3 years into consulting and independent, the learning never stops which makes the journey gratifying. I shared my first
2 years of education in this blog and this is my continued education. An important disclaimer - these are my experiences, lessons and opinions.
I said in the beginning that professional
life could never be a popularity contest. A consulting job is no different. But
here popularity isn’t about saying stuff that pleases your client, it is about
MINDING YOUR BUSINESS. Let me explain.
Firstly, a consulting assignment is almost always on the basis of your past professional history and contacts where your interactions with the organisation and its employees was very different in terms of role and responsibility. Let’s say you were in a leadership, decision making position and dealt with the organisation who is now your client. While you dealt with a counterpart, fact is you would have also dealt with many juniors who would defer to you, respect you and demonstrate a “subordinate” behaviour towards you readily. You also often behaved as the senior in terms of how you spoke, dealt with them and nobody minds.
As a consultant the first lesson is you are no longer the “Chairman”, but only the “Chief Bottle Washer”. Getting this position drilled into your own head is crucial from day one of your consulting career. When you deal with an organisation you know well since long, even the Asst Manager will look at you as a “vendor”, a “helper”, a “resource” and nothing more. You are the Chief Bottle Washer, period. They will still respect you but your own behaviour towards them needs to undergo drastic change. Some guidelines based on experience.
Stop behaving like a “Chairman” like before – whatever the title you held in your professional life was never yours to begin with. It was the title of the chair you sat on, not a personal title for life. So, be it the Asst Manager or MD you are now dealing with as a consultant, stop behaving like a senior towards subordinates in word, action, communication everything. They will resent that no end and will not tell you leaving you wondering what’s going wrong. Instead earn their respect for who you are as a person, an expert on something, an experienced resource to hold their hands and a friend philosopher and guide and they will treat you like before and support you.
Typical behavioural mistakes I learnt were things like – Stop giving instructions or directions and instead give suggestions so THEY give instructions in turn. Always explain a situation and let THEM decide. If they seek your inputs, give them your recommendations so they can decide. At best debate their decisions without correcting them, instead raise your concerns and once again help them decide. This is a continuous cycle till a final decision is taken and then applaud them for their decision and give them your vote of confidence. Remember that the consequence of the decision is always theirs and affects their org, career etc. So be the elder statesman helping them and not telling them. This discipline must cover not just in dealing with people, but also the language used in Emails, messages etc.
Nextly clients often suggest that you get an Email id, Business card, Title from their organisation. As tempting as this may sound, this is the first step towards what I term suicide. You will deal with various people within the Org and in the outside world who in future can be assets, resources, contacts in your own consulting career. By subsuming your personal identity with an org, you lose that “power” and often the debits created by your client Org also sticks to you. This can seriously affect your own consulting career and make you lose friends, contacts and even credibility and trust. Instead, create your own identity and insist on using that. Unconsciously most you deal with will assume you are an employee and not an external resource. When you yourself have a habit of presenting a Business Card and a Title because you feel good, you perpetuate a false impression. Learn to forge these relationships and trust on your own merit and talent and if you can’t do that no amount of Business cards, fancy Titles will help when you are not sitting in that chair. They will come back to bite you.
However, if we wish to have all of this since it makes you feel good, then we must remember that we must be prepared to become the “Chief Cook & Bottle washer” and nor crib about having do to do everything oneself.
I learnt this quickly and the hard way and stepped away very soon. Other employees based on your fancy title resent you, you don’t know why. You become a part of the problem and not the solution. Many folks you deal with assume you are an employee of the Org, in a leadership position and have certain expectations – which they will not get in action – and they become resentful, you don’t know why. You know you can’t take decisions and yet those you engage with assume you can, again leading to resentment. Remember that you will deal with many folks in your assignment and not everybody knows who you are really – they assume who you are based on your Business card, Email, Title and even more when you yourself chose to perpetuate that story.
Most importantly, those you deal with in the external world will consciously not share their thoughts fully. They don’t look at you as an independent external authority. But if you consciously show your independent identity very often these external world folks who are dealing with your client, will engage with you in a more open manner, share more information and thoughts and often in a crunch situation tell you in advance what their problem is, which they would hesitate to tell your client. This can help you immensely in resolving issues. Remember the key business relationship is between your client and this external Org, so all kinds of checks and balances come into play into the thinking and behaviour. The pitfalls of subsuming your identity are one too many and to be avoided like the plague.
A client when he engages you is for a specific purpose and assignment however vague or unclear it is. The ability to bring clarity, direction to the assignment is the responsibility of the consultant. If you fail to do this from the beginning the chances are that you will face headwinds and maybe even a crash landing.
As you navigate the assignment, you will see, observe various things which in your mind are issues, problems that need attention. Force of habit, the tendency is to poke your nose and get involved. The resentment caused is significant especially when it has nothing to do with your assignment.
I have followed a simple dictum, which I also follow in general – Lead, Follow or Get out of the way. In consulting, I chose the last option often since – it’s NOT my problem. I however chose the first option where the client and his team make it clear that they depend upon me for directions. I also make it clear that I will not take any decisions right in the beginning of the assignment. I follow this discipline to such an extent that don’t even volunteer to travel unless requested. Dealing with an overseas client I visited his country on vacation and did not offer to travel to his office in a different city. Incidentally, he asked his HoD to meet me when he visited the city I was staying in on his official work. I realised that my (travel) is a discretionary cost 100% of the time, but their own team travelling is a budget. Understanding this simple issue can prevent many a sticky situation in assignments.
In short my biggest lessons at the end of year 3 are 3.
- Very strict discipline in all dealings prevents friction
- Keep repeating the mantra everyday that I am just the Chief Bottle Washer
- Never give instructions, directions and Mind your own business.
A lot of what I wrote in my previous blog still hold true.
Comments