- expert focus -

A lawyer by education and a leader by passion, I'm writing to share everything I learn about innovation, entrepreneurship, business and strategy. My blog posts are in English, French, Portuguese and German. Why? Because the world is a lot smaller than it seems and I want to help as many people as possible reach their fullest potential!

[expertfocus]

3 Ways to Expert Focus

Wow, 2014 is moving fast. 

It’s March and it’s almost been three months since my first blog post on “expert-focus”. 

For those of you that haven’t read it yet, the objective was to encourage readers to get stuff done. The message went like this: for professional and personal reasons, find something that drives you to want to be better. Then work hard to improve that something as best as you can. Result: you’ll be better at what you do, be more confident doing it and provide colleagues and clients with better quality work and added value.

For those of you that did read it, what’s your focus and what have been doing to build it? If you’ve got nothing so far that’s cool. Just remember that as you read this blog post you’ll never be younger than you are right now - make the most of life, time flies ;)

If you have no clue as to where or how to start this journey of expert-focus, please allow me to share with you some of my recent endeavours at expertizing myself. My focus is legal and business knowledge and to improve, I’ve been learning through books, classes and practice. 

In terms of books, I’ve been worming it up quite a bit recently. A great and inspiring read that I highly recommend to everyone looking to leave their mark in the design world (or business in general) is A Fine Line by the founder of frog design, Hartmut Esslinger. It was so good in terms of practical examples of rethinking design and business strategies that I plan on reading it again - this time with a highlighter and notebook. There were so many gold nuggets of knowledge in this book that I want ingrained into my mind.

In terms of classes, I’ve decided to go back to school. Not for an MBA or a third degree; I already have two, history and law. Nope, I’ve proudly joined the brave new world of moocs because I really like the idea of hacking my education. The latter stands for massive open online course. Click here for a solid list of moocs and here for a discussion on the credential aspect of this new means of education. I just completed, with Coursera Signature Track certification, the course entitled Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies given by the business school at the University of Maryland. There were over fifty course lectures to watch and six weekly assignments to complete. I spent weeknights, lunch hours and weekends taking notes and learning more about the structure of an enterprise and how to identify new business opportunities. So great was my online learning experience that I am very much looking forward to my next mooc starting in a few weeks, this time through edX. The course: Entrepreneurship 101: Who is Your Customer? The university providing the course: MIT. What more can I say? Talk about motivation to learn.

Lastly, from a practical standpoint, I have been readily applying my new and existing knowledge where I can in order grow my career as well as the careers of those around me. At the web design studio where I work, Dynamo, I have been suggesting new processes and helping implement new procedures to, among others, improving our legal documentation management and our resource allocation scheduling. My goal is to help foster better efficiency and improve decision-making at the management level so that my fellow expert designers, developers and content strategists at Dynamo can focus on doing what they do best: create awesome digital solutions for our clients!

So, thus far, what is the result from all the additional hours outside of work spent in front of a screen and my nose buried in the pages of books?

Value. I have acquired value because - every single day - I am working to improve myself. I am passionately working to be better at what I do so that I can help others be even better at what they do. This is my purpose and this is my expert-focus.

I know that some of my colleagues at Dynamo are working hard to improving their own skill sets and adding more value to their work by taking moocs like this and you should too! 

I’d love to hear about your journey in discovering your own expert-focus and, especially, how your making the lives of your colleagues and clients better!

Feel free to write me at [email protected] :)

[expertfocus]

2014: Jahr des Ärmel Hochkrempelns und Experten-Fokus

Ich liebe lesen und ich liebe zu teilen, was ich lerne.

Im Dezember 2013 las ich über, wie ich es nenne, “Experten-Fokus“ und predige seitdem (in)offiziell diese Botschaft an alle, von denen ich denke, dass sie davon profitieren können.

Die Botschaft ist einfach: wähle einen Schwerpunkt, werde ein Experte in diesem Schwerpunkt und der Rest wird folgen.

Okay, der letzte Teil erfordert einiges an ernsthaftem Ärmel Hochkrempeln und kann in seiner Bedeutung frei als „Erfolg“ übersetzt werden, aber das ist an sich immer relativ und wohl einen separaten Blogbeitrag wert. Fürs erste werde ich damit beginnen, wie Experten-Fokus meine Aufmerksamkeit erlangt hat und werde dann die beiden wichtigsten Elemente dieses Gedankens erörtern und wie es Sie in 2014 beeinflussen wird.

Es fing an als Blogbeitrag der New Yorker Design-, Entwicklung- und Strategiefirma Barrel, über das Thema „verschlanken“ ihrer Kundenliste. Sodann fand ich mich wieder, eines der in dem Blog empfohlenen Bücher, “The Win Without Pitching Manifesto” von Blair Enns, gründlich aufzuschlüsseln, Zeile um Zeile (ich empfehle es wärmstens all denen, die nach mehr Motivation und Führung suchen, um in ihrer Arbeit weiter zu kommen). Ich bin jetzt so leidenschaftlich über das Thema Experten-Fokus wie über Tischfußball, und das meine Freunde, wie meine Kollegen bei Dynamo bestätigen können, sagt viel aus.

Obwohl Enns´ Buch zwölf Proklamationen erörtert, die jedes kreative Unternehmen lernen und auf ihr Unternehmen anwenden sollte, werde ich mit Ihnen die beiden teilen, die meiner Meinung nach die wichtigsten sind: Spezialisierung und Fachkompetenz.

Erst mit diesen beiden können die anderen Proklamationen richtig verwirklicht werden. 

Das Konzept der Spezialisierung ist in der Theorie einfach, doch in der Praxis recht schwierig zu realisieren, und das geht so: als kreative Person ist es Ihre Aufgabe, einen Schwerpunkt zu wählen, sich als Experte in diesem Schwerpunkt zu positionieren und Tag und Nacht daran zu arbeiten, diesen Anspruch auf Fachkompetenz zu fördern. Dadurch wird Ihr vertieftes Fachwissen die entscheidende Komponente, die Sie von anderen unterscheidet, da Ihre Kunden Sie wegen Ihres Fachwissens, nicht wegen Ihres Service einstellen. Nach Enns ist dies eine fundamentale Geschäftsstrategie, und vielen kreativen Firmen fällt es schwer, sich darauf festzunageln. Es ist nicht einfach, diese mutige Entscheidung zu treffen, einen Weg, und nur diesen einen, zu wählen. Wenn Sie jedoch einmal diese Entscheidung getroffen haben, sich als die spezifische  Bezugsquelle zu positionieren, zum Beispiel, nur E-Commerce Websites für Online-Einzelhändler von Bekleidung zu gestalten und zu entwickeln, bereiten Sie sich darauf vor, sprichwörtlich die Ärmel hochzukrempeln und sich zu expert-ieren (ja, ich meinte expert-ieren, es ist die Handlung, einen Experten aus Ihnen zu machen). 

Wie wird man ein Experte? Erstens müssen Sie hart und konstant daran arbeiten, Ihre vorhandenen Kenntnisse und Fähigkeiten zu ergänzen und zu vertiefen – idealerweise solche, die Ihren neuen Fokus komplementieren. Und, wie Enns erklärt, ist der beste Weg, das zu erreichen, zur Feder zu greifen (oder die Fingerspitzen auf die Tastatur zu legen, Ihre Wahl) und zu schreiben. Einfach gesagt, Schreiben sammelt Ihre Gedanken, formalisiert sie, hilft Ihnen, Ihre Forderung nach Fachkompetenz zu festigen und ist für Sie der beste Weg, Ihr Wissen zu vertiefen. Enns erörtert auch wie wichtig es ist, es sich anzugewöhnen, Ihren Arbeitsprozess aufzuschreiben: dokumentieren Sie, wie Sie arbeiten; definieren Sie, wie Sie in Zukunft arbeiten möchten; und präzisieren Sie dabei immer Ihre Vorgehensweise zur Problemlösung. Schreiben Sie im Grunde ständig, denn Experten schreiben.

Nun haben Sie also Ihr Ziel für 2014: werden Sie ein fokussierter Experte. Das einzige, das Sie eigentlich dafür tun müssen, ist dieses Ziel zu Ihrer Realität zu machen, und falls Sie es noch nicht bemerkt haben, das durchweg wiederkehrende Motto dieses Beitrages ist zu arbeiten.

Arbeiten Sie daran, Ihre Fähigkeiten zu verbessern. Arbeiten Sie daran, mehr zu schreiben. Wirklich, selbst der Prozess, eine Spezialisierung auszuwählen, erfordert erheblich viel Nachdenken und harte Arbeit. Deshalb, wie die Überschrift zu verstehen gibt, krempeln Sie 2014 die Ärmel hoch und bewegen Sie die Dinge. Je mehr Sie arbeiten, desto mehr bringt es Ihnen ein, und, letztlich, desto mehr können Sie anderen um Sie herum geben, einschließlich Ihren Kunden.

Viel Glück Ihnen allen angehenden-hart-arbeitenden-fokussierten-Experten!

[expertfocus]

2014: L’année du boulot et du focus d’expert

J'aime lire et j'aime partager tout ce que j'apprends.

En décembre 2013, j'ai lu sur ce que j’appelle « le focus d’expert » et depuis, je prêche (non) officiellement son message à tous ceux qui, en mon avis, peuvent  en tirer profit.

Le message est simple : choisissez un sujet sur lequel vous pouvez vous concentrer (voire le focus), devenez un expert sur ce sujet et le reste suivra.

Évidemment, cette dernière partie exige beaucoup de travail et peut être considérée comme la notion du « succès », mais ceci est toujours relatif et mérite un billet de blogue séparé. Pour l'instant, je vais commencer ce billet en expliquant la façon dont le focus d’expert est venu à mon attention et je discuterai ensuite des deux éléments les plus importants de cette notion et comment cela peut changer votre année 2014.

Tout a commencé avec un billet de blogue publié par la firme new yorkaise de design, de développement et de stratégie web appelée Barrel, sur le thème d’« amincir » leur liste de clients. Ensuite, je me suis engagé à lire attentivement, ligne par ligne, l'un des livres mentionnés dans le billet, « The Win Without Pitching Manifesto » par Blair Enns (je le recommande fortement à tous ceux qui recherchent de la motivation et de l'orientation pour évoluer et faire avancer pour leur carrière ou leur entreprise au prochain niveau). Depuis, je suis maintenant aussi passionné par le sujet du focus d’expert que par le baby-foot et ceci, mes chers lecteurs et chères lectrices, tout comme mes collègues à Dynamo peuvent en témoigner, en dit beaucoup.

Bien que le livre de Enns stipule douze proclamations que chaque entreprise créative doit apprendre et appliquer au fonctionnement de leur entreprise, je vais vous partager les deux plus importantes à mon avis: la spécialisation et l'expertise. C'est à partir de ces deux, que les autres proclamations peuvent vraiment se concrétiser.

D’une part, en théorie, le concept de la spécialisation est simple. D’autre part, il est assez difficile à réellement mettre en œuvre. Le concept va comme suit: étant une personne créative, votre travail consiste à choisir un focus, ensuite, vous vous positionner comme un expert sur ce focus particulier et, finalement, vous devez travailler jour et nuit pour appuyer votre déclaration d'expertise. En conséquence, votre expertise approfondie sera l'élément essentiel qui vous distinguera des autres - résultat, vos clients vont vous embaucher pour votre expertise, et non pas pour vos services. Selon Enns, il s'agit d'une stratégie d'affaires fondamentale que de nombreuses entreprises créatives ne mettent pas en œuvre. Ce n'est pas facile de prendre la décision audacieuse de choisir une voie de focus. Néanmoins, une fois que vous prenez cette décision de vous vous positionner comme la source unique pour, par exemple, la conception et le développement de sites web de plateforme e-commerce pour des détaillants de vêtements qui vendent uniquement en-ligne, préparez-vous à retrousser proverbialement vos manches et expert-isez vous-même (oui, je l'ai dit, expert-isez, c'est l'acte de faire un expert de vous-même).

Comment devient-on un expert ? Pour commencer, vous devez constamment travailler fort sur l'approfondissement de vos compétences et capacités actuelles - idéalement, celles qui complètent votre nouveau focus. Et, comme Enns explique, la meilleure façon d'y parvenir est de prendre la plume (ou les bouts des doigts au clavier, c’est à votre choix) et d'écrire. Autrement dit, vos mots vont vous aider a être découvert, vont officialiser votre pensée, vont aider à solidifier votre demande à l'expertise et l’acte d’écrire est la meilleure façon pour vous d'approfondir vos connaissances. Enns aborde également l'importance de prendre l'habitude d'écrire votre processus de travail : documenter la façon dont vous travaillez, définir comment vous voulez travailler à l'avenir, et, toujours affiner votre approche de résolution de problèmes. Essentiellement, toujours écrire parce que les experts écrivent.

Ainsi, vous avez maintenant votre objectif pour 2014: devenir un expert ciblé. La seule chose que vous avez vraiment besoin de faire est de faire de cet objectif votre réalité et si vous n'avez pas remarqué, le thème récurrent tout au long de ce billet est de travailler .

Travaillez sur l'amélioration de vos compétences. Travaillez sur vos écrits. Je l’admets, même le fait de choisir une spécialisation nécessite une réflexion approfondie et du travail acharné. En somme, comme le titre l'indique ci-dessus, assurez-vous que l’année 2014 soit l’année du retroussement de vos manches et faites brasser les affaires. Plus vous travailler, plus cela vous rapportera et, pour finir, plus vous pourrez apporter aux autres autour de vous, y compris vos clients.

Bonne chance à vous tous - experts travaillants avec focus en devenir!

[expertfocus]

2014: O Ano de Arregaçar as Mangas (e do Expert Focus)

Eu amo ler e compartilhar o que aprendo.

Há algumas semanas, eu li sobre o que estou criando, o expert focus (tradução literal sendo: foco especialista), e tenho estado (não-) oficialmente pregando sua mensagem a todos aqueles que acreditam poder tirar proveito da mesma.

A mensagem é simples: escolha um foco, torne-se um expert no mesmo e o resto acontecerá.

Certo, essa última parte requer muito trabalho e pode ser livremente traduzida para o que significa “sucesso”, mas este por si só é sempre relativo e, de fato, digno de um post separado no blog. Por agora, começarei com como o expert focus chamou minha atenção e então discutirei os dois elementos mais importantes desta ideia e como a mesma irá afetá-los em 2014.

Tudo começou com um post de um blog da Barrel, a casa do design, desenvolvimento e estratégia de Nova Iorque, sobre o assunto de “emagrecer” sua lista de clientes. Eu então me vi decifrando, linha por linha, um dos livros citados nas referências do mesmo, “The Win Without Pitching Manifesto” de Blair Enns (eu certamente recomendo àqueles que estão procurando por motivação e orientação para levarem seus trabalhos ao próximo nível). Estou agora tão apaixonado pelo assunto de expert focus quanto sou por pebolim e isso, meus amigos, como os meus colegas do Dynamo podem confirmar, diz bastante.

Embora o livro de Enns discuta doze proclamações que todo negócio criativo deveria aprender e aplicar à sua empresa, compartilharei o que eu acredito serem os dois mais importantes: especialização e experiêcia. É a partir destes que as outras proclamações podem realmente ser concretizadas.

O conceito de especialização é simples em teoria, no entanto bastante difícil de implementar na realidade e acontece da seguinte maneira: sendo uma pessoa criativa, seu trabalho é escolher um foco, posicionar-se como um especialista no mesmo e trabalhar dia e noite para apoiar sua afirmativa de especialização. Como resultado, seu conhecimento aprofundado será o elemento crítico que o diferenciará dos outros uma vez que seus clientes o contratarão pelo seu conhecimento, não pelos seus serviços. De acordo com Enns, essa é uma estratégia fundamental que muitas firmas criativas tem dificuldade de compreender. Não é fácil tomar a corajosa decisão de escolher um caminho e apenas um.  No entanto, uma vez que você tomar a decisão de se posicionar como a melhor escolha de, por exemplo, designer e desenvolvedor de websites de comércio eletrônico de roupas de varejo, prepare-se para arregaçar as mangas e se “expert-ize” (sim, eu disse “expert-ize”, é o ato de se tornar um expert em algo).

Como alguém se torna um expert? Para começar, você deve trabalhar muito e frequentemente adicionar à e aprofundar suas habilidades e capacidades atuais – idealmente, aquelas que complementam o seu novo foco. E, como Enns explica, a melhor maneira de conseguir isso é colocar a caneta no papel (ou seus dedos no teclado, você escolhe) e escrever. Simplificadamente, escrever permite que você encontre, formalize seu pensamento; ajuda a solidificar sua afirmativa de especializção e é a melhor maneira de você aprofundar seus conhecimentos. Enns também discute a importância de desenvolver o hábito de anotar o seu processo de trabalho: documente como você trabalha; defina como você quer trabalhar no futuro; e, sempre esteja refinando a sua abordagem de resolução de problemas. Essencialmente, escreva sempre, pois experts escrevem.

Então agora você tem seu objetivo para 2014: torne-se um expert focado. A única coisa que você precisa fazer é tornar esse objetivo sua realidade e, caso você não tenha notado, o tema recorrente neste post é trabalhar.

Trabalhe em melhorar suas habilidades. Trabalhe em escrever mais. Até o ato de escolher uma especialização requer uma reflexão considerável e trabalho árduo. Portanto, como o título acima indica, torne 2014 o ano de arregaçar as mangas e fazer as coisas acontecerem. Quanto mais você trabalha, mais você traz para si mesmo e, finalmente, mais você pode levar aos outros ao seu redor, incluindo seus clientes.

Agora vá lá e trabalhadores árduos e futuros experts!

[expertfocus]

2014: Year of Sleeve-Rolling and Expert Focus

I love reading and I love sharing what I learn.

In December 2013 I read about what I am coining “expert focus” and have been (un)officially preaching its message to all those I believe can profit from it.

The message is simple: choose a focus, become an expert on that focus and the rest will follow. 

Okay, that last part requires some serious sleeve-rolling and can be loosely translated to meaning “success” but that in and of itself is always relative and indeed worthy of a separate blog post. For now, I’ll begin with how expert focus came to my attention and will then discuss the two most important elements of this notion and how it will affect you in 2014.

It started off as a blog post from the New York design, development and strategy house, Barrel, on the subject of “slimming down” their client roster. I then found myself thoroughly breaking down, line by line, one of the books referenced in the blog, “The Win Without Pitching Manifesto” by Blair Enns (I totally recommend it to all those looking for motivation and guidance to take their work to the next level). I am now as passionate about the subject of expert focus as I am about foosball and that my friends, as my colleagues at Dynamo can attest to, says a lot.

Although Enns’ book discusses twelve proclamations that every creative business should learn and apply to their enterprise, I am going to share what I believe to be the two most important: specialization and expertise. It is from these two, that the other proclamations can truly come to fruition.

The concept of specialization is simple in theory yet quite difficult to implement in reality and goes like this: as a creative person, your job is to choose a focus, position yourself as an expert on that focus and work day and night to support your claim of expertise. As result, your deepened expertise will be the critical element that will set you apart from others as your clients will hire you for your expertise, not your services. According to Enns, this is a fundamental business strategy that many creative firms have a hard time pinning down. It isn’t easy to make that bold decision to choose one path and one path alone. However, once you make that decision of positioning yourself as the go-to source for say, designing and developing online-only clothing retailer e-commerce websites, get ready to proverbially roll them sleeves up and expert-ize yourself (yes, I said expert-ize, it is the act of making an expert of yourself).

How does one become an expert? For starters, you must work hard and often on adding to and deepening your current skills and capabilities - ideally, those that complement your new focus. And, as Enns explains, the best way to accomplish this is to put pen to paper (or fingertip to keyboard, your choice) and write. Simply put, writing gets you found, formalizes your thinking, helps to solidify your claim to expertise and is the best way for you to deepen your knowledge. Enns also discusses the importance of getting into the habit of writing down your work process: document how you work; define how you want to work in the future; and, always be refining your approach to problem-solving. Essentially, always be writing because experts write.

So you now have your objective for 2014: become a focused expert. The only thing you really need to do is to make this objective your reality and unless you didn’t notice, the recurring theme throughout this post is to work. 

Work on improving your skills. Work on writing more. Heck, even the act of choosing a specialization requires considerable thought and hard work. Therefore, as the title above indicates, make 2014 the year of rolling up your sleeves and making things happen. The more you work, the more you bring to yourself and, ultimately, the more you can bring to others around you, including your clients.

Good luck to all of you hard-working-focused-experts-to-be!