The Human is the Hardest Part to Consulting
You ever meet someone or know someone, and they just seem to be in a good mood and for no explainable reason - they are just happy to see you? Like, they don’t need anything from you, they aren’t trying to influence you, they aren’t trying to date or court you… they just seem to be happy to be around you.?Ever have one of those interactions… Ever catch yourself being someone that another person just is happy to see? I like the idea of being that person that someone is happy to see – for no reason.
That is why consulting is hard for me. Rarely, do we interact with others on our team, or with the client, where they are just happy to see you. Rarely do you get an interaction where niceness or happiness isn’t the veil to a need that is implied, requested or about to be revealed. When it’s not niceness for a reason, interactions with others are often pleasantries to soften the curt, terse, or influential tactics to help someone meet a need. In fact – I think the most surefire way to bring a positive experience to someone is to simply say “Oh, yeah I can knock that out for you” (and of course, actually do it).
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I mean – it is a part of the job. It’s just that we often take work and outcomes that can’t be met in a desired time, promise to do it in that same time, and then leave no time to have interactions that are supporting an outcome of some kind. As a consultant… this becomes the norm. It’s the 90% of our interactions we see… it becomes our baseline. It influences our norms, and how we act at home, outside of work and ultimately allows us to influence our environment.
At a certain point – what happened to being happy to see someone, just because they were there?
Strategist ?? Defense Advanced Manufacturing Talent & Innovation Leader ? Communications Professional ?? USMC Combat Veteran
3 年Had to come back to this. Couldn't agree with you more. Everything can be so transactional in consulting as with any professional service - and generally speaking, so can people in general. What I've found best, as cliche as it sounds, is to keep it service first and show up as my authentic self (admittedly a tall order to me at times) but being of service (regardless of whether the situation actually calls for it) helps me see things through a much more human lens and in turn allows for people to see/experience me through a human lens and we can have deeper interactions. Of course, some won't go as deep and that's okay.
Strategist ?? Defense Advanced Manufacturing Talent & Innovation Leader ? Communications Professional ?? USMC Combat Veteran
3 年Sure to be a good read. Thanks for sharing!
Logistics Manager @ ROM Technologies, Inc. MBA | CSCP
3 年Couldn’t agree more!