Cameron and Clegg received an unwanted ‘wedding present’ in Downing Street when they saw yesterday’s unemployment figures.
53,000 more people lost their jobs in the three months to March taking the total number of unemployed to 2.51 million – the worst figures for 15 years.
Sahar Hashemi, the founder of Coffee Republic and bestselling author, explains to employees how to stay in work during this competitive period in her new book, ‘Switched On’.
“It’s time for employees to undo long held beliefs about working life and awaken their creative skills. A job has become the most precious commodity in people’s lives, something to be cherished and nurtured,” she says.
For so many the words entrepreneur or innovator conjures up images of really off the wall people living life on the fringe or cult personality types. But these assumptions are misleading and stop us believing that we too can innovate or make a difference in the workplace.
Economists are predicting that globalisation and the growth in technology will raise the jobless tally to over three million in the next twelve months. Keeping, protecting and enhancing your job is now the ultimate goal. Today’s job market is fragile and will be for some time.
The old belief that it’s enough to just turn up and do your job no longer works. “As one CEO said to me,” “employees just being in the background playing a silent part like extras in a movie doesn’t do anyone any good. We need them to have starring roles,” says Sahar.
To unleash creativity we must overturn the belief that only entrepreneurs and ‘special people’ are creative.
Of the British labour force, only 5.7% are actually involved in entrepreneurial activities according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2009. That means 94.3% of the adult population are not entrepreneurs.
But developing the “entrepreneurial mindset” is vital for British employees.
If traditional working life has switched you off and made you into an automaton, Sahar’s book can help. Switched on aims to nurture new habits, new ways of thinking and to develop your entrepreneurial mindset.
‘Switched On’ for job protection:
As more and more jobs are lost through recession, globalisation and new technology, being ‘Switched On’ ensures you are relevant and vital to your organisation.
‘Switched On’ for job progression:
Being ‘Switched On’ gives you the tools to climb the corporate ladder, make a huge impact at work and advance in the workplace rather than remain static.
‘Switched On’ for work happiness:
There is a direct correlation between how well you do something and how much you enjoy it. Happiness is not written next to the exit sign and work shouldn’t be the opposite of play or leisure. We spend around three-fifths of our lives working, with the other two-fifths taken up with childhood, retirement and sleep. Is it fair that we should spend such a large chunk of our lives doing something that is the opposite of play? Work is an integral part of life, not a counterbalance and there is something very wrong with hating what you spend most of your life doing, dreaming of weekends, of one day setting off on your own, or waiting for retirement.
In actual fact, the opposite of work is not play, it’s being idle and being switched on to life means engaging with work and play. Individuals need to stop seeing work as a school they resent attending and must never resent the success of the company. This is negative for you and the company you work for.
But isn’t it ironic that an entrepreneur should write a book aimed at employees?
“I realise there is a certain irony to me writing this book – an entrepreneur writing an ode to corporate life,” says Sahar. “But it has become strikingly clear to me that an entrepreneur tackles their work in a particular way and there is great potential for an employee to do the same.”
“I always have people coming up to me – people working in great companies, with lots going for them – but their really big dream is leaving and setting up on their own; it’s the light at the end of the tunnel. The shame is that they are actually doing well and they have everything they dream of right in front of them but, they just don’t see it. They have this entrepreneurship fantasy but what they don’t realise is that this fantasy is there for the taking, even working for a large company.”
Sahar says “The new era we live in, technology and outsourcing have changed the game. Old beliefs are outmoded and companies need their employees to be entrepreneurial and innovative, forward thinking and to be themselves wholly in their work and that’s great news—because the old mould just doesn’t fit anymore. Today you can be 100% yourself, not check your personality at the door before you go in, and this is what makes work fun, brings passion, realness and excitement. Plus the added bonus is – you get ahead- and become an indispensable part of the new way!”
“In my first book Anyone Can Do It, I explained that everyone has an entrepreneur within and it’s the same here – the ‘can do’ spirit is innate. We all have it, lying dormant, and I think there’s something about working for someone else which stifles that spirit. It’s partially the lure of the comfort zone, the routine, not wanting to ‘push too hard’, the safety net. There is no incentive to push beyond.”
“But Switched On is a wake-up call out of that comfort zone, to go on a new exciting journey where you develop the same personal engagement and innovation mindset as entrepreneurs. Here I don’t mean you’re coming up with the next iPod or develop genius overnight, but create little innovations, and try out new ways of doing things. This fundamentally recognising that doing the same thing over and over again assumes everything is permanent. In fact nothing is permanent and we need to re- think how we work every day.”
“And the great thing is that this re-awakening of your creative skills is invigorating and energising on a personal level,” says Sahar.
Sahar’s influence over the working lives of others is so profound that she was awarded the title ‘Pioneer to the Life of the Nation’ by her Majesty The Queen The Daily Mail has named her one of the most Influential Women in Britain, she was named a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum in Davos and one of Management Today’s Top 35 Women in Business Under 35. A Shell livewire survey of inspirational role models ranked Sahar 5th, after Sir Richard Branson, Sir James Dyson and the late Dame Anita Rodddick. She continues her work as an Ambassador for The Prince’s Trust and Corporates for Crisis.
Since Sahar Hashemi’s book – ‘Anyone Can Do It’ – became Number One on the Amazon Business chart, translated into six languages, there has been a glut of books singing the praises of the type of person that leaves work to risk it all on an entrepreneurial quest for glory. Dragon’s Den star Duncan Bannatyne was so inspired by Sahar, he named his own autobiography ‘Anyone Can Do It’. Then there’s Dragon’s Den’s ‘Your Road to Success’, James Caan’s – ‘The Real Deal’, Theo Paphitis’ ‘Enter the Dragon’, Peter Jones’ – ‘Tycoon’ and Evan Davis’ – ‘Your Idea can make you Rich’. The list goes on…
Switched On redresses the balance and speaks to employees. It takes business books down a new path. Once again Sahar Hashemi leads the way.