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. It is ok to have a few beers, wine, what have you – it might even be noted negatively if you don’t participate and stick to your Evian, especially if your clients are the “hands on manager”-type. But you must not lose control - there’s too much trouble potential, from telling the client that you really hate the images in his office (his wife might have chosen them, or his kid painted them…) to spilling your drink over the client CXO’s Savile Row suit, the possibilities are endless, and none are desirable. Pace yourself, stick to low-alcohol drinks, eat enough beforehand, you know the drill. If you begin to feel buzzed beyond what you know you really have under control, pull the plug - shake hands, say goodbye, go to the hotel. There, it’s a good idea to drink as much water as possible before going to bed, and arranging for a wake-up call. Your client can come in late the next day with a dizzy head – but that is not accepted from people he pays four figures a day.
• NO intimate relations with clients. Never.
  “Don’t screw the crew”, you probably knew that line already. Getting into romantic – or… “temporarily satisfying relations” with a colleague is a potential setup for trouble, especially if you involve across hierarchy levels. This applies to your clients even more so. I admit, I have no first hand experience on that, but my common sense tells me that this is the way to go. Sure, we are hired to make our clients happy – but seriously, thinking about how meticulous clients can get over the smallest errors in our slide decks, imagine what trouble you are in if you hurt their personal feelings. Guys, I am looking at you. Don’t.
• What about relationships in your own firm?
  On to Sebastian’s question. Well – the first statement is already made in the topic above: Intimate relations? Think twice. Then think twice again. Again, I have no first hand experience, so it’s just my two cents on the topic… I wouldn’t risk the possible problems for a short-term thing. Be very sure that both of you can make a clear difference between your personal and your professional relation – even more so when you are on different hierarchy levels and might end up working on the same assignment.
  The same goes for friendships: It is great to get along great with colleagues, but you have to make sure that it does not affect your professional behavior. Be aware of the politics in your firm, and the culture: You don’t want to stand out by being too stiff, or too laid back and chatty either. Applying your common sense goes a long way.
  Last not least: people talk everywhere, and they sure do in consulting as well. I’d be cautious about disclosing too much sensitive personal information quickly… because basically, it is like it always was: Not everyone keeps what you tell them to themself. Only this time, the result might not be limited to your college friends having a laugh on your behalf – it might damage your career.

Have I forgotten something? Any of those topics ring a bell with you? Let us know in the comments!

• 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. Quarterly results have improved while you were there? Great! Still, it was “your quarterly results”, not “our quarterly results”. Clients achieve results through our help, but THEY achieve them.
• Never disclose internal information or talk bad about your firm.
  It should be clear that you don’t disclose internal information about your firm to the client. This would destroy your reputation, just as if you disclosed sensitive information from another client – they’d have to assume you will go telling their secrets to someone else as well.
  On top of that, never bad-mouth your firm. You might be angry about your staffing manager because he put you on an assignment in Siberia or loathing the “coffee” in your home office: That is no matter for chit-chat with the client. It is normal to have some things to criticize about your own company – but you don’t do it publicly. It discredits you and the firm… and incidentally, the client you are yapping to about the bad coffee just started thinking why exactly he was paying so much money for such a crappy consulting firm. Keep a positive note when they ask you about your firm. You are an ambassador, act responsibly. If you can’t, this should really get you thinking if you are working for the right firm.
• “Sie” or “Du” / “Tom” or “Mr. Hanks”.
  Although you normally always start out with addressing your clients formally, there might come a point where they offer you to “just call me Tom”, and in non-English languages, that most of the time goes in hand with addressing them informally as well.
  Should you do it? General rule of thumb: No. Decline respectfully, thanking your client, and tell him that after the project is over, you’d be glad to do so. It keeps you on the safe side.
  If you consider it nonetheless -and there is no rule in your firm against that-, be very aware of the culture of your client company and the country you are working in. Don’t do under any circumstance in companies where the informal address signals personal friendship. That could well jeopardize your credibility as an objective and facts-driven advisor.

Alright, enough for now. In part two, I’ll talk about three more things that are real no-no’s in dealing with your clients.

What are your thoughts on those points? War-stories to share? Let us know in the comments!

Now, a new book is coming together. It is called “Lores of Wizards”. It is written by Richard and Jon Metzler, both of extensive consulting background – but they do not talk about themselves. Instead, they interviewed with many mavericks of the consulting industry (mostly US focused), and let them speak. The result is very lively, and as I see it, hits close to home.

You can see (and read!) the book grow!
Chapter by chapter, the Metzlers have decided to publish the book online. As of now, you can read the first three chapters, free of charge, right here on the book’s website. I printed them out and read them in one swoop sitting in the garden today. Maybe you want to do the same? You are in for some war stories, some chuckles, and some big truths of our profession. I am sure going to buy the book once it is finished.

Do you have other consulting-related weekend reading tips? Let us know in the comments!

“Getting to work on the big things” in consulting needs to be put in perspective, I think. We live by projects, and the big thing seems to be just that: The project you are working on right now. This is, of course, also the expectation of superiors and customers alike – they want your full power and energy on their topic, right now, and they pay you to do so, after all.

As a project leader, you will often already live by the good, C-Type procrastination that Graham proposes: You focus on identifying the clients’ real need, you build and enforce the relationship, you make sure that the project is on track and that the right things are delivered on time. If not – I am not speaking from experience here – you might want to re-evaluate what you are spending your time on, and if this is leading you where you want to be. Your team is there to get the nitty-gritty details. Don’t try to micro-manage. If you spend more time working out hotel deals for your team than thinking about your client, you are procrastinating the wrong way.

As a more junior consultant, the same idea of tackling the big stuff applies. In project reality, compared to the project lead,  the feeling might be quite different. You are remote from the big picture. You are working on a stream in the project, and the world to you often ends at the edge of the Excel sheet you have to build. This, for most junior consultants, is not perceived as a big, exciting, potentially world-changing problem to solve, but more than a task that has to be done. Ok, I am getting sidetracked here – now it is about motivation instead of procrastination? There’s a link: When you are motivated, and have an idea why you do what you do right now apart from “I was told to”, you are much less likely to procrastinate on that issue.

So what can you take from Graham?
The senior – go tackle the big issues. You give your team sense and direction. As I am not in your shoes, I can’t give advise from own experience, sorry.
The junior – Yes, of course. Getting promoted to project lead soon. That’s not what I mean – I’d say, you can get your motivation up by getting yourself a better idea of the overall project, and thus decrease time used for bad procrastination. Use possibilities to see what the other streams are working on. Talk to the project lead over lunch about where he wants to go, and what the end result looks like in his/her opinion. Your ability to let go of what Graham calls “errands” might be limited, but you can, too, defer doing your expenses and replying to non-critical email for a while when cranking on your job. After you have given yourself an idea for why you are doing your task and how it impacts the big picture, chances are you will actually want to take all the time you can for it.

What about distractions?
Now this is a topic big enough for another article Come back soon, it might already be up then.

By the way, I am still crying myself to sleep at night because no-no-no-one has replied to the first KC hive mind yet. I know that there are at LEAST five living people reading this (might be six, have not called them all in a few days to make sure) – so hey, if you are so inclined, make my day and write a comment!

Tom Peters has been talking about branding yourself since the 90s, and since a lot has been published on this topic.

Read this article that was published in 2004. Its key message is: Be distinct, or go extinct. What does that mean? If you are not recognizable within your environment, mostly the organization you are working in, then sooner or later you will get off track, or simply lose your job. You have to brand yourself, and differentiate yourself from your peers – hell, from everybody else.

How does this apply to consulting?
On the customer facing side, the answer is simple. Selling is a people business. It is great when your company has a good reputation – but only being recognized for who YOU are really gives you an edge. They’ll call you, because you are known to be the best to solve problem X. This is especially important in our job, where most people don’t stay with a company for decades. If you rely solely on your company’s aura when it comes to how you are perceived by the customer, you lose them when you go someplace else. On the contrary, when you have established a strong brand for yourself, they will call you, and they will trust you to deliver, regardless of what company you are based in.
For the more junior levels, who are mainly working inside the organization rather than pampering clients: This should make you Think. Real. Hard. Tom mentiones the example of the “28 year old relatively junior member on a [...] tax consulting team”, but that applies to our profession just as well. Ask yourself: Where’s my signature in this project? Where can I put something that is specifically ME, not just the work of a generic grunt, into the deliverables? I know, that is a stretch. But it is worth to strive for, I think. When crunching on a Powerpoint presentation, I myself often forget to see the big picture behind all that detailed work. For a young consultant, it is easy to feel detached from the client relationship, and feel replaceable. Tom’s article challenges us to make ourselves visible, to put our heart in it, so that we work ourselves beyond being replaceable. Personally, I think this is a hard thing to do, but boy is it worth to strive for.
As Reinhard Sprenger statet: “Work is either fun, or it makes sick”. Let’s work on making it fun – on becoming a Killer Consultant who as a person has his/her distinctive brand.

What do YOU want to stand for?

Folks, today it is really a 2 Minute post. Tom Peters has been putting up a number of short videos on separate topics over the last weeks, you can find them here at vimeo. What is it good for? Food for thought. Yes, he almost yells at you. Yes, he has a very "distinct" way of speaking and bringing his point across. Still, try it out, get yelled at by Tom Peters (for free!). Maybe there will be something in it for you. My favourite quote:

The hard things are easy, the soft things are hard.

In many companies, studies, points of view, discussion papers and so on and so forth are created and distributed regularly. Most of them are sales-oriented and directed towards existing and potential clients. As it may result in visible cash-in, people seem to see sense in it. But sharing knowledge with your colleagues does make a whole lot of sense, too. So let me make a case for making your colleagues smarter.

Give them the inside scoop on something
Maybe you have been digging into the depths of Racehorse sales processes in the Arab world in your last project and can sum up the key facts on a few slides or pages. Maybe you just created a really interesting framework for holding a client workshop that might be useful for others. Let them know. It does not have to be overly pretty or long – just make your point in concise, easy to understand words, and tell them what they might want to use it for.

Ease a pain
Do you know how to fix that formatting issue that always, always makes green lines red? Do you know what hidden setting in Software X makes task Y easier? Let them know. I actually put together a little How-To on Outlook rules so that colleagues could filter their spam easier (it was marked, but not deleted by corporate mailservers) – they almost kissed me out of sheer bliss.

Send it to the right people
Don’t distribute your little piece of news to the whole company. Send it to people you know and of whom you can assume your news is useful for. If they like it, they will forward it to more people, and if there is demand, they will ask you to send your next updates/news to them, too. Basically, you’ll get an opt-in for more visibility.

Be regular
You have the best impact when sending out a little bit of news or how-to on a regular basis. Not every week, but not only every year as well. Just keep them coming, ask good colleagues how they liked them. In a good case, you will establish a fond readership base that is growing.

Don’t show off
Of course, this does help generate visibility, and might show some of your expertise. But do it in a light fashion – don’t flash your knowledge at everybody, don’t put your person in the spotlight, but the things you have to say.

Let me know how it works out!

If you do not know TED, you are missing out big time. It is one of the most spoken about conferences where “the world’s greatest thinkers and doers” meet every year to present their newest findings, discuss, engage and enjoy.

TED started out in 1984, and stands for “Technology, Entertainment, Design.” Participation is expensive – and chances are, even if you have the cash you won’t get a seat, because TED is sold out in advance, way in advance. But do not despair! The internet is here to save the day for you.
Almost all TED talks are available online, making ted.com one of the most inspiring and interesting resource for brain food I know of these days. You can search by attributes “inspiring, funny, jaw-dropping…”, topics, speaker – and trust me, almost all of those talks are more than worth the 5-20 minutes you will spend watching them. Seriously. So take the time and dive in. You will laugh. You will be excited. You will be surprised.

Here are some of my favourite talks – your mileage may vary of course:

• Clifford Stoll – 18 minutes with an agile mind
• Malcolm Gladwell – what we can learn from spaghetti sauce
• Lawrence Lessig – how creativity is strangled by the law
• Rives – select from three videos on the site, and once you are hooked, his website has some more media to indulge
• Ben Saunders – three things to know before you ski to the north pole
• Will Wright - toys that make worlds
• Aubrey de Grey – why we age and how we can avoid it
• Richard St. John – 8 secrets of success
• Hans Rosling – the best stats you’ve ever seen (well, at least as non-consultant, as the Consultant Ninja points out)

And you will find John Doerr, Bill Clinton, Philippe Starck, Richard Branson, Larry Page, Stephen Hawking, Norman Foster, Jane Goodall… it just goes on and on. (To be honest, it took me two days to complete this post because whenever I was looking through the list of talks for the one I really liked, I discovered new ones that I just had to at least skim through)

To round things off, this year’s sponsor Autodesk has had visual artists work out pictures mirroring the contents of the various speeches, which you can download in one big (over 50MB) PDF from their site. They call it “TEDBIGVIZ”. This way of visualization is really powerful. You can grasp the concepts and ideas of the talks without having heard/seen the talk, but of course it is even better when you use this to recap contents already familiar to you.

So, instead of getting dull TV, I recommend you feed your brain with some quality stuff.
Of course, if there are other resources (preferably free) for inspiration and insight, please share them in the comments!

My own experience tells a different story. Of course, time management is important, especially in the fast-paced consulting world, where sometimes you feel like the week is just a stream of deadlines, meetings and deliverables. But often enough, energy is a more limiting factor than time…. and it seems that researchers agree big time.
Introducing The Energy Project, founded by Tony Schwartz, has been following this question for a few years now.
I got onto them because a former colleague sent me their article from Harvard Business Review, titled “Manage your Energy, Not Your Time”. It is available as a free download right from the website of The Energy Project.

Go there now, download it, print it out, read it the next time you are on the plane, train, or whatever your mode of transportation is.

The basic proposal is:

Be aware of what you focus on, and when.
Don’t try to multitask throughout the whole day, because it wears you down (Classic example: The every-five-minutes email interruption)

Fuel yourself with the energy of meaning and purpose.
I see some grinning faces already – as the tasks of a consultant bring it, sometimes when you are knee-deep in some data analysis, it is hard to see meaning and purpose of what you are doing there. What might help there is being aware of the big picture – what you will do with the data you dig out, for example. If the big picture is nothing that carries meaning and purpose for you, that would be an alarm bell ringing very loud right there.
In the worst case – when you are a junior down in the smallest stream of a huge project, far from the big picture strategy… be a renegade. Make your analysis, your pile of data, your Powerpoint slides something special – make it a game if you will.
If there is no meaning in what others give you, and you have no choice to reject it, then you better give it some meaning. Gosh, dare I say it – be creative! Your alternative is work that drags you down, and there are few things worse for your energy than that.