Learning from Consultant Jokes

Learning from Consultant Jokes

“I don’t get no respect, y’know what I mean.”

“You know the definition of a consultant?”

I was at a wedding dinner and the question came from another friend of the father of the bride. I had retired recently, but this entrepreneur didn’t accept that as the answer to the “What do you do?” question. “What did you used to do?” was the follow-up and when I told him he continued with a consultant joke that I’d heard, oh, I don’t know, a million times?

“A guy who knows a thousand ways to make love, but doesn’t know any women.”

“Did I mention that I worked in the field for thirty-seven years? I think I may have heard all the jokes. Tell me what you do?”

He was CEO of his wife’s family’s company, a distributer of certain intermediate chemicals, but he had started, folded and sold several businesses. He was a nice guy and we found that we had a lot in common, but not our financial net worth.

The joke loosely translated means, “if you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?”

Telling consultant jokes is sometimes a trifle aggressive. Perhaps this is a defensive reaction to arrogant young know-it-all types who are themselves “powering up” because they are insecure.

None-the-less in thirty seven years as a consultant I experienced many people just had “to tell the funniest joke.”  It used to bother me. I used to feel like the comedian Rodney Dangerfield whose signature line, “I don’t get no respect, y’know what I mean.” heads this section. But I think there is something consultants might learn from consultant jokes.

Finding meaning in jokes

In order for a joke to be funny it must contain some truth. Let’s examine the truth and messages in some consultant jokes

Consultants have no practical knowledge.

The “thousand ways to make love” joke and many others communicate that consultants don’t know anything, have never done anything, and are pretty much useless.

“A consultant is someone who when you ask for the time borrows your watch.”

“How many consultants does it take to screw in a light bulb? I’ll get back to you Monday on that.”

“ A stranger asks a shepherd ‘If I can tell you how many sheep you have without counting them would you give me one as a fee?’ When the shepherd agrees the stranger uses his laptop and a satellite connection and complex calculations and comes up with the right number, and picks up a sheep as payment. The shepherd correctly identifies the stranger as a consultant. ‘How did you know?’ ‘Because you gave me information that I didn’t ask for and already know for a ridiculous fee. Now give me back my dog’”

Message:

Consultants are hired because they “know” how to solve some a problem, but first they must “Learn.” Even an expert consultant who worked in the client’s industry for years has to learn the client’s specific business and company culture. Many consultants are more junior and the client feels that they are “training baby consultants.” The steep learning curve at the beginning of every engagement is what attracts some to consulting, but it can seem like “borrowing the client’s watch.”

Actions:

  • Educate the team as much as possible from publicly available information before they arrive on client site.
  • Thoroughly explain the client’s role in engaging with the work including educating the consulting team about company specifics and helping to find data. An engaged client helps ensure and accelerate implementation.
  • Focus the work on results, outcomes like increased revenue, reduced cost, quantity, quality, timeliness, instead of service offering deliverables.
  • Teach the client what you do, so the next time they can do it themselves.

Consultants are greedy and destructive.

When clients complain about fees, when their people compare how much junior consultants make vs. their own salaries, it is about relative value. Clients often complain about fear-driven sales tactics, “the worst I’ve ever seen. I hope your bosses [the board, the analysts] don’t find out.” Sometimes insecure consultants (jerks) demoralize client staff. Sometimes an engagement is extraordinarily disruptive. “Changing the tires on a moving vehicle,” sounds heroic until you try it. All these experiences have an impact on the perception of value.

“Difference between a lawyer and a consultant? A lawyer only has one hand in your pocket.”

“Ask them the time, they steal your watch.”

“A consultant, an engineer, and a prostitute were arguing  which was the oldest profession. . . the consultant was heard to say, “OK I gel the serpent in the Garden, and then that God the Engineer brought forth Order out of Chaos. Who do you think created the Chaos?”

Message:

Many consultants are allergic to the word “sell.” They think selling is relegated to the much maligned salesman on the used car lot, not “professionals serving executives.” Despite that, consultants are always selling. Extensions (making the existing project last longer) and expansions (replicating the existing project in another buying center) are criteria for promotion to junior partner. Major client acquisition (rainmaking) is often the criterion for promotion to full partner. The “pitch for additional work” is frequently a part of every final presentation.

Actions:

  • Focus the work on results not service offering deliverables. I know I said this already, but the only way out of being regarded as expensive is to deliver more perceived value than cost. If the economic outcome is greater than the cost, the client may be less likely to call you a thief.
  • If the client is responsible for implementation, make sure they are prepared to implement. Money spent on recommendations not implemented is waste that will likely be attributed to you.
  • Don’t pitch additional work until what you promised has been delivered.

Jokes consultants tell about themselves

Consultants often tell jokes about their lifestyle.

Introduce yourself to your next door neighbor for the third time this year? You might be a consultant.”

“What I’m looking for in my second wife [husband]. . . No wait. .  I mean third . . . is someone who won’t go ballistic when I say ‘Can we put that on the parking lot?’”

Three consultants are in the hotel bar at midnight talking about the best experiences of their lives. “Sure, sure, a home cooked meal is great, and I remember sex being terrific, but have you ever had a meeting you were unprepared for cancelled at the last minute.”

Consulting is a tough lifestyle, but clients will not appreciate your whining about that or about the consultant jokes.

As a consultant help clients buy for the right reasons and deliver value:

  • Emphasize economic outcomes and how to achieve them
  • Prepare to disengage. Don’t put more emphasis on “additional work” at the expense of achieving outcomes of this project.
  • Don’t create enemies in the workforce by sowing chaos and fear.
  • Develop capability and not dependence in your clients.
  • Be helpful – remembering that help is defined by the recipient and help, which isn’t asked for, isn’t help. It’s interference.

 

Maybe if consultants do these things there will be fewer consultant jokes? Probably unrealistic.

 

“How do you know if a consultant went to Harvard?”

“He will tell you.”

 

Ancient Trusted Advisor Tales

Ancient Trusted Advisor Tales

Everybody wants to be a star

My brother-in-law was an English teacher before he went to the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business for his MBA. He was hired by Cooper’s & Lybrand as a consultant. He soon went to Indonesia putting a management accounting system in the state-owned oil company.

Somehow I developed a mental image of consultants, well-dressed wisemen whispering the answer in the CEO ‘s waiting ear. Youthful fantasy!

It is a fantasy that persists for many consultants in the form of “The Trusted Advisor.” The Trusted Advisor is the title of a best-selling book by David Maister, Charles Green and Robert Galford. I frequently recommend the book to mid-career consultants. It is excellent, but I suspect that one of the reasons it sells so well is that “everybody wants to be a star.”

Deep down consultants imagine themselves like Thomas Becket advising Henry II or Robert McNamara advising JFK, despite that neither of those examples worked out well.

The trusted advisor role is an archetype in many cultures. Let’s look at two stories, Joseph, the advisor to Pharaoh in Genesis in the Bible, and Merlin, the magician of the King Arthur stories. Maybe these tales can teach us something about the trusted advisor role.

Joseph with the Colorful Cardigan

Disclaimer: This is a story about how God takes care of the chosen. It is a central story to both Judaism and Christianity. Apologies to the faithful for my sardonic style. I mean no disrespect.

Joseph was the youngest of twelve sons of Jacob, Israel’s patriarch.  Joe was Papa Jake’s favorite and his brothers didn’t like him much. He was a spoiled tattletale, who got the “coat of many colors” and then there was the whole dreaming thing. He interpreted his dreams for them “my sheaf of wheat is rising above eleven others,  my star is rising above eleven others: you all are going to bow down to me.” Sibling rivalry being what it is, the older bros sold kid-brother to a passing slaver bound for Egypt.

In Egypt, slave Joseph seemed clairvoyant about markets and his master, the merchant Potiphair, prospered. All was well until the merchant’s wife took a fancy to Joe. He demurred, she got her husband to throw Joe in the clink as revenge.

In prison, Joe used his dream gift predicting that a baker would be executed and a butler freed.

Then the Pharaoh had a nightmare and the usual viziers were stumped. Then the butler said, “funny story. . .There is this Hebrew, I met in jail. . . .”

Joseph listens to the monarch’s dream, seven lean cows devouring seven fat cows – and in case you didn’t get it – seven ears of corn devouring seven ears of corn on another stalk.”

Joseph predicts “there come seven years of great plenty. . . after them seven years of famine.” Joe recommends one of the first recorded supply chain inventory management projects and the Pharaoh puts him in charge of implementation. They save twenty percent of Egypt’s corn and grain with a well-policed warehousing strategy are sitting pretty when famine arrives.

The story continues, Joseph gets some payback from his brothers, but let’s observe a few facts:

  • Joseph has a gift. (dream reader)
  • He has a track record with the gift. (the baker and butler)
  • He offers a solution (supply chain discipline)
  • He delivers.

Is he a “trusted advisor” to Pharaoh? You bet. And he is well rewarded – big fees and the reward that keeps on giving – his freedom and an all-expense-paid trip home with the family.

Merlin the Mage

Disclaimer again:  The King Arthur myth is not religious per se, but it is a values story, teaching leadership and “democratic” governance in the context of a feudal society. First mentioned in Historia Brittonium in 826 CE, and expanded by Geoffrey of Monmouth and Chrétien de Troyes in the twelfth century, this story has captured people’s imaginations for centuries. I apologize, fellow Arthur-geeks, for calling it a myth.(“Arthur was real, dude” – “OK, sure. Put down Excalibur, – my middle name is Cay remember?”)

We first meet Merlin as a boy called to help King Vortigern. King V is building a castle to fight the Saxon onslaught, but the dang thing keeps falling down. The tranced kid “sees”  a red and a white dragon fighting beneath the castle, “Brittons and Saxons,” says he. Kid-Merlin predicts the “once and future king” and advises King V to move the castle.

Because he “sees” the future, Merlin engineers the conception of Arthur, He disguises Uther Pendragon so he can shack up with Ygraine, wife of Welch King Gorlois. Then he arranges for the inconvenient baby to be spirited away and fostered with Sir Ector’s family.

Apparently Arthur is the kingdom’s most inept squire and forgets to pack foster brother Kay’s sword for the big All Britain tournament, Kay sends him to get it and Lazy-Art comes upon this sword-in-the-stone with a sign on it. He yanks said sword from stone and returns to Kay, smiling “How ‘bout this one?”

“Whaaaat?” says Kay and a crowd gathers. Seems that Merlin had stuck the sword in the stone with magic years ago and placed the sign “Whomsoever pulls this sword from the stone will be the rightful king of Britain” . Everyone says “No, no, no put that back.” Then everyone else tries to pull it out, but nobody can but the kid.

So they all drop to one knee saying “My liege.”

So let’s look what Merlin did here. He had insight that a competitive battle was brewing, set up a leadership succession plan including a leader selection process that everyone accepted. He then became a trusted advisor to Arthur, using his gift to foretell upcoming battles and strategy and recommend decision discussion structures like the Round Table.

The story goes on. Wife Gwen boffs Arthur bestie Lance. Arthur knocks up his half-sister Morgause who’s son, Modred, kicks is Art’s butt. Merlin gets quantum entangled with a fairy femme fatale, Nimue, who locks him in a glass house.  Arthur, mortally wounded, is shipped off to the otherworld island Avalon, waiting to rise again to save us from ourselves – still waiting.

Back to Merlin:

  • He has a gift (clairvoyance, magic)
  • He has a track record with the gift (Vortigern)
  • He has a solution (new leadership, succession, governance process)
  • He delivers

So does Arthur hire him as his trusted advisor? Yeah.

Now here is where the two stories diverge. Joseph is asked by Pharaoh to help and listens. Merlin acts without being asked and does some things we might think a little slimy . I mean the whole pimping out Gorlois’ wife to Uther, setting up an obviously rigged sword-in-stone test. Even though Merlin has Arthur’s and Britain’s best interests at heart, his methods leave something to be desired.

Being a trusted advisor doesn’t mean working your will, or controlling the leader.

Lessons from these trusted advisor stories

  1. What is your gift? These stories make a lot of the gift, Jacob’s dream reading, Merlin’s magic. There has to be something the client relies on you for, knowledge of the market, the ability to see unintended consequences of actions.
  2. You must have a track record of using that gift. Trusted advisor relationships develop over time. You build credibility. Some of that credibility may come from a reference, but mostly credibility comes from helping this
  3. You have a long time horizon. Joseph worked with Pharaoh for nearly fourteen years before his brothers came to buy grain. Merlin was working across generations
  4. When asked, you have a solution. Joseph’s warehousing strategy and Merlin’s succession plan and leadership development were at the ready when asked. Saying “I don’t know”  is healthy; never knowing isn’t. Your solutions can start with a hypotheses to be confirmed or disproved, but advisors should have advice..
  5. You have to deliver results. Joseph built enough surplus to feed Egypt and sell to neighbors; Merlin raised a leader for the hour and suggested governance. This is not a drop the report and run operation, you have to see it through implementation. Most importantly you must do what you say you will do.

What about being a trusted advisor isn’t in these stories?

  • Quiet competence. Both Joseph and Merlin were a little showy. Many trusted advisors I met were soft spoken, took pauses to breathe and reflect before answering. They talked about feelings, “I find that frustrating,” or “That makes me sad [or glad or angry] rather than acting feelings out.
  • Stephen Covey’s Habit #5 “First strive to understand, then to be understood.”
  • Share information. Your information must be timely and accurate especially when that information doesn’t serve your own interests. Don’t hide the bad news and share credit for ideas coming from others.
  • Share your decision process. Advisors are trusted for their judgement. The client may disagree with your decisions, but they must understand how you got there. You never want a client to say, “What? Where did that come from?”
  • It’s the client’s business – not yours. It is coaching not control, growing the client’s  capability not creating dependency. Test the client’s tolerance for financial, business and interpersonal risk.

Becoming a trusted advisor doesn’t happen overnight, but it isn’t reserved for the old and gray. It means knowing a client well and allowing the client to know you as well. It means understanding the client’s business and having value to contribute. It’s not altruism; there is a business benefit for the consultant, but the benefit to the client and the business shows the consultant’s gain to be fair.

Being a trusted advisor isn’t easy, but you don’t have to be a mage or a prophet and it’s good work if you can get it.

 

Consulting, A Young Person’s Game?

Consulting, A Young Person’s Game?

Consulting, a good start.

Consulting is an early career choice that allows smart, resourceful people who have mastered sounding confident to find responsibility beyond that available in other industries. Consulting firms recruit from top undergraduate universities, business schools, and other graduate institutions, looking for “smart, nice, analysts with legs.”

Firms want smart, analytical people because client problems are challenging. They want nice people because no one wants to work with jerks. And they want people “with legs,” who before they walk, figuring out problems above their training and pay grade. They hire people with amazing potential, who rise to management more quickly than most.

Consultancies know how to find such people. Case interviews demonstrate thinking ability. Multiple interviews with people at various levels determine “fit,” code for “nice.” Questions about failure demonstrate speed-learning. and uncover the most important qualification of new consultants, insecurity. Firms want people who can sound confident, but nurse imposter syndrome, thinking that their achievements are less than others believe.

Consulting firms hire insecure analysts because they work harder.

Some candidates seek these high starting salary jobs to pay off student loans, or just as a good start to a business career. Even if you wash out, a consulting firm is “a good place to be from,”  and many of the larger firms outplace alumni with good companies.

But is consulting a career “with legs, i.e., one with a long life cycle?

Trajectory of a consulting career

Consultants move through distinct phases:

Newbie—–Yeoman———-Old Hand

Newbies do the work. Yeomen do the work and manage people, clients and project deliverables. Old Hands do some work, manage people (selection, promotion and mentoring), manage client relationships, and acquire new client relationships (i.e., “sell,” though very few consultants like that word).

The job changes radically between levels. Many firms, certainly the larger ones, have rigid promotion/deselection decision points in a consultant’s career. This was called “Up or Out,” but has been softened to “Grow or Go.” Newbies who can’t perform or don’t want to manage leave the firm. Yeomen who don’t learn to sell leave the firm. Of course there are exceptions. If everybody “really likes” you and you do great work at your level, you may stay, but pay raises slow and the cohort you were hired with leaves or is promoted.

Many people leave consulting for careers in industry, or academia or non-profit services. Some leave big firms for smaller firms or become independents to maintain the “everybody does everything, all the time” feel. Some suddenly find themselves at the Yeoman to Old Hand transition unprepared. They haven’t thought about the role and how to excel at it.

This post is to help junior consultants plan to be Old Hands.

Different Old Hand jobs

When I was a young consultant, I aggressively rejected planning for anything with the word “Old” in the title. “Hope I die before I get old,” sang Pete Townsend in The Who’s song “My Generation.” So to be clear, an Old Hand might be twenty-eight years-old, or even younger, if you are tall, have some gray hair, and a “presence” that people describe with words like “gravitas.”

Remember an Old Hand’s primary job is to feed the firm, attract new clients, or sell. To be safe, avoid the word “sell” and use phrases like “build new clients relationships,” or “begin service to clients.” Also some Old Hands are offended by the suggestion that they don’t do work or manage. Of course they do, but new client acquisition is critical. There is always some work ending that must be replaced for the growth and health of the firm.

In my experience there are three Old Hand client acquisition roles:

  • Business Development Executive (BDE). This is a direct sales role, the classic “rainmaker” of professional services.. The Old Hand who fills it may have come up through the firm’s ranks or may be an experienced business to business sales person with a track record big ticket sales. The BDE is exceptionally good at listening to a problem description and framing a consulting project that might solve the problem.
  • Thought Leader (TL) This role includes research either by the firm or an academic partner. TL’s research becomes a service offering. Years ago Jon Katzenbach of McKinsey uniquely reconceptualized teams as performance units and Frederick Reichheld correlated customer recommendations to loyalty. Thought leaders attract new clients by writing, publishing and speaking about their innovations.
  • Trusted Advisor (TA) This role is an expert or coach role for people who buy consulting services. The TA may have come up through the firm. The may have retired and sit on boards of companies or teach at a University, but clients and colleagues seek them out. They listen and recommend new work for the firm.

A BDE acquires clients through a sales calling process. A TL acquires clients through applied expertise. A TA acquires clients through a long term relationship. Any Old Hand’s job may include one of these roles or all three depending on the capability of the Old Hand.

Growing into these roles involves planned capability development.

What is a capability?

First, some definitions:

  • Skills are physical or mental actions or processes that get better with practice and can be applied to a problem.
  • Knowledge is information that can be applied to a problem either as background or specific problem related expertise.
  • Competency is a combination of knowledge and skill that has been learned and successfully applied to a problem.
  • Capability is a competency, reinforced by individual or group processes, used repeatedly such that a person is “known for it”

To build capabilities involves learning new knowledge, practicing skills, applying these competencies to problems enough to have consistent success at them.

Old Hand role capabilities

Here are three capabilities of the Old Hand role:

  • Framing a project. – Client’s hire consultants to solve a problem they can’t solve themselves.
    • Grow or stop decline of revenue,
    • Grow of arrest the decline of profit, or
    • A “people problem.”

(All business problems are people problems and all problems have revenue or profit implications. Are we hiring, keeping the right employees, suppliers to deliver for customers and shareholders? Are people organized well with sound work processes for efficiency [profit] or effectiveness [revenue]?)

Framing a project  means learning enough to form a hypothesis about what might be causing the problem and what the solution might be. The diagnosis phase will confirm or disprove your hypothesis, but you frame diagnosis work. The client may tell you what they think the solution is, but you must cast the diagnosis wide enough to confirm or deny these hypotheses.

  • Adaptability and Innovation – Observe a “new” problem, that many clients have – “Teams, hmmm -people seen to be crowing or complaining about teams, I wonder . . . “ –then conduct research, develop a service offering, adapt it to multiple clients. This becomes a way to feed the firm
  • Building long term relationships -This capability involves seeing potential in clients or colleagues and being extraordinarily helpful when asked. Perhaps you can be helpful to everyone, but most Old Hand Trusted Advisors are extraordinarily selective about with whom they connect. “Choose wisely and five clients can feed your firm for your lifetime, “ an Old Hand at a well-known boutique firm once told me.

Old Hands need all these capabilities. However, Business Development Executives make Framing their first priority. Thought Leaders make Innovation their first priority. Those who choose the Trusted Advisor path focus on Relationships.

BDEs may also build knowledge in an industry to give them access. TL’s make build connections with researchers and business professors, Trusted Advisors may build relationships at the Board of Director level.

Planning which capabilities to develop and  when increases Old Hand career longevity.

How long can an Old Hand work?

How long one expects a career to last is something few think about before fifty and in consulting that may be too late. When I was twenty I imagined I’d retire at fifty; I worked till I was seventy. I might have worked longer, I still look young for my age. However my business came from referrals. Existing clients referred me to their peers and I got to the point where my clients retired and some died. What might have changed this?

Focus on getting clients younger than you are.

  • Most consultants start out working for older clients, but if over time they cultivate relationships with supporting managers then as senior client retire they will be in good position. Trusted Advisors are often quite good at seeing potential in younger managers or board members and extend the period that they are helping companies.

Thought Leaders can have greater longevity.

  • Consultants that work into their nineties, Drucker, Deming, Schein, are almost always thought leaders who have published best-selling or multiple books. These works, enhanced by new editions, seminars, and speeches, are an evergreen source of new clients. Often thought leaders develop a “Center” or an “Institute,” to continue their research with younger staff that extends and markets the content of the Center.

Form Partnerships

  • Hiring public relations, speakers agents, telemarketing providers or training Yeoman project managers and others at your firm can keep an Old Hand contributing longer..

 

Consulting doesn’t have to be a young person’s game.

With a little late stage career planning Old Hands can work as long as they want to work. Of course, there is more to life than work and some other activities are more fun and rewarding.

Coaching Skills for Consultants

Coaching Skills for Consultants

“I’m a consultant, not a coach!”

He said this with a sneer dripping off the word coach that you could smell across the room.

The problem was we were not really hired as consultants, at least not as he was defining a consultant. We were hired to teach a client coaches how to support continuous improvement (CI).

Client coaches attended advanced  CI training  and coached projects run by the business units. Each client coach was assigned a “consultant coach” to help them with difficult problems.

This “consultant,” an independent contractor, was ignoring his client coach and doing calculations, taking measurements, running experiments. In short he was ingratiating himself with the business unit leader and undermining the client coach and the project.

“Work is getting done and Tony (the business unit leader) loves it” the “consultant said obstinately.

“Yes, but nobody is learning anything,” I countered.

This was  one of many painful conversations. He was better at all the things he was doing, but he couldn’t understand that his role was to teach not do. Ultimately, this consultant had to be removed from the project.

In fairness, many “expert” independent consultants are hired as an “extra pair of hands” to do a difficult task. Competency transfer isn’t an expectation.

So What is a Coach?

A coach is someone who helps and individual or a group develop competency (knowledge and skill), helps them learn in the context of a goal.

There are all kinds of coaches, singers vocal coaches, acting coaches, life coaches, spiritual guides, the tech help desk, executive coaches, change coaches, book publishing coaches, and so on.. They all teach (or help you learn) in the context of a goal.

Many people have an understanding of what a coach is from sports, Knute Rockne of Notre Dame football, John Wooden of UCLA basketball. Sports coaches often have the reputation of being motivational “ass-kickers.” These coaches have the advantage of working with top players with a crystal clear goal, “winning.” Sports coaches at top levels may not use much positive feedback; they can leave that to the cheering fans.

Business coaches use positive feedback more. Whether a manager or a consultant, these coaches take the “player” “as-is” with limitations and may clarify the goal as well as shape performance to achieve it. A business coach may also have to help move from competency to capability by adding review processes and other support structures to maintain competency.

My first management training had a half day of “coaching and counselling”. Coaching in the definition of this course was helping people perform better. Counselling was problem solving  with difficult employees. I imagine that there are still managers who practice coaching as a part of their job, but many organizations hire external coaches.

Why Do Organizations Hire External Coaches?

Companies hire third party coaches for many reasons:

  • Development – managers don’t have time to develop their people and companies hire coaches to help individuals or a level or a class of employee (e.g. middle managers).
  • Team development – to help a new department form, set goals, conflict, etc.
  • Succession planning –to help evaluate and develop leaders to the next level.
  • As part of a change effort – to learn and practice new what is required in a changed environment.
  • Remedial development – for individuals or teams experiencing difficulties

An entire business coaching industry has sprung up. There are individual coaches and coaching companies. There are many books, coaching models, and coach training and certifications programs.

Some consultants have decided to earn a living as full-time coaches. I never wanted to do that, but I came to believe that at a minimum consultants should learn coaching skills because coaching characterizes most senior level client relationships. The vaunted “Trusted Advisor” consulting relationship at the CEO level is a coaching relationship, unfiltered feedback and goal-centered leadership development.

What Makes A Good Coach

I have read enough testimonials about coaches  (in sports, theatre, music,  etc.) to recognize certain themes:

  • “Coach believed in me”
  • “Coach was right there at just the right time with the right piece of advice”
  • “Coach kicked my butt when I needed it, picked me up when I needed it.”
  • “I brought some skill, I did the work, Coach showed me what work to do.”

In my view good coaches have a strong similar set of core values. Coaches have knowledge and skill in what they are coaching. A Bill Belichick (New England Patriots coach) who had never seen a football wouldn’t be very effective. The coach may not be the best ever in the game, but what they have is the ability to transfer competency. The best coaches evaluate the player, determine what is needed and deliver motivation and a learning at the right time. They also understand the coaching process.

Core Values

Most good coaches have underlying values and beliefs:Core Vlues skills and competencies make for a good coach

  • A desire to be helpful
  • A drive to deliver the goal
  • An abiding belief in the content they are coaching and the person being coached to deliver the goal

Good Coaches are

  • Focused more on others, less on themselves
  • Authentic – they say what they mean and mean what they say.

I can think of successful coaches who don’t have one of these values, but they have a strength in the other values that overcomes that deficiency.

You can’t train values. You can’t train the specialized content knowledge and skill You select for those attributes. You can train coaching skills around a coaching model..

A Simple Coaching Model

There are many coaching models, all with clever acronym names, OSKAR, GROW, STEPPA, CLEAR, ACL, etc. The model I used was taught to me by Alan Moore, a  Glaswegian Scot, and one of the gentlest souls I ever met. I worked with Alan on several continuous improvement initiatives in the oil and gas industry.

I like Alan’s model because it is simple and easy to understand.Engae client-agree approach -demonstrate -Feedback and support

It is sequential, and a good conceptual framework on which to hang knowledge and skill.

  • Engage the Client
    • Prepare before engaging
    • Respond to a request / Create a request
    • Build rapport
    • Ask questions about goals
    • Listen with empathy
    • Speak only when your knowledge will help learning.

The important element of engagement is the client’s choice to engage and learn.

  • Agree direction and action plan
    • Contracting – client wants and needs, coach offers and requests (One on my requests was that the client act on the agreed actions.)
    • Securing agreement on approach
  • Demonstrate and Observe
    • Balance telling and asking
    • Clearly explain purpose, process, and expected output of activities.
  • Support and feedback
    • Giving space to learn
    • Being available as a sounding board
    • Being helpful, direct, specific, and check for understanding when giving feedback
    • Model non-defensive, respectful, action-oriented behavior when receiving feedback

Coaching is a learning intervention. If people (Including me) always learned what they need to it would be a much better world. Coaching doesn’t always work.

I had major disagreements with one boss. We each felt a lack of respect. He hired a coach to teach me “how to talk to him respectfully.” I suggested the coach facilitate conflict resolution with us both. My boss declined. The coach resigned.

Ultimately I went to see my boss’s office and closed the door. We “cleared the air’ and things were better for a while, but I then I stepped on his toes again and he stomped on mine and I left the company.

Fully half the problem was my ignorance and arrogance, but not all of it. Coaching didn’t work.

When Coaching Doesn’t Work

The biggest breakdown is in engagement stage and the biggest part of engagement is the client must  choose to be coached. Here are two categories about why coaching might not work.

The client isn’t ready

Adults learn what they choose to learn, so if the board “tells” a CEO that he needs to be more “empathetic,” when his entire career has been built on drive and not tolerating inaction, then this CEO may not be open to a “softly-softly-make nice” coach. This is one point of Marshal Goldsmith’s book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. Find a goal, a purpose for people to change and underinvesting in the “why” may lead to failure.

The Coach isn’t ready

Perhaps the problem the client faces isn’t one the coach hasn’t faced before. Perhaps the coach didn’t do research on the industry, or accepted another person’s assessment of the problem. Maybe the problem is beyond the scope of the coaches capabilities, as when a client wanted to talk about his marriage and I recommended that he consult with a trained psychotherapist.

So coaching doesn’t always work. The hard part is lack of outcome control; the client must act.

So Why Should Consultants Learn Coaching skills

If a consultant learns coaching skills, I believe it increases project sustainability because the client has learned and is therefore more likely to act to maintain results. So most change programs can be enhanced by coaching.

It may increase consultant promotability. I mentioned earlier that senior relationships are coaching relationships. Partners at big consulting firms may have two or three such relationships.

It may improve the image of the industry. Consultants are often described as “having an opinion on everything without the benefit of experience.”. Coaches typically listen more and that may help perceptions.

The Kerent and the Wisemen

The Kerent and the Wisemen

A problem . . .

It was the time before the coming of scribes, when history’s wisdom was held in memory and sung in rhyme. Then wisemen travelled the land trading their wisdom for food, lodging and coin.

It was a time of tribes and small landholdings with crops and livestock and goods produced for trade. Each clanhold was ruled by a chieftain called king or caliph, khan or kerent.

In one such kingdom, the Kerent was distraught. The harvest was weak and the lambs sickly. The pots made of clay from the river had sustained the tribe with trade, but now were deemed inferior to the shiny pots produced by the tribe to the north.

“Those shiny pots are junk,” barked the head potter. “The metal that makes them glint in the sun leaves holes around it in the firing and they leak.”

Nonetheless the main trade path bent north leaving the tribe with fewer traders and less red and yellow coin.

The Kerent’s son, a holdguard, said, “We should invade the northern kingdom and absorb their mines. The metal they produce might make better plows. They have few guards so we would shed little blood.”

The Kerent’s daughter, a storymother, said, “War will not grow our crops nor sell our pots. Rather, we must show the traders our pot’s superiority. Next year the harvest and the lambing may improve.”

The Kerent’s family and his advisers had many opinions, each argued with passion. He retired to his closet more distraught.

There was a small knock. “Father?” He smiled at the meek voice of his youngest daughter. “I don’t know if it will help but Gita said there are three wisemen staying at the inn.”

“Three wisemen travelling together? What magic is this, Min?”

“No Father, not travelling together. They came by different roads. They are causing a disturbance in the inn, each arguing the excellence of his work.”

“Well, never mind. Go. Summon them hither.”

Min ran to the inn, while the Kerent gathered his advisors in the roundhouse hall.

A request . . .

As Min neared the tavern she heard a raucous noise. She entered to find the three wisemen in dispute, while the clanfolk mocked them loudly.

“And the clan grew rapidly for all time after that. My wisdom saved the day!” said one wiseman.

“See there – that wiseman. He knows a thousand ways to love a woman, but cannot get a date,” said one clansman.

“And the tribe absorbed all the neighboring landholdings producing much coin and very few were killed,” said another wiseman.

“See that one over there,” said another clansman “You ask him the time and he borrows your sundial. When he leaves, you find the sundial gone with your coin.”

Min approached the wisemen. “Pardon, sirs. My father the Kerent would speak with you.”

“Which one of us, girl?”

“Why, all of you, sirs.”

“But we are not together. . .” started one.

“Our wisdom is quite different . . .” interrupted another.

“Come let us go,” said the oldest. “The client, this kerent, asked for us all. Let us not disappoint.”

The two younger ones retired to their closets to put on their finest robes. The old man asked Min, “So what is happening that the Kerent wishes to see us?”

A short time later when the young wisemen returned, they heard the old man saying to Min, “And people are leaving the clanhold?” As Min nodded, the old man turned and complimented each of the younger men on their finery.

In the hall . . .

When the wisemen arrived they found the hall full, but the Kerent was not yet in attendance. Some sweet meats and fruit had been laid out and the two younger wiseman made for the table.

Min tugged the older man’s sleeve and introduced him to her brother Gov, the guard, and sister Gita, the storymother. Then she followed as he seemed to wander aimlessly about the room talking with people at random, exchanging pleasantries and asking some pointed questions.

The younger wisemen ate their fill at the sweetmeat table and stood apart in the hall. Each mumbled to himself, perhaps practicing a speech.

When the Kerent arrived, seats were provided for the three wisemen. The two younger wisemen sat, loudly thanking the Kerent. The older wiseman thanked the person who brought the stool and nodded thanks to the Kerent before taking his seat. Min, who had been standing next to the old man, slipped onto the bench next to her father.

The Kerent rose and told the story of the difficulties. “Crops failed…. The lamb birthing was hard…. The lactation of the ewes uneven…. The northern clan’s glinty pots stole the tribe’s trade…. What do you recommend, wisemen three?

Proposal . . .

The first young wiseman rose straightening his indigo robes.

“First, to be clear, we are not together. We have only just met at the inn. I am Micah of the house of Marihn, our wisdom goes back five generations.”

 He spoke of his pedigree, the illustrious clans he served and the success of his cases. His approach was based upon his past successes. “We will meld our wisdom with the specifics of your circumstances and produce ‘The Plan,’ which, as you listen to its song and rigorously follow it, will produce the results you desire.”

The young wiseman was a powerful speaker. Looking around the room many heads were nodding including the Kerent’s daughter Gita. When he finished some applauded.

The Kerent asked “How much for such a plan?”

“One hundred yellow coins and seventy red ones.” Someone gasped.

Another . . .

The Kerent turned to the next wiseman whose dazzling robe had a yellow metal thread woven through it.

“What say you young yellow robes? What caused our problem and what should we do?”

“I shall answer Great Kerent. I am Tychin. My wisdom is often called the future of all wisdom.”

Tychin told of his metal-tipped plows and unique seeds, his sheep bladder gloves to assist in lamb birth, his messaging systems of horns and code to communicate with shepherds in the hills, and his metal thread, like that in his robes that could be used to decorate the clan’s “functional, but drab pottery.”

The potter snorted, but there were many nods especially among the younger clanfolk, including the Kerent’s son Gov.

“Do you have any weapons among these tools?” Gov asked.

“”Yes, made from a new metal that mixes the red metal with a grey metal from across the sea. The alloy is very strong and holds a sharp edge!”

“And how much do these new things cost?” asked the Kerent.

Yellow robe recited a price list he never totaled, but Min, who was proud of her new skill at “sums,” whispered in her father’s ear, “If you buy it all, it will be over two hundred yellow coins.”

“And will you teach my people how to use these new tools?”

“Oh, the tools are self-explanatory, Great Kerent. But if your folk cannot learn them I will provide user training at the end. Of course, that would be extra.”

The Kerent stroked his chin. He seemed ready to leave the hall, when Min tugged at his robe and nodded toward the older wiseman still sitting quietly on his stool.

“What of you, grandfather?” he huffed. “What do you think caused our problems and what should we do about them?”

The last . . .

“I do not know, sir. I have only just arrived in your clanhold. I have seen many problems in my years walking the clay, but I have learned that while there are some similarities between them, each problem is each unique. May I ask you a question?”

The Kerent nodded.

“How was the weather this year? Was it unusually hot or cold?” The Kerent shook his head thoughtfully.

“Have you changed anything in how you worked this year?

The Kerent nodded. “The shepherds moved their summer pasture up the river.”

“And we ran out of the clay by the village and started with a new patch up river,” blurted the potter.

 “Ah. How do people feel about these problems?”

“How do they feel?! How should I know?”

“We might ask some, but are there any indications?”

“Some people complain, some are leaving the clanhold. Questions, questions, questions!” said the Kerent. “When are you going to tell us what the problem is and what we have to do?”

“As I said, sir, I don’t know what the problem is nor what caused it. . . yet. If I were able to determine that so quickly you surely would already know the answer, for you and your people are smart and I am just an old man, but. . .”

“Yes?”

“If you will feed and house me for a year, pay two yellow coins per month to be placed in a jar. . and if you assign your children, the potter, a shepherd and a metalworker to work with me. . . I believe I can help to reverse this kingdom’s misfortune.”

“For just room and board and twenty-four yellow coins?” asked the Kerent.

“Well, no. The coins are your commitment to work with me. If at any time during the first nine months you decide you no longer require my services, I will take what is in the jar and depart. After nine months you must commit to let me complete our work together.

“At year’s end we will look at your clanhold’s fortunes compared to how we account for them when we begin. If your fortunes are up, you will pay me twenty percent of what they are up or the coins in the jar, whichever is greater. If they are the same or down, pay me the amount in the jar less what they are down.”

Micah snorted, “The old man just wants a place to live for a year.” People laughed.

“No one can solve this using the same old tools?” Tychin sneered. The crowd murmured

The Kerent drew himself up to his full height and said, “I have heard your proposals. I will consult with my advisors and let you know in the morning. Your lodging, food, and drink at the inn will be paid by the clanhold.”

Gita the storymother walked over to Micah. Gov the clanguard walked over to Tychin. The old wiseman seemed to wander aimlessly around the room talking to people at random. Min quietly slipped her hand into her father’s and kept pace with him as he strode from the hall.

 

From the storyfather. . .

I end this fable before the decision because, in the “real world,” there are clients who would hire the pedigreed strategy consultant, those who would hire the innovative technology consultant and those who would hire the process consultant. These are not mutually exclusive or collectively exhaustive categories, but they do suggest preferences for solving problems.

What do you think the Kerent will decide? Would you make the same decision?

 

Too Much Presenting

Too Much Presenting

-“The deck is the product.”

“No, No. the deck isn’t the product. The change, the result is the product. The deck is just a tool to help us get there.”

This was a real conversation that encapsulates the difference between content consultants, who proide answers, and process consultants, who ask questions to drive change.

Consultants and consulting firms, whether content or process spend far too much time focused  presenting. There are hours of angst about, “the deck,” “the slidepack” “the panelset.”

This has always been true, even before PowerPoint, the now ubiquitous Microsoft presentation software. In prehistoric times, when I started in consulting, slides or charts were made by hand using Letraset press-on letters on acetates or “flimsies.”

I know people who worked for firms like Alexander Proudfoot and its’s descendent United Research who hired calligraphers and artists to hand draw “panels, ” 30” x 40” hard white posterboards bound into a leather bound book that was flipped through with the client executive team.

The presentation delivery technology has changed. Now typos are easily correctable and changes can be made up until the very last minute, no, make that the very last second. Some consultants insert video or online connections or TikTok or. . . whatever, because, well. . . because “they can.”

But the process is the same  – a presentation must be :

Planned —- Validated — Practiced —— Presented

In my view too much of the focus is on the last step. Consultants want to sound smart and confident. They want to “Wow” the client. This is unfortunately true for both content and process consultants. Presentations are the “Big Reveal,” the surprise finish to the project.. Consultants dream of a “standing ovation.” In my experience vigorous applause is a rarity and worrying, because the focus may be on the consultant’s “big idea,” and not on achieving results for the client.

Storyboarding: Planning starting with the end.

In an early project as a young consultant, I had learned so much about the industry and the product we were studying I wanted to showcase that knowledge. My project lead, a man who had worked in advertising and entertainment stopped me cold.

“What do you recommend that the client do?”

“Well, because of. . .”

“No, one simple declarative sentence.”

“Well, the channel says that. . “

“What part of ‘simple declarative sentence,’ didn’t you understand?”

I’ll spare you the further repetition of this conversation untill I finally got it.

“Build one product; ignore the other.”

Then my project lead asked me, “Which one finding leads you to that conclusion?

Then, “What other supporting findings?”

He walked me backwards to the beginning, “What did the client ask us to do?”

Each time he asked he wrote the simple declarative sentence on the top of a blank page.

“That’s your story” he said. “Now fill in the data that fits that story, whether it is from interviews, analysis of market data, competitor information. If it doesn’t fit the story or has too much detail it goes in the Appendix.”

The story is what is important. I know some consultants want to tell a “three act story” or the “hero’s journey,” but I favor simplicity

  • You asked us to look at this
  • Here is what we found
  • Here are the implications
  • Recommendations and Next steps

Some consultants build highly complex slides that show the depth of their analysis. They feel this justifies their fees. If the client is confused they look smart. I put those slides in the appendix.

Pre-presents, validation and commitment building

As consultants, we look at data, that might or might not have been easily available to parts of the client system. We talk to customers and suppliers, and staff who might not have been talked to in a while. We might bring some industry  or management knowledge from other client projects.

All of these data may lead us to our conclusions. What we want is for the client to take action. If we are content consultants, we want clients to act on our recommendations. If we are process consultants, we may work alongside our clients, but we want them committed to action rather than just waiting for us to leave so they can go back to doing what they’ve always done.

The “Big Reveal” presentation, where we surprise the client and/or embarrass members of her leadership team  runs counter to that.

Never present data that haven’t been validated or at least shared with those in the organization accountable for acting upon it.

At Gemini Consulting, we used to call those “pre-presents,” which is a silly term that means you present before you present. Where I have worked with extensive client teams, I have built the final presentation with the key members who will act upon it. Sometimes they presented the data, not me.

Isn’t there a danger that members of the client system will rush off to fix problems you uncovered? Yes. If it is a simple fix, that isn’t a problem, just get agreement that you can document the change, giving credit to the one who makes it. If it part of a systemic change you must gain agreement to wait until all the parts of the system are visible. That may require a longer conversation, validating the finding, discussion implications and possible negative effects of acting prematurely.

Practice, Practice, Practice

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell highlighted and amplified he research of K. Anders Eriksson, that anyone who is world class, has logged at least 10,000 hours of practice. One might think that consultants who quote this research wouldn’t resist practice or say,

“Practice? Nah. I got this. I like to keep it fresh.”

As consultants we pride ourselves as being “good on our feet,” confident sounding presenters.  I have found that practice helps and the “freshness” of a first run-through is quickly derailed by an inconvenient client question.

The Big Day – Presenting with competence and confidence.

There are multiday courses on presentation skills. I have learned a great deal from them including where to stand, when to use a microphone, and what kind, how to dress, move, gesture, and use the full range of my voice. I’m not going to try to replicate those courses in a few paragraphs.

I will impart a few principles:

  • Know your audience. If you have done your work on the project and the appropriate validation steps you have a good start. I have seen partners who don’t have this advantage arrive just early enough to meet and greet a few of the executives. This also means watch your examples. I had a colleague who told me that some movies I referenced were made before she was born. We laughed when later she mentioned some musical artists that left clients my age scratching their heads.
  • Think Engagement – not data dump. Remember that your goal is action, not absorbing every miniscule esoteric piece of analysis you have done. This will lead you to dress and act like the client, maybe a little better. This will lead you to stop periodically and ask questions of the group. It will lead you to move to different positions to be closer to different people. It will encourage eye contact and not turning your back reading off the screen.
  • Capture reactions and questions. I am a fan of the parking lot, a flipchart or whiteboard on which I can capture questions or reactions in real time. That way I can keep the flow and come back to them later. On mult-consultant teams, whomever wasn’t speaking manned the parking lot.
  • Be cautious about technology. Both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had the same rule: “No Live Demos!” I’m a bit of a technophobe, so I assume Murphy’s Law will apply, (Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong). So I check batteries in laser pointers and slide changers, make sure I have an extra bulb for the projector and am exceedingly leery of on-screen Internet links and videos. There are effects I never used as a consultant and those I did I checked and rechecked.
  • Follow up The presentation is not the end; it’s the beginning. You want action, change, so even if you are a content consultant and everyone applauded your recommendations, things go awry. Get back with the client, answer questions, offer suggestions on roadblocks. I’ve also seen what was widely viewed as a disastrous presentation saved by follow-up.

 

Plan—- Validate — Practice —— Present —– Follow-up

Confidence born of competence. Content before style. Be authentic, helpful where you are asked to be, and focus on action and results.

And remember, present only as much as you need to. Nothing is happening when you are talking.