Holding the Middle During Organizational Upheaval: The Real Work of Self-Leadership

MOST leadership narratives talk about upheaval change as if it’s solely managed as a sequence: a plan, a timeline, a communication strategy, a rollout. Apply the favored change management steps, and all will be well.

But when you’re inside a pending reorganization, merger, leadership removal, cultural overhaul, or sudden strategic pivot, you quickly learn something most leadership books never say: The hardest part isn’t the change. It’s the in-between.

The stretch of time where what was no longer fits or exists, and what’s coming hasn’t yet taken shape, is an uncomfortable period of ambiguity, disorientation, and suspended identity for organizations, teams, and leaders themselves.

Call It Liminality

Upheavals such as a reorganization, merger, or unexpected leadership transition create a liminal space — a structural in-between where the old way, strategic plan, norms, and org charts no longer exist but the new one hasn’t been created. What leaders and teams experience inside that space is liminality: the psychological, emotional, and identity-level disorientation that comes from being suspended between two realities.

The term liminality comes from the Latin limen, meaning threshold. It originated in the early 1900s when anthropologist Arnold van Gennep used it to describe the middle stage of rites of passage — the ambiguous and amorphous period as someone leaves behind who they were but hasn’t yet stepped into who they’ll become.

Later, anthropologist Victor Turner expanded the concept, describing liminality as a space of:

• Uncertainty
• Identity dissolution and disorientation
• Destabilized roles and rules that no longer apply
• Heightened and perhaps intense emotion ranging from excited to afraid
• What Turner called communitas — collective meaning-making and camaraderie from navigating liminal space together

Historically, liminality and the other side of the threshold represented profound transformation. Today, liminality resonates as the psychological and relational experience of navigating major transitions in times when the structures, norms, and identities that once guided us are temporarily gone.

It validates the collective unmooring impacting leaders, teams, and the frontline simultaneously. Everyone is in a version of the fog at the same time.

Liminality Impact

Liminal space can be used for good, but leaders must be honest about how it impacts their own leadership identity as they attend to the same questions for those they’re leading. Numerous organizational impacts during upheaval can contribute to leaders’ liminality-related unmooring.

Some of these include:

• Changing roles
• Collapse of cultural norms
• Questioned decisions
• Anxious teams
• Fractured, inconsistent narratives
• Fragile trust
• Unclear expectations

Statements and questions I’ve heard from leaders I’ve supported in these situations sound like:

• “I don’t know where I fit anymore.”
• “I’m not sure my approach is still relevant.”
• “I see what’s ending for me.”
• “What narrative or norm are we even in right now?”

Sometimes leaders carry the burden silently, assuming either that they shouldn’t feel unmoored or that honesty about their experience can’t be shared with those they’re leading. In reality, and per the research, ambiguity increases anxiety and emotional contagion. Leaders under high emotional load communicate less effectively, and teams detect a leader’s emotional state with very high accuracy (70-80%).

But leaders who acknowledge liminality’s impact on them and the organization isn’t weakness — it’s leadership.

Identity Clarity in Liminality

When leaders have identity clarity — alignment between who they are, how they lead, and what they stand for — they have a grounded, stable center, while everything around them is shifting and waiting in the middle feels unstable. Research shows that identity-secure leaders better tolerate ambiguity and exhibit resilience and ethical behavior under pressure.

Leaders committed to their core, essential foundation, ask themselves during liminal waiting:

• Who am I as a leader in these uncertain and uncomfortable conditions?
• What values and convictions continue to guide me even when the path is unclear?
• What do I refuse to compromise?
• How do I stay aligned with my deeper purpose during instability?

Not only does this ground the leader during upheaval-imposed liminality, but it also gives leaders greater capacity to:

• Model and reinforce psychological safety via authentic honesty and care
• Build a shared narrative to reduce ambiguity and stress
• Facilitate transparency, which builds trust

Identity clarity doesn’t give leaders all the answers, but it does provide them with a grounded presence that others can anchor to.

3 Strategies to Hold the Middle During Liminality

Strategy 1: Name the liminal season clearly and often
Use language that normalizes the experience:

• “We’re in a transition without a map yet.”
• “It’s normal to feel unsettled right now.”
• “This is a liminal period — an in-between — and it won’t last forever.”

Why it works: Research shows that naming an emotion or experience reduces the activation of fear and anxiety. It literally calms the brain.

Strategy 2: Use the phrase, “This is hard, and we keep going.”
Most leaders either over-employ empathy (“I know this is hard”) and lose direction, or over-rely on execution (“We still have work to do”) and invalidate the emotional reality. The artistry of leading in liminality is holding both truths at once: “This is hard and we keep moving: together, steadily, intentionally.”

Acknowledging the discomfort might sound like:

• “This is a lot.”
• “Ambiguity is uncomfortable.”
• “Your frustration makes sense.”
• “I feel the weight of this too; how can we move through this together?”

Beyond the emotional validation, the team and frontline also need to know what still matters, what they’re still responsible for, and what they can count on.

Strategy 3: Create micro-stability in the middle of macro-uncertainty
Do small, consistent things that give reassurance:

• Weekly “what’s true now?” huddles
• Consistent Friday updates and Q and As
• Opening and closing rituals
• Shared wins
• Clarity around the next one or two steps, what is known

Why it works: Predictability is one of the strongest buffers against the stress of uncertainty. Micro-stability equals macro-resilience.

Liminality Is Shared and Can Be Utilized

Leadership in an era of big change and upheaval isn’t always about having the answers. Of course, decision-making and operations must be managed. But so must identity clarity and grounded presence that’s strong enough to hold the in-between with others.

When teams and the frontline are suspended in the middle, they don’t anchor to strategy — they anchor to the human leader in front of them.

The leader who can say, “I’m navigating this with you. The unknown is uncomfortable. Let’s stay connected, grounded, and honest as we move forward,” is the leader people trust to guide them through liminality.

Acknowledging liminality doesn’t slow organizations down — it stabilizes them. Leaders who convey the truth of the in-between build stronger trust and deeper resilience across their teams. What emerges on the other side is not just a new structure, but a more aligned, adaptive, and human organization.

* * *
Natalie Pickering, PhD, is a TEDx speaker, organizational psychologist, and executive coach who helps leaders trade performance pressure for authentic influence. For more than two decades, she has partnered with executives, founders, and teams across healthcare, education, startups, and global organizations to navigate change, strengthen culture, and lead with courage. She is the founder of The Becoming Institute, a leadership development firm dedicated to helping organizations scale without losing soul. Her new book is Leading Becomes You: A Real-World Framework for Leading from Inside Out (Sept. 18, 2025). Learn more at drnataliepickering.com.

* * *
Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

* * *

 

Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:57 PM
Permalink | Comments (0) | Find more on this topic in Change

Leading Thoughts for December 4, 2025

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with:

I.

Jordan Peterson on vision:

“Don’t underestimate the power of vision and direction. These are irresistible forces, able to transform what might appear to be unconquerable obstacles into traversable pathways and expanding opportunities. Strengthen the individual. Start with yourself. Take care with yourself. Define who you are. Refine your personality. Choose your destination and articulate your Being. As the great nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche so brilliantly noted, “He whose life has a why can bear almost any how.”

Source: 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

II.

Paul Millerd on prototyping:

“Payoff can be profound. For most people, life is not based on all-or-nothing leaps of faith. That’s a lie we tell ourselves so that we can remain comfortable in our current state. We simplify life transitions down to single moments because the real stories are more complex, harder to tell and attract less attention. The headline Quits to Live on a Sailboat seems more impressive and is easier to talk about than Couple Slowly and Purposefully Tests Out a Life Transition While Aggressively Saving Money over Five Years. As a result, we hear fewer of the real stories, most of which include some kind of prototyping.

“By experimenting with different ways of showing up in the world and making small, deliberate changes, we can open ourselves up to the unexpected opportunities, possibilities, and connections that might tell us what comes next.”

Source: The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story for Work and Life

* * *

Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index.

* * *
Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

 

Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:06 PM
Permalink | Comments (0) | Find more on this topic in Leading Thoughts

First Look: Leadership Books for December 2025

HERE'S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in December 2025 curated just for you. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month.

The Seismic Shift in You: The Seven Necessary Shifts to Create Connection and Drive Results by Michelle Johnston and Marshall Goldsmith

In a world more connected than ever, why are we all feeling so disconnected? Leadership expert Dr. Michelle K. Johnston reveals the hidden crisis plaguing modern workplaces: an epidemic of disconnection that’s eroding team performance, personal satisfaction, and organizational success. The Seismic Shift in You offers a transformative approach to leadership that starts with the most critical factor—you. Drawing on years of coaching top leaders and the latest research, Johnston outlines seven powerful shifts to help you lead more effectively, including: Rediscover your sense of purpose and direction, Transform everyday interactions into meaningful connections, Spark authentic engagement by starting from within, and Cultivate high-performing teams grounded in trust and collaboration. With real-world stories and practical tools, Johnston offers the clarity you need to lead with greater meaning, fulfillment, and results.

You to the Power of Two: Redefining Human Potential in the Age of Identic AI by Joseph Bradley and Don Tapscott

AI tools are already reshaping the way we work and communicate, but as they gain autonomy, they will no longer be mere tools; they will become active participants in our world. As our digital identities become smarter and more capable, we enter the age of “Identic” AI: a place where ever-present AI companions streamline daily tasks, enhance wellbeing, and offer lifelong learning. For professionals, these intelligent agents will amplify creativity, boost productivity, and expand human potential. But with this extraordinary promise comes profound risks—to individuals, businesses, and society itself. From technology experts Joseph M. Bradley and Don Tapscott, You to the Power of Two is a thought-provoking and timely guide that will prepare readers to thrive in world of personal AI agents

Monster Transformation: Conquer Your Digital Fears, Be AI Ready, and Focus on What Matters to Your Organization by Ari Lightman, Rafeh Masood and Gary Hirsch

In Monster Transformation, a team of veteran digital leaders delivers an expert framework to digital transformation that focuses on the competencies your employees will need to have―and develop―to enable your organization to function in a world defined by generative artificial intelligence. Monster Transformation blends actionable insights, real-world case studies, and immediately recognizable organizational behaviors that can either move forward or derail transformation in the age of AI. Whether you are leading, a part of, supporting or interested in organizational transformation, this book challenges conventional thought on dealing with transformation, provides insights on how and why barriers to effective change arise and pragmatic mechanisms to address challenges, diminish barriers and leverage employees.

Human Edge in the AI Age: Eight Timeless Mantras For Success by Nitin Seth

If you're wondering how to stay relevant in a world where AI seems to be mastering capabilities once thought to be uniquely human, from cognitive tasks to emotional intelligence, Human Edge in the AI Age is your answer. This is not another book about what AI can do. It's about what you can do to thrive alongside it. As AI disrupts industries and job roles and the possibility of job displacement looms, it may also herald a new human renaissance---an Era of Entrepreneurs---where individuals take charge of their destinies, innovate fearlessly, and create value grounded in timeless human strengths such as creativity, empathy, and leadership. To navigate this seismic shift, Nitin Seth introduces the POSSIBLE framework, an original eight-dimensional guide to rediscovering the human edge.

The Octopus Organization: A Guide to Thriving in a World of Continuous Transformation by Phil Le-Brun and Jana Werner

Our organizations are stuck. We talk about agility but find ourselves bogged down in bureaucracy. We aspire to innovate but run into systems built to prevent mistakes, not spark breakthroughs. We need to learn and adapt, but we're operating with an outdated playbook built for efficiency and control. And our attempts to fix all this—by pouring trillions into huge, top-down transformations—make the problems worse. But there is a better way: Building an Octopus Organization. One of nature's most intelligent and curious creatures, the octopus is everything your organization needs to be: smart, endlessly adaptable, and highly resilient. Its eight tentacles work in concert, but each can also think for itself. This book shows how to achieve the same balance of cohesion and autonomy and to guide your organization toward a living, breathing system—one that learns, adapts, and thrives by tapping into the distributed intelligence of its people.

For bulk orders call 1-626-441-2024

* * *
“You can't think well without writing well, and you can't write well without reading well. And I mean that last "well" in both senses. You have to be good at reading, and read good things.”

* * *
Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

 

Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:59 PM
Permalink | Comments (0) | Find more on this topic in Books

LeadershipNow 140: November 2025 Compilation

Here is a selection of Posts from November 2025 that you will want to check out:

• Warren Buffett Was Always a Brand Guy by Craig Shapiro @cshapiro Emotional moats are deeper than financial ones.
• Your Ceiling Becomes Their Starting Point: A Guide to Building Healthy Family Habits via Chasing Excellence. Why modeling health beats managing behavior — and how to actually do it.
• Motivation Is a Feeling. Discipline Is a Decision by @AlanSteinJr
• Top 10 Reasons Leaders Stop Leading: And How to Get Going Again by @DanReiland
• A Gratitude Question That Changed Everything via @TheDaily_Coach “What does it look like to be grateful in this?”
• It's the Most American Day of the Year by @jamesstrock Thanksgiving Is Essential to Our National Identity, Character.
• 5 Silent Killers of Church (and Any Organization's) Staff Culture by @toddrhoades of Chemistry Staffing @churchchemistry via @BrianKDodd
• Jim Rohn Was Right: The Science Behind Becoming the Average of Your Five Closest Friends by @BrianKDodd
• 14 Thoughts about Building a Great Culture by @JonGordon11
• Should Lawrence Summers Resign from Harvard? by @jamesstrock
• 20 Differences between Winning Cultures and Losing Cultures by @BrianKDodd
• The Art of Ending Well by @KevinPaulScott
• I Stopped Caring About Results (And Started Getting Them) by @RyanHoliday
• 4 Essentials of Successful Innovation by Craig Groeschel
• 3 Reasons Why Happiness Is The Wrong Goal In Life by @LaRaeQuy
• Final Thoughts — Lessons on Leading from Growing Up Around Dad by @artpetty
• How to Create a Great Story by @DrNickMorgan
• Perfect Imbalance via @LeadershipMain

See more on Twitter.

* * *
Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

 

Posted by Michael McKinney at 02:01 PM
Permalink | Comments (0) | Find more on this topic in LeadershipNow 140

Leading Thoughts for November 27, 2025

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with:

I.

Adam Galinsky on sharing praise:

“When we are in a position of leadership, all our words and expressions—positive and negative—get amplified. Amplify your inspiring amplifications. How? By sharing your praise of others with their leaders. When you work with someone who really excelled at a task, you can let their boss know how much you appreciated their efforts. Taking the time to write a note of praise or gratitude to one’s supervisor further amplifies the value of their contributions.”

Source: Inspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others

II.

Erwin McManus on gratitude:

“When you’re ungrateful, you’re actually postured toward the world as, the world owes me something. When you’re grateful, you’re actually postured as, I owe the world something. And so it’s really just a differential between being a taker and being a giver. Gratitude is the only internal ingredient that makes you whole. No matter how much help you get, no matter how much of the Bible you read, no matter how much church you go to, or synagogue, or whatever it may be, you will never be whole if you’re ungrateful.”

Source: The Arena

* * *

Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index.

* * *
Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

 

Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:14 AM
Permalink | Comments (0) | Find more on this topic in Leading Thoughts

Leading Thoughts for November 20, 2025

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with:

I.

Nick Bare on the value of running:

“So, why run? It is versus you. You keep driving through the little pieces of pain that you’re experiencing in your legs. Those pieces go a long way to developing something inside of you. Your lungs burn when you first get started and you begin gasping for air as you attempt to move your legs faster than they can sustain. Running is humbling. Running teaches us discipline, focus, and the power of consistent action. Running builds confidence. And running creates opportunities for mental clarity that I haven’t been able to unlock anywhere in my entire life. It is so much more than just “running.”

Source: Go One More: Find the Clarity to Make Intentional, Life-Changing Choices

II.

Entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano on surrounding yourself with compounders:

“Surround yourself with compounders. Compounders are people who focus on compounding knowledge, health, wealth, and deep relationships over decades. These friends are hard to find, but invaluable when you do. They will force you to level up your game, Conversations with these individuals are higher quality. Their success will inspire you to accomplish more. And you will get the added benefit of learning from your successful friends’ wins and losses along the way.”

Source: How To Live An Extraordinary Life

* * *

Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index.

* * *
Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

 

Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:30 PM
Permalink | Comments (0) | Find more on this topic in Leading Thoughts

The Participation Revolution: Turning Customers into Co-Creators and Co-Producers

THE new hyper-digital age will see a significant shift towards participation branding in what some regard as the Participation Age. As consumers increasingly rely on one another for feedback and input on what and where to buy products and services, the best brands invite consumers to participate in brand-building. This participation could involve a range of actions, from co-creation of product design to customer-led innovation efforts, user-generated ads and promotions, and people-powered influencer marketing programs. Notably, each of these actions has the potential to positively influence customer engagement.

The participation branding approach co-creates value with customers to effectively deliver greater value.

1. It shifts the focus from the firm as a source of value creation to a partnership between customers and firms that results in value co-creation.
2. Although products may remain the same, the platforms created allow customers to customize and individualize experiences, ensuring that each customer experience is unique. This, in turn, contributes to greater value creation.
3. By enabling customers to co-create products and services, firms serve the needs of heterogeneous groups or allow the firm to serve customers who seek variety in their products, services, or experiences.

The Lego Legacy

Participation branding can serve as a vehicle for researching customers’ needs and requirements. It enhances customers’ identification with the brand, as user-designed products provide a sense of empowerment for those involved in the co-creation process.. Participation branding can enhance consumers’ willingness to pay by evoking feelings of accomplishment and a sense of contribution to the production process.

One example of a brand that effectively practices participation branding is Lego. The Lego Group works to enliven children’s creativity through play and learning. Their mission is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow. The brand’s plastic construction bricks are among the world’s most iconic playthings. Today, Lego provides toys, experiences, and teaching materials for children in more than 140 countries. The brand is now more than just a toy manufacturer; it has been widely recognized as a cultural phenomenon, evidenced by its toys’ broad representation in publications, television, and film, along with artistic and cultural works.

Interestingly, Lego is continually seeking ideas for TV shows, digital videos, and toy sets—all essential for helping the company introduce new products and, consequently, enhance its revenues. For instance, Lego enables people to share their imaginings on a new platform called the ‘Lego World Builder.’ It allows users to propose story worlds, characters, and other ideas by uploading concept art, videos, and descriptions. The Lego Group receives thousands of creative individuals with original ideas for new content and stories each year. Lego World Builder has enabled the company to accelerate the sourcing and development of entire franchises instead of just individual toy sets.

AI and Participation Branding

Participation branding can progress from lower levels of getting customer input, to fostering deeper customer engagement, to co-creation of content and products, to a final stage where the customer becomes fully integrated into the production of all aspects of a brand. AI can enable various tasks involved in participation branding. It can facilitate this process in specific ways as customers engage in co-creating advertising or product development with a brand.

A key factor in selecting customer participation activities is testing new product and campaign ideas that arise from customer input and co-creation opportunities. To achieve this, AI can help generate synthetic personas and A/B testing simulations based on customer input and feedback. Marketers could leverage AI-assisted product co-creation to develop new products or campaigns (e.g., Lego Ideas meets ChatGPT). Current AI tools such as Perplexity AI, Notion AI, ChatGPT for idea generation, Loop11, and Maze (UX testing) can help implement these ideas.

In conclusion, participation branding is a crucial pillar of success in the hyper-digital age. It offers significant promise for brands seeking to strengthen their engagement with customers.

Vanitha Swaminathan is the Thomas Marshall Professor of Marketing and Director, Center for Branding at the University of Pittsburgh School of Business. Her research focuses on branding strategy and the conditions that foster consumer-brand relationships, as well as how firms can successfully design brand strategies—such as co-branding, brand extensions, brand acquisitions, marketing alliances— to strengthen customer loyalty and firm up stock market performance. Currently, her attention is on understanding how brand managers can leverage the power of technologies such as Augmented and Virtual Reality and Ai to deliver better brand experiences. She also examines how content creators and influencers can help strengthen consumer-brand relationships. She has worked on marketing and branding consulting projects with such companies as The Hershey Company, Kraft Heinz, StarKist, AC Nielsen, GlaxoSmithKline, and Procter & Gamble, and has advised small businesses regarding their digital marketing efforts. In light of her many scholarly and service contributions, the American Marketing Association named her an AMA Fellow in 2024. In 2025, she won the University-wide award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring at the University of Pittsburgh. Her recent book is Hyper-Digital Marketing: Six Pillars of Strategic Brand Marketing in an AI-Powered World (Palgrave-Macmillan). Learn more at profvanitha.com

* * *
Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

* * *

 

Posted by Michael McKinney at 01:01 PM
Permalink | Comments (0) | Find more on this topic in Marketing

Be a Specialist, Not a Generalist: Why Your Brand Depends on Focus

In a market where clients are under pressure to do more with less, they won’t gamble on generalists. The firms and advisors who thrive are those who carve out a niche and lead it.

HEADLINES expressing how AI is reshaping knowledge work are everywhere. From legal research to tax prep, technology is automating the rote tasks that used to justify armies of junior staff.

Clients are noticing. A 2025 Bloomberg survey of corporate general councils found that 61 percent expect to experiment with AI-powered tools this year, and more than half say they’re scrutinizing external providers to ensure “specialized value” that machines can’t replace.

This is the crux for professional experts. Delivering the work is no longer enough. To grow, you must also sell — and in a climate where clients are questioning every hour billed, they gravitate to advisors they trust with proven authority in a narrow domain.

Generalists, by contrast, are interchangeable. And in the emerging era of AI, they’re not only interchangeable with each other — they’re the first targets for agentic AI. If your value is defined by routine analysis, drafting, or process execution, you are competing with tools that promise to do the same work faster and cheaper.

Specialists, on the other hand, offer judgment, nuance, and pattern recognition that machines can’t as easily replicate.

Why Clients Bet on Specialists

When the stakes are high, buyers want the safest option. That means they look for specialists who solve complex, high-value problems every day.

An Am Law 200 firm recently noted that its food and beverage practice doubled in five years because clients trusted the lawyers’ niche expertise in regulatory matters. Similar stories play out in consulting, accounting, and litigation support: specialists are sought after, while generalists are easy to swap out.

Specialization sends a signal. It tells clients you have depth in their world, you have a nuanced understanding of their challenges, and your unique experience allows you to anticipate what’s coming next. That reduces their risk — and increases your value.

How to Carve Out a Niche

Not sure where to start? Here are three proven steps to build specialist positioning:

1. Audit your past successes. Look at your client list and identify patterns. Which industries, company sizes, or problem types have you consistently excelled in? Your track record reveals where your authority is already strongest and where you have the most credibility.

2. Align with market demand. Specialization works best when it intersects with growth sectors or pressing client needs. For example, firms serving healthcare are seeing a surge in demand as regulations tighten and mergers and acquisitions activity accelerates. If you can navigate that complexity, you’ll not just win work, you’ll become indispensable.

3. Test and refine your message. Start small — publish an insight, lead a roundtable, or host a webinar targeted to your chosen niche. Notice the response. If prospects lean in and connectors echo your positioning, you’re on the right path.

You Can’t Boil the Ocean

Here’s the truth: a generalist must cast a wider net, chasing volume to find opportunity. A specialist has a far better chance of cornering a market. By narrowing the scope of your outreach, you increase your odds of dominating a space rather than being an interchangeable player in a crowded one.

For doer sellers, this matters. With billable hour demands and client work taking priority, you can’t afford random acts of networking. You only have the capacity to maintain a “short list” of 9 to 35 relationships (based on analysis of professional services CRM user data). If your positioning is too broad, you’ll waste those limited slots on relationships that never compound.

The Branding Payoff

Becoming a specialist isn’t just about internal clarity. It’s about external differentiation. The professionals who lead with niche authority are invited to speak at industry events, quoted in trade press, and referred more often. They become the go-to experts in their lane.

Contrast that with the generalist brand: difficult to market, hard to defend, and easy for buyers to replace. If your website or LinkedIn profile lists 12 practice areas or industries served, you’re not signaling focus. You’re signaling “jack of all trades, master of none.”

Practical Moves to Specialize

Here are a few tactical steps to reinforce your specialist brand:

• Update your online presence. Rewrite your bio and LinkedIn headline to highlight your niche clearly.
• Publish narrowly. Create insights, articles, or short posts that solve problems for your specific audience.
• Leverage case studies. Show examples of your work in the space you want to own.
• Invest in visibility. Speak where your niche audience gathers — industry conferences, association panels, or podcasts.
• Curate your network. Choose connectors who have direct access to your target industry or role.

In today’s professional services marketplace, being broad isn’t safe — it’s risky. Focus doesn’t limit you. It frees you. By claiming a niche, you differentiate your brand, elevate your value, and make every minute of business development count.

* * *
David Ackert is co-founder and CEO of Ackert, Inc. and its subsidiary, PipelinePlus. He’s a highly regarded business development thought leader and has pioneered revenue acceleration programs for hundreds of professional services firms around the globe. He has contributed to the Los Angeles Times, the National Review, the Daily Journal, the Wall Street Journal, and others, and his Market Leaders Podcast has won several JD Supra Reader’s Choice Awards. His new book, The Short List: How to Drive Business Development by Focusing on the People Who Matter Most (Greenleaf Book Group, January 28, 2025), is an Amazon bestseller and Gold Winner of the 2025 Nonfiction Book Awards. Learn more at PipelinePlus.com/theshortlist.

* * *
Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

* * *

 

Posted by Michael McKinney at 10:49 AM
Permalink | Comments (0) | Find more on this topic in Human Resources