I’ve been a consultant for a little over 5 years now. It’s been a challenging, yet rewarding career path. One thing I run into with some frequency is being perceived as “the Bobs,” people brought in by management to identify so-called redundancies. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
I get a lot of bittersweet satisfaction leaving a client engagement equipping the people I work with to move forward in a positive direction. One of the best ways to enable this is to approach new clients with a sense of humility and a willingness to listen.
It’s arrogant to assume you can waltz into a client engagement and fix everything just because you’re good at computers. Oftentimes these situations are incredibly nuanced problems that the organization—or department within an organization—has been struggling with for some time. Many times these problems are indicative of a larger, more cross-departmental issue the organization faces.
Our playbook contains a lot of hard-earned wisdom, but it isn’t dogmatic. We have a sense for what usually works based on our experience, but the trick is to adapt our principles to your unique circumstance.
A hallmark of a bad consultancy is one that fosters a static culture of learned helplessness. This is by design, with their consultants inserting themselves as semipermanent employees who don’t help equip the company that hired them to succeed.
I don’t want to be that kind of consultant. I’d like to get to know your team and their struggles, then leave having helped them find effective, sustainable solutions. I’d love to them come back and help you tackle new and exciting problems, just on your terms.
