In the world of consulting, you sometimes get requests for help that are a little bit “off the beaten path”!  Maybe a special research assignment on a past president or designing a new/alternative learning opportunity for a challenged group.  But a most recent opportunity that was proposed/suggested really has challenged my innovation foundation.  A special small professional group has requested my help to answer the question:  What is YOUR Niche?…for each of the individuals on the Team and then for the Team itself!

Well after I weakly said “sure I will help”, I did what any good researcher would do:  I GOOGLED the term Niche to find the most direct definition.  The results of my GOOGLE question offered the following:  “Niche-A comfortable or suitable position in life or employment/a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service.”

Well the definition started me in a good direction but I realized I need to ask the Team a number of simple but very important questions:

• Why is knowing your Niche important?
• How will knowing your Niche help improve your organization?
• Who really cares about your Niche?
• Does everybody really have a Niche?

Thankfully, our workshop will occur in the near future…but for today I believe there is an important hidden TRIPLE III TIME message in this Niche project.  Think about answering the four Niche questions about yourself.  If you have a real good picture/idea of your Niche…wouldn’t it naturally help in life and at work?  I probably didn’t even realize the times early in my career when I tried to identify co-workers Niches and then blend them together for great product/service results.  Likewise, by realizing my Niche and the organizations I work with/for…I know have created high value partnerships that have excelled beyond my/our expectations.

I look forward to helping the group answer the question:  What is YOUR Niche?  And maybe you take some quality time and find yours!