What they don't teach you at Core Consulting School: “Gotta get [away from] closer to me” - understand yourself!

I joined Andersen Consulting on 1 September 2000, with an aspiration to be involved in Supply Chain optimisation consulting using data and insights.

Focusing on supply chain meant I was aligned to the Products business, which was small and therefore grouped together with Resources, a significant business and growing even larger.

Day 1 was a Friday, Casual Friday in fact (which explained the colourful shirt I remember James Arnott wearing as one of the leaders in Resources who went out of their way to welcome us - for younger readers it's worth noting that in the old days you had to make a donation to wear casual-ish clothes once a year). That was supposed to be part of a month-long programme including Core Analyst School in Chicago. However, at 3 PM Project Allocation called and I went upstairs at Harrowdene to meet the team I was joining as an ‘experienced’ data analyst.

So began 6 years and 5 months during which time that first orientation day was the only non-billable day I had (besides training and leave).

But right at the start there were a few things I noticed that made a significant impression on me.

CV-fluffers, lifers and buzzers

I worked out that there were broadly three kinds of people working in consulting around me back in 2000 / 2001:

1. CV-fluffers: The first group were there for a good time but not for a long time – their primary objective seemed to be to put Consulting, and specifically ACN, experience on their CVs. They were mostly smart people but only vaguely interested and never fully engaged in anything, other than when senior people happened to be around
2. Lifers: The second group were sort of "lifers" - it felt like they were invested in what was a bit of a pyramid scheme where you do whatever is asked of you to sell and deliver from when you start and as you move up, with no point in trying to influence that path by distractions like individual career growth aspirations, or personal priorities – it was just about fitting in and then one day, after giving your heart and soul, you'd be senior enough to benefit from others doing the same things you used to do
3. Buzzers: The third group stood out – they had a buzz and an energy with a healthy dose of positive optimism about them, looking to create value in the right things, while bringing a level of balance and levity - leveraging global capability to create relevant local solutions, engaging those around them, and intentionally creating growth, opportunity and learning for those around them

As a 23-year-old I looked around and realised that many of the second group of people could only be about 35 to 40 years old, yet they looked at least a decade older - that was a serious shock, and I resolved that I would never be one of them! I wasn't sure exactly how to do that, but I had an idea that maintaining balance, and remembering that life was not work should always guide my decisions.

Assuming everyone wants to feel good and energised about the work they do while taking care of other priorities, what then makes the difference between achieving that vs being stuck in a job, counting down your life? I’ve understood for myself that the answer is embedded in what we’ve all heard about: the growth mindset, but you won’t get that just by reading Caroline Dwek or following Satya Nadella – you need feedback!

The gift of feedback

Two weeks ago I watched The Offspring play an awesome set at Calabash 2025, FNB Stadium. One of the great songs they played was “Gotta get away”, a high energy guitar-driven monster of a song:

There's demons in my head

And it's more than I can take

I think I'm on a roll

But I think it's kinda weak

Saying all I know is

I gotta get away from me

Great song, terrible reality if that’s how you feel about yourself, because of course we take ourselves with us wherever we go (even if you’ve fluffed out your CV).

When I started working, I was a UCT transcript, a flimsy CV, and a lot of wide-eyed potential, ambition and optimism. Now I’m 47 years old but sometimes I feel like I can relate to our daughters as a teenager, because it was only about 15 years ago that I realised I had been alive for more than 30 years and learnt quite a bit about the world, about consulting, and even about other people, but I hadn’t ever had anyone else teach me something significant about myself! Since that realisation, that growth journey continues every single day.

The eyes wide open realisation was in 2010, a couple of years into BSG, when I had my first open, honest, “brave” feedback session - where someone else asked if they could talk to me about me, and to engage in a personal, honest yet kind discussion about preferences, styles, and life experiences – growths area related specifically to a giant blindspot I had about avoiding and accommodating conflict. Feedback is a gift, thank you Greg Reis.

Through that experience and subsequently through open, informed lenses, self-reflection and most importantly ongoing constructive feedback, I can tell you now that:?

• I am purposeful in wanting to create IMPACT (being guided in finding your purpose is another gift - thank you Dr Pepe Marais )
• I can also tell you that I am an Activist, Pragmatist in my learning styles
• That my conflict mode preferences are to be Collaborative and Competitive with improving but still high levels of Avoiding and almost zero preference for Compromise
• That my Gallup strengths are Activator, Self-assurance, Positivity, Woo and Futuristic
• That I love ideas and new actions more than following through on those and the structure of business operations
• That I always need to know the score and drive my teams mad by asking for it when I can’t see it
• That I get energy out of meeting people and less out of working out what to do next
• That at times I have been a poor decision-maker who needed to be far more intentional in slowing down and assessing the options fully and with a realistic and factual basis for working out what to do next, because my decisions have a deep and lasting impact for a number of people… and so much more.

The growth mindset is a great theory, but it only becomes a reality and embedded in everyday culture when it is lived by people who trust each other enough to be vulnerable to receive feedback, and who also care enough about each other to be invested in providing that open, caring feedback – people who are committed to learning and to teaching.

If not – you could keep hopping from one CV-filling job to another, or become a lifer just counting down the clock … find someone who will help you to get closer to you.

Tell you something just ain't right

My head is on loose but my shoes are tight

Avoiding my friends, they all bug

Life is like a riddle and I'm really stumped

If you reason, don't you know

Your own preoccupation is where you'll go

Being followed, look around

It's only my shadow creepin' on the ground