Spoiler alert: It’s only a matter of time before your organisation announces another major restructuring or rolls out yet another daft new initiative that nobody asked for.
And when it does, you’ll feel the mood tense up. Many people will reach for their comfort zone. They’ll hunker down, defend their job description, and hope the storm blows over without taking them as its victim.
That reactive, defensive crouch can be really dangerous. In my keynote talks and workshops with teams across the world, I see how quickly reliance on past experience can become a perilous trap. Yesterday’s playbook won’t protect you from tomorrow’s disruption.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be indispensable? But you don’t need to know every answer before anyone else. Become indispensable call for you to demonstrate your personal agility to adapt faster than the workplace around you.
And it’s not hard to do.
Here are four simple habits to keep you relevant, high-performing, and indispensable when the ground starts to shift beneath your feet:
1. Spot what is moving before it hits your role
Too many professionals wait for change to land as a corporate directive before paying close attention. By then, their only option is reacting in panic.
In the ReadyAlready framework, the first practical step is to FOLLOW. Train your eye to look outward. Spend just a few minutes each week thinking about the skills you will need to solve the inevitable problems your organisation will soon face.
When you spot emerging opportunities for growth early, you can adapt your approach long before leadership demands it. That forward-looking radar is what separates passive workers from true leaders.
2. Prune your own ‘Wallpaper of Work’
Mindless routines pile up in every business. We cling to legacy processes, update redundant spreadsheets, and attend dreary status catch-ups simply because someone set up an invite three years ago.
I call this the “wallpaper of work.” It feels like productive effort, but left unchallenged, it often turns into organisational rigor mortis.
Make it a weekly discipline to ask “why?” about a routine task on your to-do list. If a legacy report adds zero practical value, or an update can be handled in a single message, suggest scrapping it. Creating space for high-value work proves you care about outcomes rather than just looking busy.
Quick challenge: Pick one task you complete on autopilot every Friday. If you stopped doing it entirely next week, would anyone actually notice? If no, kill it stone dead today.
3. Replace your defensive “No, because…”
Under pressure, human brains naturally seek control. When a colleague brings a rough, unconventional proposal to a planning meeting, the default reaction is often something like: “No, because we tried that in 2017 and it didn’t work.”
That defensive posture kills fresh ideas and creative momentum.
Try swapping your instinctive objection for a generous “Yes, and…” Even when an idea sounds half-baked, build on it. Take what works, suggest an improvement, and help move it forward. Be additive, not destructive.
People who solve collective friction rather than defending old turf become irreplaceable because the boss always wants to have them around.
4. Anchor yourself to a powerful Personal Mission
Change creates noise, and noise creates exhaustion. If you let your morning get consumed by urgent phone notifications and other people’s frantic priorities, you will be exhausted by lunchtime without having achieved anything meaningful.
Before opening your messaging apps each morning, decide on your non-negotiable anchor for the day. Ask yourself: If today gets completely derailed by unexpected crises, what is the single result I refuse to compromise on?
Having that simple anchor keeps your compass steady while everyone around you is racing in circles.
Change will keep arriving, whether we like it or not. You cannot control the speed of the outside world, but you can always control your readiness to meet it.
Pick one of these habits now, step out of the comfort zone, and start turning uncertainty into your greatest career advantage.
Get a fresh dose of future-ready thinking from me, Allister Frost, delivered to your inbox every Friday. Join the ReadyAlready community at hello.allisterspeaks.com.