Find Your Target Market At The Intersection
February 11, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
If you’re a slash careerist, second or third careerist, or hard-core generalist you likely encounter a lot of confusion to your response to the question “so what do you do?”
I’ve found that “I focus on the intersection of……” is a good substitute for “I specialize in…..”
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generalist, marketing , self-awareness, slash career, solo professional service firm
An O/S For Change
February 9, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
Getting clients to write, or in some other way ground, objectify and embody their change experience is like pulling teeth. We’re in the habit of thinking mostly about what we don’t want, and then talking about how we’re justified in having these negative beliefs, thus further locking them in.
Think of your belief system as your internal operating system that drives your life experience but has never been re-booted or de-bugged. Before you can clean out the bad code and replace it with an updated version, you need to dig into it to understand how it drives, or blocks, your fulfillment. Getting your beliefs down in writing, or in a recording, or in a visual are how you get them out of your head, where they spin and spin but nothing really changes.
If you avoid the step of objectifying your change process, and I’ve seen this so many times with clients, it takes much longer to understand your complex system of beliefs that direct, or counter-direct, your personal, professional and organizational responses to change. When you don’t know what you don’t know, you’ll continue to feel powerless as you’re buffeted by the changes impacting your life, your business and your organization.
One caveat about creatively examining your individual or organizational belief system: don’t make it difficult by trying to make it perfect. If writing about your shift feels hard and stressful, then you can be sure that there’s an unwanted belief blocking your progress.
A lot of new-age and mass-market personal improvement material is unconcerned with doing the work that results in a deep level of self-knowledge. It appeals to the desire for a quick fix for being stuck, or getting the fulfillment that eludes. Its understandable why we’re seduced by simplistic positive thinking and creative visualization self-improvement models. But all too often, they just add more layers of “code” on top of an already buggy personal belief system. Improvements are fleeting, action plans are abandoned, and results are often disappointment and frustration. The reason is that hidden beliefs in what is not wanted continue to drive, even if they are hidden and ignored. Until recognized, examined, accepted and released, they will without fail, block quick fix attempts to get to something better, more meaningful and lasting.
The process is the same for collective beliefs as it is for individuals and its critical to leading and facilitating an organizational culture shift. Organizational cultures are collections of beliefs that largely determine the likelihood of success of any change initiative. To ignore, or not examine cultural beliefs is, like with individuals, a path to failure and frustration.
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self-awareness, leadership, organizational culture, self-knowledge
Feng Shui Your Professional Service Firm (PSF)
February 7, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
I get wonderful support, collaboration and inspiration from my allies who are service practitioners in industries seemingly unrelated to mine. I differentiate my business from others in the management consulting industry.
My friend and ally Joan is a corporate escapee and now a natural living, health and wellness educator who is sought out for her Feng Shui programs. I joked that what she does with her Feng ShuI is the “space optimization” version of my “content optimization”.
Joan responded that space optimization is exactly what her business clients are requesting! That sparked a lively conversation through which we discovered that our desired results for clients of our optimization programs are the same: alignment with the ideal and to improve the quality of experience for ourselves, our clients, our clients’ customers and beyond.
Later, I read this HBS newsletter about authors of a new book, When Professionals Have to Lead: A New Model for High Performance. It was just an excerpt, but to me it painted a grim picture of the professional services field from both a manager and employee point of view. The activity and execution-based proposed new PSF framework is largely about setting direction and avoiding counter-direction.
Reading it, I thought: PSFs hunger for it, so where is the creativity..and the Feng Shui? Its not there, and that’s sad. We’re fortunate that as solo’s, we have unlimited opportunities to create and align. Its so important to not waste them.
The dilemma, says HBS professor Thomas J. DeLong, is that the entire PSF landscape is in upheaval. Associates are harder to recruit and keep; competition for clients is increasing from boutiques below and global firms above; the clients themselves are more demanding; and management time is focused on short-term issues rather than long-term strategy.
As DeLong puts it, “In the past, the work of PSFs was a gentleman’s game—and now it’s blood sport.”
Thomas J. DeLong: Professionals in professional service firms are reporting greater frustration, unmet needs, lack of shared purpose, poor morale, etc.
PSFs promise one thing [to clients] and deliver another; clients are asking for more for less. The firms are becoming more global and more complex to lead. The professionals entering these organizations have higher expectations and more suspicion that leaders will treat them like cogs in the wheel.
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optimization, solo professional service firm