What are some ways to position yourself for a promotion in consulting?

There's a belief that in structured processes, personal achievements are key to success, potentially overshadowing the importance of networking. This perspective emphasizes skill and result-oriented approaches as primary career drivers. However, this view underestimates the consulting industry's reliance on collaboration and shared knowledge. Networking is indispensable, enriching your professional journey with diverse insights, mentorship, and broader opportunities. It's a synergy of individual skills with collective wisdom, crucial for both personal growth and career advancement. Effective networking can unlock doors and offer resources beyond the reach of solo expertise, making it an integral component of a successful consulting career.

Enfócate por construir relaciones sólidas y duraderas. Expande tu círculo de influencia, identifica actores claves de la industria o ecosistema, demuestra valor para los demás, valor verdadero.

Use Enterprise Social Networks like LinkedIn to strengthen your brand. Define your service offering and your domain as well your specialization. Add valuable partners. Define your eco system. Know your clients.

I might be stating the obvious here but to be promoted in any position, here's a few things you can do: 1. Give your absolute best (pretend that you own the company you work for and this will come naturally). 2. Do not expect to recognized. Expectations can be exhausting so the lesser your expectations, the more fulfilled you might likely be. When you endlessly repeat your good work, recognition cannot be elusive for too long, can it? 3. Make sure you learn something new every week (if not, every day). It's much easier to keep the current job than to get the next one. If you work hard enough to get the next cool job, you would've done more than enough to get promoted in the current one.

It's important to build up technical skills, so that you can be known for producing excellent work. Always say yes to opportunities, finding ways to expand your knowledge

Know what are future skills. Things no consultant is able to do today. Till now. And what is a consulting field in the future!

Consulting is a leveler. Your next client doesn't care about your College Education, GPA, or every rocket you've built up until that point. Trust me. They are only interested in seeing what you can do for them. In a lot of our consulting projects at Snowpal, we do not even have any titles. We do whatever it takes to get the job done and that's what the clients expect (and that's what we enjoy as well). You have to be a Full Stack, Polyglot developer in this day and age, and one doesn't have the luxury to work in a single language their entire career. If you are a Product Manager, learn a bit of development as well. If you are wondering why, ping me and I'll tell you why and how you can do it!

To position yourself for a consulting promotion, focus on managing your brand by showcasing expertise, building a strong reputation, establishing thought leadership, developing client relationships, seeking feedback and mentorship, embracing leadership opportunities, and effectively communicating your value to the firm. By consistently delivering high-quality work, cultivating a reputation for excellence, and actively engaging in thought leadership and client relationship-building, you can enhance your visibility and demonstrate your readiness for advancement within the consulting firm.

In consulting, your brand is naturally cultivated within the firm as you consistently deliver high-quality work and foster positive working relationships. As you excel in your projects and interactions, your reputation for competence and reliability grows. Colleagues and clients who enjoy working with you become advocates, organically spreading the word about your skills and achievements. This word-of-mouth recognition reinforces your professional image, aligning with your values and goals. Consequently, a strong, positive brand emerges, enhancing your visibility and positioning you as a go-to expert and leader in your field, as well as a fun person to work with.

Positioning is all about sacrifice. You have to decide what areas are your strengths and build value around it. Value is delivered through unique tools, processes, technology and techniques. These become great supports for your claims.

Right. Define your USP = unique selling point. That’s as important as it is for each product on the globe. You offer a service and a head. You are this head. Your CV. All your certificates. Journal articles. References. Follower count. And your face.

Reputation is key. It's very hard to gain but easy to lose. I did a podcast on this recently drawing an analogy between poker and software development, and how establishing and maintaining reputation is key to success (be it at the poker table or in your career as both an individual and as a company). Be eager to learn, and transfer that eagerness to productivity for your client. This will become a cycle where your eagerness continues to grow and so will your productivity.

In consulting, proactively seeking feedback is key, rather than waiting for formal review sessions. Don’t hesitate to ask for feedback informally from all levels - managers, peers, and subordinates. This ongoing process allows for immediate insights into your performance and areas for improvement. By regularly engaging in open dialogue, you can quickly adapt and refine your skills, leading to continuous personal and professional development. This approach not only accelerates your growth but also fosters a culture of open communication and mutual support within your team.

It’s true. Always ask for feedback. All your clients are giving feedback. Learn! A lot! And ask a lot of questions. Then they give you the most valuable thing a consultant could get. A validated problem. Then you can offer services to solve it!

PR reviews are a form of formal & constant feedback for developers. But if you are not a developer, you may need to find ways to receive periodic feedback that is not subjective. While all forms of feedback are generally welcome and useful, the more subjective they are, the harder it becomes to make sense of them, and convert them into actionable items. Take every piece of feedback you receive (be it from peers, managers or customers) as constructive even if it doesn't appear that way. That's one of the best ways for self improvement.

Always are an upfront runner of your field. Read all books and publications. Read newspapers. Define you best sources. Know your domain. Read all tech radars, BCG Matrix or Forrester research or MIT Sloan or Harvard review or else. Read the best from the bests in your field. And then write about it!

If you always waited till someone made suggestions, it simply means you are not taking the necessary initiatives. No one knows better than you what you are good at, what you need to improve upon, and what you are better off not doing at all. So, while it is important to have your ears and eyes open at all times to receive feedback from others and more importantly, act upon them, it is even more critical that you constantly take the initiatives yourselves, and consistently so, because the more the initiatives, the more there is room for feedback.

What helps a consultant most is the ability to find similarities between a new assignment and past cases. It cuts down the learning curve and provides direction for a quick solution. Which is why it is important to gain as wide an experience as possible. The more exposure you get will only improve the quality of your solution. Hence always seek opportunities by volunteering and taking initiative.

One of the smartest things you can do when it comes to positioning yourself for a promotion in any job is to create your own "Activity Log" or "Brag List." Each quarter, capture the following: Delivery and pursuit work - What did you deliver, what were the client outcomes, and what work did you help bring in and win for your firm? Internal projects - What did you work on that added value to your practice or consulting firm, even if it wasn't billable? Leadership opportunities - What did you do to embrace leadership even if you're aren't a titled leader? Growth opportunities - What did you do to further your education/experience? Client/co-worker feedback - What anecdotal evidence can you compile that helps paint the picture?

To position for a consulting promotion, excel in your role by delivering exceptional results, demonstrate leadership, take initiative, cultivate strong internal relationships through networking, develop specialized expertise, ensure visibility of your contributions, communicate your value proposition effectively, and actively seek feedback for continual improvement.

First, identify someone in your team that you can mentor for them to gain the skills and qualifications needed to take your role. That helps them improve their experience and helps you gain valuable mentoring experience. Next, start studying and volunteering to do the work of the position you’d like to be promoted to. When management is ready to promote someone, they know your position will be covered by the person you’ve mentored. And they will naturally look toward candidates they feel can do the job. Because you’ve been volunteering your time to do that work you’ll stand out as a candidate.