A Key Trait To Develop If You Want Flexibility At Work

If you want to live a more spontaneous, FIRE lifestyle even while you still have a job, then you need to negotiate for more flexibility at work. Companies will give workers more flexibility, especially when the worker fulfills a critical need.

If you’re indispensable, you’re more likely to get what you ask for. Indispensability is a key trait to develop if you want flexibility at work – so you can do a digital nomad test run or stay right where you are but work from home or on a different schedule.

One of my consulting clients has been with me for over a year now. It has been an amazing opportunity for me – part-time so I can still work on other projects, but enough hours that it provides steady cash flow. The people are fantastic to collaborate with, and the work (the company is non-profit) is very meaningful. This project was supposed to last for two or three months but has been extended four times. In the final extension, I didn’t even need to come into the office and did the work 100% remote.

If you want to land a flexible, lucrative, and meaningful project of your own, focus on being indispensable to your client. Here are five ways you can be indispensable.

Be productive

Be efficient – i.e., complete your tasks quickly, don’t waste client resources, including management time.

Be effective – i.e., do quality work. With this current client, I was onsite part-time, but I always checked in remotely and responded quickly to inquiries that came to me off-the-clock. That extra effort was just a couple of hours, and I billed for that time, but it saved my client a lot of time because the work never slowed even when I was off-site.

In other words, get stuff done. How can you go above and beyond?

Be reliable

Deliver on time and on task. In addition to being responsive to my various colleagues, I always moved the projects forward. This encouraged them to come to me for more things and embedded me into the organization.

Do your colleagues rely on you?

Be likeable

It’s not enough to just get things done. We spend a lot of time at work and want to enjoy our work. Be enjoyable to work with. You don’t have to be friends with everyone you work with but you want to be seen as someone who contributes positive energy.

At my consulting project, I always prioritized walking around and interacting with various people while I was onsite. A friendly hello is another way to embed yourself into an organization.

Do people want to work with you?

Make (or save) money

Let’s face it – companies need money to keep going, even my non-profit client. As I checked off the various tasks I was working on, I always made sure that we were on budget and that I saved them money where I could.

In one instance, I was able to recruit someone for them, and this hire would have cost tens of thousands of dollars if an outside firm did the work. This made my monthly invoices, even over a year, seem much more palatable.

What do you contribute to the bottom line?

Be solution-oriented

Indispensable workers come up with solutions or ask thoughtful questions to drive towards solutions. The great thing about being seen as a problem-solver is that there are always new problems to solve.

This is how my current project kept being extended. It was a recruiting project, and I would finish the searches I was given but also make recommendations on the overall process or refer people for searches outside my portfolio or help organize past data to make it easier for people to share work. Invariably, this put me in front of more and more people who would ask for my help.

What problems have you solved for your company?

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Indispensable workers add value to their companies. In turn, companies value indispensable workers and are more likely to give them what they want and need to continue doing such a good job. I focus on being indispensable to my clients, and it leads to lucrative, flexible, fulfilling work for me.

How can you be more indispensable?