The Case for Being a Renaissance Consultant

What does an ecologist who studies lemurs, monkeys and apes and a chemical engineer have in common? Both of us are scientists who turned our scientific training into capacity building and supporting, in different ways, organizations and their teams. One of us (Sylvia Atsalis) focuses on enhancing professional competencies in early career mission-driven professionals (Professional Development for Good website). The other (Stacye Brim) helps nonprofit and corporate leaders nail their strategic and operational goals via strategy, project management and process improvement consulting (STB Consulting website).?When we discovered our shared connection through science, we knew we had to talk! Out of our conversations came the inspiration for this post that explores how drawing from different, seemingly disparate, disciplines can benefit the careers of young and experienced professionals alike.

SYLVIA: Stacye, you are an engineer by training; when consulting what best practices from that field do you call upon? How are your decisions or the course of action you propose affected by your science-based experience??

Stacye: Though there isn’t a direct correlation between chemical engineering and management consulting there are certainly some best practices from engineering that I bring to my consulting work. First, something I’ve said for years is that an engineering degree teaches you how to think and to problem solve.?If there is something you don’t know the answer to, you learn how to research the issue or topic until you get to the answer you need. This is a useful skill when your clients come from multiple and diverse industries and sectors (i.e.- IT, education, hospitality, public health, tech policy, workforce development, etc.).?Second, the approach to my work during my engineering days was methodical and systematic. Both characteristics are brought to my consulting approach when I partner with clients to enhance their strategy, project management practices, and operational processes-all very detail oriented!

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STACYE: Sylvia you’re a scientist with a PhD in Anthropology, who studies lemurs, apes, and monkeys. Why consulting? ?

?Sylvia: Stacye, I’m still involved in research and teaching, focusing on wildlife conservation, but I incorporated independent consulting into my career portfolio with enthusiasm! I realized that young professionals were constantly reinventing the wheel when it came to many career related competencies. I felt a responsibility to support their growth by sharing my own hard-earned knowledge and experience related to professional life. For me, independent consulting is the perfect way to fulfill an internal drive to advise, mentor and coach. An added advantage is that as a solopreneur, I can be innovative and creative, another internal drive! I can integrate into my practice, interdisciplinary thinking as well as my training in mindfulness and coaching techniques based on neuroscience. I can sidestep barriers and restrictions characteristic of more conventional work settings. I’m my own change agent! The way I see it, I’m having double impact: science impact and social impact, and I find it incredibly rewarding.

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SYLVIA: Stacye what do you like best about consulting? Are there other interests or disciplines that impact your approach to your consulting?

Stacye: There are many things I enjoy about consulting, but I’ll try to keep my list short. One thing I enjoy is that consulting gives me the opportunity to work with and make a difference for a wide variety of organizations. Whether I’m coaching an IT project manager and helping get her project shifted from “troubled” to being “expertly managed” …or helping a nonprofit CEO and board develop their first strategic plan….or establishing a Project Management Office (PMO) for a major public health organization….I enjoy using my skills to help organizations maximize their impact.?I have earned several certifications (in project management, strategy, process improvement, and change management) and not for the sake of having extra letters after my name.?I feel like each are tools in my toolbox that I can use as needed to help my clients.

?A second thing I enjoy is the coaching and advisory portion of my business. In addition to the hands-on consulting work, I also offer Project Leadership Coaching to project managers. This work is WIN-WIN-WIN because I get to help the manager grow in their professional development, improve an organization’s internal project management capacity, and either get a key initiative started strong or a flailing project back on track.

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STACYE: Sylvia you must have had some interesting aha! moments when you consciously or unconsciously called forth abilities that you developed in your research career???

Sylvia: So true, though I wasn’t initially aware of it. But at one point I started seeing a pattern; clients would say that I saw things in them that no one had noticed before. My aha moment was in understanding that I was applying the same powerful observational techniques when advising others as when I was doing research. For example, when I was in the rainforest in Madagascar at night looking for tiny lemurs—remember Mort from the movie Madagascar?—l was looking for novelty, trying to discover the new and different. I realized that is exactly what I’m doing when I consult with individual clients and with teams. I draw out the combination of traits, behaviors and skills that make them uniquely qualified and that they can apply on the job to be more confident and successful! I’m always saying: my special gift is in helping YOU find yours. Now I know why, and done intentionally, it’s such an effective way to apply an interdisciplinary renaissance approach.

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STACYE: Sylvia, given our conversation about being interdisciplinary, what would you say to a young professional who is struggling to find focus in choosing jobs and following a defined career path?

Sylvia: The good news is that in today’s climate, a career portfolio rather than a career path is the trend. In other words, it is acceptable to have different kinds of jobs and multiple careers over a lifetime. You and I are examples of that. There’s so much to experience, and for those lucky enough to have flexibility and mobility, a career portfolio offers a rich way to earn a living and fulfill multiple ambitions. But to maintain credibility, it’s important to identify a bigger purpose or idea that threads through the portfolio. It’s about finding something bigger that matters to you, be it community health, climate change, wildlife, immigration, the arts, etc., and then finding the positions that fulfill that purpose even if they do so in very different ways. My personal purpose may be to make the earth a better place for people and wildlife, but I achieve that through multiple missions. In the past it was predominantly through research, now it’s more through conservation and capacity building-teaching and promoting professional development skills in others. Bottom line, it’s not about jumping from job to job—at least not for the long-term—but rather about evolving, and over time fulfilling a bigger purpose or idea in multiple ways.

SYLVIA: Now that we’ve discussed the positives of being a “renaissance” consultant with varied experiences, can you think when having this approach has a negative effect??

Stacye: I love that you’ve introduced me to the term “renaissance” consultant! The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a “Renaissance woman” as “a woman who is interested in and knows a lot about many things”. (And likewise, a “renaissance man” is defined as “a person who has wide interests and is expert in several areas”.)?I think it’s safe to say that a renaissance consultant has wide interests and knows a lot about many things.?There are pros and cons to being a renaissance consultant.?A pro is that you’re able to mix and match best practices and approaches from one area (sector/industry) to another.?A con is that it is more challenging to get in front of potential clients when you’re serving such a broad spectrum of organizations. In addition, some clients find more credibility in industry specialists, though in the world of strategy and project management industry specialization is not required when you’re working with a strong, experienced consultant.

Following our conversation, we had a collective aha moment! As scientists turned consultants, we may be bucking some old views about careers and career paths. But, in fact, we can all be renaissance consulting professionals if we make it a point to call upon our wealth of past knowledge and experiences with conscious purpose. Everything we have learned and internalized enriches our consulting practice even without an apparent and direct connection. The key is to be intentional. We also came to understand the importance of advising and mentoring for both of us. Combining the analytical thinking that is rooted in our science training with our relational skills sharpens our ability to generate practical and creative solutions for our clients. Therefore, in making our case for being a “renaissance consultant” we encourage young and experienced professionals considering a consulting career not to hesitate to cross boundaries between different disciplines. Indeed, we believe that doing your best work means intentionally integrating multiple life and career experiences allowing you to achieve personal goals and mission, but also to have the most positive impact on the world.

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?Authors’ Note:

Sylvia Atsalis, PhD is the founder of Professional Development for Good, which offers capacity building professional development training workshops for young professionals with mission-driven career aspirations. She works with nonprofits nationally and internationally. When she is not training teams, Sylvia engages in wildlife conservation, but also loves a good spin class, reads the classics, meditates through doodling, and tries not to overwater her succulents.

Stacye Brim, PMP, LSSGB is the owner and principal consultant of STB Consulting. STB Consulting partners with nonprofit and corporate leaders to develop and execute clear strategic direction via strategy, project management, and process improvement consulting. When she’s not working with clients, Stacye is practicing yoga, reading, or researching and trying new plant-based recipe ideas.