Formal Education - Prepared for Success?

A senior manager of a professional service firm in a very technical field consistently gives the same response when asked about the most significant courses completed in college, in terms of career preparation. “Without question, Speech I and Speech II,” he says. Advanced mathematics, physics, chemistry, and other core curriculum courses take a back seat. Ask any successful professional in a technical field to assess the role of technical aptitude in career advancement, and you generally get a 10-20% estimate. In other words, they owe 80-90% of their success to other skills. Yet 80-90% of the course requirements are technical in nature - either within or closely related to the core curriculum.

I had the great pleasure of taking a college course years ago instructed by Dr. Tim Ryan, respected Economics professor and Chancellor of the University of New Orleans. Dr. Ryan, in a moment of candor, offered this sidebar to a lecture one day – “Ninety percent of what we teach you in college is good for cocktail party conversation only. Hopefully what we teach you is how to think.”

Let’s just say that it’s a consensus – there’s a significant gap between what we need to survive in the business world and what we are given in our formal education.

You’ll pick up skills along the way, but don’t just leave it to chance. Here are a few suggestions on how you can get ahead of the crowd in developing your skill sets and filling in that 80-90% needed to succeed.

Talk to Successful People

There’s no better way to accelerate the learning curve than to talk to others who are successful. By all means, talk to others in your field, but don’t limit yourself. You might gain fresh perspectives by talking to people outside your chosen field. Ask them what were the keys to their success, what were the mistakes they made early on and what they learned, and what books, seminars, or other tools were useful in their professional development. It’s great to learn from your mistakes, but why not learn from the mistakes of others and avoid the aggravation altogether.

More pointers in the weeks ahead.

See http://www.ldv-enterprises.com/ and http://www.fuzzy-widget.com for more business innovation resources.

Creating “Brain Balance”

Ask the average person who aspires to be an artist, musician, or writer, but has never taken action on their aspiration, and they’ll tell you, “I’m not the creative type.” Nothing could be further from the truth. We’re all creative.

When you were in first grade and the teacher asked you and your classmates to get out the crayons, how long did it take you to get started? My guess is that all of you kids had started putting something on paper within 30 seconds of your teacher’s directive. How long do adults who aspire to be artists take to get started? Some of us take a lifetime! We’ve developed creative ability “filters” over the years.

Filters are the negative thoughts that prohibit us from taking action. “What will people think of my painting? Will it be any good? Will I have time to finish what I started? Do I have the right materials? Maybe I just don’t have the innate creative talent to do this, or Will my “left-brain” (logical, analytical) friends think I’m a “flaky” or “artsy” type if I decide to seriously pursue my artistic dream?” All of these thoughts are potential filters that keep us from starting on our creative journey.

Chuck Berry learned 6 chords on the guitar and became a pioneer of Rock n’ Roll. You could learn to strum one chord a week and be proficient enough to play 40-50% of the songs of the rock n’ roll era in a few months. Another filter – the one that says, “Don’t attempt anything unless you can be the best” stops us in our tracks. I’ll never play golf at the Tiger Woods level, but I’m not going to let that stop me from getting in a round every once in a while.

Filters also stop creative or “right-brain” types from developing the necessary skills to succeed. It’s easy for an artist to avoid taking steps to become commercially successful by claiming to be deprived of the metal agility to study accounting, business administration, or time management. Claiming to be only capable of creative thought is often the excuse of the lazy artist.

Everyone has certain strengths, and each of us should search for the common ground across 3 of life’s truths: those talents that we have been given, those that when fostered will provide a valuable service to mankind, and those about which we are passionate and enthusiastic. Don’t change the essence of who you are and cheat the world of your individuality.

But each of us must assess the roadblocks that we place in our paths of personal development. We must look in the mirror and determine which of those mental impediments are simply false perceptions that we have fabricated to avoid challenging ourselves to achieve greater heights. You may consider yourself a left or right brain person. Don’t let that stop you from creating a greater “brain balance.”

See http://www.ldv-enterprises.com/ for more creativity & business innovation resources.

Selling Professional Services - Overcoming Human Error

A sale in professional service industries is simply a transaction based upon a promise – a promise that your firm and its employees will perform in a manner that is consistent with the client’s needs and that offers value to the client organization.

Yet we know that people are flawed, and performance levels will vary from project to project and from employee to employee. The average customer probably couldn’t detect even a slight difference in hundreds of widgets coming off of an assembly line. Put a dozen of your consultants, attorneys, or accountants in front of a potential client, however, and odds are they’ll come away with very distinct opinions about who is best qualified or with whom they would prefer to work.

So how do you contend with the realization that your firm’s primary product – its people, are inherently flawed and will drop the ball on occasion – that your customers are human and might be personally incompatible with staff members – even in the absence of substantive performance issues. The answer is communication. Make that over-communication!

Clients understand the fallibility of people. What they don’t understand is poor communication and tardy notification of performance issues. They can’t understand a service provider explaining why they missed a deadline instead of clearly explaining how they will remedy the situation.

They understand employee turnover. They can’t understand why they only discovered that their favorite point of contact at your firm is gone by placing a random phone call 3 weeks after the fact and being told, “That person no longer works here. Can someone else help you?”

Your greatest strength as a service provider is the ability to inspire trust in your customers. Have faith in those customers as well. Trust that if you are courageous enough to explain issues clearly and promptly, your candor will help solidify client relationships and stimulate loyalty in your clients.

see www.fuzzy-widget.com for more sales resources. Happy selling!