose, and growth.

This video book introduces five skills that will help you navigate a challenging career with greater ease: strengths; values; confidence; networking; possibilities.

1. Flexibility

As corporate ladder-climbing becomes less of an attractive career goal, employees should increasingly take responsibility for their career development. That means prioritizing learning opportunities while taking calculated risks to pursue those which align with their values, goals, and motivations. Adopting this mindset shift and accepting the Squiggly Career concept is vital to career growth today.

The Squiggly Career is an innovative new way of thinking about career progression that places greater emphasis on how learning, development, and growth affect your development than on what role or company you work at. It encourages an open attitude when setting your path toward fulfilling and meaningful lives.

Flexibility is one of the critical skills necessary to excel in a dynamic career environment since it requires taking risks and moving out of your comfort zone. Though risk may seem frightening, taking this route can prove hugely rewarding and offer endless possibilities!

Flexible work practices also can increase productivity and employee satisfaction and foster an engaged workforce. Being open-minded about taking time off for personal projects or trying out different approaches to collaboration with remote teams may add to greater flexibility when approaching work – one which can boost productivity, employee satisfaction and create an engaged workplace environment.

Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis are co-founders of Amazing If, an organization to improve careers for everyone. Their book The Squiggly Career has become a Sunday Times bestseller, and their podcast, with over 200 five-star reviews, is one of the UK’s most popular career podcasts.

2. Empathy

Empathy is an invaluable skill that is crucial for career success. Empathy allows you to understand the motives and motivations for others’ behavior and can help reduce conflict more quickly. Furthermore, empathy allows you to comprehend your values better so you can make decisions that align with them.

Psychopaths have demonstrated difficulty empathizing with others; psychopaths, in particular, have difficulty processing fearful, sad, and disgusted facial expressions (Blair 1995 and 1996). On the other hand, people with autism show more widespread difficulties with empathy-related skills such as perspective-taking and theory of mind capacities (Lopez and Stueber 2006).

Martin Hoffman has proposed that human altruism may have biological origins in various forms of empathy arousal, such as mirroring, classical conditioning, direct association (where someone’s situation reminds one of their own painful experience), and role-playing. His argument resonates with hermeneutic philosophy’s tradition of explicating methods to grasp significance from texts or historical events (Grondin 1994).

Based on these studies, some philosophers have suggested distinguishing between biologically grounded forms of empathy and those driven by our egoism alone. Unfortunately, researchers have not conclusively rejected every alternative egoistic explanation for why people should empathize and assist each other during distress.

3. Empowerment

The idea that one should climb the corporate ladder and remain in one role throughout their career is becoming outdated. Today, taking charge of one’s career is essential and requires an individualized approach to professional development. Squiggly careers involve building on existing strengths, honing abilities further, and forging your custom path that opens new opportunities. This doesn’t mean switching jobs randomly but taking an integrated view of work and life to make decisions that are best suited to you and only you.

Empower yourself from within by developing self-efficacy from increased skills and building up confidence in a particular area of life. For instance, if something is embarrassing, learning to speak up during meetings and developing presentation skills can help make you more empowered.

Psychological empowerment is a broad concept that refers to an individual’s sense of control over their life, often determined by external circumstances like how women are treated at home and work or due to limited financial access. Psychological empowerment can be gained through various methods, including training courses, learning advocacy skills, or accessing people with greater power.

Empowerment has become a focal point in many organizations, making it essential that managers know how to empower their employees. This involves providing employees with the tools needed for success in their roles and assistance when facing difficulties. Leaders should send consistent messages about its importance – making employee empowerment part of their company culture.

4. Self-awareness

Self-awareness is the art of understanding oneself emotionally and behaviorally, an essential leadership trait. Self-awareness allows you to control your actions while developing empathy towards others and understanding your motivations, triggers, and what makes you tick – qualities essential in career environments where challenges and difficult situations may present themselves unexpectedly.

For example, you might need to have an uncomfortable conversation with a colleague or lead an intimidating project. Being self-aware will enable you to consider how your feelings will influence these situations and figure out an adequate response, helping keep things calm and preventing adverse outcomes that could result from uncontrollable reactions from either yourself or others.

Self-awareness provides another critical benefit of self-knowledge: realizing both your strengths and weaknesses. For instance, perhaps you excel at planning and organizing tasks but have difficulty with teamwork or public speaking – knowing this about yourself allows you to seek support or training to develop these areas more quickly. Furthermore, this awareness can assist with making more informed decisions regarding career choices that offer satisfaction at work while simultaneously meeting individual requirements for productivity and satisfaction.

However, some philosophers are critical of the claim that self-awareness is an inextricable experience component. They point out experiences like thought insertion, anarchic hand, alien limb, and anonymous memory where individuals become aware of their conscious states or actions but do not feel they belong to them (Kornblith 2011: chapter 2). Furthermore, non-reflective animals display responses similar to our ability to revise beliefs when presented with new evidence.

5. Networking

Establishing and cultivating relationships with multi-talented, trustworthy people is integral to successfully navigating your career journey. Not only will you find help when needed – but you can provide it yourself when others need assistance in their journeys.

Networking is also crucial for tapping the unadvertised job market – jobs that don’t appear in classified ads but can be found through networking. Studies show that applying through connections has much higher success rates than applying directly to companies.

One effective way to create this environment is by building a professional community and freely offering your time and expertise. You could do this through speaking at events, volunteering for causes that interest you or co-working with like-minded colleagues, co-mentoring others, or mentoring – even just sharing insights via social media can do.

Few executives can look back without acknowledging key mentors who have helped shape their careers. Mentors play an invaluable role in helping executives utilize their strengths, identify values and discover new opportunities.

Self-awareness and lifelong learning have never been more essential to making the most of career opportunities, and their devolution to managers and organizations doesn’t alleviate them of responsibility – they still can create environments that encourage employees to develop a squiggly career that gives them a competitive edge for future employment.