What Skills Do You Have?

Often you know you've learned something once you finally and fully are startled by its simplicity. Typically it's a blinding flash of insight into what from then on seems perfectly obvious. Why wasn't it just moments earlier?

What triggered this observation was reading an article in the Speakers magazine about Dick Richards and his book "Is Your Genius at Work?" He asks four questions:  1. What do you consistently attempt to give others?  2. What do others come seeking from you (maybe ask some)?  3. What's the common denominator in 1 and 2?  4. Can you distill this to two words: _____________ _____________.

Maybe this arrived just as I'd answered these for myself. People come to me for the right way to say things (and ideas) to deal with challenges with people, to get the results they hope for. And I consistently attempt to deliver exactly that - to make people, as I see it, better at managing, more positive, etc. But the key for me was "what do they come to me for?" That's the marketable product - what they already want, not something that I have to drum up business for, some intangible "leadership model" or set of skills. Those are just the mechanisms once they've asked for what they need.

My only quibble: two words might be "People Solutions," but I can't resist making it "positive people solutions for high performance."

Comments

[Craig Allen]

Hi Dave,

Richards' four steps seem to capture very well the marketing concept - aligning the desires of the marketplace with the capabilities of the provider of the product.

I agree that "what people come to you for" should be the first step. Maybe we should also (in balance, of course!) give some weight to "what you consistently try to give others." That is the place where the desires that the marketplace has not yet articulated (the "I know it when I see it" solution) can be developed, by the expertise - and leadership - of the service provider.

[Dave Crisp]

Thanks again, Craig. I agree that's probably a good idea and certainly what Richards recommends. I found the idea of a ready-made market of "what do they already come to you for" helpful because I'd been trying to interest people in what I feel I do best beyond that, but have to say I think it will be easier to market to the market that's already there, which I'd probably been ignoring somewhat.