Category Archives: Leadership

#80 Types of “acumen”

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“Acumen” is the ability to make good judgments and quick decisions. There are a number of places where acumen can come in handy:

  • Business acumen: Do you know who your customer is? Do you know whether you can fulfill their needs and make a profit? Can you do it consistently, and better than the competition? Do you know how to negotiate a win-win agreement?
  • Financial acumen: Do you know how to manage money? Do you know the difference between cash flow and funds flow? Do you know how to cut costs and invest wisely? Do you know when you are paying too much for a product or service?
  • Moral acumen: Do you know what the “right thing” to do is in any give situation? Can you execute without getting caught in philosophical disputes?
  • Common sense: If you don’t understand this, you probably don’t have it.
  • Street smarts: Can you read a situation quickly and react even quicker to take advantage of it? The emphasis here is on speed and accuracy, and leading directly to effectiveness.

A well rounded person will have all of the above. The educational system in all countries seems to fall short in developing all these types of acumen (this is not a comment backed by research, but I’d be curious to see if I am wrong). Those born with a proclivity towards one of the types will pursue a career, profession, or career that requires that type of acumen. Those who have none of the above will flounder.

The biggest problem, in my mind, is that grown adults fall back on blaming their education and do not develop the self awareness and follow it up with a concentrated effort to develop one or more of the above.

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#79 When to trust a consultant/contractor/vendor

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Love them or hate them, you can’t ignore them. We are all consultants/contractors because our employment can be terminated at any time. There are some legal nuances about being a full time employee versus a consultant/contractor/vendor, otherwise, for each individual, it really comes down to what terms of employment you find convenient as a provider of services.

If you can’t ignore them, why this visceral dislike of consultants/contractors/vendors by some people? First and foremost, it is an expectation that the consultant/contractor is an “expert” who will solve your problem fully and completely. This is a fallacy. At no time can you as a client give up accountability or place your destiny in another person’s hands.

A second reason is that consultants often portray themselves as “experts.” Such people are exposed very quickly and they give their entire profession a bad name. The foot in the door approach to client acquisition is perhaps the worst way to exploit a shortage of talent.

A third reason is that consultants behave in an aloof or hands-off manner. They don’t tie their success to the success of the client. That is too risky and invites lawsuits. The best consultants are those who let the contract or Statement of Work give them the legal defense, but when they are in a client engagement, they send a clear signal, “Unless you are successful, I am not successful. In fact, if you are not successful, I am walking out of here, because you are wasting my time.”

Consultants who are in the moment and fully committed will be adored by their clients.

The so-called “Full Time Employee” or FTE is also a consultant/contractor/vendor. The steady paycheck and benefits merely distractions to hide the fact that FTEs are hired to keep costs down. There is no permanence in the employment. If this is true, the above applies to them as well.

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