"It’s Not Easy Being Green" are famous words often attributed to Kermit the Frog. I think these words apply to not only famous frog puppets but also "green" management consultants (i.e., those fresh to the field).
Consulting can be a high pressure profession, and clients (as well as senior colleagues) often closely scrutinize new consultants, especially newly-minted MBAs during the first period when they land on a project. For what it’s worth here are some of the things that helped me get through my first few months when I entered the profession:
- Check out the dress code for the first client you hit – Consultants need to dress well (perhaps well enough) so that they don’t inadvertently give the impression that their skills are average or mediocre. While seemingly shallow advice, underwhelming clients is not something that is easy to overcome. All said about dress, it may not be desirable to overdress for the client either. Unless you carry your wardrobe like a model, overdressing can make you stick out like a sore thumb.
- Don’t immediately tell clients that you just started with the firm and just got your MBA – It can be tempting to say this because you think people will be easier on you if they know you are new. Not the case in consulting. It is much better to say something to the effect of "I am in my first year with the Firm". If you tip that you literally just started in the profession (too early before developing a relationship), you may be working yourself out of a hole with the client before you even get a chance to prove yourself. By all means, do not lie about who you are, but engage people the way they need to be engaged.
- Get your first win in the eyes of the client early on – I’ll be honest. I don’t think I did this the first time I hit the client site. I was more concerned with following my perception of firm procedure & methodology to the letter. I focused on activities to the exclusion of results and what was actually going to help the client in a tangible way. Fortunately, one of the engagement managers on the project was able to steer me in the right direction. He told me something the effect of "Forget about XYZ methodology. The essence of what we need to do is meet goal ABC." Compare my shortfall compared to an analyst on the project that on day 2 of the project, without any fancy "MBA-based" methodology, found uncollected revenue by the client of X hundred thousand dollars (I’m just pulling out some numbers here) by reviewing some customer contracts. The results exceeded the professional fees of the analyst by many, many times compared to the two days of work.
- Watch, learn, and work on developing "presence" – One of the unspoken areas about interviewing prospective consultants for employment is that consultants need to project and communicate with a strong level of confidence that carries right on to the client site. Being able to get through case interviews, being smart, being personable, and being a logical thinker is not enough when interviewing for a consulting firm. Consultants need to be able to facilitate situations, re-frame things, test hypotheses, and communicate in such a way as to drive things to closure. Projecting presence doesn’t stop after the interview process for employment.
I could not agree with Point 3 which is valid not only for the ‘green’ consultants, but all consultants in general. Though it seems very obvious,it is not surprising to see even mid-level consultants fall into the trap of methodologies and procedures and missing the end goal
Amaresh,
Thanks for the comment. You’re right about point #3 applying to all types of consultants. Even #4 is something that consultants can work on throughout their career. The other items also apply to other consultants whether new or more experienced.
When I listed these items, I guess I was thinking about some things that either can help one get started out on the right foot or were not obvious to new consultants. #3 and #4 are not things that someone told me on day 1 before hitting my first client site. In retrospect, these latter two items would have been helpful to me.
I saw your link and thgought you were speaking about “green consulting” GOT MW! But what you said applies to all consultants. I would add..get as much real world experience as possible ..even if it’s pro=bono with your local City Council, community group or even condo assoc. Dealing with people is an art, and an MBA does not a master artist make. It is with experience that lessons are learned and built upon. Do good,
Chris http://www.eosgreenconsulting.com
Real world and pro-bono experiences … I’m all for them. Pro-bono work is sometimes done within business school contexts too. I remember doing some work for an Internet (pre-bubble) company as part of a technology strategy class. As far as consulting goes, I cannot say that was the best example of how to run a consulting engagement, but the project did enable the CEO to practice his sales pitch in raising capital, etc.