Become who you are. Do what only you can do. Be the master and the sculptor of yourself.
At the end of 2022, I wrote: “Only do what only you can do“, inspired by hearing that phrase from a CEO of a global and complex organisation that I have been supporting in recent years. I wrote then that their thoughts had:
given me pause to reflect on what I do and what I don’t do, reaffirming for me the power of “only do what only you can do”.
I then noted in that post:
I can coach, train, and mentor businesses, but I don’t do that anymore. Where it is called for, I delegate that to others who are at least as good as me at that work and who are also energised by it. For me, though, I only work with leaders and on leadership (which includes Purpose, Vision, Communications, Leadership, and Strategy), that’s all.
This week though, a regular “peer mentoring” call with a learned friend gave me pause and had me give further focus to this for myself.
We were talking through work they were doing mentoring a senior leader of one of the largest organisations in the UK. Through our conversation, I was able to “connect dots” for them and for that organisation and provide a key insight that had them strongly encourage me to now connect to the most senior levels of that organisation to offer to talk to them about it.
Their guidance really struck me, effectively that my own “what only you can do” may be to work with leaders of large and complex organisations and systems when they reach a point where brave and massive change is needed. This, for me, became a “BFO” (a “Blinding Flash of the Obvious”), as in fact, I’ve done this over and over during my career. Furthermore, another obvious point that struck me is that the brilliant brand specialist, Maitland Telke, put only one thing about me on my home page, namely what I uniquely offer to clients, which is:
You need authentic, creative, relevant and “cut through” actionable insights. Tom delivers this through deep listening allied with decades of business experience.
So, using myself as an example, I am now going to hone further what I will do, focussing on working with leaders of large and complex organisations at a point where brave and massive change is needed.
Hopefully, my example may provide some inspiration for you to consider your own “what only you can do”. To assist with this further, let me share with you the “Red Hat” exercise I have often used when mentoring people ready for “what comes next” for their careers. Take a look at the method, outlined briefly in this earlier post.
My you find your “Red Hat”, your “what only you can do”, or, if you already know it, perhaps, like me, you will take the opportunity to further focus and hone in.