Be a person of influence
In the early 2000’s, marketing experts began to use the word, “shaping,” to highlight the distinction between being market driven and driving markets.
“Market driven refers to a business orientation that is based on understanding and reacting to the preferences and behaviors of players within a given market structure. Driving markets, on the other hand, implies influencing the structure of the market and/or the behavior(s) of market players in a direction that enhances the competitive position of the business.” (Jaworski, Kohli, & Sahay, 2000)
Today, shaping is used in a variety of ways, from shaping work to shaping the future.
What goes into shaping an opportunity?
There are a number of factors that go into shaping opportunities. Here are a few:
The strength of the relationships you have built and your understanding of what matters to others
Your ability to notice opportunities around you
Your ability to plan for multiple scenarios and mitigate risks
How you show up to work; who you are being; what mindset you bring
Your ability to communicate, influence, persuade, pitch, and enroll others
Your ability to cast the vision and think strategically
Why does this matter to you?
The implications of this in your career and day-to-day job is enormous.
You are shaping opportunities into outcomes daily, whether or not you are aware of it.
I was speaking with a leader in HR at a Fortune 500 company this week.
The problem she was facing was that her team is responsible for developing leadership materials for the entire organization, yet none of the leaders were using them.
Who knows the reason why they weren’t being used.
Maybe it was lack of awareness.
Maybe the leaders thought they didn’t need outside resources to lead.
Regardless of the problem, there’s only one solution:
Be a person of influence.
I suggested to this leader that she needed to start building relationships with the other leaders in the organization.
And then LISTEN.
Listen so deeply that you can articulate their problems better than they can.
And then ask them, “would you like some help with that?”
Leaning into your influence to shape opportunities
How can you be more intentional about shaping the opportunities around you? Here are some questions for you to consider:
What problems do I see that are actually opportunities?
How well am I listening to my colleagues/my manager/my clients? Do I truly understand their perspective?
Who am I being at work?
What could I do more of, or less of, in order to more strategically shape opportunities around me?
What competing commitments do I have that keep me from creating the outcomes I want?
You have incredible ability to shape opportunities to generate outcomes.
If you aren’t intentional about pursuing these, they go untapped.
What opportunities are you missing, and how can you begin to shape more of them?
Love,
Audrey
