You are most likely seeing a theme emerge in our collective posts this month. We have just returned from our annual Partner Summit: a week of connection, learning, deep self-reflection, and most importantly, meeting face to face (and hug to hug) with our team members and Actionable Consulting Partners. There were many inspiring discussions throughout the week, but one that really stands out for me was our session focused on helping our consulting partners define their halo effect, and using that knowledge to create their superpower.
Bear with me as I paint the picture of the experience, and include you in the conversations. For many of our consultants and coaches in the room, this discussion was a revelation—I hope that it’s helpful for you as well.
You’ve been coaching clients for a long time. You are a smart and savvy contributor to your clients and their organizations. You keep getting asked to play an ongoing role—they won’t let you go. They want you with them All. The. Time. And that is a problem—they want you and only you. You’re too busy delivering the solutions that you’re known for to think strategically about growth for your own business. Your clients want you for what they know you for—your great work—and are resistant to change or new offerings.
You are known for doing work that you’re great at. Do you know what that great work truly is? Can you articulate it succinctly? If you’re not sure, reach out to 5-10 clients and ask. You need to know. This is your halo effect. Your power. It’s what makes you different, sets you apart—and because you are known to be good, even great, at a particular thing or two, your clients think you are great at everything.
So when you sit back, and reflect on the best parts of your client engagements, those moments where you shine and feel that there are light bulbs popping all over the room, what is that? Write it down. This is your power, and it provides a halo of greatness to the other activities you accomplish with your clients.
But herein lies the trap. Your halo effect is a great start, but it represents the way that you’ve always worked. The world of work is changing rapidly, and along with it, the landscape for consultants and coaches must also be evolving. If you’re too busy delivering the same solutions again and again, you’ll never be able to grow your business. At worst, you may find that your offerings become redundant in a rapidly shifting landscape.
Now the tough questions. How do you get out of the spot where your clients want you all the time? Once they have you, why would they do it themselves? How do you empower your clients to grow, take ownership of their development and the development of their business, allowing you to become a more strategic partner? How can you leverage your halo to grow your business, and increase your impact with your client organizations?
In order to find the time it takes to work on your business—your growth, your strategy, your goals—you need to reflect on your halo effect, and find a way to supercharge it.
In my new role as a Strategic Business Coach (more on that later), my job is to help our Consulting Partners widen their thinking, help them see further into the future of their work with their clients, and deepen their reach while empowering their clients to own their development. By integrating Actionable Conversations into their practice, our ACPs now have the ability to supercharge their halo effect. We have affectionately called this their superpower.
Seeing the faces of our partner community in attendance during this session was awesome. They literally walked taller after this discussion. By clearly articulating their halo effect, and talking through how they can leverage the resources available to create their superpower, you could see the confidence in the room increase.
They began to see a clear path toward strategic and sustainable business growth, that doesn’t require them to work more hours each week (and maybe even allows them to take some time off!). They are empowered by the ability to measure their impact on their client organizations, as well as allow their clients to move the needle on key business metrics.
So, as a coach or consultant, you now have action steps to take:
- Define your halo effect on paper.
- If you cannot define it, ask your clients what they know you best for.
- Decide if you want to turn your halo effect into a true superpower (and if the answer is no, thanks for reading, and I wish you the best of luck), and figure out how you can leverage the resources available to you to differentiate yourself in the market
I get it. You do great work. You’re busy doing that work and delivering the solutions that your clients know you for. The way I see it, you have two paths ahead of you. Keep doing what you’ve always done—deliver great work, rinse, repeat. Or, take that great work you’re known for, and leverage it to create something bigger—deepen your impact, become a trusted advisor for your client organizations, and grow your business in a sustainable way (you might want to supercharge your halo effect and create your superpower by partnering with Actionable).
We all have the capacity to develop a superpower. Will you continue as you always have, or harness the incredible power within you to create something extraordinary? I know what I would choose, but then again, I’ve already picked out my cape.
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