In the recent editions, we’ve been exploring:
examples of missions as main contribution for specific beneficiaries,
Today, let’s deep dive into the “how” of your mission:
How are you contributing? How are you helping others?
Here is a simple lens to look at contributing, with four main ways:
Do it for you: I do the work for you;
Do it together: We collaborate to do the work together;
Do it yourself, guided: I guide you to do the work yourself;
Do it yourself: I inspire and/or teach you to do the work yourself;
Many of the roles that someone has when helping others can be mapped to:
Do it for you:
Employee - you employ me to do the work for you;
Contractor - you contract me to do the work for you;
Goods Provider - you pay for the goods I’ve created by doing the work;
Volunteer - I volunteer to do the work for you.
Do it together:
Partner - We decide to do the work together;
Teammate - We need to do the work together;
Facilitator - I facilitate the work you do;
Consultant - You consult me for the work you do;1
Do it yourself, guided:
Adviser - I advise you when doing the work yourself;
Mentor - I mentor you when doing the work yourself;
Coach - I coach you when doing the work yourself;
Superviser - I supervise you when doing the work yourself;
Do it yourself:
Trainer - I train you so that you can do the work yourself;
Teacher - I teach you so that you can do the work yourself;
Author - I inspire and/or teach you so that you can do the work yourself;
Role Model - I inspire you so that you can do the work yourself.
Side note and food for thought:
Being a “Leader” can mean contributing through many of the roles mentioned above, depending on the context (situation, the other people, cultural elements involved etc.) - in other words, the meaning of “I lead you to get the work done” can range from “I role model what needs to get done to inspire you to do the same” to “I supervise you” to “I partner with you to get the work done” to “I volunteer to do this for you” … or “I coach you”, “I train you”, “I facilitate your work” etc.
To illustrate the roles with a simple example, let’s imagine the case when you want to help people to prepare food (work needed) and eat (end goal of beneficiaries).
The ways of contributing might look like this:
Do it for you:
Employee - I work as your personal chef;
Contractor - You contract me to cook for your birthday party;
Goods Provider - You buy the pizzas I’ve cooked;
Volunteer - I volunteer to cook for you the next time we meet;
Do it together:
Partner - We cook together the family dinner;
Teammate - I prepare the salad while you prepare the grilled meat during the company barbecue;
Facilitator - I bring you proper kitchen tools and timekeep the oven when you’re cooking this new recipe;
Consultant - You call me to come when cooking oriental dishes;
Do it yourself, guided:
Adviser - I give you ongoing advice for becoming a better cook, based on your evolution;
Mentor - I share with you my cooking experiences so you can cook better, based on what you ask me;
Coach - I help you become aware of how you’re cooking and decide what you’ll cook next;
Superviser - I supervise you when you’re cooking;
Do it yourself:
Trainer - I train you to become a decent cook;
Teacher - I teach you how to cook your favorite dish;
Author - I write the recipe book that you’ll want to use;
Role Model - I inspire you with my cooking.
Which roles energize you the most?
Enjoy contributing,
Bülent
As a strategic adviser and lifelong learner, Bülent Duagi works with Directors in 🇷🇴 Tech companies to help them make more impact with better strategic thinking - which usually translates to:
🧭 having a clear strategy that enables better and faster decision making;
🤝 organizing better to both run operations and implement strategy with the available bandwidth and budgets;
🚀 implementing strategic initiatives and programs in an efficient and effective manner, paying attention to the people side of change;
⚡️ intentionally developing proper internal capabilities that are sustainable in the long run.
Depending on the type of consulting, the consultant role can move between Do it together and Do it yourself, guided.