No one ever plans to be laid off—but in an uncertain job market, the most successful professionals are the ones who plan not to be.
Last week, I hit the first part one of my layoff survival series with Top 7 Reasons for Layoffs and Questions to Ask to Avoid Them.
In my newest lesson, I share 10 powerful strategies to make yourself indispensable at work—the kind of employee companies fight to keep, not cut.
I covered:
- How to consistently deliver measurable results your company can't ignore.
- The exact skills that make you layoff-resistant in any industry.
- Smart ways to stay visible (without bragging) and build influence with decision-makers.
- Why adaptability and financial awareness can protect your role.
- The mindset shift that helps you spot company risk—and prepare early.
If you’re not actively working to become indispensable, you may be more replaceable than you think.
Today’s lesson will show you how to strengthen your position inside your company, build long-term career security, and create opportunities even in uncertain times.
You don’t need to be worried. You just need to be ready.
If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:
1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.
2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.
3. Grab any of my three books related to interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.
4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.
5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!
--Andy
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Part two of my layoff series this one is about making sure that you are absolutely indispensable
we do not want you to be part of a layoff what are some of the best strategies and tactics that you
can take uh and and areas you can focus on to make sure that you become an indispensable employee
(00:21):
i've got 10 of these let's roll all right first thing is I do want you to know there's another
video on my YouTube channel called How to Make Yourself Indispensable at Work this is a great
starting point also for what we're talking about today it goes along with truly making
yourself a valued employee all right number one results so with results I want you to I I I don't
(00:46):
want to just say "Hey crank the widgets out." I want you to make sure that a you are delivering
absolutely exceptional results i mean truly truly exceptional what does that mean well you're not
just delivering you're overd delivering you're not just delivering you're delivering faster
you're delivering more and so when you are looking at the metrics that you need to hit I would try to
(01:11):
overachieve i would always want to overachieve that's that's a just a great thing to begin with
so in the previous session we talked about making sure that you ask the question about
what does success look like a big part of you being successful whether this is a new job or
an existing job doesn't make any difference is knowing what the results were and how you're
(01:33):
going to be measured you need to know what the specific results are that you need to attain
if those are not clear you don't know how well of a job you're doing so that's number one the
second thing is the skill sets now there it's one thing to learn your skills on the job but
what I'm talking about to make yourself truly indispensable is to think about all
(01:54):
of the transferable skills that will transcend or bleed into other positions or will transcend
your level that you are building foundational skills organizational skills communication
skills other sk skills of that nature that are so foundational to any any function that you
(02:14):
could possibly possibly be in these transferable skills will make you indispensable and I I talked
about this a couple of weeks ago where we were talking about the the market we were talking
about AI and I I said I I had talked to about a half a dozen recruiters and I was asking them
were they letting people go how were they choosing this what was happening and every single one of
(02:38):
them said they said when we looked at letting people go if it was due to techn technological
reasons or whatever that might be we hung on to the individuals who were the most versatile the
most likable the best cultural fit and the ones that we could build around even if even if they
didn't have the absolute best technical skills th this is what I'm talking about with item number
(03:01):
two that makes you indispensable it truly does or at least it makes you part of the nucleus that an
organization wants to wants to hang on to all right the next thing relationships now I have
this saying I wrote it in the zebra code it's not who you know it's not what you know it's
who knows what you know well a big part of that is establishing it's three and four establishing
(03:27):
relationships and making sure what you're doing is visible i want to take these together
it's one thing to make sure that you actually know the people and have shown genuine interest
in them this is a big deal i coached a guy a couple weeks ago i've mentioned this a time or
two he'd gotten a job at JP Morgan Chase and he's running a unit with 122 people in it he said to
(03:51):
me "I want to set up a coaching session with you because I really want to build great relationships
with the people that I'm I'm affecting and that are affecting me um people I support people that
are my partners people I manage could we set up a session to do this i said yes and so we spent
an entire hour mapping out a communication plan and a governance plan a communication governance
(04:14):
plan of what he was going to do with his boss and his boss's boss his staff and his staff's staff
and his peers so all of those entities how do you build relationships with them and a big part of
building those relationships was understanding how he supported them what he could do to better
support them what he could do to for them to make them easier for them to support him in those cases
(04:38):
so it was all about the focal point building relationships how is your life going to benefit
for from the fact that I'm here and the next thing is but there needs to be visibility to what you're
doing and what you're producing and a lot of you I know might say "Well dear geez dear Coach Andy
I don't want to brag and I don't want to blow my own horn." I totally get it i'm not even talking
(05:01):
about that and it's nice that if your company wants to put your project in a newsletter they
can do that i'm talking about visibility could this visibility could be hey like that guy uh
that I just mentioned when when you go and you talk to your your your staff's staff it could
be hey I want you to know I put this in place for you i'd really like you to make sure you put your
(05:23):
suggestions here i'm working on these projects where I'd really love your input anything that
makes something known makes it visible um what's wrong with hey you're on a team and you put a best
practice together and that team over there does something a little different but they do like
eight of the nine general steps you do could you give them the checklist could you give them the
(05:47):
methodology can you give them the framework can you can you pow with them there's nothing wrong
with saying "Hey," to your boss "Hey would it be okay if I worked with so- and so to share this
we've now made this a proforma for our team." That could be making things visible that's just
helping that's not bragging right so what you what you're doing needs to be visible and known and
(06:08):
then adaptability so I'm not just talking about I'm not just talking about roll with the punches
i want you to be adaptable in every essence of the word so what do I mean all right well AI
comes around well being adaptable if you're a technologist is learn the damn thing okay
how could how embrace it lean into it don't shy away from it okay don't complain about how it's
(06:32):
replacing people you it's it's here to stay so roll with it that's one thing adaptable could be
hey um we decided we're going to conflate this group and this group we're going to merge them
all right all right well that's change that's an organizational change there's a change management
element to that roll with it right just roll with it embrace it how just automatically assume it's
(06:54):
for the good don't assume it's for the bad don't assume your life's going to be worse
no one cares if it is right it's going to happen you may as well roll with it so those are just
a couple of examples but that's what I'm talking about organizations want people who are adaptable
they do now on the one hand I I like it when when you are flexible in some aspects and inflexible in
(07:20):
other aspects but for the examples that I provided that's where I'm talking about when I when I say
adaptability I think that's one of your greatest assets the next thing is currency are you actually
current in your field i cannot get over I cannot get over how many people don't keep up to date
on the latest changes you know what i'm old i'm going to be 59 in a couple of months all right but
(07:46):
I guarantee you that I am keeping up with all the new trends that are going on in the in the careers
market i'm using every technological tool I can find to make sure that my products and my services
are as good for my customers as they can be you've got to challenge yourself and even if even if your
company is not moving forward you need to be moving forward and you need to be offering up
(08:11):
suggestions on what the latest tools techniques are um whatever it might be and how they can help
you and your team move forward they may or may not be able to budget for it they may or may not be
able to change it on a dime but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be current because I'm telling you
that more likely than not they're going to let the people go who they don't think can keep up with
(08:34):
current current trends and skill sets and then the problems i don't want you to just be a great
problem solver because everybody technically is i just assume you're a good problem solver
which is why you being a problem solver does not set you apart in an interview or for a promotion
or anything of that nature problems are you able to figure out future problems position yourself
(08:58):
today so that you don't have problems tomorrow or you're able to more easily overcome them or you're
working toward tomorrow's problems like I said in the last session so what do I mean maybe you're
the technologist who's developing a platform and right now you're developing it and you're putting
in certain checks balances or you're coding it a particular way or designing it with flexibility so
(09:20):
that in a year or two when you start bolting stuff on it's way easier to maintain that's addressing
future problems right you're bulletproofing something you're making it last or hey I'm
working toward once we get into a capacity where I have so many users on the system I know my problem
number one is to get the platform up my problem number two is to get people on the platform and
(09:46):
then I'm going to be working on a capacity problem because because you're going to be selling more
and we're going to be having more customers i had to message the people who run the Andy AI platform
about performance issues they said "Well we're growing at 86% a month." I'm like "I understand
that but I got people who need to this thing to work right what are you doing to tune it?" So you
(10:07):
you follow me right well that's a problem that's a problem that they need to plan for and they're
these guys are doing actually a great job but it's just an example and then are you costconscious
are you going in and complaining about your compensation when half the people are getting let
go in your company or are you looking at ways to be more frugal in the way your organization spends
(10:28):
money are you going to your boss and saying "Hey here's the technically correct solution it costs
$100 here's the 98% solution we should go with this because it only costs $40 and I probably
can get it down to 30 if we chisel out these two things." Right you're always looking at economics
and you're always thinking of ways if I can do this it will save us money and you're actually
(10:51):
actually having these discussions with the people who matter and then in general I want you to have
a good attitude i think this goes without saying although what I have found lately is that many
people think that their employers owe them a living no one owes you anything your career is
up to you you can outsource a lot of things your career isn't one of them and yes I want you to
(11:14):
work for an organization that loves and cares for you but this is cyclical the better attitude you
have the greater the likelihood that they're going to want to take care of you the worse the attitude
you have the less likely that's going to be the case and then the last thing to round out this 10
is is I want you to be prepared so Allah the first session about investigating them with the 16 uh
(11:40):
different different questions and making sure that you can detect this i I want you to go through the
first nine to make sure that you're absolutely indispensable but if you are not if you if if you
just can't avoid it right i need you to I need you to be making sure that you are continually keeping
yourself up to date as it relates to needing to go into a job search but let me let me tie this
(12:05):
into what I mean about being indispensable at work so I I have a career achievements journal it's got
it's a checklist with 14 items in it i tell you that if you evaluate these 14 items you will be
collecting awesome data about your work history your accomplishments the impact it's had because
(12:25):
it's about the problem that you're addressing the project that you're working on the participants
who are contributing what the business challenge is what you're doing what you're learning all of
the impact you're having and a number of things that you're collecting well every time you do
that every time you do that number one you're positioning yourself you're creating resumeé
(12:47):
building material while it's fresh in your mind so you don't look back four years and go I don't
know i don't know what the metrics are Coach Annie because I didn't capture any of that well you're
going to have it all it goes into your succession planning database or your career development
database or anything that your organization has that keeps performance reviews and other things
(13:08):
in order all that data should be going in there add it as an addendum if they don't have it which
is ridiculous if they don't have it the other thing that it's doing not only is it positioning
you for great stories should you need to go for a promotional interview or an interview with a new
employer but what it's also doing is it's helping your organization reflect on the impact they're
(13:29):
having with their customers or their internal teams or their staff or whoever it is so being
prepared is a combination of pulling this material together for the benefit of your organization
because I guarantee I guarantee people are not doing this at least not unless they're coming
to my shows and they've grabbed the career achievements journal because they don't know
(13:52):
what information to collect or how to use it so I would grab that freebie and this will not only
help you capture the information that is highly beneficial to you as a market for the marketing
uh effort of you but also for the organization from a reflection standpoint not to mention from
a marketing perspective you might be working on projects that will serve as case studies to pitch
(14:15):
to newer to new prospects or or potential clients right so there are a lot of lot of of of value so
let's recap let's recap these 10 results skills relationships and visibility all right being
adaptable making sure you are current on your skill sets making sure that you are working
(14:37):
tomorrow's problems or you are positioning yourself to more easily overcome tomorrow's
problems cost conscientiousness the right attitude and making sure you're prepared all right
hope you enjoyed this little lesson on um making sure that you are layoff proofing your career 10
tactics or strategies to stay indispensable if you like this portion or this part of the series
(15:02):
make sure you click the like button share it people need help if you're here with me live
we're going into the next session if you're watching us on the recording I'll see you next
Part two of my layoff series this one is about making sure that you are absolutely indispensable
we do not want you to be part of a layoff what are some of the best strategies and tactics that you
can take uh and and areas you can focus on to make sure that you become an indispensable employee
(00:21):
i've got 10 of these let's roll all right first thing is I do want you to know there's another
video on my YouTube channel called How to Make Yourself Indispensable at Work this is a great
starting point also for what we're talking about today it goes along with truly making
yourself a valued employee all right number one results so with results I want you to I I I don't
(00:46):
want to just say "Hey crank the widgets out." I want you to make sure that a you are delivering
absolutely exceptional results i mean truly truly exceptional what does that mean well you're not
just delivering you're overd delivering you're not just delivering you're delivering faster
you're delivering more and so when you are looking at the metrics that you need to hit I would try to
(01:11):
overachieve i would always want to overachieve that's that's a just a great thing to begin with
so in the previous session we talked about making sure that you ask the question about
what does success look like a big part of you being successful whether this is a new job or
an existing job doesn't make any difference is knowing what the results were and how you're
(01:33):
going to be measured you need to know what the specific results are that you need to attain
if those are not clear you don't know how well of a job you're doing so that's number one the
second thing is the skill sets now there it's one thing to learn your skills on the job but
what I'm talking about to make yourself truly indispensable is to think about all
(01:54):
of the transferable skills that will transcend or bleed into other positions or will transcend
your level that you are building foundational skills organizational skills communication
skills other sk skills of that nature that are so foundational to any any function that you
(02:14):
could possibly possibly be in these transferable skills will make you indispensable and I I talked
about this a couple of weeks ago where we were talking about the the market we were talking
about AI and I I said I I had talked to about a half a dozen recruiters and I was asking them
were they letting people go how were they choosing this what was happening and every single one of
(02:38):
them said they said when we looked at letting people go if it was due to techn technological
reasons or whatever that might be we hung on to the individuals who were the most versatile the
most likable the best cultural fit and the ones that we could build around even if even if they
didn't have the absolute best technical skills th this is what I'm talking about with item number
(03:01):
two that makes you indispensable it truly does or at least it makes you part of the nucleus that an
organization wants to wants to hang on to all right the next thing relationships now I have
this saying I wrote it in the zebra code it's not who you know it's not what you know it's
who knows what you know well a big part of that is establishing it's three and four establishing
(03:27):
relationships and making sure what you're doing is visible i want to take these together
it's one thing to make sure that you actually know the people and have shown genuine interest
in them this is a big deal i coached a guy a couple weeks ago i've mentioned this a time or
two he'd gotten a job at JP Morgan Chase and he's running a unit with 122 people in it he said to
(03:51):
me "I want to set up a coaching session with you because I really want to build great relationships
with the people that I'm I'm affecting and that are affecting me um people I support people that
are my partners people I manage could we set up a session to do this i said yes and so we spent
an entire hour mapping out a communication plan and a governance plan a communication governance
(04:14):
plan of what he was going to do with his boss and his boss's boss his staff and his staff's staff
and his peers so all of those entities how do you build relationships with them and a big part of
building those relationships was understanding how he supported them what he could do to better
support them what he could do to for them to make them easier for them to support him in those cases
(04:38):
so it was all about the focal point building relationships how is your life going to benefit
for from the fact that I'm here and the next thing is but there needs to be visibility to what you're
doing and what you're producing and a lot of you I know might say "Well dear geez dear Coach Andy
I don't want to brag and I don't want to blow my own horn." I totally get it i'm not even talking
(05:01):
about that and it's nice that if your company wants to put your project in a newsletter they
can do that i'm talking about visibility could this visibility could be hey like that guy uh
that I just mentioned when when you go and you talk to your your your staff's staff it could
be hey I want you to know I put this in place for you i'd really like you to make sure you put your
(05:23):
suggestions here i'm working on these projects where I'd really love your input anything that
makes something known makes it visible um what's wrong with hey you're on a team and you put a best
practice together and that team over there does something a little different but they do like
eight of the nine general steps you do could you give them the checklist could you give them the
(05:47):
methodology can you give them the framework can you can you pow with them there's nothing wrong
with saying "Hey," to your boss "Hey would it be okay if I worked with so- and so to share this
we've now made this a proforma for our team." That could be making things visible that's just
helping that's not bragging right so what you what you're doing needs to be visible and known and
(06:08):
then adaptability so I'm not just talking about I'm not just talking about roll with the punches
i want you to be adaptable in every essence of the word so what do I mean all right well AI
comes around well being adaptable if you're a technologist is learn the damn thing okay
how could how embrace it lean into it don't shy away from it okay don't complain about how it's
(06:32):
replacing people you it's it's here to stay so roll with it that's one thing adaptable could be
hey um we decided we're going to conflate this group and this group we're going to merge them
all right all right well that's change that's an organizational change there's a change management
element to that roll with it right just roll with it embrace it how just automatically assume it's
(06:54):
for the good don't assume it's for the bad don't assume your life's going to be worse
no one cares if it is right it's going to happen you may as well roll with it so those are just
a couple of examples but that's what I'm talking about organizations want people who are adaptable
they do now on the one hand I I like it when when you are flexible in some aspects and inflexible in
(07:20):
other aspects but for the examples that I provided that's where I'm talking about when I when I say
adaptability I think that's one of your greatest assets the next thing is currency are you actually
current in your field i cannot get over I cannot get over how many people don't keep up to date
on the latest changes you know what i'm old i'm going to be 59 in a couple of months all right but
(07:46):
I guarantee you that I am keeping up with all the new trends that are going on in the in the careers
market i'm using every technological tool I can find to make sure that my products and my services
are as good for my customers as they can be you've got to challenge yourself and even if even if your
company is not moving forward you need to be moving forward and you need to be offering up
(08:11):
suggestions on what the latest tools techniques are um whatever it might be and how they can help
you and your team move forward they may or may not be able to budget for it they may or may not be
able to change it on a dime but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be current because I'm telling you
that more likely than not they're going to let the people go who they don't think can keep up with
(08:34):
current current trends and skill sets and then the problems i don't want you to just be a great
problem solver because everybody technically is i just assume you're a good problem solver
which is why you being a problem solver does not set you apart in an interview or for a promotion
or anything of that nature problems are you able to figure out future problems position yourself
(08:58):
today so that you don't have problems tomorrow or you're able to more easily overcome them or you're
working toward tomorrow's problems like I said in the last session so what do I mean maybe you're
the technologist who's developing a platform and right now you're developing it and you're putting
in certain checks balances or you're coding it a particular way or designing it with flexibility so
(09:20):
that in a year or two when you start bolting stuff on it's way easier to maintain that's addressing
future problems right you're bulletproofing something you're making it last or hey I'm
working toward once we get into a capacity where I have so many users on the system I know my problem
number one is to get the platform up my problem number two is to get people on the platform and
(09:46):
then I'm going to be working on a capacity problem because because you're going to be selling more
and we're going to be having more customers i had to message the people who run the Andy AI platform
about performance issues they said "Well we're growing at 86% a month." I'm like "I understand
that but I got people who need to this thing to work right what are you doing to tune it?" So you
(10:07):
you follow me right well that's a problem that's a problem that they need to plan for and they're
these guys are doing actually a great job but it's just an example and then are you costconscious
are you going in and complaining about your compensation when half the people are getting let
go in your company or are you looking at ways to be more frugal in the way your organization spends
(10:28):
money are you going to your boss and saying "Hey here's the technically correct solution it costs
$100 here's the 98% solution we should go with this because it only costs $40 and I probably
can get it down to 30 if we chisel out these two things." Right you're always looking at economics
and you're always thinking of ways if I can do this it will save us money and you're actually
(10:51):
actually having these discussions with the people who matter and then in general I want you to have
a good attitude i think this goes without saying although what I have found lately is that many
people think that their employers owe them a living no one owes you anything your career is
up to you you can outsource a lot of things your career isn't one of them and yes I want you to
(11:14):
work for an organization that loves and cares for you but this is cyclical the better attitude you
have the greater the likelihood that they're going to want to take care of you the worse the attitude
you have the less likely that's going to be the case and then the last thing to round out this 10
is is I want you to be prepared so Allah the first session about investigating them with the 16 uh
(11:40):
different different questions and making sure that you can detect this i I want you to go through the
first nine to make sure that you're absolutely indispensable but if you are not if you if if you
just can't avoid it right i need you to I need you to be making sure that you are continually keeping
yourself up to date as it relates to needing to go into a job search but let me let me tie this
(12:05):
into what I mean about being indispensable at work so I I have a career achievements journal it's got
it's a checklist with 14 items in it i tell you that if you evaluate these 14 items you will be
collecting awesome data about your work history your accomplishments the impact it's had because
(12:25):
it's about the problem that you're addressing the project that you're working on the participants
who are contributing what the business challenge is what you're doing what you're learning all of
the impact you're having and a number of things that you're collecting well every time you do
that every time you do that number one you're positioning yourself you're creating resumeé
(12:47):
building material while it's fresh in your mind so you don't look back four years and go I don't
know i don't know what the metrics are Coach Annie because I didn't capture any of that well you're
going to have it all it goes into your succession planning database or your career development
database or anything that your organization has that keeps performance reviews and other things
(13:08):
in order all that data should be going in there add it as an addendum if they don't have it which
is ridiculous if they don't have it the other thing that it's doing not only is it positioning
you for great stories should you need to go for a promotional interview or an interview with a new
employer but what it's also doing is it's helping your organization reflect on the impact they're
(13:29):
having with their customers or their internal teams or their staff or whoever it is so being
prepared is a combination of pulling this material together for the benefit of your organization
because I guarantee I guarantee people are not doing this at least not unless they're coming
to my shows and they've grabbed the career achievements journal because they don't know
(13:52):
what information to collect or how to use it so I would grab that freebie and this will not only
help you capture the information that is highly beneficial to you as a market for the marketing
uh effort of you but also for the organization from a reflection standpoint not to mention from
a marketing perspective you might be working on projects that will serve as case studies to pitch
(14:15):
to newer to new prospects or or potential clients right so there are a lot of lot of of of value so
let's recap let's recap these 10 results skills relationships and visibility all right being
adaptable making sure you are current on your skill sets making sure that you are working
(14:37):
tomorrow's problems or you are positioning yourself to more easily overcome tomorrow's
problems cost conscientiousness the right attitude and making sure you're prepared all right
hope you enjoyed this little lesson on um making sure that you are layoff proofing your career 10
tactics or strategies to stay indispensable if you like this portion or this part of the series
(15:02):
make sure you click the like button share it people need help if you're here with me live
we're going into the next session if you're watching us on the recording I'll see you next
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