MASTER Risk Model - Learning Resources - Abilities

Which area or field do you primarily work in?

Strategic Planning

Write a one-sentence version of your coaching vision, does it name the client goal, advantage, and direction?

List your top 3 priorities, do they directly support long-term practice growth or just urgent demands?

Review last year’s practice strategy, highlight what still applies and what should now be reframed.

Compare your coaching framework with a competitor’s, what unique edge do you consistently deliver?

Identify one service offering misaligned with your strategy, pause, pivot, or reframe it.

Sketch a basic pyramid: vision > goals > actions, fill it in for your consulting practice.

Operational Execution

Identify one stalled client deliverable, clarify the next step and owner, and move it forward today.

Review today’s task list, highlight the 3 actions most critical for client results, and do those first.

Create a repeatable checklist for onboarding clients, reduce errors and missed steps with consistency.

Apply the 80/20 rule, devote 80% of time to 20% of actions creating client impact.

Block 15 minutes daily to review deliverables, small, consistent habits beat bursts of effort.

Align your calendar with priorities, block time for deep client work, not just meetings.

Performance Monitoring

Choose one measurable client outcome, track and review progress against it weekly starting today.

Create a simple dashboard to visualize client KPIs, update weekly to monitor progress clearly.

Add one question to client meetings: “What measurable progress did we achieve this week?”

Review your practice OKRs, highlight one goal lacking a clear metric for success.

Send a short progress recap to a client summarizing this week’s key outcomes.

Create a visual tracker for one major project, update it in every client touchpoint.

Market Analysis

Research your top 3 competitors, note how they describe their services and which client needs they emphasize most.

Review client testimonials, what recurring leadership or strategy challenges do they point to most often?

Identify one industry trend in the past 6 months, what client opportunities or threats does it create?

Search LinkedIn for a trending term in leadership, how are clients reacting to it?

Refresh your client personas using data from your last 5 engagements.

List the top 5 factors clients use when comparing coaches, validate them with feedback.

Branding and Positioning

Rewrite your coaching pitch, make it clearer, bolder, and focused on client transformation, not just your methods.

List 3 things that make your practice unique, do your website or proposals clearly show them?

Update your LinkedIn headline to reflect your current niche and client outcomes.

Compare your tone across web, email, and social, are you consistent, clear, and distinctive?

Ask a peer to describe your practice in 5 words, does it match your intended positioning?

Add a story-driven element to your About section, make it emotionally relevant to clients.

Digital Marketing Strategy

Identify your top-performing digital channel, publish one new insight or client tip tailored to it this week.

Set one clear digital marketing goal this month (e.g., reach, leads, conversions) and define its success measure.

Review your website analytics, what’s one surprising insight about client interest you hadn’t noticed?

Test a sharper CTA on your site, see if it drives more sign-ups or inquiries.

Check your email campaign metrics, adjust the next subject line for a sharper hook.

Optimize your social bio or link-in-bio to align with your current lead goal.

Negotiation Skills

Write down your ideal, target, and walk-away terms for an upcoming contract, clarify boundaries before discussions.

Identify one phrase you overuse in negotiation, replace it with something firmer and more confident.

Review your last negotiation email, did you anchor terms clearly? If not, revise and resend it.

Watch a short video on tactical silence, apply it in your next pricing or scope discussion.

Prepare one strong question to uncover what matters most in your next client meeting.

Practice stating your coaching fees without apology, repeat once per day until natural.

Customer Relationship Management

Identify your top 5 clients, reach out with a value-add message unrelated to selling more hours.

Add a personal note about each client in your CRM, track details that help deepen trust.

Set calendar reminders for meaningful client follow-ups at 30 and 90 days post-project.

Choose one dormant client account, send a short message to reignite the relationship.

Ask one client how they applied your advice, note insights for your follow-up.

Share a valuable non-sales resource with a client, choose something relevant and actionable.

Sales Strategy and Planning

Define your top 3 sales objectives this quarter, link each to a clear coaching or consulting metric.

Review your client funnel stages, identify one bottleneck and brainstorm a small, testable adjustment.

Identify one client segment underperforming, adjust your targeting or pitch and test a micro-campaign.

Block 30 minutes weekly to review client acquisition vs. plan, schedule it on your calendar.

Create or update your Ideal Client Profile, base it on data, not just assumptions.

Sketch a client journey from first call to close, identify the main drop-off point.

Talent Acquisition and Recruitment

Review one open job description, rewrite the first lines to highlight growth, learning, and purpose, not only tasks.

Reconnect with one promising past candidate, check if they’re interested in joining your consulting support team.

Share a short “why work with us” video highlighting a client success story on LinkedIn.

Add one inclusive language check when reviewing your job descriptions for support staff.

Identify your top 3 referral partners, reach out and reactivate one this week.

Create or update a short interview scorecard for key consulting support hires.

Performance Management

Choose one team-level coaching goal, define what “great progress” looks like and share it in writing.

Review your feedback templates, remove one vague or redundant performance question today.

Send one personalized recognition message to a team member for recent effort or delivery.

Identify one KPI that misrepresents impact, flag it for revision in your reporting.

Schedule your next check-in with a team member, focus entirely on development, not status updates.

Update your performance calendar, add quarterly reflections, not just yearly reviews.

Learning and Development

Ask one client: “What’s one leadership skill you wish you had more time to build right now?”

Add one bite-sized article or podcast link to your next client session prep as a learning spark.

Identify one recurring client skill gap, recommend a relevant resource or exercise they can start.

Create a shared doc where your team can suggest new learning content or tools.

Turn one recent project success or failure into a shared client learning takeaway.

Promote one training resource to clients this week, send it with your endorsement.

Financial Analysis and Budgeting

Review one business expense, flag a line item that seems unclear or unnecessary for your consulting practice.

Build a simple monthly finance sheet with 3–5 KPIs relevant to your consulting revenue.

Block 30 minutes this week to reconcile your projected vs. actual consulting income.

Flag one recurring cost that overruns projections, explore whether assumptions need adjustment.

Add a “budget check” item to your weekly team meeting, make finances part of normal rhythm.

Watch a short tutorial on zero-based budgeting, apply one idea to your practice.

Risk Management

Identify one key financial risk in your current client portfolio, write it down and share with a peer.

Review your professional insurance, note any gaps or outdated coverage in your policy.

Write down the top 3 financial risks facing your practice, rank them by likelihood and impact.

Add a “risk check” line to your next planning session, force proactive thinking about pitfalls.

List three recent client setbacks, did any signal larger risks you overlooked?

Skim an industry report, what external risks or shifts could affect your consulting model?

Capital Allocation

List your top 3 ongoing projects, rank them by value creation, not just urgency or visibility.

Identify one service where you’re investing too much time without clear returns, flag it for review.

Review your resource allocation, highlight one mismatch between effort and strategic goals.

Review one past investment, did it balance short-term and long-term practice growth?

Sketch a pie chart of where your time goes, does it match your top consulting priorities?

Estimate the upside of moving 10% of your time into higher-value client work.

Supply Chain Management

Map your delivery chain in 5 steps, identify one dependency or weak link to watch this week.

Check whether your main subcontractors meet deadlines and quality standards, highlight any weak points.

Create a one-page inventory of client commitments vs. available time, highlight overload risks.

Ask a supplier if alternate service providers exist for one critical input, note options.

Review last quarter’s client delivery delays, note the root cause for each.

List your top 3 recurring costs, compare them against actual client value delivered.

Lean and Agile Methodologies

Set up a Kanban board for your active clients, track deliverables and flag any items at risk of delay.

Run a 15-minute check-in with your team, note which obstacles consistently slow client delivery.

Identify one recurring admin task that adds little value, suggest eliminating or automating it.

Pilot a one-week sprint on a consulting project, plan, execute, review, and note improvements.

Map a key process in 5 steps, remove any redundant or unclear actions immediately.

Choose one project task, shorten its planning phase, track speed without losing quality.

Quality Assurance

Create a checklist for a recurring client process, use it to prevent oversights in your next engagement.

Choose one quality metric (e.g., rework rate) and track it daily for a full week.

Run a 15-minute spot-check on a deliverable, flag even minor inconsistencies before sending it out.

Review one client-facing proposal or deck, tighten clarity and accuracy before sending.

Spot one step with frequent rework in your workflow, define a simple rule to prevent it.

Ask a peer to review one client document, note what they catch that you missed.

IT Systems Management

Document one manual tech task in your practice, outline steps to automate today.

Set a calendar reminder for weekly updates and backups, prevent avoidable data loss.

Review system logs from last week, flag slowdowns or repeated small application errors.

Keep a central list of IT vendors, renewal dates, and SLAs to avoid lapses.

Identify a recurring client complaint, investigate root cause and define one small fix.

Run a ten-minute system health check, log any recurring warnings or slow processes.

Cybersecurity

Update admin passwords and enable two-factor authentication for all consulting tools immediately.

Enable automatic updates on all laptops and phones to reduce known vulnerabilities.

Run a free phishing quiz for your team to raise awareness quickly.

Review recent login activity, flag unusual times or locations indicating suspicious access.

Enable encryption for sensitive emails and stored files wherever currently missing today.

Draft a concise cyber-incident checklist, who does what, and in which order.

Software Development and Integration

Set a tiny Zapier test linking scheduling and invoicing to validate stability now.

Refactor one messy template today, improve readability and reuse for future engagements.

Write concise instructions for one integration, make handoffs easy for collaborators.

If version control is absent, document changes in a shared, clearly dated folder.

Create a shared integration checklist to standardize external system handovers.

Add a linter or formatter to keep shared code and docs consistently readable.

Customer Experience Management

Send a short follow-up thanking a client and requesting one specific improvement suggestion.

Review your top three complaints last quarter, spot patterns you can address quickly.

Add one new satisfaction question to your post-session survey for faster signal.

Rewrite one client email touchpoint, make language clearer, warmer, and human.

Shadow one client support call, observe expectations, tone, and resolution clarity.

Draw a quick journey map for one segment from inquiry to results delivered.

Service Recovery and Resolution

Review three recent client issues, note response times and clarity of ownership throughout.

Update one canned response, make the tone warmer, specific, and accountability-oriented.

Create a one-page escalation checklist to speed resolution when issues arise.

Admit one recent error to a client, share corrective steps transparently and promptly.

Add an apology step to automated replies, own responsibility even without human fault.

Tag complaints by root cause categories, not just visible symptoms or channels.

CRM Systems

Update one client record with missing details, stakeholders, preferences, or decision timelines today.

Add a daily reminder to log every meaningful client interaction in your CRM.

Create a saved view of ten active clients needing timely follow-ups.

Add a CRM field to capture loyalty signals, risks, or stakeholder influence quickly.

Clean CRM tags, merge duplicates and delete outdated labels for better segmentation.

Clean your last ten CRM entries, ensure notes, next steps, and owners are complete.

Regulatory Compliance

Identify one applicable coaching regulation, read the latest guidance from your association today.

Review a compliance checklist, propose one small clarification to reduce ambiguity immediately.

Tag a recent client contract for clauses with compliance or audit sensitivity.

Add a recurring reminder for quarterly compliance reviews and evidence collection.

Bookmark your regulator’s website, use it for timely compliance updates and resources.

Confirm your current project complies with one critical privacy or disclosure rule.

Contract Management

Scan a current services agreement, flag renewals, penalties, or tricky clauses needing attention.

Create a simple folder and tags system to retrieve contracts within seconds.

Save the latest approved templates where your team can reliably find them.

Note your most negotiated clause, define where sensible flexibility can be offered.

Confirm who signs agreements, document the end-to-end contract approval process.

Set a reminder to review contract renewals thirty days before each expiration.

Corporate Governance

Sketch your governance structure, who approves pricing, hires contractors, and signs client agreements?

Check whether a short ethics or conduct policy exists, skim for current relevance.

Check if key decisions and meeting notes are accessible to relevant stakeholders.

Read your firm’s latest ESG or compliance statement, note implications for proposals.

List applicable internal policies, conflicts, information use, data protection, whistleblowing.

Flag one gap in oversight, assign an owner and define the next concrete step.

Innovation and Product Development

Review your program roadmap, highlight one innovation improving client outcomes or delivery efficiency.

Read a brief case study on a consulting pivot, note what translated client value.

Bookmark three sources on consulting trends, newsletters, blogs, or analyst briefings.

Build a backlog of unmet client needs captured from sessions and support tickets.

Sketch one wild idea for a new advisory product, defer feasibility judgment today.

Check whether you use an innovation framework, design sprints, lean canvas, or similar.

Research Methodologies

Note one recent recommendation, did you validate it using data, interviews, or experiments?

Review an old client survey, highlight one new pattern or question worth testing.

Skim one research article, note how methodology supports credible, actionable insights.

List three research types you use, exploratory, evaluative, and causal decision testing.

Use Google Forms to gather quick feedback on a potential program concept.

Save one example where research insights materially shifted a client recommendation.

Intellectual Property Management

List one proprietary framework or template, outline how you will document legal ownership.

Skim your contracts for IP clauses, confirm ownership and permitted usage in engagements.

Learn differences among trademark, copyright, patent, and trade secret in minutes.

List three knowledge assets worth protecting, methods, templates, or curated datasets.

Ask a peer which legal protections proved most useful for their consulting practice.

Supplier Relationship Management

List your top three partners, note contact frequency beyond transactions or emergencies today.

Review one supplier agreement, note obligations and collaboration terms needing attention.

Send a short thank-you note to a vendor who exceeded expectations recently.

Identify one high-value supplier, save key contacts and escalation pathways centrally.

Add a monthly fifteen-minute supplier check-in to sustain proactive collaboration.

Ask suppliers for improvement ideas you might have missed in past reviews.

Logistics and Distribution

Map your service delivery steps, highlight one weak handoff causing delays or confusion.

Check lead times for three deliverables, compare promises against actual recent performance.

List external delivery partners, mark which are truly critical to client outcomes.

Review delivery SLAs, ensure expectations are visible and actively monitored weekly.

Review one recent delivery delay, note what upstream action could have prevented it.

Draw a simple map of distribution steps, share with one colleague for quick feedback.

Cost Management

Review top three recurring expenses, confirm alignment with priorities and profitability today.

Identify one underused software subscription, cancel or plan to fully utilize this month.

Spend fifteen minutes scanning last month’s purchases for overlooked minor expenses.

Check expense approval limits, align thresholds with purchase risk and engagement size.

Ask finance for a simple category breakdown, see where spending concentrates.

Flag one process with excessive manual steps, note a small automation opportunity.

Data Analysis and Visualization

Replace one cluttered chart with a single visual emphasizing the central insight.

Use conditional formatting to spotlight outliers in your sales or retention data.

Add clear titles and one-line insights to charts in your next presentation.

Convert one data table into a clear dashboard using Looker Studio or Datawrapper.

Select one KPI and track it with a simple weekly line chart.

Create a clear bar or pie chart for a stakeholder on what matters most.

Predictive Analytics

Select a key pipeline metric to forecast, locate relevant historical data immediately.

Try a simple Excel FORECAST on discovery calls or proposals accepted.

Plot a moving average for proposals won to smooth noisy weekly variation.

Find one case where predictive analytics improved consulting outcomes measurably.

List potential predictors for forecasted revenue, leads, win rate, cycle length, seasonality.

Run a quick correlation between two metrics, like discovery calls and win rate.

Business Intelligence

List your top three dashboards, do they answer decisions you make weekly?

Schedule a weekly dashboard review, scan for trend shifts or anomalies early.

Add a short “insight highlight” paragraph to one dashboard you use weekly.

Explore an unused BI feature today, drill-downs, filters, alerts, or scheduled emails.

Share a dashboard with a non-technical colleague, ask if insights are understandable.

Set automated alerts for key KPIs crossing thresholds requiring immediate attention.

Enterprise Risk Management

List three practice risks today, rate each for potential impact and likelihood quickly.

Review your risk notes, highlight one control needing update or clearer ownership.

Schedule a brief risk review, focus discussion on emerging or changing exposures.

Review recent near-misses, document primary causes and immediate preventive actions.

Identify one control you own, verify status, evidence, and remaining gaps today.

Bookmark a practical risk-management guide tailored to professional services firms.

Crisis Management

Review your crisis checklist, note missing roles, contacts, decision rights, or backups.

List three likely crises, outline first steps for communication, containment, and continuity.

Schedule a quick “crisis readiness” check-in with roles and contact trees confirmed.

Confirm emergency communication channels and fallback systems work as intended.

Test one alert channel with a short dry run to confirm reliability.

List stakeholders to notify immediately during a client-impacting crisis scenario.

Regulatory Compliance 2

Identify three relevant regulations, pull newest updates from official sources and summarize.

Review your compliance checklist, add one outdated or missing requirement immediately.

Set a recurring reminder to review regulatory updates monthly or quarterly.

Subscribe to a regulatory newsletter relevant to coaching and consulting services.

Confirm all mandatory compliance training is completed and documented for your team.

Check one active process for alignment with a current regulatory requirement today.

Product Lifecycle Management

List programs and offers, mark discovery, growth, maturity, or retirement stage honestly.

Compare service results with lifecycle expectations, note any mismatch requiring action.

Map stakeholders at each lifecycle stage, define responsibilities and decision gates.

Check your roadmap, address growth, refresh, and retirement plans for each offer.

Identify one service nearing maturity, brainstorm options to renew or bundle value.

Review product documentation, ensure lifecycle milestones and accountable owners are explicit.

Market and User Research

Review client feedback, capture three repeating themes to prioritize in upcoming work.

Draft a three-question survey to validate one market assumption this month.

Analyze competitor reviews, capture preferences and persistent unmet needs they reveal.

Set Google Alerts for industry shifts and executive leadership topics clients follow.

Conduct a quick heuristic review of your website’s navigation and booking journey.

Compile five client personas, capture goals, pains, context, and decision triggers.

Go-to-Market Strategy

Write three target client segments, list primary pains and desired outcomes clearly.

Review your last launch plan, note one success and one improvement for next time.

Map key channels planned for your next advisory offer’s outreach.

Draft a crisp value proposition tailored to your primary decision-maker segment.

Analyze one competitor’s go-to-market tactic, note what you could ethically adapt.

Check that your pricing aligns with perceived value and proximate competitors’ positioning.

MASTER Risk Hub