Free Agency

Owning it. Being it.

Successful workforce reentry involves a series of steps. Some are behavior-based (doing vs. thinking), and others are intangible (thinking that leads to new doing). One crucial intangible is taking on a Free Agent mindset, which is to say, seeing oneself as the captain of one's ship, a proactive and independent (internal) repositioning. It's a huge step.

I must introduce two essential concepts before getting into the Free Agent mindset. The first is the overall goal for those reentering and, from my point of view, for all of us: to become self-sufficient, independent citizens in good standing. That, in the end, is what we're out to achieve. I'll have lots to say about this in forthcoming posts.

The second, which is much more specific to reentry, is Personal Job One (PJO). It refers to the one big thing that must be addressed and managed before any hope of success. Here's what I mean: for the person with a drug addiction, it's getting and staying clean. For the alcoholic, staying sober, and for the ex-offender (especially repeat offenders), it means staying away from the people and situations that have contributed to confrontations with law enforcement and incarceration.

As noted, these are Big Fundamental Things—nonetheless, success in managing them is non-negotiable. I use the term "managing" deliberately. In most cases, seeking total victory over issues of this magnitude is unrealistic. Management isn't. It's practical and feasible. It works. Imagine the metaphorical mind-sign that says, "Under New Management."   

A person must be ready to take on this mindset, and they are not while their PJO battle continues. This struggle must end, and they must win, be the victor. Addressing one's PJO comes first. Otherwise, there's no point in developing a Free Agent mindset. Doing so would amount to a premature misfire with little merit or benefit. However, when the PJO issue is dealt with and managed, the victory becomes a confidence builder and a foundation to launch free agency.

The Free Agent mindset is a benefit and a gift that keeps on giving. We live in the "Gig Economy," where new side hustles appear daily. Furthermore, tenure at full-time jobs with stints of nine months here and a year and one-half there are, by "back-in-the-day" standards, hardly more than “gigs.” Grabbing hold of the job search reins as a Free Agent positions the reentering job seeker perfectly with the actual job market landscape.

Another gift (frequently under-appreciated if not completely unrecognized) is that it sets the stage for becoming a first-rate employee. Seeing oneself as a seller of SERVICE to a customer (their employer) is a powerful attribute and something I'll explore in detail in future posts.

Like all mindsets, free agency is nonphysical and abstract. You can’t see or measure it. But as any experienced reentry worker will tell you, a change in perspective, such as integrating a Free Agent mindset, becomes a high-value asset for the challenged job seeker. There's no alteration in the physical world around the person and no immediate outward change in them either, but suddenly, they start rotating on a new axis. Some excitement, enthusiasm, and hope are now present, perhaps just a sliver, but enough for the heads-up helper to notice.

This shift in viewpoint may be subtle, but I can't overstate its importance. The job seeker is ready to take on more ownership and responsibility for their search. By absorbing this change in perspective, they begin to arm themselves for the actual search. They become more receptive to moving out of their comfort zone, such as it is, into the world of work, the Marketplace.   

Onward.