Stuck between mediocrity and excellence

I was sitting in the office one day listening to a panel of partners talk about what it takes to succeed. When asked about why there is not much of a presence for us in the small to mid-market space, there were a variety of answers - all very straightforward. The one that got my attention (and this is how I interpreted it) was, "... this is now how we make our money.. we make our money by finding a big client and selling add-on services..." So that means that all I have to do is find a CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation, become his trusted advisor, and tada! - I'm now a Partner. [See Captain Ahab going after Moby Dick] I wish it were that easy. And quite frankly, the reason that I got into consulting was so that I did not have to work for a long time within a gigantic organization where I would get lost in the politics and bureaucracy. So here is the paradox. To make it the top of pile, it's strongly encouraged that I have a couple of multi-billion dollar...

I love to read business books. I read books on management, leadership, supply chains, personal growth, and even textbooks when I run into specific business problems at a client. It's gotten so bad, that I downloaded the 100 Best Business Book summary on my Kindle just to get some idea of what I could read next. So what have these books taught me? To be truthful, I'm not entirely too sure. It's not like I'm in line to be the next CEO anywhere. It's not like it's put me at the top of my peer group in my class of managers. All it's really done is help me with my EQ, management style, and consulting style. All good things I think - but not anything that appears to stand out from anyone else. What I've come to realize is that even with my subscriptions to McKinsey Quarterly and Success Magazine - and even though I read as much as possible about Strengths Based Leadership or Personal Branding, it means absolutely nothing unless you share or teach someone e...

There comes a point in every management consultant's career where they have to go through the emotional anxiety moving to the next level. I am at that point. The unfortunate thing is that because I've been in this business so long, I look for ways to poke holes into my own story. For all the good work that I do, I only seem to remember what went wrong because our firm likes to pick the proverbial scab called "developmental opportunities," and not really help you further develop your strengths. So as I continue to build my story, brand, business case, etc., I have to reflect on my last 10 years in consulting and figure out what my life has been all about. Then I get to justify it in front of a panel of judges (like American Idol on steroids except that EVERYONE is Simon Cowell). As I go on this journey, I'll write about it in the hopes that people learn from my mistakes. I sure as hell am not learning from people ahead of me. It's like they go into a dark r...

Lately I have been having episodes where I wonder why I even bother going to the airport. Today, Delta was kind enough to turn a maintentance service that should have taken 5 minutes into 1 hour and 1/2. The flight left when my flight was supposed to land in the destination city. I made it to the hotel just in time to catch the last 49 seconds of the NCAA basketball championship. Good thing it was an extremely close and exciting game. Ironically, I saw a former BA who used to work with me in the crowd in Duke blue. He was live and in HD. That was actually kind of exciting. For those of you that travel a lot and rent cars, some airports have rental car facilities between 8-13 minutes away, while some have them on site. In most of the cities I travel to, I usually have to catch a rental car shuttle bus to the central rental car facility. Tonight was actually interesting because I was on the Avis rental bus today and heard two business travelers talking. One was a systems engineer. The...

The reason to get into the management consulting business is that change is always constant. Most of us have projects with a discrete beginning and end. We get to work in a variety of industries. We get to be on teams with a diverse group of people. We never have the same boss twice -- that is unless you find someone that has latched on to you and you now you are a part of that particular sleeper cell. All of these things are the reason that I got into management consulting. The biggest asset that management consulting firms have is the people and intellectual capital. So it's in a firm's best interest to retain as many people as possible and professionally grow those people into future leaders. Turnover is inevitable - but at the end of the day, you have a consistency in the culture that becomes pretty apparent over time. The culture is what clients, customers, and competitors recognize. Now what happens when an event such as an acquisition of another consultancy occurs and...

"To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven." - Ralph Waldo Emerson As I look back on my posts, I realize that if anyone actually reads them, it probably appears that I am about as indecisive and whiny as the people that I hate to be around. I can see people thinking that the reason that I haven't made it anywhere is because I am hating (for lack of a better word) on the people that have actually made it or are making it successfully in this business. I am not sure if that is necessarily true though. I associate the word "hate" in the slang sense as being jealous of a person because of what they have or what they do and then proceeding to talk disparagingly of that person in order to feel better about myself. In my head, I honestly believe that I'm making candid observations. But maybe - subconciously - I really am hating. As a result, I need a serious attitude adjustment. After all, you should never bite the hand that feeds you. I'...

“ The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not  arrogant ; have humor, but without folly. ” - Jim Rohn, Leadership Guru I am not the smartest guy in the room. I don't claim to be. That sometimes hurts me when it comes to perception and overall value to a conversation in a meeting of 20 or more people. I find that in big meetings like that, people jockey for position by being the most outspoken whether they are saying something meaningful or not. For those of you that know me, you know that I read a lot of business management books. My wife actually rolls her eyes when a box from Amazon comes in or I make a run to Borders and buy $100 worth of books. She even bought me a Kindle, so now I have another avenue to get business management content. Every leadership or business management book that I reads says that a great leader is authentic. In my ...