Whenever I have an active Netflix subscription, I dip into L’Agence, a French series about a family of real estate agents. The youngest, Raphaël, regularly lands major mandates (real estate contracts) in spite of his youth (very early 20s). 

Why? Because owners are impressed by his understanding of both their home and its potential buyers. He doesn’t go out of his way to demonstrate that knowledge through facts and figures or speeches. Instead, he asks a few insightful questions that demonstrate that he’s thinking beyond surface level buyer interests and can successfully market their property. 

How does this relate to your job search? Because too often during the job search, people default to providing more details rather than the right details; they lead with surface-level skills or anecdotes rather than leading with their most compelling examples of impact. (Sometimes we even think that our most compelling differentiators aren’t ‘all that important!’)

I often talk about “solving problems” and communicating impact. But someone recently asked me what I really mean when I say “problems,” especially when I’m talking about solving business problems. Today’s newsletter is intended to fill that gap as well as building on a previous discussion on communicating impact. 

When I last wrote about how to communicate impact, I shared a formula specifically to create stronger metrics in your resume. The formula asked you to demonstrate how you “identified a problem and solved it, resulting in a change.” Today I’m going to focus more on how you identify the problem so you don’t just communicate impact but lead with impact that matters to businesses and impact-driven non-profits. 

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