Posts tagged as:

core competency

Assess your skills, then address weaknesses

by Peter Osborne on July 13, 2010 · 0 comments

Peel back the layers and dig deep to identify weaknesses to focus on

Assessing your strengths and weaknesses is a critical first step in determining whether your personality and skills (i.e., your core competencies) are a good fit for the challenges of a portfolio career.

My strengths in a corporate environment came from my ability to see problems (particularly barriers to marketing success) and bring people together to solve them.  My communication skills helped a lot in that respect, but my success was tied in no small part to my ability to navigate the corporate infrastructure and get people moving toward a common goal.  The challenge is translating those skills to my current path.

But I’m not as comfortable at building strong one-on-one relationships, at going to a function and meeting people in a business atmosphere.  I hang back; I worry that I don’t come across well.  That’s why I signed up for Keith Ferrazzi’s Relationship Masters Academy, to learn some skills that will help me more effectively sell myself to prospective clients (and, I suppose, prospective employers). 

One thing I’ve learned is that maybe my skills weren’t as weak as I thought.  One RMA exercise asked us to describe a way we drove accountability at the team or individual level.  I submitted the Daily Huddle that I used to run at Bank of America (here’s a version that I published in my Bulldog Simplicity blog) and was somewhat surprised to “win” the weekly contest.  Well, Keith described the Huddle in his blog post today.  And suddenly, my weakness is a well-publicized strength.

The point is, you need to take a hard look in the mirror and decide where you come up short.  What skills do you lack that might have made a difference when it came down to you or someone else (either when the layoff decisions were being made or today, when you compete for a job or project)?  What skills do you need as a free agent (consultant or project person) that you really didn’t need (or that you got from another member of your team) in your last job?

Then go develop those skills.  If you can’t (or won’t), then a portfolio career might not be for you.

{ 0 comments }

Balancing consulting, job search can be challenging

by Peter Osborne on June 16, 2010 · 0 comments

“Be careful,” someone told me around this time last year.  “You’re going to find it really difficult to try to build a consulting business and continue doing an effective full-time job search. 

He was right.  And he hadn’t even mentioned the third leg of the stool: family responsibilities, which included travel sports, college applications and visits, and a host of other distractions (including spending more time with my wife now that I was at home most of the time) .

So I focused more on the consulting than the job search.  Sure, I responded to some job postings, did a lot of networking, spent time on Indeed.com and Netshare, and got a few interviews (it’s ugly out there for a former credit-card executive) but more of my time has been spent on prospecting for clients and doing the work. 

I’m constantly plagued with doubts as to whether I took the right path.  My value proposition as a consultant is somewhat different from what I’d be looking for in a full-time position.  There have been more down months than up months, revenue-wise.  Severence ended a long time ago.  But I truly believe that Consultant Launch Pad will provide a valuable service to people like me and that there will be reasonable opportunities to make money by providing valuable services to this community.

But if you’re in the same boat I was (and am) in — consulting may have become a necessity instead of an option — and you’re thinking about balancing a job search and consulting/contracting, you need to consider a few things:

  • Don’t waste “personal contact” and “networking opportunities on ordinary job-hunting.  It will confuse the people you’re talking to and your answer will probably confuse them when they ask “what do you need from me.’
  • A timely consulting proposal shows you off as a potential employee.  The whole business-development process normally gives you access to high-level contacts you might not otherwise meet, provides you with something meaningful to talk about, requires you to show your credentials, and forces you to operate in a “selling” mode.
  • Consulting gives you a greater opportunity to “audition” for the job with far lower risk to the prospective employer.  And remember, the job market is less about finding the perfect person than it is about not filling the job with the wrong person.
  • Not getting a consulting or contract seems, at least to me, to be far less personal or depressing than getting a “no” to a job application.
  • It may be easier getting a “yes” when you’re taking a portfolio approach (i.e., looking to get 4-5 ongoing projects that may take advantage of a range of skills and provide you with an acceptable combined income).  Companies are more willing these days to spend a few thousand dollars a month with no benefits and no overhead than they are to committing to a full-time person.

This is not an easy decision and should not be entered into out of desperation if you can avoid it.  Skills that worked well in a corporate environment may not work as well when it’s just you.  It’s different executing on someone else’s idea than it is finding someone who has a problem that you can help fix, often when other people in the company resent your presence or have other priorities.  But it can also be extremely gratifying when you get that “yes” on a project and do such a good job that the client hires you for more projects or tells others about you. 

Let me turn to more experienced consultants for a little third-party perspective.  Please use the Comments box to outline a typical day in your life of balancing actual projects with your sales efforts (and family responsibilities).  I believe readers thinking about making the leap will see just how difficult it is to find enough hours in a day…with a full-time search on top of things.

{ 0 comments }

Must Read: D.School Bootcamp Bootleg

by Peter Osborne on May 30, 2010 · 0 comments

http://dschool.typepad.com/files/bootcampbootleg2009.pdfDo I need an MBA to get a consulting job?

It’s a question I hear every now and then from people trying to make the decision about consulting.  I hope not — since I don’t — but you need to be able to explain what makes you different, what skills you offer and methodologies you use (or might use, depending on the situation).

That’s why a New York Times article in January about reinventing the MBA curriculum got my attention.  As one person put it, “At business school, there was a lot of focus on ‘You’ve got a great idea; here’s how to build a business out of it.’  The d.school said, ‘Here’s how you get to that great idea.’”

The “d.school” is a reference to the growth in “design thinking,” which has been described as a process for practical, creative resolution of problems or issues, the essential ability to combine empathy, creativity, and rationality to meet user needs and drive business success.  There’s an engineering focus to all this (the Stanford d.school is part of the Engineering School), but that’s missing the point of today’s posting.

So here is the point: The Stanford d.school has posted a terrific document on its site that outlines what drives the development of great ideas.  The D.School Bootcamp Bootleg starts with seven mindsets — including “Bias Toward Action” and ”Create Clarity From Complexity” (my favorite) and ”Show, Don’t Tell.”  It goes on to introduce modes like “empathize,” “define,” and “test.”  And then it outlines a variety of strategies (or methods) that are integral to design thinking.

Lest this sound overly academic — and some of the pieces will lead to glazing of the eyes — the Bootleg will help you better understand your customers or come up with that “one big thing” before you go too far down the road. 

Business books seem to be getting shorter lately…and packed with more usable information.  This one is 36 pages and well worth your time.  Read through it.  Think about how you’ve used the concepts without actually knowing you were employing design thinking.  Pick some things to try.  Keep them if they work and try something else if they don’t.  

Use this document — but think of it as a toolkit — and when the time comes perhaps you can overcome the lack of an MBA with a skill set that enables you to develop great, marketable ideas.  Or even better, maybe there’s something in here that will enable you to articulate a methodology you’re already using or may find useful in your consulting practice.

How about you?  How have you used some of these methodologies — interviewing for empathy, powers of 10, and so on?  What worked and what didn’t?

{ 0 comments }

Strong references help fill your customer pipeline

by Peter Osborne on May 23, 2010 · 0 comments

Your technical skills will only take you so far…

Building a successful portfolio career requires you to have customers — a word I far prefer to clients — who speak well of you.  In many cases, these happy customers will be your best source of new business.

LinkedIn is just one place where your references can sing your praises, a great place actually because you eliminate the reciprocal reference (“you recommend me and I’ll recommend you”) that can undermine the power of a positive recommendation.

But keep in mind that as important as a great reference is to you, it may quickly become an after-thought to the person with whom you worked.  So it makes sense to ask for the reference at some point during or just after the project and then provide some specific direction, particularly if the reference is going to be in writing for your LinkedIn profile or in a specific place on your website.  Think about the questions you’d ask if you were looking to hire someone like you:

  • Was he easy to work with?
  • How much supervision did he require?
  • What makes him different from his competitors (i.e., from others who offer similar services, particularly those who might charge less)?
  • Did he show up when he said he would?
  • Did he deliver what he said he would (i.e., Did he meet expectations or exceed them)?
  • How were his invoices (e.g., clear, detailed, and reasonable for the work delivered)?
  • Would you recommend him to others (or, under what circumstances would you hire him again)?

The technical aspects of your skills are important, but successful consultants are trustworthy.  They deliver something unexpected, and they build relationships.  Your references should reflect those qualities.

What other questions would help a client provide you with a great reference?

{ 0 comments }

Assess your value to a client before they do

by Peter Osborne on May 12, 2010 · 0 comments

Getting to know your prospective client will make for a great marriage later

Networking and sales prospecting will only get you so far.  At some point, you need to convince a potential client that you will provide value that exceeds what they’re paying you (i.e., ROI).  Whether you’re responding to an RFP or meeting with the prospective client to discuss their needs, you should be trying to figure out how to answer some or all of these questions:

  • Can you add something worthwhile to the company’s total output?
  • Can you help the company get closer to achieving its goals?
  • Can you make the company more efficient (i.e., streamline processes, market more efficiently, save them time)?
  • With the budget available, can you do a comprehesive and effective job?
  • Do you have skills that don’t exist somewhere else in the company (or are resources so stretched that the person or people who do have them can’t be moved to this project)?
  •  Will this project be seen as a must-have or a nice-to-have (i.e., will you have executive support)?

Ask open-ended questions to get at the answer to these questions throughout the sales process and then ask yourself two questions:

  • Are my skills a good match for their problems or needs?

The answer to this question will lead you to the next one:

  • Is it worth spending additional business-development time on this prospect (i.e., developing proposals and presentations and attending meetings?

Focusing on this approach will help you sell more effectively, enabling you to focus your most precious asset — your time — on the right prospects and help you to tie your core competencies to the client’s most pressing needs.

{ 0 comments }

Five ways to get more business from LinkedIn

by Peter Osborne on May 11, 2010 · 0 comments

LinkedIn is probably best known for helping business people network to find jobs.  But many successful consultants are finding that their LinkedIn network can also be a great source of new business.  Here are a few ways you can find new clients:

Request targeted recommendations.  Take your list of core competencies and ask people you’ve worked with — clients, former co-workers, and business partners — to write recommendations that highlight your key selling points (particularly if they counter the normal objections you face).  That’s right.  Provide some specific direction.  It’s one thing for you to claim that you’re good at something, but recommendations that say you’re great at that thing build credibility and trust.  This is particularly important if your practice is more greated toward a portfolio of 1099 projects, rather than focusing on one or two long-term clients.

Build your industry network.  You may already have searched LinkedIn’s Group network to find industry associations and networks that you can join.  Doing this will expand your potential network (it’s much easier to invite someone to join your personal network if you’re in the same group or groups), increasing the likelihood that you may know someone who knows someone who can support your business proposal.

Let people know when you post.  Many consultants take advantage of the ease of WordPress and other blogging platforms to post on subjects of interest within their areas of expertise.  One great way to drive traffic — and again, build credibility — is to match the subject of your blog post to appropriate LinkedIn groups and start discussions.  Think like the reader and write a great head that captures the thrust of your posting (perhaps with a question) and then quickly summarize your main points and then provide a link to your blog.  Consider asking the reader who decides to comment on your posting to copy his or her comment on both the Group Discussion and your actual blog.  I will often block and copy the stronger Linkedin comments into the blog Comments myself to advance the discussion. 

Set aside time to answer some questions.  Use LinkedIn forums to answer questions that demonstrate your knowledge and experience.  You build credibility with strong answers and may well expose yourself to a potential client who use LinkedIn’s advanced Answers search to find your answers.  I’m a big believer in karma so helping someone else could come back in positive ways if you…

Ask questions in areas where you need help.  There are hundreds of different categories on Answers, so I suspect you can find answers to many of your questions related to your new consulting business.  And if you can’t find an answer, there are many experienced people out there who will likely respond if you clearly explain the challenges you face.

Please consider sharing how you’ve found new clients through LinkedIn.  In future posts, I’ll share other ideas.

{ 0 comments }

What’s your core competency?

by Peter Osborne on May 10, 2010 · 0 comments

There are times when standing out from the crowd is a bad thing. Marketing your consulting services isn't one of them.

What makes you different? 

It’s a question individuals and organizations often struggle to answer effectively.  Why should someone hire you over your competition?

C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel wrote an oft-downloaded article for the Harvard Business Review back in 1990 on defining your competitive advantage.  Core competency, elevator speech, value proposition, secret sauce — the concept is the same:  Whether you’re making the decision to consult or you’re already up and running, success depends on your ability to verbalize your core competency or competencies and to position yourself as offering someone nobody else can (or does). 

Building a great elevator speech will be a recurring theme on these pages.  From Pralahad and Hamel’s point of view, here’s what you should be thinking as you develop a list of core competencies:

  • Is it a significant source of competitive differentiation?  Does it provide a unique signature to how you describe yourself?  Does it make a significant contribution to the value a customer perceives in your product or service?
  • Does it transcend a single business or market niche (i.e., does this core competency give you an advantage with more than one target customer)?
  • Is it (or will it be) hard for competitors to imitate?  In general, they say, competencies that arise from the complex harmonization of multiple technologies will be difficult to imitate.  This combination of resources and embedded skills will be difficult for other firms to acquire or duplicate.

Prahalad and Hamel argue that few firms — much less individual consultants — are likely to be leaders in more than five or six core competencies.  If you’ve compiled a list of 20 to 30 capabilities, odds are you haven’t yet identified your true core competency.  Once you have, however, you are far more likely to be able to focus on value creation and meaningful new business development rather than a shotgun approach to marketing or opportunisitic expansion.

{ 0 comments }