Your Job Advertisement Speaks About Your Organisational Culture

I noticed this job advertisement recently. I have just slightly tweaked it here and there to be able to put my point across more effectively

The company is a startup in Education/ Training industry that basically needs someone for business development and marketing.

That is it.

They begin the advertisement with a little bit of blowing the trumpet

How many institutions?

How many programs?

How many students?

What you will never get to know is the reality behind those numbers!

Wanting to have a part of your entity under every mango or banyan tree in the country to build your presence and prominence can speak nothing about how good you are, as a company.

The more programs you have, the better insight we have about your intentions. You just want it all as your market share. You do not specialize and you do not care. What any prospect needs, you have, if you do not have, you will include it within hours and churn content almost like factory model but you cannot let the prospect switch to another institute. In short, this approach is way too commercialized.

How many students have achieved something in life or reached a point worth mentioning? Is there any data or stats around that? 

Then the AD specifies requirements

Optimal knowledge of social media platforms desired.

Now if you have X number of programs, you sure must have one on Social Media. Why do you need someone with optimal knowledge? They can join you and bridge the gap in house. In all probability they realize what they teach is mainly for the certification, not for the real time work in real environment

MBA/ PG Diploma from recognized institution/ university

How exactly will this help the applicant or the company identify prospects, strategize and close deals? The point is what skills do you want the applicant to exhibit after his MBA from a recognized institution or is it given that a business grad from a recognized university will automatically have specific desired skills for the role?

Minimum 4 years of experience in marketing with excellent communication & presentation skills.

This part is fair enough and the only section in the whole advertisement that can make sense to applicants

Now comes the best part:

Candidates having throughout 1st Div. marks only need to apply.

I choose to pick the following words:

1^st Division

Throughout

Only they can apply

Does this mean?

Someone who scored 2^nd division cannot market or sell? For all you know as their academic intelligence is slightly weak, they may be twice as hard working with their social intelligence.

Why will somebody who scored 1^st Division throughout with 5 years of marketing experience be interested to develop business for an education company when he has the potential to develop his independent business?

Will it serve the purpose of hiring and the company's strategic agenda if they get an applicant with 1^st Division throughout, having five years of marketing experience and an MBA from a recognized university however with no past track record of closing deals?

How many potential candidates will this company lose only for this kind of Job Advertisement?

Make Your Own Lane: Getting Paid To Read A Book To Execute An Assignment

I am an avid reader – a voracious reader. You may think of any other adjective to describe my reading habit. I can read through various channels – books, blogs, articles, magazines, written notes for seven hours at a stretch. And I will not complain.

I am not an addict. I am definitely not a book worm. Just that I prefer reading to anything else - Reading during transit, reading to prepare for an assignment, reading for self-development, reading for spiritual awareness, reading for skill enhancement, reading to make notes for future reference, reading to understand people, business, market and economies.

Seriously, a significant part of my waking hours is reading.

Here is the project brief of a recent assignment I did. I have a reason to share this experience here. 

Project Brief

The client was from Australia and wanted a presentation for his coaching business.

Background

I have done many of those decks based on adult learning theories to launch first time entrepreneurs coaching business and also for seasoned professionals.

I was ever ready to execute one more as coaching is part of our team’s portfolio too and therefore every line of research I do in this domain is a terrific learning experience. It immensely broadens my thinking horizon to fine tune and refine our offerings.

The twist is he wanted the presentation based on the principles of a particular book, which I had not read. I withdrew my quotation immediately.

He offered to pay for the book.

I categorically stated that I can prepare the deck with concepts and theories that I am already aware of, share a reading list and bibliography in case the presenter wants to deep dive. I assured that the content will suit his coaching requirement. He offered to send the e-book and shared a sample image which was the essence of the book.

I proposed a quote $70 just for reading the book and he was perfectly okay with that. As he had respect for my time, I decided to execute the assignment. I must admit, it was a wonderful book.

So here is a client ready to pay to do what I always do habitually, willingly – read a book.

Image Credit: Canva Design

Write to advocating.outcomes@gmail.com to evaluate your skill sets that can be offered as services in the global market.

Make Your Own Lane: Top Three Portfolio Mistakes

One of our clients from India needed assistance regarding the following:

1] Move up the value chain for existing clients

2] Research other segments of IT market where the company can get ongoing work that can be billed per hour basis and continuous engagement throughout the year. Fundamentally they wanted to improve and expand ITES business to other segments of market in USA and other countries

3] Team size was 100+ engineering graduates and therefore resource optimization was their third ask.

Now as a consultant, even if you provide solutions, you cannot measure the outcomes of your recommendations unless the basics are taken care.

For example, this company had Web Designing as one of their service offering

1] How can you possibly go up the value chain?

2] How can you get a foothold in new markets with additional services?

3] How can you exploit the true potential of your resources?

If your website looks like it was created by an amateur or a recent graduate.

1] How will the testimonials in the website make any difference?

2] How will the case study you uploaded in website transfer trust and conviction to your prospects?

3] How will your human resources have that basic sense of pride when the most critical marketing tool - the website does not meet industry standards?

If website designing is your service offering and your own company website is not a great example of your creativity and designing abilities – why should a prospect even bother considering you or your services for their business?

Even if you share multiple logos in your website that you already worked with, it does very little to build that confidence in a prospect’s mind when your own website is poorly designed.

Mistake 1: Poor examples

I know someone who recently began consulting and picked the easiest business available today (Most amateurs think this can be a one man business and you do not even need a garage to get started) - Digital Marketing

I am observing his online behavior – Here are my first impressions

1] An incomplete website for more than two months

2] Presence in multiple face book groups and presence – dropping the same message

3] Providing freebies to build credibility, which is basically sourced from experts, not hinting at any personal value add - except postman services.

4] A slide share done in a hurry with multiple errors

5] There is no blog

6] Twitter is Crowdfire managed and has followers not remotely relevant to his business

7] Articles published in LinkedIn is not relevant to digital marketing. If those were written before the business started, there is no point adding them in Quora to establish digital expertise

8] Random use of multiple mediums and forums 

Structured, organized and consistent efforts to build your own digital profile is not only a great example to instill confidence in your prospect’s mind, it reflects a degree of maturity, even if you are new entrant in the market.

Mistake 1:  Poor example of marketing his portfolio digitally

Mistake 2:  Futile multiple attempts to behave like legends when you are actually still learning to hold the rope

It is perfectly alright to take time to be doubly sure about your business idea and long term intentions before you quit your posh job to bootstrap your startup.

What is not alright is switching industry and intentions at the drop of an eyelid – Your decision fluctuates because while you want to start a business, your online presence talks about your primary occupation – your livelihood. 

Mistake 3: To let the potential of making money drive your business appetite

Why should your Facebook profile show former Vice President, XYZ Company when you are trying to be a retreat specialist or spa therapist as part of your startup idea

Write to advocating.outcomes@gmail.com to have our team review your portfolio and share perspectives/call out scope for improvement

Make Your Own Lane: Live Feedback On Due Diligence Before Order Acceptance

I have picked up some real time projects and tweaked the language a bit however kept the essence of the brief intact. That should go well for the learning part.

Sample 1

My business plan is ready. I just need someone to check the finance part, correct and do necessary changes. The financial plan should include forecast for one year at least, cash flow, balance sheet or profit and loss statement, project profits in the first 6 months. Also require

1] Break-even point

2] How financial tools will be used to monitory financial performance

3] Contingency plan confirming resources to meet the cost of finances

4] Emergency plan

Need within 10 hours

Budget $10

To Bid or Not To Bid

The client’s business plan may be ready however he is not ready for business yet. You can spot an amateur miles away in the startup eco system.

After the business model, the widest gap between idea and business; execution and revenue; startup and take off is the financial planning part. It takes ages, extensive brain storming, elaborate research. It is not just some numbers in an excel sheet. This client thinks it is just that. 10 hours hints at that. No wonder he thinks, this is just a tenner piece of work.

The pricing model is the breaking and making point of any business. That determines if you will stay in the business or just be washed out. It is not filling a template and making lofty claims about quick profitability – It is transfer of conviction from business owner to every reader who set their eyes on that plan.

I leave it to your judgment and final call if you want to bid or educate this client – If you are invited/ contacted to bid, when you refuse state reasons. Never lose one opportunity to enlighten someone with a piece of information that you think, he definitely must know. You will be thanked profusely soon for that.

Sample 2

I have a 20 page PDF. It is from a company I worked for in the past. A friend is still working there and shared the recent pitch deck. I love the visuals and the story.

I am looking for someone who need not begin from scratch but just replicate this, use my name deleting existing document contact, some minor changes in work, new photo graphs, play with the sequence

To Bid or Not To Bid

Read between the lines.

This is unethical. Period

Enough Said.

It would be a very different story, if the project brief was like this.

I have a 20 page PDF. My friend presented the pitch deck. I love the visuals and the story and want to use for my client.

I am looking for someone to just replicate this, use my name deleting my friends, some minor changes in work, new photographs play with the sequence to make it relevant while I work on financial slides.

Ask clarification questions if there is any compromise on intellectual property. 

You are most likely to be told that they belong to the same company, and their leader asked them to outsource the standard deck part while the resource who posted the project brief is personally working on the commercial part.

Again it is your call.

So before you accept order, see what you are getting into. Are you risking your reputation being associated with the wrong kind of project unknowingly or deliberately?

Either educate client when your refuse order or educate yourself about the objective of each task when you accept an order.

Write to advocating.outcomes@gmail.com if you have any client interaction that you are not sure of, if you should proceed with the execution or just decline the order due to a shady aspect in the project.

Freelancer Kit: How will you choose what skills to sell as services?

Easier said than done!

Identify Target Market

• Call it instinct or habitual thinking – people who are new to freelancing, self employment, part time careers, entrepreneurship are inclined to list only those skills automatically, that they have been doing.

• You need to choose skills based on two things:
• What you can do?
• What people and business need?

• If the market is saturated and competitive for the skills you have, look at the current demand and consider tweaking your skills to meet that growing demand.

Image Background Credit: Canva Designs

Three Filtering Questions

Pass the skills you have identified through these questions:

• Who will need these services?
•  How can you offer more to those who order your services?
•  Why will they return to you?

Do a realistic assessment and avoid any wishful thinking here. Define how your skill will bring value to the client

Skills or habit/ attitude

• Let us assume, you are good in people management, stakeholder management, operations management, negotiation, closing deals, taking prompt decision, driving an agenda to execution and of course, not to forget boss management .
• The question is can you or how can you sell any of these abilities outside the corporate environment as a service?

Here is how I identified one of my offerings

• I love to write – All kind of writing. However I am an average writer compared to my global counterparts whose native language is English. That is the master stroke - knowing your limitations first. I knew mine.
•  With 35% American population into freelancing and writing, I wondered what chance I had to stand on my own.
•  A couple of years back when I had approached a leading nationalized bank with a business plan, the Branch Manager asked me who did the plan for me as she seemed impressed with it. She confirmed it was a feasible plan and can be funded.
• While I had to shelf the idea of that business as I was planning to shift base back home in a yearor two – what came out of that experience and interaction was my skill in making business plans, not because of how well I write but how I think holistically.

Limitations

• English is not my native language
• I did not have any business degree or Masters tag
• While my credentials were zero in the startup ecosystem my extensive experience in Bid Management went a long way to compensate for it.

Today

•  38 International Buyers in 11 months
•  35% repeat buyers
•  I have prepared plans for different domain ranging from Hydroponics to App development, coaching to real estate, Bio diesel plant in Africa to entertainment industry in UK, restaurant in Dubai to marine management, bathroom grab bars to non-profit firms in Florida, first time venture in design industry to entrepreneurial coaching in China.
•  Subject to industry and research I charge anywhere between, $135 to $450 to write 800 words plan.
• This is just one of my offering and in just one portal.

My Resources:

•  Self Learning
• Online Learning
• Micro Learning
• Social Learning

The point is all I did was I just tweaked what I can do to fill a gap.

Now let us re-look at your skills and what gaps it can possibly fill. Are we ready?

To know more about Future of Work, click here

Based on BECKON Framework, the evaluation and learning road map are first to support your outcomes (income stream) and then assist you to transfer that to others, if you want to scale and build an enterprise or brand as an independent BECKON coach

How to Know If You Are Ready For Entrepreneurship?

What Kind Of An Entrepreneur Are You?

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Are you the kind who starts a business to be able to sell it someday, where your whole start-up itself is a commodity – being refined to sell in few years? The kinds who like to call themselves founders, and have a few names in their profiles, as many as four startups in three years before they are twenty five years old. The only two things they focus on are, an opportunity and a market. If you are asking yourself what else is required, to run a successful business? You need tenacity to continue, live the graph, face the music and treat business like business, not a short lived thrill till  you pass it to someone else to make something of it.

Are you someone with a technical bent of mind, always looking at using technology to make life easy with a great product, service and innovative solution? Someone who is so inclined to get the best product that its commercial viability often takes a back seat. 

Howard Gardner reminds us there are those people with a different kind of intelligence, the one who are people smart. So it is not a great idea or that one terrific solution or their attention to detail that puts them at the centre of business but their ability to connect with almost everyone. It is their enthusiasm, charisma, passion for the product that actually rubs on others really fast. Try explaining these leaders the basics of business – strategy, market penetration, business projections, one of you will be lost into oblivion.

Then you have the kind who will pursue a tested business idea in realm of e-commerce or something, just as common. It is perfectly alright to be a follower – it is actually a smart move for first timers as not everyone is rich with innovative ideas. The concern is when they continue to call the business idea their own, completely unaware of its existence since ages. That is the point - some entrepreneurs are selling their idea to important stakeholders even before a basic feasibility study is done.

There are people whose first criteria to run a business is not to follow anything conventional and traditional. They are so far sighted that it is a little difficult to relate to it initially, in current times. They are far ahead into the future and they really need some rewinding in time machine to be able to articulate those ideas to designers and investors of today and draw some sense out of it. Do you get the hint? I always thought I will need a wrist watch, just to see time.

The type you meet most often is the social entrepreneurs who believe in profit with social justice and are able to successfully connect cause with a revenue generating sustainable model. The only issue here is the urgency they will have to seek funds with their cause and speak a language which is altogether different. mainly in support of their product and program, rather than the cause.

How can we ignore the corporate entrepreneurs – the lot who reached the executive board of a multinational company in their late thirties and really did not have patience to wait another decade to be a CEO – The fastest route to get there is to jump into a promising start up or get started on your own. I have met a few of them who are getting ready to be entrepreneurs, while waiting for their pay check.

Just one more type and I should be done for this season – The types you will find scattered almost everywhere - who have no mission, long term vision, no credibility, no experience, no inclination to learn, no dream to make a difference to the world, no team who will ever trust them. The only thing that made them think business is the buzz word – Venture capitalist and that they are too lazy to ever excel in their jobs. All they need is a business summary that will get them funds. Most of them are even clueless how much funds they need. 

The point is every kind of entrepreneur has a learning gap, just the degree varies. You have a few training institutes certifying CEOs now. Enough said. 

If you are contemplating entrepreneurship and can relate to one of the types above and need to know more, you can respond to BECKON qualifying questionnaire that has approximately fifty odd questions based on which a high level Learning road map will be shared with you.

Write to advocating.outcomes@gmail.com to know more about modules and services available in Start-up Kit 

When Will You Conclude That Your Training Need Analysis Is Complete?

You can ask a few fundamental questions first before you begin the analysis:

1. Whose training needs are you trying to identify?
2. Is it the training scope for an individual, business or organization?
3. Is it technical, behavioral, product, leadership training?
4. What are the learning outcomes that business is trying to achieve through training?
5. Who will sign off the training content prior to roll out?
6. Have you identified stakeholders who will measure training effectiveness?
7. Have you taken a call on the time frame or the measurement cycle period?
8. Does the learner know regarding knowledge gap or skill needed or training scope?
9. Who will deliver the training - Internal team or external training consultants from professional training companies?
10. How will you deliver the training - in a class room or webex?
11. Have you identified the business leaders you will talk to get an understanding about training needs?

There is no particular order however when you run these questions in your mind before a training analysis, it will be increasingly evident to you that you have to adopt a target based strategy to conclude the analysis. In short it means,

1. You have to validate the training need from different stakeholders
2. You have to list all the business outcomes the training will impact
3. You have to identify a leader who will own assessment after the training.

You therefore cannot conclude your training need analysis as complete unless you have the answers and a definite approach to address these three questions. 

When you validate training needs in such depth, the content design has to fall into place to suit that need so that immediately after the training a high level measurement process can be initiated.

If the training need is not properly assessed, the content and module can be highly misleading that can bring altogether different results and not the desired outcomes.

What Stops You From Measuring Training Effectiveness?

Image Credit: Shutterstock

It is the question of ownership. As long as there is ambiguity amongst stakeholders – Learning and Development team, Business, Participant, leaders – regarding who is responsible to measure effectiveness of training provided, the level of learning maturity is highly questionable.

Once the following fundamental questions are answered, the battle is half won and to rationalize the responses and allocate responsibility consider the needs listed below.

Who owns measurement of training effectiveness?
Who owns assessment of training needs in alignment with business needs?
Who owns validating any training request that is raised by business?
Who owns outcomes to be delivered?
Who owns applying learning in real time situation?
Who owns measuring the resource that got trained?
Who owns course correction to be done if training program is not appropriate for a particular resource or project?
Who owns signing off training content?
Who owns signing off learning outcomes?
Who owns signing off business outcomes?

Individual Needs: If an individual was not courteous in writing a mail does not mean he requires training in communication or email etiquettes. It is his state of mind that has to be taken into account to develop a training plan – Is the resource at breaking point due to performance pressure and is venting out in more ways than just one mail, how fair is it push him for communication training while he always believed his communication was above average? Consider the damage being done to his confidence due to his reporting manager’s short sightedness about the situation. A proper assessment means validating training recommendation in various ways including a session with the resource and then proposing a training program to ensure not just his well being but also his productivity. To do that, with whom do we have to sign off the outcomes?

Business Needs: In an outsourcing environment if client requires certified resources from vendor to run a particular process, then training is aimed at certification only. How hard it is to guess who should be responsible for the completion of this entire exercise? The project lead or L and D team? In case a project needs a different skill set and a resource is trained to meet that demand, whose responsibility it is to deliver by the end of the training?

Organization Needs: Based on organization agenda, to achieve a certain amount of preparedness from human capital for the next level of progress, if the leaders mention a few programs based on their experience, market trends and business needs – and L and D rolls osut flagship programs and random training modules without testing the need of the recommendation, who should we measure for effectiveness – The leader, L and D team or the participant?

Depending upon the need, answer the key questions listed above and measuring training effectiveness can become a structured offering for any training institute/ team.



For consulting on learning solutions and measurement, contact advocating.outcomes@gmail.com