How I can Help You—My Strengths

We all have our strengths—things at which we’re better than most other people. My biggest strength is an ability to look at a complex situation and see the underlying patterns that other people don’t see. To use the common metaphor, I see the forest where others just see trees.

I’m also fortunate enough to have the ability to communicate well. This means that when I see a forest that others don’t see, I can explain the situation to you so that you can now see the forest too. It’s like one of those optical illusions where there’s a face in the picture but you can’t see it until someone points out the nose, the chin, the eyes, and the other details. Then the face pops out at you, and you wonder why you couldn’t see it in the first place.

Sometimes people will hold back in telling you about patterns and trends, even when they see them, for fear of offending you or for fear of the consequences. This is the "Emperor's New Clothes" syndrome: tell a leader what he or she wants to hear instead of telling the truth. That's not me; you can count on me to be honest but not offensive. If bad news is required, then I can break bad news in a diplomatic way.

Although my strengths are useful in most business situations, they are particularly useful in areas concerning information technology because that’s where I’ve got the most experience. The more you work in an area, the more you appreciate subtle differences and nuances. So, for example, my years in information technology have given me the background to see the subtle differences between a good IT strategy and a great one, as well as the not-so-subtle differences between a bad IT strategy and a good one.

I’m a strong believer in the 80/20 rule (also called the Pareto Principle). Under this rule, 80% of the benefit from something comes from 20% of its parts. Think of the 80/20 rule as offering you incredible leverage; it lets you change 20% of what you’re doing and see an 80% improvement. The trick, of course, is to identify the 20%. That’s where I come in.

I can help you identify the things in your IT strategy or day-to-day activities that are holding you back from extraordinary success. It might be something you’re doing, or it might just be the way that you’re doing it, or even the way that you’re communicating it. I can help you make seemingly small changes in your approach that can give you extraordinary returns in customer satisfaction and business success.

My strengths, in a nutshell, are insight, honesty and clear communication. Think of me as a coach who can help you improve your game by pointing out subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) changes that you can make. Or as a sounding board you can use as a silent partner to bounce ideas off of. Contact me today to discuss how I can apply my strengths to help you be more successful!

Send me an Email, and you could get a Free Day of Consulting

Send me an email telling me why my services would be useful to you, and you could get a free* day of consulting. To start you thinking, here are some ideas for things I could do:

• Review your IT strategy and suggest improvements
• Review your organizational communications plan and suggest improvements. Or help you create such a plan if you don't have one
• Discuss the best way to market your organization within the business
• Go over your technology architecture and talk about how it should change over time
• Discuss ways that your IT organization can contribute more value to the business
• Review a few critical presentations and talk about how they could be changed to better accomplish your objectives
• Look at a key project and suggest ways to improve it

All discussions will be conducted under appropriate non-disclosure agreements.

Send your emails to freeday@makingITclear.com.

* Although the consulting service itself will be free of charge, you're responsible for any travel expenses outside the Atlanta area.