GovernmentExecutive.com

abramson@leadership.com

he budget deal is done. The deficit is coming down and so will the number of federal jobs. What does this mean for you? It means you should make career management a high priority.

The concept of career management, however, remains foreign for many. In the old days, career management was simple: You were hired, stayed in your job and looked forward to promotions, which came along predictably. Those days are gone. Promotions now come slowly, along with the constant threat of downsizing.

Given the trend toward downsizing in both the public and private sectors and the decrease in loyalty to employees, new ways are now needed to think about careers and career management. Free Agents: People and Organizations Creating a New Working Community by Susan Gould, Kerry Weiner and Barbara Levin, and David M. Noer's Breaking Free: A Prescription for Personal and Organizational Change set forth new perspectives on careers. Free agents are not just external consultants, freelancers or part-timers, according to Gould, Weiner and Levin, who say the concept includes those who work full time in organizations. Being a free agent is really a state of mind, the authors say, in which one takes full responsibility for his or her career and is ready to move on at the appropriate time. Free agents view themselves as equal partners to their employers, and take responsibility for their personal and professional development.

Free Agents provides step-by-step guidance on how to move through the three stages necessary to take control of your career: separating, redefining and positioning. The final stage is sustaining a career as a free agent. To remain free agents, Gould recommends that people research new and emerging markets and re-evaluate their skills to ensure future employability. Free agents must always be prepared to explain their "portfolio of assets"-values, skills, special knowledge and expertise, personal characteristics and professional goals-and how they provide value to their customer.

In Breaking Free, Noer focuses on coping with change-both within an organization and during career transitions. Noer describes the following four types of individuals with his Response Factor model:

• Overwhelmed: low comfort with change, low capacity for change.
• Entrenched: low comfort with change, high capacity for change.
• BSer: high comfort with change, low capacity for change.
• Learner: high comfort with change, high capacity for change.

In today's world of constant change and uncertainty, Noer says we all must become learners. He notes that organizations demonstrate the same four patterns of response behavior.

Organizations must also change to respond to the increased number of free agents and learners. Noer advocates freedom-oriented organizations in which people are there because they choose to be, not because they have to be. These organizations are dedicated to their customers, their product and their value. Organizations, according to Gould, Weiner and Levin, must now create and maintain free-agent communities in which they can quickly acquire people with new or different skills and expertise; build short-term commitment to corporate goals; maintain high performance; and still have the flexibility to disband and reconfigure teams and sometimes entire departments.

Individuals need a network as well, whether they are self-employed free agents or 30-year employees of an organization, according to Harvey Mackay in Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty. Mackay writes, "Up the proverbial creek? If you've got a network, you've always got a paddle." While Mackay's advice is sometimes too calculated for my taste, the book will be especially helpful to novice networkers who are building their Rolodexes. The book includes advice on where to go to start a network: alumni clubs, industry associations and social clubs are all recommended.

In the free agent's world, networks become, in essence, an individual's new organization. In an era of cutbacks, the number of federal employees moving from agency to agency is likely to increase. A free-agent mentality and large network of friends and associates are key ingredients to success in the government of tomorrow.

Mark A. Abramson is chairman of Leadership Inc. and a faculty member of George Mason University's public administration department.