Boost work skills to avoid pink slip

Q: I just had my performance review, and my boss told me that layoffs were possible if business didn't improve. He told me to expect being laid off because I really don't have five years of experience, just one year of experience repeated five times. He said I needed to fix that and fix it fast. What should I do?

A: Kudos to your boss for giving you feedback about your job performance and for being up front about your situation.

Now it's time for you to create a self-improvement plan for increasing both your skill sets and your value to your employer.

Woody Allen once observed that "80 percent of success is showing up." He's wrong. In today's demanding economic and employment environment, employees must do and contribute much more than just showing up.

Take a look at your work colleagues who were hired after you. Are your skills equal to theirs? If your boss had to hire you today, would you meet the all job qualifications, meaning the full package of abilities and organizational fit?

A "no" answer to either of those questions means you've got work to do to take away every reason your boss has for laying you off. You want to be irreplaceable.

Use your boss' advice as a motivator for maintaining a positive outlook and attitude. Studies done by Shawn Achor, a Harvard researcher and lecturer, show that "75 percent of job success results from optimism, stress management and perseverance."

Keep your cool: Don't trash talk your possible layoff situation at work. Strive to get along with people and be well-liked.

Get busy upgrading your old skills and learning new ones. Ask your boss what hard skills (specific teachable abilities that are easy to observe, quantify and measure such as software applications, accounting, product development, etc.) and/or soft skills (think in terms of "people skills," such as communicating, handling conflict, being a team player, etc., that are more challenging to learn yet critical to job success) you need to learn and/or improve.

The Charleston area is full of schools, colleges and universities where you can take classes or get a degree. Check out Trident Technical College, Discovery Training Center, ECPI College of Technology, Springfield College or Strayer University.

If you'd rather take a seminar, visit www.findaseminar.com and look up sessions being offered in the Charleston area on topics related to the skill areas you want to develop. Ask your boss if the company offers any tuition reimbursement for adult education.

Join a local association (visit www.weddles.com/associations to find groups in the Charleston area) and/or read books, the newspaper, blogs, etc., to stay current with what's new in your industry or profession. Find a mentor who will offer candid feedback and coach you along the way.

Make sure you are getting the job fundamentals right: good attendance and punctuality, meeting deadlines, not being a negative Nellie, handling personal business on your own time, keeping the boss informed and dressing appropriately.

Career development is a shared responsibility between you and your employer. Increase your visibility and value to the organization by volunteering for and completing special assignments or tactfully offering suggestions for improvement.

B.C. Forbes, founder of Forbes magazine, offers some good advice: "Think not of yourself as the architect of your career but as the sculptor. Expect to have to do a lot of hard hammering and chiseling and scraping and polishing."

Check in periodically with your boss for feedback on how your career sculpting is coming along!

Jane Perdue is CEO of The Braithewaite Group. The Job Coaches are experienced volunteers from the Center for Women's Job Counseling Program. Ask them a question by calling 763-7333 or e-mailing info@c4women.org. If you would like further assistance, make an appointment; a donation of $10 is requested for appointments.