A Business Acceleration Program for Professionals

As a highly trained and competent professional service provider, you’ve got the expertise of your industry handled.

Clients are happy, what you do fills a critical need in the marketplace, and you’re the most talented problem-solver in your market.  But it seems like there is never enough time, managing staff becomes an over-time job, and profitable clients seem few and far between.  The bottom line – focus and effectiveness seem impossible.

This is the challenge 90% of professionals face – how do I create the focus needed to develop profitable business, manage staff, and create abundant time to allow me to do the work I love rather than swim in a sea of frustration, confusion, and unpredictability?  Although you may have picked things up along the way, most professional service providers (CPAs, attorneys, information technology, financial planning, and engineering professionals for example) are up against three common and significant challenges:

1. Profitable business development seems like a steep and slippery slope to climb
2. You are bombarded daily with requests and demands from employees, clients and vendors
3. Your training and experience have focused primarily, if not exclusively, on the product or service you deliver

Is it any wonder ”people management” or “client development” have become a four-letter words? Is it any wonder why confusion and frustration are prevailing experiences?

Why does it have to be so challenging?

Author Robert Fritz has one of the most brilliant explanations of this phenomenon in his book, The Path of Least Resistance.

Consider that all of us, especially professional service providers and teams, have been highly trained in a problem solving model – (a) a problem arises, (b) the problem creates frustration which we want to eliminate, and (c) we react to the frustration by getting into action solving the problem.  We started learning this model from Mom & Dad and it continues throughout our entire educational and work experience… we have been highly trained to react and respond appropriately to circumstances.

This is a very effective model when it comes to addressing the immediate problem. However, when it comes to building an effective team, strong client relationships, and a sustainable and successful business, problem-solving does not work.  Reacting and responding to circumstances is the exact opposite of “creating” which is a far more powerful model of success.  The more we succeed in reacting and responding the right way to circumstances (fixing the software bug, balancing a budget, winning a law suit, finding a higher investment return, building a more stable wall), the more we define “problem-solving” as our ultimate personal value.

For expert problem-solvers, creating is simply outside the realm of understanding and comfort because creating does not depend on circumstances. Creating starts with a blank canvass, a desire to create, and a series of incremental and appropriate next steps.  Creating is about distinguishing your ultimate outcome or destination, developing the integrity, discipline and well-being it takes to engage effective action and weather the challenges, and build an effective team to help bring your creation into reality.

If it’s not already this way, what needs to change?

Consider there are three foundations for creating a successful and thriving business:

Compass – No one would embark on a new adventure into unknown territory without a compass to consistently point North.  In researching actual statistics, the lack of planning consistently ranks among the top five reasons small businesses fail (according to SBA.org, Bnet.com, Inc.com).  Being crystal clear about why you’re in the business you’re in, mapping out a one-year & five-year plan, and understanding how your business will expand are critical success factors.

Character – Running a business, whether independent or within a larger organization, takes a level of character stamina for which many entrepreneurs fail to prepare.  Characteristics such as passion, commitment, integrity, compassion, courage, objectivity, decisiveness, self-awareness & responsibility are critical to learn and practice in order to produce desired results.

Collaboration – In a report published by consultancy, Frost & Sullivan, you’ll find that 72% of organizations who engage & deploy collaboration tools, from both a human and technology perspective, experience better business performance compared to 46% who didn’t.  Certainly these numbers may change, but the story is clear – your ability to build teams through authenticity, curiosity, openness and trust allow you to consistently produce desired results.

What’s Next?

Consider joining our True Leadership Performance - A Business Acceleration Program for Professionals.  This program is designed specifically for professional service providers who own businesses or manage teams.  The benefits of engaging this group program are:

• You’ll learn planning, self-awareness, and collaborative strategies that will support you in producing bigger results
• You’ll design and develop effective and customized client development strategies that create profitable clients, not just clients
• You’ll develop one and five-year action plans that support you in producing bigger and more effective results
• You’ll tap into the collective wisdom and experience of peers to guide you through challenges, generate new ideas, and keep you motivated to take action
• You’ll learn how language is the number one saboteur or supporter of producing breakthrough results
• You’ll learn how to effectively manage people without the typical headaches and setbacks
• You’ll create a new relationship with time that allows you to get more done faster and more effectively
• You’ll learn to collaborate and work within a highly effective and supportive team – learning you can take back to your organization
• Your return on your investment will grow exponentially when it becomes easy to sell more effectively

Logistics

The structure of this program includes:

• Meeting weekly with your group
• Groups will have no more than eight members
• Establish accountability partners
• Build your personalized Leadership Performance Workbook with tools, plans and practices to keep you on track
• Have access to periodic one-to-one coaching with your facilitator/coach
• Training and support throughout program to ensure successful implementation of learning

Delivery of this program is available in both multiple organization (public) and single organization (private) environments.

If you’re ready to accelerate your results and not have 2011 be just another year in business, please call today about our True Leadership Performance Program at (248) 219-9435.  We’ll schedule a time to meet and discuss your objectives to learn if this program is a fit.

Click here to have a conversation about True Leadership Performance - A Business Acceleration Program for Professionals.  This could be your year…