Stuck between mediocrity and excellence

You know that consulting services have become more of a commodity when every local, boutique, and big professional services firm has a template for everything .  Software selection? Have template.  Requirements gathering? Have template.  Merger and acquisition due diligence? Have templates.  Strategic growth initiative? Repurposed a couple of templates.  For once, let's not try to fit a business problem into a predetermined template.  Try some original thinking. Try to diagnose the problem. Try to simplify how you get to something valuable without driving yourself through a bunch of non-value added steps just because you have to fill the template out. It will be cathartic. Trust me.

As you start to traverse the corporate ladder, you begin to understand the type of personality that runs the organization or company.  At some point, you have to decide if that's either the type of personality you want to have or if that's the type of personality you expect your direct reports to deal with.  Everyone has good intentions of changing things "once I get to the top."  But as the saying goes, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."  Before you decide whether being the top dog is what you are going to be, take a good look around and determine if the ones at the top are what you aspire to be.  If not, it might be time for a change.

Information is everywhere these days.  As I've progressed from reading books to listening to books and on to online courses, I've found another great source of educational material.  It's The Great Courses .  They have courses ranging from Big Data to History of the Ancient World.  If there's one thing that my parents taught me, it was to be as well-rounded as possible.  With The Great Courses, I think I've hit the jackpot.  Check it out. Find a course you are interested in and give it a try.  30 minute lectures are a car ride in or half of your lunch break.  One can never learn too much. 

Book clubs get a bad rap.  They are associated with a group, typically of the female persuasion, sitting in living room and drinking wine talking about a book like 50 Shades of Grey.  But if you think about it, you are gathering like minded individuals together to discuss interpretations and opinions of the same book.  A group is generally smarter than an individual (provided you actually are in a group of people with similar intellect). Book clubs can reinforce ideas and themes.  Additionally, leaders are continuous learners.  It's when the learning stops that a fixed mindset settles in. Fixed mindset = stuck = no man's land. There are lists upon lists of books to read for entrepreneurs , leaders , business owners , managers , etc...  Take a list, pick a book, and call some friends.  I guarantee that you'll get more out of it than you think. 

Over the past few years, I've read a lot of business books.  And I mean A LOT.   I'll read two books in parallel on my iPad (Kindle and iBooks).  I'll listen to another one on my phone through audible.com.  Some days I may even go retro and pop a CD into my car and listen to that. It's probably safe to say that if there is a top " whatever"  list of business books that an entrepreneur, business leader, or manager should read -- I've definitely read at least two that are on the list.  Unfortunately for me, my reading comprehension skills have been terrible since the Pre-SAT which means that I'm probably missing out on many key messages or themes that these books are communicating.  However, out of everything that I'm reading, here's what I've remembered: Values matter - Not just values, core values. Individuals need to define their core values as leaders. Companies need to identify their values as an organization. It's t...

If you are interested in the consulting profession, there is one author that you need to get to know.  You know how there is someone that can articulate what you are feeling or observing in  ways that just makes sense?  David Maister is that guy for management consulting.  Ironically, I was turned on to his book, True Professionalism , by a friend that worked at a competing professional services company.  It's that book that introduced me to the donkey strategy.  To say you made more money by working more is not evidence of immense intellectual creativity. In fact, I call it the donkey strategy. There are many professional services firm today built on motivating their employees on working more overtime (i.e., charging more hours).  If you've been in the business for a few years and want to build, succeed in, operate, or lead a professional services organization, I would create a David Maister library and make these books front and ce...

When you peddle consulting services like they are items on a dim sum cart , what are you really selling?  Like a lot of those dim sum items, are you selling something that sounds good initially, but over time it  tears your organization up?  Or are you selling something that just doesn't look good at all, but you know that someone / somewhere wants it -- otherwise it wouldn't be on the cart?  If you are doing true advisory work, your services are tailored to the client's problem -- provided that you are able to frame the problem to begin with. There are too many "consulting" companies that provide just the right menu items to clients that have already decided that they wanted dim sum for lunch anyway.  For a minute, just back up, look at what you are doing, and say to yourself, "Maybe, just maybe, this client doesn't need to feel bloated and dehydrated for the rest of the day." As great as the dim sum model is as a business model, it fa...