the real work that I do

the real work that I do (not software, marketing, or sales)…

In everything that we do…

– there’s always the work that people see

– and then there’s the REAL work that’s underneath it

On Thursday, I got on a call with a client of mine. We’d just wrapped up a few projects, and we needed to stake out our next sprint.

During our discussion, my client tells me, “I think we should launch Project X as a one-off project, then look at how to bring it into the rest of what we’re doing.”

Whether it was ego…

Or my natural pressure-testing…

Or my curiosity…

(I’d like to think it wasn’t ego…)

I drilled into the pros and cons between letting it run standalone vs. bringing it in immediately. I got to the other side of my questions and said…

“I agree completely.”

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been working to encapsulate what I do for my clients. Thanks to some great mentors, I’ve given up on needing to distill it into a single pithy statement. Those of you who’ve been following along get a pretty clear idea of what I do.

However, as I’ve reflected on this conversation, I realized that this reflects one of my proud moments…

Yes..

I love getting clients results.

I love seeing them win.

I love seeing them step ahead of the competition.

I love seeing them build moats around their business.

But I had to pause for a minute when I realized that I might have accomplished my true work, which was this…

I watched my client reach a new level in how to think…

how to problem solve…

how to diagnose…

how to prioritize…

how to build…

The results come because of insights and outside knowledge.

The results stay because of knowing how to think & how to manage.