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The Power of Being Different
Lesson 3:
Formulating Personal Strengths. Since this lesson is part of the radicalism module, and -- as you will soon
discover -- ties in excellently with this topic, let's first talk about Gary
Hamel's idea of what radicalism is. If we first limit our scope to the business area, we see that Hamel
explains, "Without radical innovation, a company [you may also read: "person"
here] will devote a mountain of resources to achieve a molehill of differentiation"
(Hamel, 2000, p. 51). You know what? All of the above can pertain just as well to your personal
life. In every way! Like we learned in the first module, lesson 2, you can end
incrementalism in your life and start reinventing yourself on a regular basis
by perceiving yourself as a company. You are a brand on your own, completely
provided with: ü
A mission and vision statement; ü
Goals and action plans, ü
A target group (because, don't forget, you have skills,
which are the products that you sell!),
ü
Unique, self-tailored ways to maintain open lines with
sources, and ü
A declaration of Personal Independence. This indicates that the general rules that count for businesses, also count
for you as a free agent! Embroidering on this thought, and personalizing Hamel's statements on
companies, we can conclude that people who "are creating new wealth [be it
emotional, financial or material wealth] are not just getting better; they're
getting different -- profoundly different." (Hamel, 2000, p. 55) Another important phenomenon that Hamel introduces is, "Gray-haired
revolutionaries." He emphasizes on the absolute importance for business
organizations to attract visionaries who have the ability to transform
businesses into "Gray-haired Revolutionaries." What this means? Gray-haired
Revolutionaries are "companies that have managed to reinvent themselves and
their industry more than once (Hamel, 2000, p. 209)". So why couldn't you do that with yourself? Didn't Tom Peters give us a couple
of wonderful tools in lesson 2, module 1? Remember that he mentioned that we
could renew ourselves regularly by, for instance, having an own "board of
directors," meaning, people that we can discuss several issues with in order to
obtain their valuable point of view; and developing our own marketing plan,
because we all have something to sell to the world. In the coming lessons we will work on transforming ourselves into
revolutionaries. Radicalists. Nonlinear innovators. Keep in mind, that "Revolutionaries don't release wealth, they create
it. They do more than just conserve, they build." (Hamel, 2000, p.
19) Although Hamel explains the following for businesses, it also works in
personal life: "Concept innovation starts from a premise that the
only way to escape the competition is to come up with a concept that is so
different from the rest, that all traditional competitors are left
scrambling." (p. 69) This means that, by practicing nonlinear innovation, or
radicalism, "you are not necessarily competing; you are not positioning
yourself against competitors, but you are going around them! You
are avoiding instead of attacking them." Derived from Hamel's advises, here are a few questions you might want to ask
yourself. The questions are personalized especially for this purpose: 1.
Have I let others define my focus? If you manage to not only
define what you want, but also do it a little more thoroughly than others, you
are well on your way to becoming a winner! 2.
Do others see me as a rule taker rather than a rule breaker?
(In other words, have I just been a follower up till now?) 3.
Has my approach changed in some important way in the last two
years (two months if your main source of interest is the Internet)? In other
words: Have I built any new competencies; have I approached new potential
clients; have I created any new sources of competitive advantages? 4.
Has there been any erosion of that what distincts me from
others? In other words: has there been any negative change in the way I am
perceived? 5.
Has it been getting more difficult to socialize with really
cool people? Remember: cool people only want to talk to other cool people! (This list was derived and modified for this purpose from Hamel's
"Leading the Revolution", 2000, p. 52) Now, getting to the point: To know who your clients should be, you need to
know what your product is. And to know what your product is, you will have to
formulate your personal strengths:
A helpful way to do that is provided
by Matrix Resources (http://www.matrixresources.com/) ¯
The first step
is: Constructing Your Profile SWOT analysis: A very helpful tool to define your
personal strengths and weaknesses is to make a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. On the site http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm
you will find all about the SWOT analysis. Below we've pasted the most crucial
information for this purpose. You may visit the site if you want to go more in
depth. To carry out a SWOT Analysis, write down answers to the following questions.
Where appropriate, use similar questions: Strengths: Consider this from your own point
of view and from the point of view of the people you deal with. Don't be modest
- be realistic. If you are having any difficulty with this, try writing down a
list of your characteristics. Some of these will hopefully be strengths! Weaknesses: Again, consider this from an
internal and external basis - do other people seem to perceive weaknesses that
you do not see? Are your competitors doing any better than you? It is best to
be realistic now, and face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible. Opportunities: Useful opportunities can come
from such things as: Threats: Carrying out this analysis will often be illuminating - both in terms of
pointing out what needs to be done, and in putting problems into perspective. You can also apply SWOT analysis to your competitors - this may produce some
interesting insights! (available at: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm) Once you've determined your
strengths and weaknesses, you can move on to finishing up the formulation of
your personal profile. Here?s what your personal profile
could look like: Personal Profile ¯ Now
it's time for the second and final step in formulating your strengths:
translating them into personal objectives. Translate strengths and
weaknesses into personal objectives. This is what your personal objectives could look like: (available at: http://www.matrixres.com/matrix/website.nsf/d30fff78d7922037852566e100540aaf/4cd6b024f94854f58525696500676c60?OpenDocument) It is time for: Lesson 4
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