Got an idea from Dan Wallace (Twitter handle: @Ideafood) to write a manifesto (link to some other examples here). As many regular readers may know, I am pretty passionate about the practice of business and management consulting. Without further ado, here is a working draft of my management consulting manifesto:
- Do what’s best for the client before the consulting firm.
- Lead and practice ethically.
- Love the client and commit fully or leave at the earliest, ethical moment.
- Like the arts, mastery of leadership and business excellence are worthy pursuits.
- Practice consulting and avoid dispensing shallow advice.
- Apply analytics, process, and problem-solving rigor as your strengths to enlight and lead versus obfuscate.
- Strive to introduce and apply principles of sustainability and social good wherever possible.
- Recognize limitations of consultative methods wherever they may be; seek noble, clever, and pragmatic solutions.
- Mentor colleagues & clients as appropriate and seek mentors to improve oneself.
- Pursue mastery of interpersonal and organizational communications ; get clients as far as you can along the strategy curve in terms of understanding, commitment, and resolve.
- Seek a balance between personal and business life that complements and strengthens one another.
Related links: An Illustration of the Consulting Spectrum: Giving Simple Opinions Versus Practicing Consulting “Science”