Specialties

I have been in Monterey California for the past few days at executive meetings. Imagine the contrast when I arrived home to find snow after running for an hour yesterday outside in shorts. Snow. Lots of it. Drifts over a meter high. It is beautiful.

I often speak of niche markets and specializing - not only for companies but for people. I believe it can give competitive advantage. I was asked the question of how do you know what to specialize in?

I suggest specializing in something that interests you. Specialize in something that you are good at (although if you work on anything, it will improve).

Once I decide what I want to specialize in, I study. The library is a great place to start. And of course be disciplined in the study. Read. Listen to books. Take courses. Meet with people who can coach and mentor.

Fortunately (but sadly), there is not much competition out there. Most people are not willing to spend the time and energy on things like study. Often just 15 or 20 hours of study will move you into the top 3 percentile on a topic (depending on how narrow the topic is).

You become what you say you are (this is true for companies as well as people). The more you say it, the more you notice things in your specialty and the more people send you relevant stuff. For example, rarely does a week go by that someone does not email me something on Time Management.

What about the concern that you will get bored? I like variety too. There is usually room for lots of variety even if you have a specialty. And there is no problem changing specialties if that is your decision.

Because of the Blog title "CEO Blog - Time Leadership" and the ebook, CD and book I have written on the topic, people think Time Management is my specialty. Partly true. Mostly it is being the best CEO I can be. Time Management is part of that.

If you google “CEO blog” or “CEO Time Management”, I get high rankings there.