How do you become the change agent your firm needs?
The traits that make for great marketers and business
developers include passion, curiosity, optimism, patience, persuasive,
authentic and competent. These are also
the traits of change agents. If the change agent traits exist, why aren’t all
people marketing professional services change agents?
Success in any career
or business for that matter is about leveraging strengths and overcoming
weaknesses. How often in our school
years were we confronted with our weaknesses at the expense of our strengths? Performance reviews touch lightly on our
strengths and focus primarily on our weaknesses. In a world like this how do we build our
strengths?
This negative approach to our success has a profound impact
on our success and our ability to become a change agent. It is a formula to celebrate mediocrity. What would happen if management spent more
time leveraging our strengths and less time trying to help us strengthen our
weaknesses?
A strange paradigm exists for marketers and business
developers in our industry. We work with
genius level engineers, lawyers, accountants and architects who lack a
foundation in our strengths. Our highly
educated partners often think they understand what we do and judge success
based on the bottom line alone. They believe
improvements in our weak areas will automatically improve the bottom line. The mindset begins the vicious cycle of
average performance.
Average performance is not a space where change agents can
perform. What can you do about it?
If you’re carrying the baggage of the past, teachers who
said you weren’t reaching your potential, parents who thought your career
should take another direction and friends who thought your place was somewhere
in the middle, you need to release the baggage. Releasing baggage is only the first step in
the process.
You can't change the path of your firm until you change your
own path. You have to look at rules a
little differently. You need to
understand there are three kinds of rules: Keep, bend, break. Change agents are leaders and have the
respect of their fellow workers. They also
have developed a higher tolerance for risk. You have heard the saying “you have
to break some eggs to make an omelette.” Change agents don't just break eggs, they cook the meal. Working in the space of mediocrity
doesn’t shout leader. You might be
looked at as the “go to” person for marketing and business development, but you
won’t become a change agent until you believe you are more than that.
Taking a new look at rules begins to build confidence. The next step is confidence. The leaders of any revolution didn’t campaign
for the position or take classes. Leaders
stepped forward with confidence in times when others fell back. They assessed
risks and were willing to commit to taking a risk. Victims of life’s
circumstances are not change agents.
Change agents rise above the negative talk that surrounds them. They rise above the “we have always done it
this way” or “that will never work.” It
is a struggle at the beginning, especially when you haven’t released the
baggage of the past. Releasing the baggage raises your tolerance for risk.
The path to confidence begins by bending a rule and
succeeding. Resources are always the
tipping point for marketing and business development. When I was starting out in the industry doing
business development and marketing for Walker Parking Consultants, I needed to
purchase something that cost $400. The
economy was not doing well and the budget was on hold. I spoke to a senior vice president who told
me I didn’t need permission for purchases under $500. “Besides,” he said, “it is always easier to
seek forgiveness than to ask permission.” However, this change agent wasn't the person who could give me permission. The first rule was bent.
After the purchase, I went on to bring in three new clients and
management never questioned me about the purchase. If the purchase had not resulted in a win,
the happy ending might not have happened.
This is why taking chances is called a risk.
When Michael Jordan was drafted by the Chicago Bulls, I
signed up on the waiting list for season tickets. The next year, I received a call from the
Bulls telling me my number had come up. The four tickets cost $1800 and I had
to say yes or no before the phone call ended.
I agreed and put the charge on my credit card. I thought we had enough money in the marketing
budget and I knew the principal in charge of the office would approve it. When I went to his office with the news, he
said he would review the budget and let me know his answer on Friday. The next four days were spent putting
together scenarios for alternative ways to fund the purchase of my
tickets. On Friday I received approval. The goodwill we generated with clients and
prospects over the next seven years because we could invite them to see Michael
Jordan in action was priceless.
The $400 purchase built my confidence to take the chance on
the Bulls’ tickets. It was a small step
and everyone needs to start this process with a small step. Confidence leads to the ability to influence
others. If you walk down the middle of
the road, you will never influence others or see the gold that lies on either
side. Thoreau knew about change agents
and referred to them as “taking the road less traveled.” Sometimes change agents have to pave the road
as well. Confidence will bring others
into the paving project.
Confidence is attractive and can be contagious. Others might have ideas they believe are
radical in terms of the business structure, but might be moved to action
because they saw your success. Change
agents don’t operate in a climate of chaos, but in the realm of the impossible
being broken down into the possible.
Our role as change agents does not stop at the parking lot,
but extends to the offices of our clients and prospects. It seeps into the organizations we are part
of. Change agents are not wild eyed
fringe or people chasing windmills. They
see circumstances differently. They
reflect the words of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., “There are those who look at
things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and
ask why not?”
If you are not a change agent today, isn’t it
time to become one? The decision is
yours and everything that caused you to work in this industry has set the
foundation.
