Given layoffs, outsourcing, off-shoring and the destruction of the traditional job and job security, we desperately want to own our future now more than ever. How can you do that when so much seems out of your control? Control what you can: you. Make yourself as valuable as possible by actively building a strong career platform from which to operate despite job changes. Ensure that your marketable skills portfolio is current, strategic and aggressively growing in ways the market will reward through increasing pay and employment opportunities. Putting together that proactive plan for career buoyancy is what this series of articles is about.

Two building blocks of that transcendent career platform are intellectual and social capital. The futurist Gary Marx believes that “intellectual and social capital are the economic drivers of the future.” What are they, why are they so important, and how do you increase the value of yours? These are the questions we’ll seek to answer for this multi-column series of discussions.

First, a focus on intellectual capital. The term is usually applied to organizations as the knowledge, skill, and technologies used to create a competitive edge (Skandia). Intellectual capital at the organizational level encompasses the access to and use of all employees' knowledge and applied experience, and the organizational structure, technology, and professional systems. These elements translate into competitive advantage and monetary gains. For an individual, I define it as the knowledge and experience a person builds that gives them competitive advantage and monetary gain. And what are those skills for you now, and what should they be going forward?

Let’s first look at the dangerous path of assuming rising value, and resultant vulnerability. As a consultant, I have seen people who claim with pride that they have been in a job for 20 years, but don’t realize it has been the same year 20 times. If they ever had to leave the company, they would find their external value has most likely declined.