The Life Consultants Don't Speak Of

The life of a consultant is bitter sweet. Looking back, I loved it.

No regrets. I'm glad I experienced it while I was in my 20s ... no kids ... parents busy at work with no time for me anyway. I had the energy to run from one airport to the next, living out of a suitcase. I could choose between hopping on 10+ hour flights every month for a weekend home or staying behind for a weekend at neighbouring country. I could survive on snack-like meals, be grateful for having the same dinner at 11pm and still be well enough to show up looking bright and chirpy at the clients' office everyday.

The consultant's life looks glamourous. Consultants get to travel, implement new or emerging solutions, speak to senior business leaders. It opens doors.

And indeed it did.

This article is for aspiring consultants young and old. If you're serious about being a consultant, be prepared for how the career will change you forever.

A Fast And Furious Life

I started out as a techie - as a "Girl in Tech" before this term even existed.

By Year 2, I had migrated hospital systems nation-wide while sat in a container on an open field sat next to the morgue.

By Year 3, I was insane enough to join a company as 1 of its first 30 global employees and fly to Germany for my first day just 2 days after being engaged to another consultant en route to the US. May 6 2005 marked the start of my 'frequent flier' life. The plan was to set aside 3 years to experience what it meant to work abroad.

By Year 5, I had designed systems for global companies in Germany, Sweden, Australia all while managing a team based out of Singapore, Malaysia and China. That meant serving 2 time zones, sleeping at 3am and waking up by 7am, and living out of a suitcase. travelling to Switzerland and Vegas to dine with the C-suite while showing them what was possible with data services (all before SaaS, data governance became commonplace) ... what's there not to like? There would always be just enough time to check-in, freshen up, set up, get through the demos and roadshows, check-out and fly to the next client office.

While shuttling between continents, family members viewed apartments on my behalf. It was the biggest down payment I had to make but after 3 years of over 90% travel, I was happy for someone else to prioritise my options. Back when phones didn't come with cameras, I trusted them to know what their daughter would like in a place of her own. I ditched my suitcase, viewed shortlisted apartments and bought my first place a day after returning to Singapore.

Returning to Singapore did little to ease the pace of life. By Year 6 at the age of 29, I had managed the sale of a bank with all its branches and people in Singapore without any prior experience in banking.

By Year 7, I joined what was left of the bank I sold. I bid farewell to my consultant life. By that time, I had worked with people from Greece, Turkey, Romania, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Crotia, England, Venezuela, Pakistan, Australia, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and more.

Still keen to explore a career as a consultant? Read on, aspiring consultants.

Things Consultants Don't Speak About

#1 The Initial Sense of Shame

No one really talks about the shame. You feel "under-qualified" and quite like a fraud tagging along with your seniors as they present confidently to rooms full of specialists and C-executives.

I was told ...

"Consulting" stands for "Con" and "Insulting". First you con them then you insult them.

It's a joke of course (from the client) - the clients are conned into engaging consultants at a huge price tag, then insulted at the workshops with pretentiously perfect slides.

Beyond that joke, expect sarcasm, lots of it.

"Did you come straight out from school? What do you know about our business?"

"Why are we spending so much time talking to you? Consultants are paid to tell us the answers - No?"

"What do you mean you're not staying to execute that plan you drew so nicely on slides? Did you come just to fill up spreadsheets and create slides?"

"I envy you. Create nice spreadsheets and slides with what we tell you. That's all you do."

You start to wonder, "Where are all the people who decided it was worth the money to engage us?"

#2 The Real Reasons Consultants Are Engaged

The people who signed on the contract typically step away just as the real work starts. And in their place are their team members whom they will like you to speak to and work with for the next few months.

Some of them are a little weirder than others. They speak only to consultants and nobody else. They wouldn't speak in each others' presence. If they do, they are deliberately cryptic. The weirdest are peering at your screen, hoping to catch a glimpse of your personal password and meeting notes.

Once, I sent a signal to the most insecure of them all ...

My password was set to Bugger0ff! to let the spy know he had been caught in action.

He (an IT general manager) had failed to deliver on several projects which had cost the company millions. The company's systems would become unsupported within 6 months. Instead of ensuring his IT team lent support, he wanted to be sure this 26-year-old (me) would not succeed in completing the projects with his team and stakeholders.

The fuel for his insecurity? The decision makers were tolerating his existence while ignoring him at the same time. In an unorthodox move, I decided to mend his broken ego by making him a Steering Committee member whose sole responsibility was to ensure he helped the IT team succeed and speak constructively of their deliverables.

Never let the fool make a fool out of you.

Distracting and counterproductive. Funnily enough, such behaviours are more common than we will like to believe. Combining the above behaviours with the sarcastic remarks, I figured out the real reasons for engaging consultants.

The top reasons for engaging consultants:

• The fear of tension
• The fear of bad news
• The need to cut through complexity for simple answers
• The inability to get the C-suite's attention

So before you consider consulting as your dream job, consider if you will find joy in conquering the above.

"I could have told them that (points to what the consultants had painfully summarised on a slide). Why do we pay for consultants to tell us what we already know?"

It sounds like an unprofessional attack on any consultant's work, but having been on the receiving end of such comments, I will like to assure all new consultants this isn't reflective of your work but rather the lack of reflection and honest conversations on the client's part.

The questions they aren't asking are:

• "If I had the information and knew what could be done better, did I tell anyone?
• "If I did, did I get their attention?"
• "If I managed to get their attention, did I raise my hand to be part of the solution?"
• "If I had raised my hand, what were their reasons for not assigning this piece of work to me? Did they trust me?"

Had they tried asking themselves those questions, the answers to 1 or more of these alternate questions would have been "NO!"

It's easy to say, "This isn't working."

It's harder to say, "This used to work but isn't working because we or the environment we operate in is changing. We need to start doing this, get way better at doing this ... stop doing this... It will take $X over Y months to do this if I lead this effort. We had considered other options which include ... "

It's harder because it involves making clear what isn't performing well, who needs to stop doing a part of their jobs which keeps them busy and paid, and achieving consensus on next steps across multiple parties.

Never let the coward make you feel weak.

So take heart consultant-in-training,

• you are braver than your clients ...
• you are looking beyond the limits of their past industry experience ...
• you are giving them a plan with clear next steps to work towards ...
• you are making sure they have skin in the game by considering their options ...
• your solutions are sometimes simple because sometimes that is all it takes ...
• you have a perfectly formatted summary slide for the decision makers because that's all it takes if you've earned their trust ...

#3 The Little Things That Make A Difference To Survival

Junior consultants learn the hard way - at their first workshop, their first presentation to the C-suite, their first pitch. What they lacked in experience, they compensated with a can-do attitude.

I had a clamshell phone the size of a matchbox. The phone's wallpaper was a picture of me smiling with the word "SMILE :)" written in capital letters. I loved that phone. Each time it rang, I had a split second reminder to smile through my voice regardless of who was on the opposite end. I could secretly flip it open to remind myself to smile even as I visualised myself slapping someone with a big smelly frozen fish during dreadful meetings. The funny visual in my head kept me smiling on my darkest days.

It definitely took more than a phone to survive the consulting world. Simple choices and actions go a long way to delivering while selling and maintaining a decent level of sanity.

So new consultants won't have to learn everything the hard way, here are some simple survival tips.

Overall

• Smile often, even on a rough day.
• Treat everyone with respect.
• Listen more. Be curious. Talk less. Ask more.
• Learn faster than your clients.

Meetings

• Set watertight agendas.
• Control who attends by personally sending meeting invites.
• Use jargons only with specialists. Use simple words with executives.
• Be the bridge between business and technology.
• Always conclude meetings with next steps for others (not just yourself).

Approach

• Never let your sponsor off the hook.
• Let customers define the "Why". Help them shape the "What" and "How", and research the "Where". Let them decide the "Who and When".
• Spend more time identifying the problem, and less time on the solution.
• Never sell a complicated solution if there is simple solution.
• List options to give the idea of choice, but make it obvious which is the recommended option.
• Thoughtfully worded and formatted slides and templates keep everyone in a good mood, and focused on the content.

Sales

• Find out who makes the decisions, then find out who manages their diaries.
• Know when to walk away. Some clients are more pain than gain.
• Never underestimate small deals. They open doors and require fewer approvals.
• No freebies. A token fee gives all parties skin in the game.
• Use time and material contracts, rather than deliverable-based / milestone-based contracts for clients who struggle to make decisions or require multiple tiers of review.

Time is literally money in the consulting world. For selfish reasons, consultants are ultimately measured by their utilisation, margin earned on their projects, client perception of value, and ability to generate new deals.

So never waste time on overly sophisticated solutions and intricate reports which aren't required, paid for, or appreciated...especially if clients have paid for a blueprint and not implementation.

Without external help, clients who fail to discuss problems will fail to implement solutions.

Give them a chance to succeed independently with simple fit-for-purpose wins.

Once A Consultant Always A Consultant

Climbing up the consulting ladder meant bringing in more revenue and maximising utilisation. Consultants are expected to spend less time doing, more time closing deals. I left the consulting world for the first time when I had a 40% sales target and 60% delivery target. At 29, I preferred getting my hands dirty and yearned for a weekend (not annual) meal with my family.

Leaving the consulting world can feel like the worst culture shock. Unless you're joining a startup or a former client, there's a good chance you will feel like the odd one out.

You will be bored. It doesn't take you long to figure out the workplace and its characters.

You will be frustrated. Unlike your consulting gigs, you can't look forward to new co-workers every few months so all the weird behaviours you've observed are here to stay.

"Don't forget you are no longer working for consulting firm. We don't work this way." You will hear this from time to time - to signal when you have crossed the line. They know their version of the problem. They are prepared to solve it within their means and span of control. They prefer to keep their actions to themselves. They are not prepared to create ripples in a calm lake.

You are painfully aware you are no longer a consultant. No one feels a sense of urgency to solve problems. Your colleagues, manager included, will like you to pick your battles and mind your own business.

You're in a cruel game of "Corporate Limbo Rock". The bar is lowered until someone can no longer bend over backwards and falls to the ground.

Do you play along? Do you try to win by challenging others with a lower bar? Or do you have a laugh falling to reset the bar?

After years of making a living being different, you resist blending in for survival.

Once a consultant, always a consultant. You can't help yourself. Solving real problems is addictive. Talking about the same issues month after month is painful. You value the way you spend your precious time!

You've learned that it's possible to create impact with baby steps in the right direction ...

State the obvious.

Question the intent. Repeat it again with simpler words.

Build bridges when others build walls.

Speak up when others recede into silence.

The C-suite loves you for being direct, taking a stance, and keeping them focused on the actions and decisions required of them to change the game. They call upon you directly to facilitate discussions and make sense of mess beyond your direct scope of responsibilities.

You recognise the eyes of envy and the odd behaviours stemming from insecurity - not from your clients but from your manager and co-workers. Eventually, you figure you can only be your true self and focus wholeheartedly on solving problems and creating impact by reporting directly to the C-suite.

Just like that, you're back where you began but this time without a sales target to meet.

Final Words

A guest speaker from Accenture once said at campus recruitment, "The grass is greener on the other side because there is more S#$T under it."

The life of a consultant looks enticing on the outside because consultants make it look effortless. It must be easy if they are smiling. Check out the miles they've collected!

Don't be a consultant for bragging rights. Be a consultant if you want to challenge others to think boldly, to take pride in having the courage to ask questions and speak the truth even when it is hard, to uncover real problems and discuss 'unthinkable' solutions.