How much Opportunity Equity have you built?
by Garland McWatters
How much personal value are you creating in yourself?
I had a client who asked me to work with them on a mentoring program. They found themselves with a workforce where a number of employees were ready to retire, a large number of employees who were new, and, in the middle, a group of employees who had been with the company for many years who were good, reliable, steady, and unprepared for advancement into management.
Although the company had encouraged professional development, had a tuition reimbursement program for continuing education, supported civic involvement, and had offered a number of training programs on a volunteer basis, few had taken advantage of them. Consequently, many, otherwise valuable employees, offered no value as potential supervisors ready for immediate promotion. They had failed to develop any equity in themselves from the opportunities they had to do so. And yet, they wondered why they were not being considered for advancement.
Presence on the job is not necessarily preparation for advancement.
Your personal equity is the value you create in yourself that travels with you from opportunity to opportunity. It’s what you have to offer beyond the cost of your presence. Every opportunity you get along the way that gives you knowledge, skill, insight, wisdom, or maturity is an investment in yourself that can never be taken away from you. I call it your Opportunity Equity. It’s the way you INPower yourself to lead the life you want.
Whatever you learn is never wasted.
Opportunity equity comes in a variety of forms. It comes from volunteering in the community to help improve the quality of life for any and all who make their home in it. It comes from exposing yourself to new and different activities and events that might be of little immediate interest but end up enriching your life in ways you would never have envisioned. It comes from exposing yourself to new ideas and cultures that push the edge of your comfort zone and make you more aware and compassionate of those who live outside your bubble. It comes from taking on a work assignment that might seem risky and unfamiliar but will provide entrée to new skill sets and insights.
It’s said, “luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” The equity you build in yourself will be one of those ingredients of a “lucky” future.
The INPowered are those who act to make things better for themselves and others. A key to their INPowerment is that they developed their Opportunity Equity.
Garland McWatters is founder of INPowered to Lead and provides leadership and personal development courses. He is an author and storyteller an hosts two podcasts: INPowering Thoughts and The Spirit of Leading. See https://garlandmcwatters.com.
Garland is involved in the NextGen Oklahoma Leaders movement. www.nextgenunder30.com