| Questioning My Career Choice. Carving out My Identity. Discovering my Calling. Refining My Talents. Waking Up to What I Love. Questions About My Line of Work. |
I
have asked myself time and again about why I have chosen to dig in the big bad
world of performance consulting. Almost every second person calls themselves a
Consultant. “Another consultant!?” some people would exclaim. Gone are the days
when a consultant came in and started dictating to their client what they should
and should not do (if this is what your consulting firm is doing right now with
you, please fire them and get in touch with me).
Consulting with your
organization and coaching your team requires a facilitative guide, not a
blame-game dictator who thinks he/she knows it all. I was drawn to this career
for a chance to serve as a resource that others can use to reach their highest
goals.
Here are the questions I asked myself before making my career choice:
What value would I add to those who would pay me?
I
am the tool that would directly result in positive, progressive, and
long-lasting development for the client organization. My value lies in
understanding the culture of the client system as an objective observer and
hence be able to create the right environment for Change to happen. Designing
systems to enhance the client’s Human Resource Management strategy, and align it
with overall company objectives. I would work at the individual level also to
make transfer of training a success, coach employees to connect with their
company, and build teams to work for a core purpose that reaps rewards for
internal and external customers. My value is realized in installing habits at
the individual and team levels that consolidates and fulfills profit-generating
strategic intentions and systems of an organization.
Why do I want to do this work?
Being a facilitative guide who helps unleash the performance of organizations
is a work of art. This work allows me to bring in my multi-diverse personality, fulfills my high need for creative independence, and realizes my life-long
personal goal to be recognized as a deep, authentic, original, and artistic
intellectual. Choosing this work comes naturally to me as I view it as an art
form: designing systems, and finding innovative ways to reach out to the most
important resource that organizations have, their people.
How would I continuously learn and innovate in this field?
I
am determined to express my ideas and creative instincts if I find they have
huge potential to help clients achieve success. However, my passions could be
wrong on occasion and therefore I refer to my many mentors who have had decades
of experience in their Organization Development consulting practice. I need to
be continuously aware of the changing needs of the business world, and how
deep-rooted cultural sensitivities can affect it. Besides checking up on my work
with the best of the best, it is my duty to be well-informed of case-studies and
analyze what worked and why.
Beliefs and trends change and there are no
principles that stay constant except those of ethics and professional
responsibility. Innovating and trying out new techniques and formats without
risking total failure can be done using pilot teams. My personal model of
Learning involves reading, assessing, agreeing/disagreeing, re-assessing, trying
out new ideas learned, and evaluating their practical results. I innovate by
reading, reading, and reading without rest.
What deeper results and satisfaction would I acquire as a result of excelling
at work?
This is a most personal question about my work. If I excel in this work, I get
to shine and have an unbreakable self-confidence. I will be able to invest in
material tools that would further enhance the impact and quality of my work and
increase the chances of faster professional advancement at a young age.
Excelling and succeeding helps me take more control and add on more
responsibilities to myself. Being the best I can be is a tremendous goal that
seems overwhelming, but if I manage to work toward it each day by producing
excellent work I would consider myself a successful professional and an
accomplished individual.
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