“Living in fear of loss of job and income,” management guru Peter Drucker once wrote, “is incompatible with taking responsibility for job and work group, for output and performance.”

When Drucker wrote this he was chiefly talking about the safety nets of unemployment compensation and severance pay, but also added: “Wherever a business has provided real job and income security, resistance to change or to innovate has disappeared.”

There is also a powerful hidden lesson in this outlook when you apply it to today’s job world: The reason why so many people are casualties of massive company cutbacks is often that they did not take the initiative themselves to redefine their own jobs and make them more relevant. every several months, you should take a look at your job description and make some notes on it:

• What things are you spending time doing that your boss thinks are less/more important today than they may have been several months ago?
• What things are being done by your boss that he or she sees as significant drains on his or her time and which you could perhaps help with and share his or her burden?
• What are customers complaining about that is reversing their buying decisions or undercutting their loyalty to your firm…and which of these fall into your scope or responsibility?

Constantly initiate change to your own job to keep pace with company innovations and new market conditions.  The best road to job security is to keep your job relevant.

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