Category — out of the box

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?

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 ...

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):

1. “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.
2. “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.

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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 ...

Friday was a blast! I had been asked by colleagues in the US to join their weekly team call and give a talk based on what I do here on the KC in a webcast. It was a great experience! Thanks again for the invitation!

I set up a dedicated page for the talk, where you can find the slides as well as notes, useful links etc. on the topics touched, at killerconsultant.com/talk.

Like what you see?
I’m up for requests to share some insight with your organization – just shoot me an email to contact@killerconsultant.com .

To add to the excitement, slideshare.net (where I uploaded the slides) liked my presentation so much that they featured me on their homepage – w00t!

Friday was a blast! I had been asked by colleagues in the US to join their weekly team call and give a talk based on what I do here on the KC in a webcast. It was a great experience! Thanks again for the invitation! I set up a dedicated page for the talk, where ...

The idea for this post stems from recent feedback I got on an assignment from the project lead: I showed a high level of energy, but I should have showed more enthusiasm. I chuckled at first – but maybe there is something to it. Let me see if I can find some use for enthusiasm in consulting:

Be enthusiastic to power yourself
Are you thinking self betrayal right now? Well, this is one way to put it. What if you are facing a severe excel-cranking session and all you can do is think “when will it be done?”… and how could anybody ever be enthusiastic about powerpoint slides? That is not the point. The point is that you can influence your reactions. Make it a self-fulfilling prophecy! “This chart is gonna be rock`n`roll when I am done with it!” … “I’m gonna beat some awesome result out of this excel!” … make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. It has to be done anyway – so why not tell yourself that it can be fun? It might work! To prove the point, lets do a little test. For ten seconds now, smile brightly and laugh – regardless of what mood you are in, in almost all cases your body will sense your smile and your laughter and send out an internal happy pill to the brain. By acting as if you were happy, you can induce real happiness…. and that is the mechanics you can use to make your work more fun / less pain, too.

Be enthusiastic to power the team
We are working in a high-stress, high-pace, high-pressure environment, so there is energy inherent in the system. Deliverables need to get ready, the project is moving fast, and so do the tasks. With enthusiasm – or as I put it for myself, outspoken positive energy – you can bring a good spin to all that stress. Does that sound too touchy-feely for ya? I understand. See, it is not about sticking smiley badges on everyones chest. It can be as simple as sharing the image of a desired outcome with a colleague in a positive way – “hey, when we get this analysis done and melt it down to three slides, that will be a killer argument and really opening the clients’ eyes!”. I think that sharing positive images can make a difference in the attitude you and your colleagues have towards the things you work on (which can be tedious tasks sometimes).

Be enthusiastic to power the client
Towards the client, of course, you are the serious and all-business consultant. Still, I have made good experiences with conveying a positive mood. This can easily drift towards promising the client stuff that you are not sure you can deliver on – thin ice, that is. Don’t make promises you are not sure about. They will hold you accountable. Instead, show enthusiasm when delivering results! It is not making your presentation a circus show… but you want to make your results shine. Invest in your presentation skills. Smile. Use your voice. Convey to them the meaning of what you show them, not only the pure content.

The idea for this post stems from recent feedback I got on an assignment from the project lead: I showed a high level of energy, but I should have showed more enthusiasm. I chuckled at first – but maybe there is something to it. Let me see if I can find some use for ...

I am normally trying to keep the KC free from consulting mockery, but this one is just too good to pass. This presentation was recently featured on Slideshare. It is a vivid (and hilarious) example of why it is a good idea to leave your consulting / powerpoint skills at work and not take them to your relationship:

| View | Upload your own

What do we learn from this?

1. When you do fun stuff on your company’s CI, be prepared for it to hit the street eventually. This one is quite old, so no harm done I guess – but your boss might not be amused at all about your version of this that you just thought of. If you have to do it, don’t use a company template.
2. The author did not use the action title correctly at all… but I think we can forgive this
3. When communicating, you have to adapt to the audience. Leave your consulting talk and your ppt slides at work. Your family and your girlfriend will appreciate it (otherwise – see last slide!)

I am normally trying to keep the KC free from consulting mockery, but this one is just too good to pass. This presentation was recently featured on Slideshare. It is a vivid (and hilarious) example of why it is a good idea to leave your consulting / powerpoint skills at work and not take ...