A procurement career that maximizes your potential

Let’s deep dive into the procurement career and strategy to build one that maximizes your potential.

We will talk about skills, progress levels and strategies to leverage them for a vibrant, fulfilling procurement career.

I start with one strategic advice: in hard skills, identify your superpowers and double down on them, this is what you want to be known for. In human skills, be aware of your weaknesses and focus there.

There is nothing more powerful than a professional that excels clearly in one area and no bigger threat than to fail in human skills, be it communication, emotional intelligence, or personal resilience.

Procurement superpower solution for businesses is built to do just that: develop human skills to be able to ride through turbulent times and leverage your superpowers for increased business impact.

This is how you can replicate the program for your career.

Use 5 Personas app to assess your skills. For hard skills, choose the 1 or 2 that you would like to be known for and go to the next level. For human skills identify the weakest areas and work there to move from one level to the next.

Or join Solutionary Procurement and get personalized content and community access. Develop your capabilities and your support network.

Let’s take negotiation as a hard skill example. Where are you on the below scale?

1 You can manage independently medium complex negotiations, when having a BOQ agreed.

2 You have experience in complex negotiations. From time to time in situations with no leverage, or a different business model you need guidance and help to see the path forward.

3 You can deliver positive results in all your negotiations, internals or with external partners. You can easily give guidance to others on best strategies and tactics

4 You are like the fish in the water in negotiations in your area. On top, you have built experience in a wide spectrum of areas like M&A, Partnerships and Co-Innovation deals

5 You master any negotiation, even when you have little to no leverage. It’s easy to see the path forward in any situation, you can strategize and lead your teams with purpose.

This scale not only tells you where you are, but gives you actionable guidance on how to move to next level:

From 1 to 2 – get experience in increasingly complex deals. Build a network of mentors that can support you with valuable advice when you hit a roadblock.

From 2 to 3 – become a mentor or leader and help others. There is no better way to test your knowledge and continue learning than trying to teach others. This is how you will identify the areas that still need polishing.

From 3 to 4 – take all opportunities to expand in different engagement models, not only supplier of goods and services. Go for Mergers and Acquisitions, Partnerships or Co-innovation. In these deals the negotiation leverage, the power, interests are very different. This way you create the next level of negotiation skills.

From 4 to 5 – build negotiation strategies and lead your teams with purpose.

If you want to grow to be know as a top Negotiator, mastering negotiations skills will not be enough though.

Top negotiators master 3 key human skills too: Communication, Emotional Intelligence and Resilience. As a top Negotiator, you want to be able to read rooms, understand humans and their fears and desires. You want to be able to handle high level of stress to take impactful decisions in split seconds.

Join us and receive actionable content each week, personalized for you and your goals! So you can start mastering all the key human skills that will lead you on the path you desire.

This is how you build a procurement career that maximizes your potential.

Stay amazing,

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