Viva La Revolution – right? Clearly there are so many advantages to work-from-home, and it’s hard to imagine turning back now that we have tasted that freedom! We have eliminated commuting time, we have gained flexibility, and pajama bottoms are so much more comfortable than suits. I moved away from an airport and now live in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I’m a big fan, but I also recognize the potential pitfalls.
Let’s examine the threats to our own careers and the tools to avoid them:
- It’s easier to grow stale in isolation
- Develop an individual development plan
Follow this video for tips to create that plan - https://youtu.be/Cz1i18dN_mo
- Find mentors to encourage you and share fresh ideas
- Engage a coach for one-on-one sessions
- It’s easier to lose momentum and activity
- Find other sources of positive peer pressure
- Create a structured day and be faithful to those time slots
- Create very specific daily objectives for each of your most important metrics
- Create increased accountability
- Resist the small disruptions to your day
- Phrases that start with “Well you’re already home so couldn’t you…” will disrupt your momentum more than you realize
- It’s harder to have high visibility on your team and you could lose advancement momentum
- Look for ways to make yourself indispensable
- Find solutions to upcoming problems, seek out new opportunities
- Create opportunities for collaboration
Fight the challenges of finding candidates in a work-from-home world
Let’s identify the threats to our practice
- A work from home talent pool can be national or even global – an infinite pool leads to delays and confusion
- Work to limit the talent pool – create a talent decision tree supported by analytics
- Start with the national number of individual contributors with the right title and industry
- Reduce to those with specific tool/product or customer experience
- Reduce to those with specific certifications or degrees
- Find other ways to differentiate the best from the rest
- Reduce to the talent pool within concentric geographical rings that are meaningful to your client
- Within commuting distance
- Regionally
- Nationally
- Identify a preference for each ring (greater flexibility for more local candidates
- Continue until you can say, “Good, then it sounds like you need to hire one of these 23 people” (try to keep that number under 50)
Bottom line – Work from Home has created massive new opportunities. It’s easier than ever to start your own firm, it’s easier to live in your dream home, boat, or RV! With some minor adjustments, we can make the most of this explosive market!
