A question for you.
Quick question: When someone tells you or you hear “Mind the gap”, what do you understand and what’s your action to take? 🙂
Un-best practices
Best practices. What the mass does. Proofed ways to get somewhere in a safe way, the way everybody does it. By the time something is a “best practice” what you’re seeing is the search for efficiencies. Scaled or not scaled, they try to get something as fast as possible, with minimum risk and in the safest possible way. This is how it happens: Try something that works. Play it safe. Get (some) desired results. Loss aversion kicks in. Low motivation of change (to keep things working)….
How to make your inventory
To find gaps, you can use a personal inventory. And that sounds simple… yet, many times it’s overwhelming not to know how to start. Here’s a way to do your personal inventory to figure out what you’re really good at. Client / Employer Industry Project Description → Quickly describe what you were hired to do. Inputs → Time, money, resources Outputs → Deliverables (roadmaps, strategies, papers, docs, software…) Outcomes → What they achieved after the work was done Impact → How impactful was…
Snorkeling or diving?
You’re in the Caribbean and have two options: snorkeling or diving. Which one would you choose? You snorkel Don’t need quite a lot of equipment: usually just your snorkel and fins. You stay on the surface, need lots of sun protection (your back will be under the sun for a loooong time), it’s fun, can’t really explore for longer what you see below (a starfish, an angel fish, coral…) It’s somehow easier to have a sense of orientation: stick your face off the water and look for landmarks. You…
The Flip: Focus
The ability to choose where to put your energy so your impact is of greater magnitude. This is where you excel at —and where the right fits, inspiration (and money) are. Focus can help you streamline your journey and accelerate the change you strive for. Benefits of Focus Follows a simple decision-making process. Enables you to say No to what’s not (truly) important. Enables you to build expertise faster. Helps you discriminate opportunities from distractions. Lets you follow your progress in…
The Flip. p3. Alignment
What are the right filters for you to shine doing what you do? The way you can make this feel right is analyzing through your inventory and the narrative that propels you… when did you do your best work when did you create a greater impact for your clients when did you knew in your gut things could go south (red flags everywhere) and chose to ignore the signs The goal of alignment is to enable Trust, so that: Things that are said will be done get done. Fosters and sustains innovation in the…
The Flip. How to claim a gap.
How to claim a gap. Once you’ve seen the gaps in your market, how can you claim it? Here’s an approach. These factors lever and build on one another to help you show your value, feel seen as a consistent / expert brand and have better sales conversations. They help you be the obvious choice —for the right people. Purpose Narrative Alignment Focus Flip Clarity Impact Going in-depth from tomorrow.
Self-Focused v Others-Focused
What’s your focus gap? Where are you focusing your efforts on your comms and messaging? Here’s a self-audit to start seeing where’s your focus. Something VERY important: It’s a spectrum —it’s totally ok to be somewhere in between. The idea is for you to identify where you are. Think of it as a dial. Wherever you are, you can regulate and adapt your messaging to a new state. 🙂 LanguageDo you use your language or your client’s? SELF •————————————————• OTHERS…
Focus Gaps
You started working on your personal inventory and are asking yourself “Now what?” You move onto what’s your current Focus Gap. Your very own self-audit to start seeing things under a different light. Are you focused on yourself or on others? You can review your comms and messaging under these 2 lenses (on your website, brochures or any kind of media you use). Self-Focused It’s all about you. Our work, what we do, what we see, how we work, how we help, our vision, about us, our projects, our…
How to find a gap
First, know what you’re really good at, ego aside. How? Do your personal inventory. A collection of the work you’ve done for clients and in your work life. Good and bad —the worst ones too, actually. Having that will give you a better glimpse of the big picture. This is how you start seeing the hidden patterns in what you do and how you do it. How you actually helped. What your contributions and impact are. In the big picture, they’re evergreen. It unveils the deep you, your core and what…