The Internet has leveled the playing field and literally opened the market giving us access and innovative, exciting ways to find employment, build businesses, and connect with family, friends, clients, and, yes, even strangers. YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, ODesk, Twitter, and other business development and social networking sites have broken the chains of tradition, becoming gateways to accessing a vibrant buying, selling, and hiring marketplace.

In addition, the new economic, political, and social climate is inspiring us to swiftly redefine our passions and priorities and how we express them. The workplace as we have known it is rapidly transitioning; creating an open market. A corporation no longer has to hire a person on their native soil to get work done. They can literally hire someone in another country to make and receive calls, build and update their websites, and solve technical difficulties.

Subsequently, forward-thinking leaders are shifting company cultures and projecting how to best attract, recruit, and retain the most dynamic trailblazers of upcoming decades. These leaders are looking for responsible partners not employees. The partners come fully loaded with utilizable intellectual property and presence that adds value to the organization’s goals and direction. The partners come knowing that they are knowledgeable, but don’t know it all. Therefore, they’re open to growth through experience and learning centers—books, internal and external development workshops, and industry conferences and forums.

In the ever-changing, extremely competitive marketplace—in addition to slaying micro-managed leadership styles that squash creativity and risk-taking—a well-rehearsed, staged presentation that fits what you think leadership is looking for is not going to fly anymore. Therefore, an image that mirrors leadership is no longer a guarantee for success. If they already have one, why do they need another? You have to give them a logical reason to want to pay the big bucks for you! And unlike the last several decades where showing up for work on time, keeping your mouth shut and doing your job secured rewards, career advancement now depends on innovation, intellectual property, and value proposition.