Identifying What Was Missing…

As I opened the second part of Leading With a Clear Purpose, I made a strong case for how much each of us are attracted to being part of something that matters. I’m convinced that this applies to everyone at any level of any organization. I realize that there are plenty of folks who do what they do, day in and day out, without having a definite purpose to commit to, but I’d bet just about all of them would change that quickly if given the chance.

Just like with the companies I worked for as an employee, Cindy and I have found that some of the organizations we serve through our business are a better fit than others. As we started out, especially early on and during the lean times forced on us through the Covid shutdowns, we were willing to do nearly anything we were capable of for almost anyone willing to pay us. For the most part though, we did get to work with people we liked. But even then, there were times where things went as smoothly as we could have hoped for and times where it was just stinking hard; not the actual work itself, but actually landing on what the outcome should look like or what the steps would need to be to get there.

In many of the cases where we had to hardest times coming to terms with the organization on what they could measure to show that anything we provided was successful, which typically took more time and energy than the service we were actually delivers (and was never billable), we also received the most pushback on what we needed to charge - be that for a set package or an hourly rate. 

Don’t throw stones at me here; our goal from the time we’ve started our business has always been to provide an exponential return on investment for anything we do. Quite honestly, there have been several occasions where the proposal we submitted was brushed aside due to being too LOW! I realize you may not believe that; hell, it’s dumbfounded me every single time. But I can point to at least a half dozen specific examples. Within the last 18 months, we had the opportunity to chat with an executive of a company we had done a lot of work for - just after he retired. I asked him how we stacked up to what he expected when initially contracted with us. He shared that our price point was about 50% of what he expected and we had delivered better than anyone he had ever worked with. As strange as it sounds, far too many folks in a role like this will see a price point that low and few it as subpar; we’ve had to work on that whether we’ve wanted to or not.

The common theme we’ve found through the work we’ve done over the last decade has been that the organizations we’ve worked with best have also been the ones where we’ve shared the most common values. And while we didn’t necessarily connect it directly to those shared values initially, it’s certainly been something that's stood out more and more as time has gone by. Specific to our business relationships, these have also been scenarios where cost is rarely part of the conversation - largely because the value we’re able to produce with them through the end result has been what we’ve all been focused on. Interestingly enough, we’ve experienced the same thing in relationships with boards, associations, and even friends. When we’ve placed like value on similar things, there’s been a level of cohesion that just isn’t experienced otherwise.

Just like feeling a lack of connection even when working for a fairly good company as an employee, there have been multiple times where we didn’t feel like we had the right fit with a client or some other group. I could often feel this intuitively but I didn’t have a complete understanding for it until something I experienced in the final quarter of 2021 - so we’ll pick up there soon!