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Take Your Life for a Test Drive – Lessons Learned and Success from the Trenches

Consultant’s Challenges

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Consultnat challenges and solution approaches Consultant is a lone worrier in the field. He works alone. But his world is extremely reach and full of challenges. Mapping out consultant’s world would reveal challenges it brings. If I can anticipate challenges I can get prepared and respond accordingly.

Consultant’s world is built of four big rocks – operations which includes the consultant, customer, salesmen, and his manager; people he interacts outside operational group; common tasks he needs to perform and accomplish; and his desires and wants. Challenges best expressed as questions. Following are questions any consultant should find an answer sooner than later.

Consultant’s Operational Group

Consultant	Do I know what’s expected from me? Do I have the tools to achieve the goals?
Customer	Who’s my customer? What’s customer’s story? What customer values the most? How to influence customer without authority? How to build trust with a customer? How to say No to a customer?
Salesmen	How to help salesmen to build pipeline that’s relevant to me? How to help salesmen to sell services that’s relevant to me?
Manager	How does success look like? How to help my manager to set achievable goals? How to say No to my manager? How to manage a meeting with my manager? How to manage communications with my manager? How to help my manager remove obstacles? How to escalate to my manager?

People Interactions

Family	How to put family as the first and best customer? How to work at home? How to not work at home?
Partners	How to build network of partners? How to understand WIIFM (what’s in it for me) for a partner? How to maintain network of partners? How to identify potential partner?
Colleagues	How to identity energy drainers and catalysts? How to find a mentor? How to build a sounding board?
Community	How to build your online identity? How to attract like-minded? How to start and maintain a blog? How to make a good presentation? How to find the right blogs?
Competition	How to identify your competitors? How to differentiate yourself from competition? How to build partnership with competition?

Common Tasks

Execution	How to prioritize? How to manage time? How to reduce non productive friction? How to organize my workflow? How to test my results? How to use productivity tools? How to scale when hitting capacity limits? How to follow up and close loops? How to create reusable deliverables?
Marketing	How to set my marketing vision? How to allocate resources for marketing? How to prioritize marketing efforts? How to identify marketing channels? How to create marketing materials?
Sales	How to write SOW that sells? How to find a sales lead? How to identify opportunity? How to create opportunity? How to turn opportunity into sale? How to close a sale?
Planning	How to set objectives? How to create an annual plan? How to create a monthly plan? How to create a weekly plan? How to create a daily plan? How to test a plan?
Skills building	How to identify critical technical skills to develop? How to identify critical soft skills to develop? How to develop skills by shadowing? How to develop skills by failing fast? How to develop skills by blogging? How to develop skills by taking on new challenges? How to test skills development?
Information	How to organize reference information? How to feed reference information? How to proactively hunt for information gold nuggets? How to triage incoming information? How to organize action information? How to share information?

Desires and Wants

Passion and fun	How to spend more time doing fun work I am passionate the most? How to play to my strength?
Values	How to build a list of my values? How to align work with my values? How to communicate my values?
Intellectual challenge	How to build my intellectual horse power? How to get assigned to gigs that stretch me intellectually? How to give my brain a rest?
Well being & Fitness	How to avoid conflicts? How to treat set backs calmly? How to resolve conflicts? How to build an achievable healthy daily diet? How to sleep 8 hours a day? How to stretch my muscles? How to improve eyesight? How to maintain good tonus? How to maintain good mood?
Wealth & finances	How to set personal annual finance goals? How to plan personal monthly income and expenses plan? How to track personal expenses? How to treat money as means vs. as a goal? How to compare money to intangibles?

5 November 2010

9 Comments »

Avi said:

Great points, it’s important to be aware of your goals at all times, this way it is easier to stay on course, recognize opportunities and avoid pitfalls.

Good one.

# 6 November 2010 at 7:06 am

alik levin (author) said:

Avi,
Thank you. You are right. The the hard part is juggling all these goals to keep on track, eh?

# 6 November 2010 at 4:12 pm

Avi said:

Yha, is this even possible (juggling them all)?

# 6 November 2010 at 5:04 pm

alik levin (author) said:

Aiv,
it is not possible. That’s where prioritization kicks in. But you better them all so you could prioritize them. Those prioritized low – you never touch. Those prioritized high – this is where you invest yourself.

# 6 November 2010 at 9:10 pm