Given the pandemic and all the changes that are happening, how can you stand out in 2022?
Many people would wish to have a particular magic bullet they can hire, purchase, or even acquire to make them heroes for clients and colleagues at work. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case.
To stand out as an individual, team, or firm, you must do the work respectively on your own, with your team, or with your firm. Even so, nothing is guaranteed in this life. The fact that you put in a lot of work in whatever you do does not mean you will automatically stand out. You must be smart in the actions you undertake and be quick to learn if something works or not.
Clearly, if you don’t put in any work, do not expect any results either.
Discover below ways that are effective when taking action to stand out in your firm or career, including the first steps you can take towards that direction.
Concept #1: Dare To Be Different
Our research has shown that the most successful innovation projects are teams who did something novel to stand out, such as the law firm Fisher Phillips creating their COVID-19 tracker. They were the first in this space and created an invaluable tracker. Clients are drawn to it because it stands out.
If you dare to be different and take the risk of standing out, it could pay off in the long run. However, this is also the reason why standing out is difficult, scary, and risky. Being the first means you could be wrong and your project could lead to nothing. That is why it is important to stay open-minded and enjoy the journey. You will always learn from pursuing a novel idea, even when the idea turns out to be a really bad one.
Concept #2: Follow a proven process
Focus all your efforts on standing out and being unique. Don't waste any time reinventing the wheel when it comes to the process of how to get there. Pursuing an innovation project is already risky enough.
Others have done it before you. You can learn from their mistakes and apply the best practices when you start your journey towards standing out. While standing out requires you to do something unique, the process to follow does not need to be unique. Apply the best practices, so you have the highest chance of success.
By the way, if you want to get started today and follow a proven process to stand out, whether in your career, firm, or for your clients, we got you covered. Our T4 program is here to help you get to that goal. Participating in this program is simple, risk-free, and will get you better results, fast.
Concept #3: What Money Cannot Buy
When you want to achieve a personal fitness goal, you can hire a personal coach to help you stick to your diet and eat healthily and assist with your workout sessions; the daily push-ups, and all. However, if the personal trainer does the healthy eating and does the push-ups on your behalf, you will not be the one benefiting, and you will not achieve whatever fitness goals you have in mind.
Similarly, you cannot get someone to stand out for you. A consultant cannot stand out on your behalf. If posed like this, it sounds even ridiculous. For the same reason, a purchased piece of software won’t help you stand out if everyone else is using the same software too. To make it unique, it must come from you, your team, or your organization. You need to own it and make it happen.
Therefore, rather than relying on money to buy things and services, why not change the tactics you use to improve your business? Ensure you always stay unique, do something that you have the skills, knowledge, and qualifications to get it done, and put in the effort to get it done.
Concept #4: Drive Your Future
In order to set yourself up for the future, you’ll need to really hone in on the project or idea you are working on. Without hard work, dedication, and focus, it’ll be hard for your project or idea to eventually stand out.
It is why firms with an innovative reputation often have very simple metrics for such exploratory projects. Is there more than one person interested in pursuing the idea, they give the green light to start? Because they know from experience that you need someone to drive the idea to practice in order to have success. Without such a person or team, it is simply not possible to stand out. So, start there.
And when you have found such a person or team (or you are that person or team committed to making it happen), then work towards proving the value of the idea. Create the business case. Even if the idea turns out to be a bad one, these steps are valuable learning opportunities regardless of the outcome.
Can I Apply This in My Firm?
Everyone can stand out - regardless of how progressive or conservative the firm you work for is.
In a very progressive firm, it takes more effort and dedication to stand out. In a very conservative firm, you need to overcome more resistance, but small changes can already make a big impact.
If there is not a lot of experience with innovation, digital transformation, or tech projects that you would like to undertake to stand out, then consider signing up for our T4 program. This program makes it simple, risk-free, and fast to explore an idea and it increases your chances of a successful outcome. If you put in the work, we can help you be successful because we have guided many innovation teams and will help you avoid common pitfalls.
Getting started
A few last words of advice, based on our experience with these kinds of innovation and personal growth projects:
- Either do it well or don’t invest time in an opportunity. Exploring something half or at a very low pace is doomed to lead to failure and thus a total waste of time.
- Do you have enough buffer and growth for the coming year(s) that you don’t need to pursue a new avenue? In other words, can you afford to wait your attempt to stand out in case you are too busy at the moment?
- If you decide to go ahead, try to free up 3-4 hours in your calendar each week to spend on your initiative. If you don’t have that much time, think about how you could collaborate with others. From experience we know that it takes at a minimum 3-5 hours/week to keep a project moving in the right direction.
- And lastly, if you decide to stand out in 2022, make sure that you frame your project in terms of the problem you plan to solve for your clients instead of what you would like to do.
Conclusion
Anyone in any career or firm can stand out. However, doing this takes effort and involves making a personal investment. You cannot expect or pay for someone else to stand out for you. And don’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to the process. Standing out is risky and scary enough, so I would recommend following a proven process for doing so.
Success!
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