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When talking about career strategies, there are two main types: those that focus more on what position you want to have in the workplace and how to climb the ladder within your organization, and ones that look outside of work for ways to boost your income.
The first type is referred to as a “K” strategy or a “knowledge” strategy because it focuses on accumulating knowledge and developing skills so you can advance within an organization.
The second type is called an “R” strategy or a “revenue” strategy because it looks to increase your income by seeking out and engaging in opportunities to make money.
There are some people who have successful balanced careers that combine both types of strategies. But most professionals seem to favor one over the other.
This article will talk about why this is and some things you may be able to do to improve your own R-strategy. Then we’ll discuss something related to the K-strategy and see whether they play a role in shaping yours too.
I’m going to call these two concepts “life planning.” This term seems like a cliché at this point, but I really believe it makes sense.
K-strategists believe that if you keep trying, you’ll succeed. They feel hope in your potential to achieve your dreams, but this hope is not full confidence or enthusiasm for your future endeavors.
It’s more like knowing what we have to do, and having some intention of doing it, which makes us feel slightly better. But we still must struggle with ourselves to put effort into things, which brings up all sorts of feelings.
This internal conflict can make us feel tired and overwhelmed. So instead of picking one thing to focus on, we give up because there are just too many obstacles in our path.
But I think you already know who the k- strategists are.
K-strategists strive to achieve their goals as efficiently as possible, typically focusing on one task at a time.
They believe that you should do what needs to be done in order to reach your goal and then focus on another step. This can sometimes make it seem like k- strategists don’t know how to stop once they have started an activity.
Because they prioritize efficiency, k- strategists tend to avoid situations where there is a chance of being distracted or slowed down.
As a result, they may come across as having zero social skills. It is difficult for them to handle conversations because they are always focused on getting things done. They may also feel nervous about spending time with others due to this quality of efficient behavior.
K- strategists often describe themselves as workaholics and perfectionists. Because they devote so much energy to achieving their goals, they may lose touch with those around them.
At times, they can appear self-focused and hard to connect with.
As I mentioned before, R-strategists focus more on what they need to do next rather than how they will achieve their goal. They spend most of their time thinking about the next action or task that needs to be done with little consideration on why this action is needed.
This can sometimes make them feel restless as they move onto the next thing without really focusing on the current task.
By having such a short term focus, R- strategists often come across as being constantly active but not necessarily engaged in anything specific. This type of person may also show tendencies towards activity avoidance due to fear of wasting time.
Because they don’t give much importance to motivation, R- strategists may fail to maintain morale and help motivate others around them.
K-strategists on the other hand, are motivated by rewards. These rewards can be internal like feeling happy or confident after doing something or external like earning money for it.
A kenetic (or growth) strategist believes that life is an endless series of experiments in self-improvement. Because they believe that you’re never finished developing yourself, they think it makes sense to be constantly investing in your own skills and knowledge.
A kenicist also believes that everything in nature grows through reproduction. This includes people. By this logic, if we want to see our individual lives grow and even flourish, we must keep investing in new experiences and opportunities.
In other words, kenics feel that it's important to strive for constant personal development. They consider this goal worthy enough to make time for every day.
An r-strategy is characterized as being in a state of constant decline. This theory says that companies need to be constantly shrinking to keep up with competition.
Companies under this theory go through what they call an “reorganization” or “restructuring.” During these times, departments get shut down or cut back on to conserve money. Managers are told to give less priority to their department since it no longer exists.
The goal of restructuring is to save the company by reducing overhead costs. By laying off employees, giving them limited benefits, and shutting down offices and resources, employers can lower their operating cost per employee.
This way, they remain competitively priced while at the same time saving money. It was quite common for large corporations to enter into reorganizations every year, so this theory seems plausible.
As I mentioned earlier, there is a name for people who spend money in ways that make them feel good about themselves, but don’t necessarily have a lot of savings. They may keep buying expensive things because they believe they deserve it or because they think they're important enough to buy such products.
However, this doesn't leave much room for saving in the future. If you want to save money, you'll need to recognize that spending money isn’t always a good thing.
It can create a sense of entitlement which makes you expect to be paid more than your colleagues with the same job – even if you don’t do as well. It also sets up a habit of overspending which could lead to financial problems later.
By learning how to manage your money using the basics of budgeting, you can break this cycle. You will learn how to say no to yourself, and stay within your means. This will help you achieve your goal of having a stable income and a steady savings rate.
Budgeting works by separating your monthly expenses into three different categories: bills that are necessary for living (like rent or utilities), daily costs like food, drink, and transportation, and discretionary purchases (things like phone services, internet access, etc.).
You should aim to allocate the same amount of money across each category, unless you know better than we did when these categories were first established.
As I mentioned earlier, R-strategists will always want to do what is best for them in terms of wealth accumulation. They make decisions that maximize their income, minimize debt, and increase savings.
However, this consistency is not necessarily good or consistent. You see, when an individual enters into a rut of spending, it can become difficult to break out of that habit.
When we talk about ruts, we mean times where individuals spend money consistently outside of special occasions. This could be due to financial reasons (paying monthly bills), psychological ones (you stop wanting to buy things because you have enough) or physical ones (no more snacks at work).
Given how powerful habits are, breaking a spending rut can take a lot of effort and time. It may even feel impossible at first!
Fortunately, there are some strategies that can help you get back onto track. Here are three such tips.
K-strategists aim to win at any cost, with no limits. They strive for excellence in every area of their life, including business, career, family, and hobbies.
Ks often talk about “maxing out” through various activities — they try to achieve their personal best in school, work, sports, and other areas of their lives by putting in as much effort as possible.
Because they believe that you never know when something will pay off, ks keep moving forward even if things don’t go their way right away.
This can make them feel uncomfortable because they need to stay motivated even when everything seems hopeless. However, it also helps them retain motivation since they realize there is always tomorrow.
By having this constant motivation, they find themselves doing all sorts of unexpected things because they recognize the value of what they are doing.
Some examples of how ks apply this principle include saving people’s lives by giving first aid after an accident or working hard to earn enough money to fulfill their dreams.
