Is outsourcing a sign of weakness?

I asked a new employee at a longtime client why he and his team never engages us to help them. His response: Outsourcing is a sign of weakness.

I told him that it was actually a sign of strength.

Outsourcing strengthens your company and team in three ways:

1. Expansion: When you bring in outsiders you expand your brain trust, expand your base of experience and add new perspective.

2. Utilization: Outsourcing proves you are a fantastic manager. If you are managing your team correctly you are already optimizing their talents and capacity – focusing on your core competencies. Asking them to take on exploration of topics outside their skills and experience, adding new initiatives, increasing their workflow merely strains the great team you have.

3. Momentum. Outsourcing allows you to flex and contract as you need, jump starting new initiatives or giving old ones a renewed energy and perspective. It rallies your team into action because it leaves the heavy lifting to others and allows them to integrate the new into their existing work flow.

This new employee is now our new client. I knew he was stronger than he thought!