Stuck between mediocrity and excellence

When a company is growing exponentially, it appears that top line revenue growth rules all. The measure of success is how much the company grew in total sales over the year before and the year before that - and so on.  When I chose to get off the road and leave a well established firm, part of the allure of joining a company that was growing at a tremendous rate was to contribute to and be a part of that amazing growth.  Once you get behind the curtain though you begin to understand how that growth is being accomplished.  In a professional services business, growth is a pretty straightforward equation - to make more money, add and bill out more people. Sales people identify needs in the market. The company fulfills that demand with people that fit the need.  At the staff level, it makes sense. The consultant that you hire a year go - if staffed at 90% - more than makes up for the salary that you are paying him or her.  For leaders it's a different story...

I've been hearing this theme of taking the company "up and to the right." Figuratively, I get the intent -- until I start to think about it.  Management consultants think in frameworks. Therefore I wonder, "What framework is being applied in this case?" If I did word association (or in this case, phrase association), the BCG Growth Matrix comes to mind.  But that immediately makes no sense because you have to quickly turn those question marks into cash cows, stars, or dogs. Or it does make sense in the fact that you are creating offerings that you hope will move you to the left.  The other matrix to use, though not as popular, is a 2x2 developed by David H. Maister for his book, True Professionalism , that categorizes professional practices across two dimensions - degree of customization vs. degree of client contact.  Writing or developing code probably falls into the lower left. PMO work would fall into the upper left. The right side o...

It's funny.  A few months ago I remember sitting in a meeting arguing (definitely not having a healthy debate) on what staff augmentation is and what it isn't. I have a pretty clear definition of what it is. The people taking the other side of the argument seemed to be making it more complicated than it was.  Because I'm not one to think too deeply, I said, "You know staff augmentation when you are in it."  The word augment means : to make greater, more numerous, larger, or more intense.  Taking a theme from The Simpsons, " mono means one and rail means rail" , the word staff means "staff".  Therefore, for those of you that want clarity as to whether you are in a staff augmentation role, here's how you know: Do you continue to get extended to arbitrary end dates? Or has your end date passed, yet you continue to work at the client?  Has your email signature magically taken on the format of your client?  Were you assigned a client c...

There are moments where I either observe or experience what I call "flashes of brilliance." It's that moment where you feel like there is hope after all.  Today was an example of one of those days.  In a world of performance reviews there are 2 things that are certain: Everything is relative to the circumstances  Everything is subject to interpretation I am lucky (or unlucky) enough to have been through the ringer in a number of performance review sessions over the years. I've seen people crash and burn and I've seen a process run almost flawlessly.  Today was one of those days where I saw a process run efficiently and somewhat effectively. There may be hope after all.

I have a problem. (No comments from the peanut gallery) It's the time of year where I have to conduct due diligence for performance reviews. The problem that I have is that I am not quite sure what to do.  In the world that I came from there was a stringent process, clearly laid out criteria for ratings, well-communicated guidelines on how to conduct a good review, and consistent in -your-face communication on the process.  But as we've all established, I'm not in that world anymore. Ironically, one of my very first blog posts was about the performance review system of the firm that I came from. As my wife says, "when are you ever going to be happy?"   Other than my perception of the process, I have another problem. How do you rate consultants when people are doing a job and not necessarily planning a career? What do you do with the person that is technically competent and demonstrates that he/she can get things done? One view is that this is what should be ex...

My head still hurts from New Year's Eve. But I think it's more from an impending sinus infection than from what else you would probably think would cause it.  It's the first day of the new year and like everything that I do in my life, I'm trying to post something with only a few minutes of the first day of the new year remaining. For me, 2012 was about personal restructuring. As part of that effort, I read so many books and blog posts that I really wanted to just stop reading. However, because I swung the balance of my life so far to the left of complacency, I didn't want my intellect to deteriorate any further. Lucky for you, I'm only going to list my top 5.  Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It  - If there is one thing that this book taught me, it's that I have no idea what I'm doing with my life. StandOut: The Groundbreaking New Strengths Assessment from the Leader of the Strengths Revolution  - First of al...