rev 4.0
“Quick to Customize,” “Mix-and-Match”
Workshop
Modules
Purpose/Context
Powerful Professionals is designed to
be quickly customized to your needs. The purpose of this document is to describe
our unique the “mix-and-match,” skill-building Powerful Professionals
modules. Depending upon your specific needs and expected results, and with the
advice of a qualified Powerful Professionals Associate, these modules,
like Lego™, can be assembled in many ways into customized, effective skill
building. (Not to mention we are open to other modules as well!!)
A Wide Range of Skill-building
Modules to Choose From
Powerful
Professionals Workshops have a wide repertoire of materials and models to
choose from:
-
The Powerful Professionals book—3rd edition. Each participant receives a copy which can be used as:
-
a resource for pre-reading;
-
an in-workshop resource for topics not covered; and
-
a practical desktop reference after the workshop.
-
The Powerful Professionals Fieldbook. This application workbook will be customized to match your specific needs.
-
A proven, web-based 360 Client/Customer Service Survey.
Typical Expected Workshop Results
By the end of the skill-building event(s), we
expect to have:
·
presented selected, practical models and skills for
professional experts/consultants.
·
practiced selected skills.
·
applied the selected models and skills to on-job
situations.
·
provided follow-on resources.
The “Mix-and-Match” Modules—An
Overview
Below is a brief summary of each module with its ‘take-aways.’ Click
on any module title for more
information.
|
Take aways … |
|
|
·
A
consulting model professionals can use to deliver their expertise. ·
Why
the model and each step are important to a professional’s success. ·
A
set of goals, key skills, dos and don’ts for each step. |
|
|
2. Asking Great Questions to Frame the
Need and Set Up Great Roles |
·
How
the questions can be powerful in setting up the problem solving process. ·
How
powerful questioning skills can help position a professional in an impactful
role. ·
A
checklist of questions professionals can use to support their chosen
strategy. |
|
·
How
to get at a client’s underlying needs, issues and causes. ·
How
to establish rapport and work with typical client fears. ·
How
to set up an influential and leveraged role. |
|
|
·
How
to determine the appropriate amount of clarification— verbally and in
writing. ·
How
to use clarification to increase the chances of commitment and
implementation. ·
How
to use clarification set up an influential and leveraged role. |
|
|
·
A
skill that clients greatly value—how to help clients sort out messy
situations. ·
How
powerful questioning skills can help position a more leveraged role. ·
An
‘hourglass’ model to evaluate questions that assist professionals to help
others work through complex problem solving. |
|
|
·
A
skill clients greatly value yet is poorly done—selling one’s ideas. ·
How
to present ideas and proposals in a way that increases client commitment. ·
How to
deal with the inevitable client reservations when clients are asked to
change. |
|
|
·
How
to use Closing and Taking Stock meetings to enhance a professional practice. ·
How
to establish an agenda for these meetings. ·
If
required, how to successfully turn implementation over to clients. |
|
|
·
A
field-tested model for looking at professional roles strategically. ·
How
to recognize value-added work best done by the professional. ·
What
to say “no” to, and just as important, how to say “no.” |
|
|
·
A
description of typical client groups that make up a multiple stakeholder
system. ·
How
to “diagram” your situation, using a structured format—or a “freehand” format. ·
A
list of key questions professionals need to ask about each client group. |
|
|
·
Change is a huge topic. This module will focus on selected
professional approaches to Sustaining Change. Go to the section below
where a brief description of each topic will help you choose which parts of
change will be most helpful. |
|
|
·
How
to surface and deal with client concerns, that is, direct resistance. ·
How
to recognize and deal with run-arounds, polite put-offs and lack of
commitment. ·
How
to deal with conflict in the consulting role. |
|
|
·
How
to assess which role is most appropriate for a situation and a career, not
getting trapped in a low-leverage role. ·
Flexibility
to choose and to adapt a role, from a range of roles. ·
Understanding
of how professional careers grow in influence, power and satisfaction. |
|
|
·
A
review of the major messages of Good to
Great as they apply to professionals. ·
Strategies
and tactics to garner support for a more strategic professional role in the
organization, as well as with clients. |
|
|
·
Why
modern professionals need to market their skills. ·
How
to market your strategic and leveraged skills. |
|
|
·
Depending
on participant needs, selected interpersonal skills such as listening skills,
giving difficult feedback, and establishing rapport. |
|
|
·
In
this module, participants have an opportunity to practice and get coaching in
the skills they have learned. |
|
|
17.
The 360 Powerful Professional Customer/ Client Service Survey |
·
The Powerful Feedback Survey Profile is a
well-tested customer/client professional service survey. Like 360º surveys,
each participant receives confidential professional
development feedback from people critical to his/her professional growth and
success. The Feedback is integrated with the skill building of these Powerful Professionals modules. |
The Mix-and-Match Modules
Depending on your needs and expected results, here are some modules to
choose from:
1. The 5
Stage Expertise Delivery/Consulting Model
In addition to being great at your professional
expertise, you also need to be great at how to deliver that expertise.
To be influential and powerful, professionals need to possess more than expertise—they also need to be adaptive in delivering that expertise either inside an organization or to external clients. Delivering expertise, doesn’t just “happen”—and it is folly to “wing it.” Professional client service requires professionals to have a deliberate, distinct procedure or framework to follow—a “mental model” to follow as you work with your clients. Our field-tested five-stage model provides professionals with rationale for what they are doing and why they are doing it. When required, professionals can confidently explain their consulting processes to clients/customers. Thousands of professionals presently use, adapt, customize, internalize and make this model their own, confident that their consultations are following a process that leads to success.
With this module,
professionals will take away:
·
A consulting model professionals can use to deliver
their expertise to clients/customers.
·
Why a model and each stage of it are important to a
professional’s success.
·
For each step, a set of goals and key skills, as
well as do’s and don’ts for each step.
2. Asking
Great Questions to Frame the Client’s Need and Set Up Great Roles
One of the most powerful tools for setting up powerful roles is the skill of asking powerful questions.
Most professionals and managers of
professionals desire roles with more influence and impact, yet often
inadvertently use behaviors that stop them from setting up such roles. As well,
many professionals wish their clients and others were more responsive to
ferreting out and framing the real problem, not just addressing symptoms.
Professionals and their managers also wish clients/customers would consider new
alternatives for dealing with issues, rather than applying the same old
solutions.
In the repertoire of a professional, one of
the most powerful tools for dealing with these concerns is the skill of asking
great questions. Narrow questions lead to narrow roles and fewer options. “Big
picture” questions lead to big picture roles and more options.
This module will give professionals a chance
to learn powerful, field-tested questioning skills in a problem-solving
context. With this module, professionals will take away:
·
How the questions you ask can be powerful in setting
up a problem solving process.
·
How powerful questioning skills can help position a
professional in a more influential role.
·
A checklist of questions professionals can use to
support their chosen strategy.
3. Exploring
the Need
You never have a second chance to make a first impression.
During the first few minutes
of client contact, professionals have the most leverage they will ever have:
leverage over the problem scope, over how the problem will be worked, and
over the impending role. Mistakes made here will haunt the professional for the
whole project. From the onset, the professional will need every skill of
consulting to get a project off on the right foot. Ultimately, this is a
professional’s big opportunity—“use it or lose it!”
From our work with over
10,000 professionals, we have found that a powerful
professional clearly separates exploration of a concern from commitment to
action. One hallmark of an inexperienced consultant is a “jump to action.”
With this module, professionals will take away:
·
How to get at the client’s underlying issues and
causes.
·
How to establish rapport; and work with client
fears.
·
How to set up an influential role.
4. Clarifying
Expectations/Commitments
Clarifying commitments means never having to say you’re sorry.
“I thought you wanted …” “If only I had cleared that up right away …” These statements occur like echoes throughout the stories of many a professional—echoes of unclear expectations at the root of numerous consulting problems and conflicts. One mark of high-performing professionals is taking responsibility for clarifying commitments and negotiating expectations.
With this module,
professionals will take away:
·
How to determine the appropriate amount of
clarification.
·
How to manage the ambiguity of agreements.
·
How to set up an influential role.
·
How to clarify verbally, and in writing.
5. Sorting
Out Complex Situations
When clients are up to their behinds in alligators, they often don’t know how to express the problem they have, much less how to solve it.
Over 50,000 surveys in our client database tell us that clients greatly value professionals’ ability to sort out complex situations. Finding themselves in increasingly complex situations, clients often don’t know how to express the problem, much less how to solve it. Powerful professionals need the skill of informally sitting down with a client and working through complex situations—like pulling strand after strand out of overcooked spaghetti.
In this module—verbally sorting out complex
situations—you will take away:
·
A skill that is greatly valued—how to ask questions
to clarify client needs in a messy situation.
·
An understanding of how powerful questioning skills
can help position a more influential role.
·
An ‘hourglass’ model to evaluate questions that
assist professionals to help others work through complex problem solving.
6. Selling
Your Professional Ideas and Recommendations
“What
good is your great idea when you present it in a way that allows people to
reject it?”
– Geoff Bellman
Here is room for most
growth. Here is where professionals can stand out from fellow professionals—if, besides having good ideas and
recommendations, they also know how to get them approved and implemented, and
how to help people with change. The first step is being able to present
recommendations persuasively.
Clients greatly value professionals’ persuasion and selling skills. We know this from our international database of over 10,000 professionals rated by over 50,000 clients, managers and others. Yet, in the same database, clients rate professionals low on these very skills! We call this skill gap “The Grand Canyon of Skill Gaps”:
Persuasion Greatly Valued vs.
Persuasion Poorly Rated = Biggest
Skill Gap
= Most Need to Improve
This module will give professionals the basic
skills of persuasively presenting ideas and proposals. They will take away:
·
A skill that is greatly valued and poorly
done—selling one’s ideas.
·
How to present ideas and proposals in a way that
increases client commitment.
·
How to deal with (inevitable) client reservations
when clients are asked to substantively change.
7. Wrapping
Up—Taking Stock or Closing
“It ain’t over till it’s over.” – Yogi Berra.
The purpose of this module is to underline the need to wrap up projects, or periodically take stock, so that both professionals and their organizations can learn from the past and improve for the future.
In our experience, “Closing” is often not well done. Cited as the major culprits are time pressures and low priority of closing for both client and professional. With flattening hierarchies and responsibility diffusion in many organizations, many professionals and their managers express concerns about Taking Stock/Closing: “How are we going to share our project learnings so we don’t keep making the same mistakes?” or more positively, “How are we going to pass on what we have learned and celebrate our successes?”
With this module,
professionals will take away:
·
How to use Closing and Taking Stock meetings to
enhance their professional practice.
·
How to establish an agenda for these meetings.
·
If required, how to successfully turn implementation
over to clients
8. Looking at
a Professional Role Strategically
To be considered a valued
contributor over your whole career, you must regularly re-evaluate how well
your work directly supports the strategy of your organization.
Professionals in organizations are working harder and more diligently than ever. Yet never before has there been more work insecurity, threat of job loss, and work stress. This module will give professionals the tools to align their profession and their professional group so that they are valued, recognized and considered key to the lifeblood of the organization. The foundation of such a powerful role is strategic thinking.
To be
considered a valued contributor over a whole career, professionals must
regularly re-evaluate how well their work directly supports the strategy of
their organization and their clients. Organizations are being pressured by their
environments to be more strategic; similarly, professionals are expected to
think and act more strategically. To be strategic professionally means
thoroughly understanding what to say “yes” and “no” to; as well as which
professional services to market. We contend that professionals cannot say “no”
successfully, until they know what they should say “yes” to. Strategic thinking
requires professionals to be able to say “no” to low-value work. Often
professionals know they should say
“no,” but feel pressured or obligated to say “yes.”
In this module, professionals will take away:
·
A field-tested model for looking at professional
roles strategically.
·
How to recognize value-added work best done by the
professional.
·
What to say “no” to, and just as important, how to
say “no.”
9. Multiple
and Complex Client Systems
Rarely do recommendations impact only a single client; more often projects have multiple clients or stakeholders.
Modern projects have complex client systems. Rarely do recommendations impact only a single client; more often projects have multiple clients or stakeholders. To get ideas accepted and implemented, it is crucial to determine who the client groups are and what role each plays in the decision making process. Different groups of clients can have very different perspectives. Recognizing different types of clients who need to accept your recommendation, leads to commitment at the implementation stage.
In this module, professionals will take away:
·
A description of typical client groups that make up
a multiple stakeholder system.
·
How to “diagram” your situation, using a structured
format—or a “freehand” format.
·
A list of key questions professionals need to ask
about each client group.
·
An introduction to preparing for, reducing and
confronting conflict between and among client groups.
10. Leading
Sustained Change
“I find it easier to be a result of the past
than a cause of the future.”- © Ashleigh Brilliant
Only when
recommendations are approved does the real work begin! Professionals
need their recommended changes to be smoothly implemented and to “stick.” One
of the biggest myths for professional experts is that producing good technical
recommendations is enough—enough to perhaps get laid off, or outsourced!
Professional results are measured in effective, implemented change, that
means in the real world, in real time.
Much has
been written about change—it is a huge topic. In this module, we will focus on
a selected number of professional approaches to Sustaining Change. A
brief description of each topic will help you choose which parts of change will
be most helpful to your organization.
·
Principles for Successful Change
Successful change is based on sound principles and
strategies. There is no recipe for change. Successful change is only assisted
by techniques and tactics.
·
Assessment of Readiness for Change
Introducing change is difficult at the best of times.
This easy-to-use assessment will help the professional assess how easy or
difficult a change will be.
·
Change Equation
This ‘Equation’ will give professionals a concise,
colorful, practical model of the change process, including a checklist of
things to consider for successful change.
·
Systemic Approach to Change
Many technically and professionally sound changes fail
because they were not supported by the system into which they needed to fit.
Successful professionals need to assess the relationship of their recommended
change to the entire system—seeing the whole and understanding the processes by
which the parts are linked together. This requires seeing how the change embeds
itself into the broader system.
·
Leading People Through Change
Many a rationally correct change plan has been impeded
by “resistance to change” or scuttled by lack of buy-in. Powerful professionals
have learned how to lead people through change resulting from their
recommendations.
11. Dealing
with Resistance and Conflict
“Whatever it is—I’m against it.”
– Groucho
Marx
From our large international
database, one of the lowest scored items by clients and others on the Powerful
Feedback 360 Customer/Client Service survey is the item about
surfacing and dealing with conflict. This is not news for professionals—they
more often than not give themselves even lower scores!!
Like conflict, dealing with
resistance is a challenge for professionals. Although cited over and over again
as a cause of failure of professional projects, resistance to change may not be
a valid scapegoat. We can’t directly change client behavior; but we can improve
our skill of recognizing resistance at an early stage, surfacing it in a
non-threatening way, and dealing with often underlying reasons for
non-commitment.
Depending on the issues and
needs of the participants, this module will emphasize either dealing with
conflict or resistance—although the skills are interrelated. In this module,
professionals will take away:
- How to
recognize conflict and resistance at an early stage when it is easier to
deal with.
- Confronting
conflict and resistance in a way that increases the chances of success.
- How to
lower the chances of conflict and resistance from happening.
12. Enhancing
the Professional Role and Career
“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get
run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rogers
During a particular project,
successful professionals need to temporarily assume a variety of
roles, depending upon the nature of the problem and the needs of the situation.
Role
flexibility is important. Sometimes you will need to be a pair of hands and do
what you are told. At other times you will need to push hard to establish an
advocacy role. This module introduces a model for role flexibility, a
skill valued by clients.
In
addition, high performing professionals can widen perspectives of their role
from that of specialist—where their success is personal success, to a more
leveraged role—where their success is the success of others. A
general assumption is that professional career growth takes a linear path.
Becoming more specialized and more efficient within a professional expertise is
not enough. Gene Dalton and Paul Thompson in their landmark book, Novations:
Strategies for Career Management, cite research showing highly productive
(and personally satisfied) professionals progressing through four nonlinear,
discrete levels. Each level is a quantum leap, requiring a new outlook and
different skill sets.
With this module,
professionals will take away:
·
How to assess which role is most appropriate for a
situation and a career, not getting trapped in any role.
·
Flexibility to choose and adapt their role, from a
range of roles.
·
Understanding of how professional careers grow in
influence, power and satisfaction.
13.
Professional Good to Great
“Good is the enemy of great.” – Jim Collins
In most organizations, professional groups are being asked (sometimes forced) to look at themselves strategically. Just like the organizations they work in, modern professionals and professional teams need to look at themselves strategically, with questions like:
-
“What should we be great at?”
-
“What should we be good at?”
-
“What do we need to let go of, to free ourselves for
higher value work?”
-
“What do we need to say “no” to?”
This module will give you
the opportunity to take a fresh perspective on your role and create a plan to
help you move from providing good service to being highly valued for your great
contribution. Furthermore, this module will introduce participants to concepts
from Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great
-—a runaway best seller for organizational leaders—which has many applications
for professionals.
With this module,
professionals will take away:
·
A review of some of the major messages of Good to Great as they apply to
professionals.
·
Clearer understanding of one’s professional
“strategic sweet spot.”
·
Strategies and tactics to garner support for a more strategic
professional role in the organization and with clients.
14. Marketing
Your Professional Skills
“The
best way to ensure your future is to create your own.”
For most professionals the
very words selling or marketing conjure up images of fast-talking
used car salespeople with gaudy ties and loud sports jackets, even though they
know that this image of sales and marketing is antiquated. There is no doubt
that marketing tends to have a bad name. Even the popular Dilbert cartoonist
constantly pokes fun at marketing. In this module, the professional aspects of
marketing are refocused for professional use. The goal is to assist you to
effectively market your professional skills inside or outside your own
organization, feeling comfortable and confident doing so.
With this module, professionals will take away:
·
The principles and models of marketing oneself
professionally.
·
How to analyze their professional marketplace and
outline steps they can take to market their strategic skills.
·
Use worksheets to prepare a marketing plan.
·
From our checklist of 101 hints/tips, glean critical
and practical marketing ideas to market their professional skills inside or
outside their organization.
15. Selected
Interpersonal Skills
“If
you think that communications and consulting is all talk, you haven’t been
listening.”
Our large client service
survey database of over 8,500 professionals who received feedback from over
50,000 clients, managers, peers and others, sends a mixed message about
interpersonal skills such as listening skills, establishing rapport, and giving
feedback. Most clients value professional/technical skills more highly than
interpersonal skills. When we look closely at the data, sufficient levels of
interpersonal skills are required to get into the game and the very best
professionals have both great technical and interpersonal
skills. Interpersonal skills are the
relish on a the professional skills ‘burger.’ Professional/technical skills are
at the core—the meat; processing skills (like sorting out complex situations
and selling your ideas) are the key complimentary skills—the bun; and
interpersonal skills are the fixings!
With this module, professionals will take away improved selected skills such as:
·
Listening skills—the skill underlying every interpersonal
and consulting skill.
·
Rapport skills—clients at ease are clients you are
more able to influence.
·
Giving feedback—consultants must be able to state
uncomfortable realities.
16. On-job
Application Simulations
.
““Thunder
is good, thunder is impressive, but it is the lightning that does the work.””
–
Mark Twain
After all is said and done,
it is on-job skills that count. On-job application simulations have multiple
application benefits. In simulated consulting sessions, participants will have
the opportunity:
·
To get assistance with a real on-job consulting
problem,
·
To practice your consulting skills,
·
To get real-time feedback & coaching, and
·
To coach a consultation.
And we leave the best to the last!
17. The 360
Powerful Professional Customer/Client Service Survey
“Feedback is the breakfast of champion consultants.”
The Powerful
Feedback Survey Profile is a well-tested customer/client professional
service survey. Like 360º surveys, each participant receives confidential professional development
feedback from people critical to his/her professional growth and success.
Feedback categories include professional skills, expertise delivery/consulting
skills, interpersonal skills, teamwork skills, and strategic/business skills.
The Feedback is integrated with the skill building of these Powerful Professionals modules.
Why use the Powerful
Feedback 360 Client/Customer Service Survey?
-
The ultimate judge of the success of professionals is the assessment of clients and others significant to their success. The Powerful Feedback Profile provides clear data to participants.
-
The Profile is regularly rated a highlight by participants.
-
Clear and standardized feedback is often difficult to assess and report. The Profile is an easy-to-use way of providing the feedback necessary for professional growth and success.
-
The workshop emphasizes those skill areas reported as very important by over 50,000 users of professional services.
-
The Profile contributes to the success of workshops by highlighting areas needing improvement.
-
The Profile encourages more success by clearly showing where participants are already doing well.
We have a “look-and-try”
site for our Client Service 360-type survey where guests can experience the
survey (but where nothing is recorded—we take great pride in the
confidentiality of our survey process). Click on http://www.powerfulfeedback.com and
follow the links. Use the Survey Code SSCD1234
You will be “giving feedback” to “Chris Doe” of “ABC Organization.” (We
have personalized the feedback form—raters will see the actual name of the
person to whom the feedback is given.) Also available is a sample report
downloadable in Adobe pdf format.