Stuck between mediocrity and excellence

Work would not be work unless you can b*tch about it. I like to b*tch about work. I like to b*tch about people. I'll even b*tch about myself. Nothing escapes my b*tchiness. As a consultant, I think we always run into a variety of perceptions based on who we work for and with. I wish there was a day set aside where we could evaluate our clients each and every hour just like they are evaluating us and passing judgment on them. If I could afford it, I would pay our clients a few hundred dollars for an hour and explain to them that I offer advice and do things in the best interest of an engagement and for them - not just because I want to get up at o' dark thirty in the morning, get on a plane, and live in a hotel every week. I know  that we are expensive. I know that that there are days where we will charge a client a pretty penny for a status report or to take notes. But here is what I think. The reason we are doing these things is because clients DON'T. What I've learne...

I'm always somebody's backup. In my world, it's pretty straightforward how we are measured- how much we sell, how much we work, and how much we manage. You hit all three, you are safe for another day. You miss one - hopefully you've made up for it in another bucket. You miss two - you already have one foot out the door. I find it a little disconcerting that this numbers mentality drives behavior down through the organization. For instance, because I get measured on how much I manage which depends on how much work you do, I'm going to keep you working at the client so that my numbers continue to go up. As a result of this behavior, I find myself as the last resort to 'fill in' or 'back up' someone that can't make a commitment because of "client commitments." The one thing that I've learned is that if there is one card that trumps anything you need to do, it's "client commitments." I understand that organizations are...

The other day I participated in a session that revolved around diversity in the workplace. As I looked around the room, I noticed consultants of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, and gender from different service areas within the firm. The main gist of the session was about understanding what diversity is and how perceptions are formed based on preconceived stereotypes or a lack of understanding that we may have of others.  Here is what is interesting to me. We make our money off of delivering value to big companies run by guys that look like they are in Congress. As a result, many of our partners are those mature males of light pigmentation that can relate / connect to those CEO's and CFO's that may have not voted for Obama. So even though the top of the consulting food chain looks like the Oreo stuffing in the middle, the up and comers (or future) of the business look more like the cookie's outside. So I wonder whether the leaders running big business are becoming mor...

When I was a Sr. Consultant / Manager, I used to wonder, "What does my Sr. Manager do?" In my mind, I was doing all of the work while the Sr. Manager would just drop in, be on phone calls, go to meetings, and dump things on me to do with little or no clarity of direction. Fast forward a few years and now I am one of THEM. The reality of the position that I am in came this past week when my team was planning a trip overseas to run a workshop. As a Manager or Sr. Consultant - or even an Analyst, it would have been a no brainer for me to go. But as a Sr. Manager with an expensive rate associated to my name and being in a position of always having to justify my value, the decision to go is a little less black and white. Actually, it's was a big fat red -- I did not get to go. In my mind, I'm like " wtf! ?" How can I intelligently talk about a client's operations having never seen it first hand and only through a bunch of flow charts on PowerPoint slides. ...

I have not posted to my blog in a while because I'm on an engagement where if I talk too much about it, I'll get fired. So that doesn't give me a lot of material to work with since it takes about 18 hours out of my day to work through meetings, emails, IM, WebEx's, and conference calls. That said, I'm going to divert attention from experiences that I am getting on my current engagement and talk about the six key values that I'm trying to align my career with. They are as follows: Relationships - Connection between people related to or having dealings with each other. Authenticity - Being authentic, trustworthy or genuine Impact - Making a strong, positive, and immediate impression on another or others Simplicity - Lack of complexities in life and in tasks Legacy - Accomplishing goals today with heritage in mind Education / Wisdom -  Gaining knowledge or understanding through experiential learning A year or two back, I went through an exercise sponsore...

In order to make the most out of my days, I reduced my caffeine intake and am now on this FRS kick. For those of you that don't know what FRS is, just go to a sportsite web page and look for Lance Armstrong on the right looking ripped as usual. It's supposed to be this all natural energy booster that will help you through work outs and playing sports. Since I play a lot of soccer on Sundays, I take it because I'm one of the oldest guys on the field and after one run, I get exhausted. I'm at the point where I would like to make two runs and still be standing. Just as athletes may have been on the HGH, I highly recommend that consultants try FRS. Right or wrong, I figure the firm would work me 24/7 if they could. So why not take some type of performance enhancing supplement? It makes me wonder what life would be like if all consultants went after every billable hour during weeks and weekends. I think it would be like having a bunch of Terminators running the world. I...

I think that in a down economy, the true culture of an organization reveals itself. I've come to the conclusion that an organization has two choices when the going gets rough. 1.) Everyone takes an every man for him/herself mentality and it becomes survival of the fittest (and luckiest); or 2.) The organization buckles down as one and prepares itself for the upswing. As a consultant, I could say that some organizations do a hybrid of both. But for the sake of discussion, let's deal in absolutes. A wise partner said to me - before the recession hit - that when the economy picks up, we're going to have a severe shortage of people and everyone will be working double and triple time. This turned out to be true. The same wise partner then told me that we are going to start ramping up quickly to meet anticipated demand, and because our "average" performers were let go and would not want to come back to us and our higher performers are disgruntled and will leave - we...