When I read in the news this week that London’s iconic black cabs will be charging passengers £5 for many journeys booked on a new app, I was delighted!  Not just because I love the iconic black cabs but because it shows how new technology like the GetTaxi mobile app,  (I’m thinking the Keen Group, Addison Lee and many others), and the relentless pace of change, are all serving to drive competition and customer choice for alternatives. The black cab needed to up and change its game FAST to remain a leading player in the taxi market. In much the same way, the things that helped people to job and career success in the past have long gone. No one should expect to have ‘a job for life’ any more. The stakes have changed. It’s now more about demonstrating your ‘employability, the unique value you can add and contributing more than you cost.

Here are 5 Top Tips from the experts at Creativedge to put you ahead of the game:-

1. Think differently…see differently The things that have brought you success so far, give no guarantees for the future. Learn to look forwards not backwards. Look at the familiar but now see something different. If you always do what you always did, you’d always get what you got.

2. Work with change We can cope, adapt to or exploit change; however all of these are reactive. Be the architect for your own future. Learn to create change and be proactive. Change is inevitable, relentless. Don’t fight it – partner with it, capitalise on it.

3. Help create value Stakeholder value is fast becoming a primary goal for large organisations. Value creation is a key factor in how the marketplace keeps a score on business. Learn to recognise how you as an individual create and add value. For example, how can you cut costs? How can you boost productivity? How can you delight customers? How do you make a difference? Raising the organisation's prosperity is the surest way to raise your own – as employees our futures depend on contributing more than we cost.

4. Balance the wheels As our world speeds up, so time seems to shrink. We’re caught up in this age of ‘instancy’ feeding the feelings of stress. As the workplace gets wired, work follows us home, and home goes to office. Work time and home time are blurring together; it’s all too easy to over-commit. It’s also important to note that so much of our work is now knowledge work – using the head, THINKING. That takes a lot of mental energy and this not a task that we can leave at the office. Learn to rebalance the wheels; Start less, finish more. Learn to say ‘no’ - mainly to yourself. Do something you want to do, every day.

5. Stay Optimistic and opportunities-minded Change grabs people’s attention (like this cab news did mine!). And our reactions to it usually reveal more about us as individuals than about the situation itself. Optimism versus pessimism? A positive emphasis on an opportunity, as opposed to a negative one to problems. It’s a simple difference in outlook – but has a profound difference in how it affects your performance.

What’s your bias when change hits? Need more tips on Job and Career Success or for a range of other management and trainer issues from experts? Visit the new Creativedge free mobile App providing immediate, expert management and personal development tips and advice.