A headline caught my eye the other day. I don’t remember where or what it said. All I remember is that it contained the phrase “actionable strategy.” And it has bothered me ever since. So what could “actionable strategy” possibly mean? Perhaps more importantly, what does it mean to have a strategy that is not actionable?
Before I started Uncommon Clarity in 2004, I read Alan Weiss’ book Getting Started in Consulting. Any independent professional, whether consultant, painter, lawyer, or something else is in the marketing business first and foremost. Hanging a shingle on the proverbial door might let you call yourself a consultant, but it doesn’t let you practice it.
I hate to admit it, but that guy yelling at his phone could have been me a couple of times recently! And I promise you, you don’t want to be the company that does that to people! Most of my clients’ companies, whether large or small, want to treat their customers well. They know that they don’t always succeed. They make mistakes. And they aren’t always aware of how they are perceived by customers and prospective customers. However, they try. At least they say they try. They all say they care.
If you are blind to improvement opportunities, you will never improve. How blind are you? Let’s look at the evidence. Here are 10 signs that you can’t see the enormous opportunity before you to improve productivity, profits, and engagement:
Would you like to be that person who silences chaos and moves things forward with a simple question or statement? You can! The secret lies in making distinctions.
I’ve never sold a house one day and a bought another the next. Until this week. While meeting with our attorney a few days beforehand, I quizzed her a bit to understand how wiring the money worked. I wanted to know the likelihood of the sales proceeds not getting through in time to cover our purchase the next day. Seeing that a short delay would have fairly minor consequences, I took the next logical step. What if the sale fell through completely due to some unforeseen calamity? I pictured ourselves arriving at the second closing with no money in hand and all our belongings in a moving van due to deliver within two hours. This is when the attorney said, “Turn your brain off or you will go crazy.” Now that is a statement with which I could not disagree more! For three reasons.
Fourteen years ago, I left my corporate job and moved from Minneapolis to Massachusetts to create Uncommon Clarity®. As a newly minted entrepreneur, I began publishing and speaking immediately, the latter after a stint in Toastmasters to overcome no minor case of fear. From there, it was on to my first radio and TV interviews. Since then, I’ve published three booklets and, just this month, The Clarity Papers, my first full-length book. I’ve worked with clients representing over 40 industries, non-profits and for-profits. The focus of my practice has shifted from operational excellence to include strategic planning and then executive coaching and advisory services. That first year, I was out of my comfort zone 99% of the time. Maybe more! The second year it was maybe only 75%. By the third year, that number had dropped even further. And so had my income! That lesson was pretty obvious. Less obvious, and maybe only to my husband, was how much I had grown and changed.
It’s tough to grow when you are breathing your own exhaust, getting little useful pushback, and not knowing what you don’t know. That’s why my best clients enlist my services as a trusted advisor.
The street carts in Ljubljana’s Public Market serve up a gourmet feast of Argentinian beef, Slovenian pastries, grilled vegetables, crazy pancakes, and more. Too bad you can’t enjoy them all with a nice glass of wine. But you can!