Areas of Mastery

What area's are you loving and most happy and excited about in your contract right now?

Negotiating Skills
Goal Mastery
Highest Possible rate Mastery
Transition Mastery
Interview Mastery
Resume Mastery
Build Your Team Mastery
How to Mastery
Compensate for Missing Cert Mastery
Emotional Mastery
Stress Mastery
DECISION Mastery
Network Mastery
Persistence Mastery
Being Accepted Mastery
Protection Mastery

What areas would you like to work a little more on?
We can always improve a little more in each area. Thankfully with the solid performance coaching that is accessible now that the bar can keep moving higher and everyone is getting better and better in each of the above areas and MORE... allowing clients to refuse a standard that is less.

It goes without saying that keeping up protects you from being left behind... and I don't have to urge you not to let things slip because that makes it hard to catch up and often puts us further behind... with more things to learn.. less time.. and with less contract opportunities...

SO exactly what is it that you REALLY need to master right now that keeps you happy, excited, motivated, inspired, grateful, loving your career right now?

Are we there yet?

So you have your Product.. and Leela Cosgrove, true to her promise, stuck firmly by you until you uncovered your USP that you have since been using with surprising and dramatic effect... but are you now finished, done, complete, with nowhere further to go? Perhaps hearing what Michael Bungay Stanier has to say about the 3rd lesson he learned while developing his product now at level 10.

Where would you rate yourself as a product? A "10"... a "7".. or less than that?

What is your product

Scenario:

You are now sitting on the other side of the conference table facing your interview panel and wondering how you get across to them your unique selling proposition that is to secure you access to this most prestigious, most highly desirable, high profile project at the best possible rate....

You need to ask:

How certain are you of the Issues they need solved?

How certain are you of the match your product is in doing its part in solving them?

YES THIS CAN feel like you are engaging in your own SPANISH INQUISITION but success eludes those without the COURAGE to activate their OWN curiosity to look at and answer even when uncomfortable questions like

How clear are you on the benefit your product brings doing its part in the overall solution?

How clear are you about the advantage the panel have in choosing your product over others?

IT BUILDS CONFIDENCE instantly in any environment when you can ENGAGE when you are ASKED

What are your Features?
- Access to Skills? Personal? External?
- Access to Knowledge? Personal? External?
- Access to Expertise? Personal? External?
- Access to other external networks, expertise, knowledge, skills, solutions this panel can draw on?

What is your Product?

What does your product development plan look like?

In what way is your selling proposition unique?

How do you get your benefit and advantage across when facing a panel on the other side of the table in an environment such as this? OR is there a better way?

Protection Mastery

There some of you who wake up each morning and you land contracts that are long, high profile, high dollar, leading edge that will go on, with renewal after renewal for a number of years with ease, without lifting a finger, with no effort. ALL you have to do is wake up in the morning and it lands on your lap.

There are others who need to do a bit more than that. Its for the second group I recommend giving some thought around how you are a master protectionist.

The more you are able to protect your client, your agent, while protecting yourself the more secure you will be.

From making sure you protect client against making a wrong decision in hiring you.. to protecting relationship you have with your preferred recruiter... to protecting your viability and reputation as a contractor... consider how to become a master protectionist and protect yourself against the occasional period where landing a long, high profile, high dollar, leading edge contracts that goes on, with renewal after renewal for a number of years is not with the same ease.

RESUME

Lucke says that the sole purpose of a resume is to get a job interview.

"You need to show the potential employer that you can do the work, that you have the skills to do the work," he said. So how do you compete with hundreds or even thousands of other people for that one job?

Okay no one disputes the importance of RESUME in your Areas Of Mastery but FIRST TWO things that get to the heart of the matter

(1) Job
(2) Interview

Lets take#1 Job

Question: What are OTHER ways of sniffing out jobs?
Answer: Your Network

Question: What if network is pewny or (gulp) NON EXISTANT
Answer: Get to work immediately.. it may not be too late

Question: "But" I hear you say.. "I have a 1000 friends on facebook.. another 300 on Linked.in... I am always twittering.. but noone talks about jobs I can put my resume up for
Answer: Learn how to network strategically, relevantly, powerfully, persistently, intelligently

When was the last time you asked?

Its not uncommon for most contractors to settle for the cycle where they feel apprehensive for a few weeks around the time of renewal, or just before the interview and relief when they are told they have the contract to settle into feelings of bliss, abundance, and euphoria... only to have the cycle start all over again two weeks before the end of their contract. Its the hopium approach to contracting

This approach to contracting can be shown by health experts that it is not the healthiest way of working your product. Nor is the best way of running your business. Far better to get more certainty and simply ask the customer how best you could serve them.

When was the last time you asked your customer?

What do I ask, what am I looking for? I hear some ask.

Well one way is to leverage off industry surveys such as this one on UmbrellaSupermarket

This gives you insight into what other contractors have found.

But that's too general, I don't have control over many of the things I imagine some will say.

Well I beg to differ. You have control over which umbrella company you choose to do business through and support. If you support those who support you with marketing trends to better target your specific product then in that sense you do have control. You have control in taking wider surveys and chunking them down to hone your specific product to your specific client market.

Your umbrella company would only be too happy to help you if it helps them. Each of your client surveys (collected from each contractor) helps build a far better picture for the umbrella company to serve their client and in turn for your product.