As part of our launch for the 'Taking the Leap' into High Income Consulting program, I've been personally doing some of the coaching sessions with our new program participants.

Frankly I LOVE engaging with businesspeople on the TRUE VALUE of their skills (and showing them how to become more 'marketable'). But these sessions open up all sorts of issues too.

One issue that comes up often is participants telling me they're constantly being told they're OVER QUALIFIED when they apply for jobs. I have two responses to that!

My first response is, "How is it that no one ever tells their heart surgeon they're over qualified!" I hope you see my point. In a business context, it is NOT that the person is overqualified. It's that they have failed to POSITION themselves and their qualifications effectively as assets to the organisation.

And what's more, the heart surgeon isn't out there APPLYING for jobs either. When you think about the 'positioning' of a heart surgeon, they are in control of the whole interaction from the start.

Which leads me to my second response. Why even apply for 'jobs'? With all that expertise, know how, and grey hair wisdom, wouldn't they be better positioned if they were called in as a special projects problem solver?

It's disturbing to see so many senior people who've had high powered management positions or run companies now find themselves back in the queue vying for 'jobs'. Of course, they're going to be told they're overqualifed. (For a start, it's against the law to tell them they're 'too old'.) And hiring a high powered senior person can be a threat to the person doing the hiring.

Allow me to change the paradigm for you. Rather than going cap in hand for a job, imagine you could think, act and be seen to have the same authority as that heart surgeon. Imagine if when you met with the key decision makers, you could have them spellbound with the value added expertise you can bring to their organisation. Imagine even further, that you had a way of generating that call. Where it's not you knocking on doors, but rather them asking you if you could come in and present to them?

These things are not fantasy, I assure you. They are simply the way skilled consultants operate. And you can operate this way too. You just have to get over this nonsense that your 'overqualified'. It messes with your mind. And if you're being told that, it's not because you are. It's because you just need to learn how to change the paradigm.

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites