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Articles
Value-Added Skills for High Potentials Are Their Competitive Edge
by Dave Brookmire
October 2006
If there is one lesson that high-potentials can
take
away from Friedman’s “The World Is Flat,” it is that
no one’s professional future is immune from the
changes happening in our increasingly competitive
worldwide workplace. It’s no longer just about
outsourced manufacturing jobs and overseas call
centers. Even people in professional services –
doctors, attorneys, accountants, etc. – will have to
demonstrate a compelling value proposition to
prospective clients, customers and employers in
order to remain viable in a world in which technology
enables competition from virtually anyplace.
Friedman points to the commoditization of low-level
components of professional services (i.e. outsourcing
basic accounting services and the growth of tele-
radiology in India) as evidence of our flattening
world. Professions once thought to be so relationship-
based that they could never be accomplished
through virtual or technological means are
discovering a new, flat world.
“No matter what your profession – doctor, lawyer,
architect, accountant – if you are an American, you
better be good at the touchy-feely service stuff,”
said an American CPA quoted in Friedman’s book.
Friedman further clarifies those value-added skills in a
chapter titled “The Right Stuff.” They are skills
like “forging relationships rather than executing
transactions, tackling novel challenges instead of
solving routine problems, and synthesizing the big
picture rather than analyzing a single component,”
according to Freidman.
When we talk about coaching high-potentials, we
often refer to the “time value of improved
performance.” In other words, performance
improvements that happen now are exponentially
more valuable than improvements that happen later.
Never has that statement been truer, or more urgent.
High-potentials, by their very nature, are well
positioned to take advantage of this shift in the
market’s perception of value in professional services.
When we coach high-potentials, we focus on defined
behaviors that make a difference in how our
coachees are perceived by others. In other words,
we focus on important skills that define their value
internally to their organization (direct reports,
bosses, shareholders, etc.) and externally to their
customers and clients.
Our experience tells us that “Right Stuff”
skills like
those described by Friedman are learned and
developed. And coaching is one of the fastest and
most immediate ways to gain those skills.
Links:
Corporate Performance Strategies
Extraordinary Leader – Turning Good Managers Into
Great Leaders
Tom Freidman’s lecture on his
book, “The World is Flat”
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