What a difference a week makes.
It turns out that the delay is a soft delay, meaning that the work can sort of get started, and we’ll sort out the billing later. Not exactly the way the book Flawless Consulting would advocate, but the relationship and trust is there, so the risk is minimal.
In addition, through a chance conversation with a good consulting colleague of mine I found out about this very interesting Request For Proposal (RFP), but the timing was very last minute. After some weekend work to cobble a team together and strategize the approach, we decided that we did not have what it takes to deliver a solid proposal. The upside was the opportunity to get the creative and competitive juices flowing, and to meet some quality people I could do work with in the future.
On the committee side there were also some positive developments. One sponsorship avenue is dry, but others seem to have opened up. It looks as though we will be putting together another barn-buster of an event.
This week made me realize two things: When in a funk it is important to act based on your instincts, and to be successful you have to surround yourself with quality people whom you can trust intrinsically, and trust to be candid with you.
One of my personal positive traits is that I am very reflective and cerebral. That is one of the things that I think makes me a good consultant. It is also one of my faults. I can easily get into analysis-paralysis, justify any delay on the most rational sounding reasons, and spin on the perfectionism merry-go-round for hours and days.
Interestingly, that is never an issue on projects, just in my personal life. What has helped me here is some motivational literature that reframed my thinking along the lines of “trust yourself to act congruent to your goals”, or as Nike would say it, “just do it”. So I did. Each day was simply “get up and just do what your gut is telling you you need to do”.
Lesson Two of the small business e-course helped since I set some concrete targets regarding how many contacts I was going to make per week segmented as A, B or C contacts based on revenue generating as well as time-to-revenue potential. And here it is, Monday morning, and I am already 40% toward my weekly target. I love goals and targets. I just don’t like it when someone else sets them for me.
The second realization is how important having quality friends is. A good, candid friend can help you with some breakthrough thinking when you’re stuck. One of these friends I met through the committee we both work on. She is one of the premiere executive recruiters in her field, if not THE premiere one, has a magical talent for assessing individuals with razor-sharp accuracy and quickness, and would get a PhD if they awarded them on relationship building and maintenance. That kind of friend is rare to begin with, and to have them close enough to give you honest advice is a blessing, nothing short of that.
I was contemplating hiring an executive coach just to give me that kick in the seat of the pants that we all need sometimes, and that I need more than most due to my reflective nature, and her suggestion was to save my money and partner up with someone at my level with my values and along my interests. So tomorrow I am meeting someone I respect greatly to do just that. Hopefully it will work out. He seems as interested in the idea as I am. I think we can both benefit, we just have to think through the operational and financial details. That’s breakthrough thinking, it is invaluable, and it frequently has to come from outside yourself.
Another friend like that, whom I also met through this committee, is an individual who embodies Shakespeare’s quote, “Oft truth is spoken in jest.” He has high level international experience in his field, understands well what is truly important in life, is phenomenal in his job of assisting young scientist entrepreneurs get their start, and has made frankness through wit a virtue. Each question he asks is based on solid reasons, and each needs to be considered as being more advice than a mere request for knowledge. And these questions of his usually lead to more breakthrough thinking.
So here it is: a good week just gone by, valuable lessons learned or remembered, and a good start to a new week and it is not even lunch. If this keeps up maybe I’ll take part of Friday off this week. There is an incentive!
Peter Hadas has over 10 years consulting experience working for major national clients in the Biotech, Distribution, Retail, Financial Services, Professional Services, Energy & Utilities and Public Sector industries. Contact Peter Hadas Consulting at 905-470-7703.
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