My colleague, Deb Calvert, and I collaborate with some wonderful people every day of the year. One of our colleagues, Jim Keenan, challenged our group of 50+ specialists to create a meme about the one person who had the greatest impact on our professional development this year. His original post is what inspired us to collaborate in recognizing someone who had an impact on both of us in 2016.
We challenge you to do the same.
- Identify who helped you the most.
- Consider what they did to help you achieve what you needed to.
- Ponder why this achievement was so valuable to you.
- Then let them know who grateful and appreciative you are.
It was a no brainer for Deb and me. Tom Pick had the greatest professional impact on both of us in 2016.
Throughout 2016, both of us had the honor and privilege of working with Tom Pick, master SEO expert. From day one, his impact was palpable on each of our businesses. And on us, as individuals.
Sure, Deb and I had different objectives in working with Tom.
However, we both were struck by the speed that he comfortably became a member of our respective teams. We looked forward to working with him. At the end of each coaching session, our brands, strategy and messaging were light years ahead of where they had been prior to our conversation.
Tom Pick orchestrated a professional epiphany for each of us.
Perhaps Tom Pick’s greatest gift is his understanding of how to sensitively and wisely pace his message and strategy for us, rather than imposing his knowledge on us. Our teams rapidly got up to speed as he re-disciplined us. He encouraged us about what we were accomplishing, rather than making us feel behind the 8-ball due to quite a bit of clean up on each of our websites.
And yes, in the process, both of us changed the composition of our teams.
Tom pointed us in the right direction, including how to create compelling content for SEO. He delivered his expertise in a down-to-earth manner. Each of us got that “Big Idea” about how to move ourselves forward. That’s professional impact, folks.
When you work with a domain expert like Tom Pick, you move beyond What’s Holding You Back and, instead, start Moving Yourself Forward.
Because here’s the thing, folks. All of us get stuck from time to time. You can’t move yourself forward if you avoid identifying what is holding you back. Most of the time, what’s holding you back is You.
Sometimes, along the way, we learn about individuals who have expertise and insight that we lack. And if we are being completely honest with ourselves, we reach out for help. We place ourselves, confidently, in their hands. Because these rare individuals have our backs.
Tom Pick is not only a domain expert. He is a fine individual and a class act, honorable and honest. Tom gently pushed us both in directions which we may not have otherwise considered.
Tom Pick helped us “see” ourselves as our audiences perceive us, understanding just what it is that we both “do”.
The people who help us the most encourage us to take chances, assume risks and take responsibility for both our successes and our failures. Professional impact is about choices and decisions.
In 2016, Tom Pick impacted Who We Are and What We Do. We are honored and privileged to continue to work with him. And, in the spirit of Keenan’s original post, we’d like to challenge Tom to consider this same question and share who had the greatest impact on him in 2016 (other than us, of course!).
This post is a collaboration between Babette Ten Haken and Deb Calvert. This post is featured on both of our blogs based on mutual permission.
Babette Ten Haken is a storyteller, management consultant, strategist, speaker and coach focused on customer success for customer retention in the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) ecosystem. She traverses the interface between human capital strategy for hiring and developing collaborative technical and non-technical teams. She serves manufacturing, IT and engineering intensive companies. Babette’s playbook of technical / non-technical collaboration hacks, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon. Visit the Free Resources section of her website for more tools.
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