How personal should you get with clients? (Part 2)

In part 1 of “How personal should you get with clients?” we looked into keeping your perspective as an external advisor, making sure that a water cooler-talk does not get you hosed for disclosing confidential data or bad-mouthing your company and into being aware of the potential pitfalls of calling the client “John”, while all his staff addresses him as “Mr. Doe”.
In this second and -so far- last post on the issue, let’s look at the frivolous side of things – and as requested by reader Sebastian, I’ll look at relations inside your firm as well.
- No getting drunk-drunk.
Let me state it without evaluating it: In many countries, alcohol is part of socializing. You will most likely end up at a restaurant or a bar with your clients once in a while, especially after you and your team did a good job, of course. At those occasions, people will drink alcohol, and you will, too. Now – remember the last time you had a crazy night out with your friends? Hangover and all? You don’t want this to happen. [Read more →]
May 22, 2009 Comments
How personal should you get with clients?
As consultants, we have a special role when interacting with our clients. Although we only work with them for a limited time, from a few weeks to months, the level and intensity of interaction is very high. With that, naturally, comes getting to know each other. Long meetings and long working days spent together, water cooler-talks, joint team dinners, etc., often lead to a certain level of intimacy. But how personal should you get? Where are the boundaries, and what are the pitfalls?
- You always work FOR them.
Even if you achieve your results in strong collaboration WITH them – which is for sure my preferred way of doing consulting – you are still hired as an external advisor. This distance is important to keep perspective. [Read more →]
May 16, 2009 Comments
Follow the KC on twitter
Most of you will have noticed this little phenomenon called “twitter”… and apart from my personal account, the KC has now joined as well. You can follow it under twitter.com/the_KC
I’ll be posting updates about new articles, the occasional consulting-related link and maybe a question to the audience once in a while. It will be a fairly low-frequency thing, so don’t be afraid that you’ll be spammed.
BTW, how dou you like that “KC” logo thing?
April 26, 2009 Comments
10 Consulting sentences translated to Human
I’m speaking consultanese all the time - it’s just the virus that goes with the job. There is nothing you can do about it, really – even if in the first weeks you think “boy, my colleagues are nice people, but what are they TALKING about?!”… give it a months, two max, and you’ll make the same impact on innocent bystanders, too.
Just to remind you – and to give those bystanders an opportunity to understand what their consultant says,
here’s 10 random consulting sentences, translated to human (with the occasional tongue in cheek):
- “We’ll need to challenge the action title on this slide and sharpen the two-by-two.”
We’ll need to critically look over the one-sentence title of this PowerPoint slide which should sum up the main message of the slide. Also, the two-by-two matrix still contains too much text / isn’t well defined enough, that needs to be taken care of, too. - “That’s a great idea, let’s put it on the parking lot!”
Your idea might actually be great, but it doesn’t fit the scope (topic, time or both) of this meeting. Let’s write it down so that it doesn’t get lost but does not cause us to get off-target, either.
April 12, 2009 Comments
Shopping for the first day – travel gear
Following up on the last Consulting 101 article, “Shopping for the first day – clothing“, today let’s have a look at the gear for your weekly travels to the client side. Most people run with two bags: an onboard-roller-suitcase and a laptop bag. Some prefer a suit bag over the rollercase, but as I try not to talk about things I have no clue about, you’re on your own on that one.
Onboard rollers (or trolleys, or the things with wheels to lug behind you)
- Size matters.
Be sure to buy one that does comply both with your local and international carryon-luggage size standards. The “gold standard” of business travel is to not check in any luggage, which gets you more time before and after the flight, as well as the certainty that your luggage always is where you are – not a 100% sure thing if you check a bag in, especially when you are checking it in late. Thus: Be ready to take it on board, and have it at the size that allows it.
March 5, 2009 Comments

