Ever wonder why doctors say they “practice” medicine? 
Or they all have “medical practices”? The same is true with consultants. I know, because I have built and led some pretty awesome global consulting practices in my career. I never quite understood in one of my prior executive roles, a combination of practices was called a “competency”. It just did not make sense to me. But, never did the true meaning of the concept of practices become clearer to me than when I was diagnosed with my first cancer in January of 2013.
You see, for the prior 2 1/2 years I had very visible symptoms. I had been seeing a practice of world-class doctors at one of Chicago’s top teaching hospitals. There was a diagnosis that seemed to be reasonable to me as a non-medical person. Over the years I had three doctors and several medical students check and re-check my body over the years – all had the same conclusion: gross hematuria. It wasn’t until we moved from Chicago to Austin, Texas that I went to a new doctor who had different ideas. (I am sure there will be a post on synchronicity in the near future.)
You see, it was a simple “pee in the cup” test that changed my life. 32 out of 200 cells were 100% cancerous. Now we had to find it.
The lesson here is that doctors “practice” medicine. Consultants “practice” consulting. Nobody has all of the answers. They have experience. They have insight. They have tests, processes, and tools. But nobody can always get it right.
Not knowing anything about cancer, I started researching and reading. My best resources were people I met that had cancer. I learned to trust online resources from only trusted organizations. You know them: Mayo Clinic, MD Anderson, Johns Hopkins, etc. I learned that there is not a single persons journey that is the same. You can have the same cancer, but yours is different. It is never the same. You can look perfectly healthy, but inside you are not. The same is true about running your business. It may look the same. It may operate the same. But it is not.
The more the doctors “practice” the better they become. The same is true for your business. The key skill in successful doctors and business executives is to find a professional that has vision, experience, a passion for solving undefined problems, a relentless drive to attack something truly unique and achieve the best results for that specific person (or business) at that time.
In the end, my learning for both personal health and in business is: Be Your Own Advocate. Do your research. Talk to people. Trust your experience and insight. Never stop learning. Never stop practicing.
Global Navigator 