Stuck between mediocrity and excellence

For those of you that meet me, what you see is what you get. I'm about as transparent as they come. I would probably lose a lot of money at poker. I talk to my cat the same way that I would talk to another person - within reason of course. Sometimes the cat requires me to repeat things. This is both a positive attribute and a curse. I believe that it's viewed from above as, "You're not drawing the line between levels of our hierarchy." I think it's viewed from my peers and those that don't have as much experience as, "Wow, he's someone that I can talk to openly. That's pretty cool."  From my perspective, as a Generation X'er, I can understand both sides of the equation. I understand what it means to have pounded in your head that you need to work hard and perform and you will succeed. I understand what it also means to grow up in this age of multiple networking avenues and the influence technology has had on relationships. I also un...

I have dreams occasionally of being in a place for a day or two that represents the antithesis of everything that I write or talk about in my blog or that's on my mind. Unlike Jerry Maguire, I'm hoping that a conversation with my mentor in a crowded place about my future doesn't trigger an event like that. Continuing my thought, I think that if I actually did something similar to what Jerry Maguire did - write a mission statement, mass produce it and distribute it to the firm, and then go into the office on a Friday to accept the reaction - my gut feel is that this would not be a good idea. For the same reasons that it may be what people are thinking, but it's not something anyone wants to make publicly known. This is one of the reasons that I blog, but you still have to watch your back when you blog. It's easier to phase out a person that is a thorn or irritation than it is to get a massive organization to change (In my opinion). That said, I think ...

In my profession, we have labels. Almost every internal meeting starts with some form of name, rank, and serial number. Except in our case, it's name, level, service area, current project. Within each of these labels are sub-labels. To oversimplify a heavily matrixed structure - how you are labeled plays a large part in how you are evaluated. I learned a long time ago, that I didn't necessarily have to align myself within a bucket that I was known for (e.g., supply chain), I had to align myself within a group where people knew me (e.g., industry). This helped me get through the review process without much pain. Fast forward a year later where everything has changed. Leadership has changed. Our labels have changed. Our matrix is still a very complicated matrix with leaders having different levels of power depending on the situation.. I now find myself aligned to a bucket where I do very little work and where those leaders wouldn't know me from that next Thai / American g...

As I look across the landscape of leaders that I work with, I continue to search for a role model. I sometimes think that there are a lot of folks with Charles Barkley syndrome - "I am not a role model." I remember during one performance review period I received the feedback that since I am a sr. manager, I need to act like a firm leader. I have an easy going get along with everyone type of personality, so I took this to mean that I should not fraternize with the staff. Keep in mind that I am the guy that when hired in as a Manager spent his first weekend going to a club with the Business Analyst class. (Now those Analysts are either back with the firm as Sr. Consultants or have moved into industry in fast track positions). An effective leader in today's day and age breaks down the imaginary line of hierarchy that exists between the levels. I've worked with leaders that want to establish, "I'm the king, you're not. Now that we have the lines of authorit...

For those of you that read my blog, I have a quote that I keep top of mind. It's, "Performance is always the point." For those of you that work with me, you know that I'm not going to sweep our mid-year process under the rug without expressing some type of opinion around the process. We advise our clients to simplify their processes and drive designs from the voice of the customer. As a customer of our new midyear forms and process, I must have given feedback like this: Please change the framework and provide me with multiple options and ratings to choose from so that I can spend more time picking and choosing my self-worth. Instead of being able to attach files in a matter of seconds, please let the system take 30 seconds to upload a file or delete a file, ask me if I'm sure that I want to upload or delete it, and then let me wait another 30 seconds to continue the action. When I ask about the change, give me an answer like, "In the end you guys are ju...

Sad to say, one of the most exciting times in my career was when my computer's lease ended. This meant that I would get a new super duper computer. More importantly, I would be able to get one of the smaller computers that I saw so many Sr. Managers and Partners carry. Wouldn't you know that as soon as I got that computer, I ended up with no projects and started the run of practice development projects that would rival Babe Ruth's home run streak. It's now November and I am finally getting traction at a client. I am in no way close to my utilization or revenue managed number, but you have to start somewhere. It's now my job to grow the relationships at the client and continue to add value / sell work so that I can eat (and now my family) can also eat. Here's my thought for the day. With small computer, comes great responsibility and expectations becoming that small computer. Just as easy as I was given the small computer, I honestly believe that it can be tak...

When I first started in management consulting, my friends would ask me, "What is it that you consult?" The assumption being that in order to provide someone with advice, you would expect to have some foundation or experience to draw upon in order to provide that advice. One of the first challenges new hires (with a conscience) coming into the firm think about is selling themselves so that it justifies what a client is paying us per hour. Some have the perception there is no way they can be worth that much, so they bust their ass proving that they are worth that per hour charge. THEN there are those that expect to be billing that much per hour and already think they are partners. I don't want to call it a sense of entitlement, but maybe that's what it is. Clients pay consultants for a variety of things-- but I think there are three key ones. We actually have expertise in an area where they need advice They lack resources with the skillset to get a job done To dri...