Do the things that only you can do

In 1993 I began three years of intensive training to gain chartered status as an accountant.  It made O-levels, A-levels and even a degree seem like pre-school. 

Hours of studying, seemingly endless exams, and all while trying to do a job of work at the same time.  But in 1996 I qualified, with first-time passes across the board to show for my efforts.  In 2006, for reasons I now cannot fathom, I [stupidly] thought I could become a web-designer: a couple of books, a month or two experimenting and I would be good to go.

Stupidity or arrogance, or a total lack of awareness of what was involved?  I’m not sure, but what I do know is that whatever I based that assumption in was utterly flawed.

I can make a good website.  I can code it from scratch, it will validate both for XHTML and CSS and it will look nice (in my opinion); I can design a website, but that does not make me a ‘web-designer’.  Many many people can do what I do – it may not be builtthe same, but the end result will look the same.  But then take a look at people like Cameron Moll, Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain, and others like them, and you will soon realise that while there is a plethora of people who can design a website, there are only a handful who are ‘web-designers’.

Slow on the uptake as ever, I now realise that this is obvious:  I trained hard for three years and then cut my teeth (and continue to do so) for many years in the real-world.  Real web designers did the same thing to get where they are – they did not swing by the Amazon bookstore and then play around for a few weeks to develop their skills.

But then, just as I couldn’t meet a prospective client, hear their vision and build them an incredible website, they probably couldn’t meet a prospect, hear their vision and offer a strategy and business plan for its delivery in a wider business context.  It’s about knowing what you are good at, and then doing it.  I read ‘The Next Generation Leader’, authored by Andy Stanley, and one thing in particular leapt off the page at me:  “…only do what only you can do”.  In other words, identify your strengths, develop them, and then stick to them.

OK, in the ‘real world’ there will always be occasions where we have to turn our hand to a multitude of things, but I think the key is never losing sight of our main gift – our ‘Unique Selling Point’, if you like. 

For me, I see things – not in some weird psychic way – in a very clear ‘strategic flow’ kind of way.  People tell me their dreams, their ideas and their visions, and I see things – I see how their idea can become a reality.  To me it’s a case of ‘stating the bleeding obvious’, but for the person with whom I’m interacting it often comes as some incredible revelation.  That’s ‘what only I can do’ – not literally something that only I can do, obviously, but it is my key gifting – the thing that is at my core.

I wanted to build websites – I didn’t want to be an accountant anymore; but my qualification and my experience makes me an accountant, and my key strength in that area – my gift – my USP – is that I have a strategic brain.  The fact I can build a website, or use Photoshop etc etc is added value, but it’s not my core skill.

When we major on our gifting we get satisfaction and we give satisfaction, and we get opportunities to add value through the other things we can do.  Being able to add value through a broad skillset is a great asset, but each one of us has a unique gift – something that in a particular circumstance only we can do – and we need to identify what it is, grow to treasure it not resent it, and learn to use it like we mean it.

L.F.S.E: Nothing this week

Wednesday is ‘Leadership’ day on Live a Big Life, except for this Wednesday. 

There would have been another ‘Leadership for the Self Employed’ installment, but I didn’t get chance to write it last night as I was other wise engaged at Anfield, which you can read about here.

Today was meetings from 9 until 5, and this evening my head is mashed, so I’m watching Man Utd lose to AC Milan.  Bring on AC Milan – again They were great meetings and I am very – very excited by what is beginning to take shape.  More of that when there is more to tell.

Next week: L.F.S.E: Time is money, or you have value.

L.F.S.E: The world will probably still turn – why some things really can wait until tomorrow

For all sorts of reasons I have problems with loose ends.  I hate unfinished business and I have a really hard time switching off until I have reached a logical place to stop.  There are times when this is good, indeed necessary, but there are other times when it’s border-line anal-retentive.  Knowing the difference is key to striking balance in your life, especially if you work from home.

It took two weeks in Brittany without computer, phone or internet access for me to come to realisation that the world could still turn when I wasn’t plugged into it, and some things really can wait until tomorrow.  Implementing that realisation on a daily basis is a challenge that regularly defeats me, but is something I seek to do.  Here are some tips that I try to follow – with varying degrees of success – as I try to keep my in-tray in perspective:

Set realistic deadlines

You are the one who tells your client or customer when you will be able to deliver the product, so don’t put yourself in an impossible position by setting unrealistic targets.

Make a to-do list

You can adopt the ‘easy marks first’ approach to your to-do list, attacking the small items first to give you a sense of achievement, but if that leaves you with some unfinished ‘must be done’ items at the end of the day, you are probably going to find it hard to avoid working into the evening.  Personally I start with the ‘must be done’ items, as I’d rather have one of those ticked off than 20 other tasks.  It’s personal preference, but I think the quality over quantity principle applies here.

Some things really aren’t critical

recently, something had to give in my schedule, and that turned out to be blogging.  I had to face facts – blogdom could survive without me, and in the grand-scale of things, Live a Big Life had to rank as non-critical.  Being non-critical does not mean its worthless or doesn’t need to be done, it just means it doesn’t need to be done today.

Impose a cut-off and stick to it

I had a 6pm cut off.  It worked really well.  Then, after the kids had gone to bed I’d blog from 8 ‘till 9, and 9pm onwards was ‘me and Kate’ time.  Then 6 became 6.30, became 7, became 8, became 10, and recently I found myself working from 7am until gone 11pm.  Unsurprisingly, that took its toll and (thankfully) became unsustainable.  I messed up with my schedule and backed myself into a corner.  So, I focused, dug in for two weeks, cleared my decks and now I’m back to my 6pm cut-off, and what isn’t done by then gets done tomorrow.

When you find a good place to stop, STOP!

My cut-off is 6pm, but let’s say that at 4.30pm I finish an element of a project.  The next phase is, say, two-and-a-half hours worth of work.  What to do?  Well, I suggest the best plan is to log-off and call it a day.  If I start the next phase, I know I won’t stop until it’s done, which will see me working until at least 7; and if things run over, even later.  If I start, I won’t be able to stop until it’s done – that’s my weakness, so better not to start.

Make your office an office

If you work from home, try and have a room that you do not enter for any other purpose than to work.  The more reasons you have to go into your ‘office’ outside your normal working day, the greater the likelihood that you’ll find yourself thinking “hmmm, maybe I’ll just quickly…….” Bang goes the evening or week-end.

At the end of the day, not everything is important; of the things that are, none are so important that they can’t wait until tomorrow.  Easier to say than to implement – I know because I regularly fail on that one – but with practice, it is possible to learn to let the world turn all by itself.

L.F.S.E: Knowing a man who can – the power of networks

There’s a saying about always “knowing a man who can”; it’s a good saying and a great principle by which to lead your business.

There’s no way that you can ever hope to know everything you will be required to know, or possess every skill you will ever need to use, so don’t bother trying.  Instead of investing time and energy into becoming not especially great at a lot of things, concentrate on becoming a true great at a handful of things, and for everything else, strive to meet, greet and build relationships with men (or women) who can do the things you can’t, and know the things you don’t.

At Deloitte and Kroll I would frequently find myself in over my head, with matters of employment law, insolvency legislation and accountancy regulations frequently hurling curve balls into my day.  I could have invested heavily in becoming a technical expert in these areas, but I’d have failed.  I don’t have what it takes to be a technical boffin, it’s just not in my personality – I don’t think that way, nor did I have capacity for it, even had I possessed the necessary skills and attributes. 

It doesn’t take very many curve balls to make you work hard to find someone who can play them for you, and when you find a batter who can hit the ball that has you flummoxed right out of the park, suddenly your eyes get opened to a whole world of possibilities; well mine did, at least.

Very early in my career I realised there was nothing I couldn’t do, nothing was beyond me, nothing was impossible and world domination was a distinct likelihood.  OK, I’m kidding about the last bit, but it probably could have been if I had been that way inclined.  This was to do only in small measure with my own skills; the real scope of my potential lay in my network. 

I made it my business to have not just the contact details of people who knew things I didn’t and could do things I couldn’t, but to have earned the right to make that contact – to have built relationship and to have established a foundation of respect, courtesy and reciprocation; I knew things they didn’t and they knew things I didn’t – we could help each other.

Now, as I build the Big Life Brand, I find myself slowly and steadily building a new network, a network of designers, programmers, engineers, consultants and people who, while they may not be in the same business sector, think like me and want the same things as me. 

The success of any business lies in a realisation that you aren’t the best at everything, and in fact you may not (yet) be the best at anything, in the humility to acknowledge that you need other people, and through the generosity to respond to the reality that other people need you.

Success lies in teamwork, and when you build a team – a web of contacts that spreads way beyond your reach and punches way above your weight – you will begin to see potential unleashed, doors unlocked and a whole world of opportunities before you.

L.F.S.E: People need people – why isolation leads to desolation

At the risk of stating the obvious, we were created to be in company.

Generally speaking, we don’t function well if we spend too long in isolation.  I actually like my solitude – in fact I would go as far as to say that I often seek it out, and protect it with determination.  In solitude I find I am productive; I can think, and I can develop ideas – but then comes a time when solitude begins to overwhelm me, and that’s a time when I need to be around people.  In fact it would be odd, and probably cause for concern, if I, if we, didn’t reach those periods. 

As a human being I am fundamentally a social creature – I give perspective to, and receive perspective from, the company I keep.  If I choose not to keep any company, there will come a point when my perspective will be so out of whack that I will probably be a danger to myself and, by extension, the people around me.  I need people, and people need me, and the same is true of all of us.

However, not just anyone will do, and this is an important point.  It isn’t snobbery or prejudice, it’s common-sense: we can have compassion for the whole of humanity, but that doesn’t mean we will like everyone we care about, or they us.  We need to pick the Company we keep carefully, and deliberately.

Let me say right now that people can be really good people, but really bad company; rarely, if ever, is someone a bad person but good company.  Good company builds us up, it encourages us and it carries us forward on our journey; bad company takes us in one direction – down.  Good company eliminates isolation and takes us away from desolation; bad company compounds isolation and pushes us into a pit of desolation.

So what does good company look like?

Good company shares our interests, but extends outside them, too.  It looks past our shortcomings to find our strengths.  It is prepared to say ‘no’ or to ask ‘why?’.  It smiles when we win, and is saddened when we lose.  It takes a step back and sees things we don’t see, and then takes us to a place where we can admire the view.

Good company isn’t one dimensional, focused only on what we do – it wonders who we are.  It is flexible and responsive, yet rigid and resistant.  Collectively, it creates a scaffold within which we can build.

Good Company restores a blurring perspective and on occasion will introduce a completely fresh one.  But good company is a bi-directional thing – not only does it give to us, it looks to receive from us.  All that we receive, it looks for us to give – and so we build relationship.

Good company may be a friend, it may be an associate, or it may be a colleague who falls into neither category.  It could even be a chance encounter – a one-off.  But whatever shape it takes, you need it, and it needs you.  Maybe not today, but someday soon, so, especially if you spend long-periods working alone, be sure to find yourself some ahead of time.