It’s great that you’re thinking about a profession in depth before jumping into it. Every profession demands a certain set of skills more than others. But that shouldn’t hold you back from considering it and excelling at it.
I remember calling my boyfriend on the first day that I started my Consulting career. I had just completed my MBA and joined a Big-4 Consulting firm. I was at the welcome party for new consultants – standing in a corner – in tears…. ”I can’t do this”…. ”it’s too much being OUT there”…. ”these guys are such fake extroverts (ugh!)”… I said between sobs.
I should have been elated but I was SCARED. Scared of failing at this high-profile jet-setting career that I had always wanted and now had. Any guesses for my Myers Briggs personality type? INFJ – Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, and Judging. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say, this combination is RARE in Management Consulting.
I was 100 percent going to quit in a few days because I felt that I just didn’t have the “consultingy” personality. Well - I ended up staying 10 years. So I wouldn’t say there’s a personality type for Consulting. There are a certain set of skills/abilities that can accelerate your career though. And while there’s no manual for Consulting, these skills/abilities can be learned. Here’s a quick list:
Problem solving and creative thinking abilities
Relationship building / networking
Desire to learn
Comfortable with ambiguity and change
Client management
Project management
Storyboarding
Executive communication & presentation skills
Running client meetings
Leading workshops / client labs
Comfortable with tools and technology ( Tableau, MS suite etc.)
Now it goes without saying, that you will learn and hone these skills when you work in management consulting.
10 years ago, excelling in Consulting meant either reading a ton of books with theoretical advice (not the most useful with demanding client projects) or making your own mistakes.
Some new consultants were lucky to find mentors within the firm that gave guidance but in most cases a lot of super talented professionals were working heads down praying they were making the right moves in their client projects and hoping their performance would get noticed
Unfortunately, on-the-job training is a thing of the past. Firms expect even new Analysts to come in with a certain skill set that can help them be an asset to the project starting day 1.
The one thing I wish I had done was to learn the basics of storyboarding, client, and project management before I started my Consulting career.
That would have given me the confidence to focus on creative solutions and strategy for my clients’ challenges. And confidence in Consulting … is everything.
For more tips on management consulting, keep reading the blog.
P.S: Enjoyed this? Here are a few ways you can get more:
Navigate your first year in Management Consulting like a pro!
Learn the most practical, actionable skills you will need to succeed as a new Management Consultant in just 7 days with CONSULTING KICKSTART™️ . Learn more at www.byondgood.com
Got more questions on Consulting? Comment below or email me at punya@byondgood.com. Punya is a former management consultant with 15 years of experience at 2 Big4 firms, serving top Fortune500 clients. She has lived and worked in 6 countries and changed 3 careers working across several industries. Punya is passionate about coaching new and aspiring Consultants to succeed in Management Consulting.
When I had just joined Consulting, I failed to understand why people would pay thousands and millions of $$ to get hold of the leading Consulting firms to do their projects. Seemed like they should be smart enough to figure all this out, and yet, we kept getting more business in similar types of projects.
As I grew within the firm, I got exposed to the reasons why most client executives bring in Consultants:
This one is controversial and you may disagree, but many times (not ALL), the main outcome the client or project sponsor is looking for, is not a deck, but a validation of their own agenda.
Here's a client executive, who is aware of the trends in the industry and wants a particular solution for the organization. Buuuuut.....he/she has a tough time convincing peers and doesn't want it to seem like it was ONLY his/her idea.
Also, there's a big risk that the idea may not fly and be a flop.
Enter....top Consulting firms who provide the detailed research to back the business case that provides this executive the ammunition to convince peers, seniors, the Board, etc. etc.
Ability to connect the dots across the organization and see the bigger picture.
Most Consultants work with a hypothesis-based approach, wherein they assume a set of reasons are responsible for the key challenge that the Company/ organization is facing. Then they go about eliminating each of those challenges one by one, via interviews or analyses. Consultants also have access to mid/senior-level executives across the organization, which helps them put the pieces of the puzzle together faster, vs. people who have been working in siloed teams.
Since consultants are also neutral third parties (in most cases), these executives somehow open up more to describing the challenges and risks their teams face, more than they would internally.
Consultants come in with a knowledge of Industry best practices.
Management Consulting firms are in the business of making the latest and the best in the industry trends available to their clients and helping them figure out how to execute the strategy or implement that cutting edge software.
Consulting firms spend thousands and millions of dollars in developing research and training their people to get up to speed with these latest trends.
When I worked in a leading Big 4 firm, they had a goal of training their 40,000 people workforce in digital tools within a year! Just goes to show the importance attached to learning and reinventing yourself in Consulting as a profession.
Leading Consulting firms also maintain a benchmarks database
This is a database of key ratios/ metrics/ performance indicators across multiple industries (Banking, Insurance, Telecom, Healthcare etc.) and functions (such as Finance, IT, Risk, Sales, to name a few).
They keep adding to this with every project and also invest in creating annual or quarterly surveys, which are sent to leading executives (CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CROs, CDOs, etc.) to get their insights into what their organizations are seeing in their numbers, key challenges faced, risks and priorities.
These databases are the goldmine that most clients want, to compare their organizations against, to get insights into their performance and areas of improvement.
It also helps that Consultants are great at dealing with change and ambiguity, are super organized, work on deadlines and create superior quality deliverables. And when things don't work out, it's easy to pass the blame on them too!
P.S: Enjoyed this? Here are a few ways you can get more:
Navigate your first year in Management Consulting like a pro!
Learn the most practical, actionable skills you will need to succeed as a new Management Consultant in just 7 days with CONSULTING KICKSTART™️ . Learn more at www.byondgood.com
Got more questions on Consulting? Comment below or email me at punya@byondgood.com. Punya is a former management consultant with 15 years of experience at 2 Big4 firms, serving top Fortune500 clients. She has lived and worked in 6 countries and changed 3 careers working across several industries. Punya is passionate about coaching new and aspiring Consultants to succeed in Management Consulting.
(1)Let’s see how the interviews at top consulting firms work and then work backward to see what skills are needed to ace them. (2)Once we’ve identified your strengths and mapped them to this list, we can come up with the skills/behaviors you need to develop to get into these top Consulting firms. (3)Then, based on how your peers are learning these skills, we can outline an approach for you to do this as well.
See what I did there?
#1 above identifies the target state
#2 talks about performing a gap analysis
#3 outlines a roadmap and plan to get to the target state
Welcome to thinking like a Consultant.
If you can showcase a Consulting mindset in any interview, you’re golden.
TARGET STATE
Now let’s really see the types of interviews that Consulting firms have and what exactly you need to ace them:
1. Behavioral interviews:
These may seem the easiest but actually are the most tricky to ace. There are many factors that top Consulting firms consider when evaluating whether the candidate will be a good fit:
· Communication skills
· Executive Presence
· Self-confidence
· Willing to constantly learn and evolve
· Listening skills
· Team worker
· Maturity
· Interpersonal skills
· Culture fit
· Leadership skills
At the end of the day though, the interviewer will ask him/herself the question: “Would I want to work with / for this person?”
Consulting is a profession that is built on relationships, and if you can showcase (via your answers / anecdotes) that you have the right attitude and EQ to be an asset to your team and seniors, and build trust in client relationships, it will take you to the Finish line.
2. Business Case interviews
So many candidates get tripped up here because they think they have to arrive at the exact answer to the case. The key thing to remember about case interviews is that you are being evaluated on your thought process and the ability to communicate that thought process in a clear and simple manner.
Here’s a list of the key skills you will be evaluated on in the business case interviews:
· Presentation skills
· Attention to detail
· Big Picture thinking
· Problem solver
· Managing ambiguity
· Ramp up quickly
· Simplify
Keep in mind that the skills I mentioned for each interview type will overlap. For instance, you may be asked to present a case with other candidates as a team. In this case, not only do you have to show executive presence and good communication skills, you also need to display team work and leadership skills.
3. Industry knowledge:
This interview is exactly what it sounds like – to evaluate your knowledge of the key industry trends and awareness. Questions will usually focus on:
· The top 3 industry trends that impact xyz industry (your specialization or degree major)
· How these trends may impact our clients (think Fortune 50 CEOs, CFOs, CDOs, CROs etc.)
· How can we as consultants bridge the gap (again – this question is more to see how you think vs. the exact answer)
GAP ANALYSIS:
This is when you need to really think about all your strengths and development areas and figure out where you need to add the polish so you can showcase the skills needed for each of the above interviews.
Do you need to work on your presentation skills, case analysis ability or industry knowledge? Be fair and rate yourself (1 low to 5 high ) on all the skills listed above. Then pick the list of all the 1s and start from there.
ROADMAP
Now that you have defined where you need to go (target state) and what areas to work on to get there (gap analysis), what are the exact steps you will take to work on your gaps?
Outline a plan that takes you from your current state to your target and list out all the steps you will take to get there:
· Will you brush up on case models by reading case interview books like Case in Point?
· Will you join a Toastmasters to practice presenting to an audience?
· Will you start reading the Economist or Finimize daily to get up to speed on the latest industry and economic trends?
Congratulations! Just by doing this exercise, you have started building your Consulting mindset.
But, keep in mind - the skills you need to get into consulting are not what will help you succeed in the first year. That’s when you play in the big leagues and need to focus on building additional skills like networking, client relationships, project management, running client workshops/meetings, building and developing teams and building your own brand.
This is what I love most about Consulting - it constantly challenges you to up your game.
P.S: Enjoyed this? Here are a few ways you can get more:
Navigate your first year in Management Consulting like a pro!
Learn the most practical, actionable skills you will need to succeed as a new Management Consultant in just 7 days with CONSULTING KICKSTART™️ . Learn more at www.byondgood.com
Got more questions on Consulting? Comment below or email me at punya@byondgood.com. Punya is a former management consultant with 15 years of experience at 2 Big4 firms, serving top Fortune500 clients. She has lived and worked in 6 countries and changed 3 careers working across several industries. Punya is passionate about coaching new and aspiring Consultants to succeed in Management Consulting.
When I had just started my Consulting career, I only wanted to do “Strategy” projects and in fact, I was aligned to the Strategy & Operations team in a leading Big-4 Consulting firm. It just seemed more glamorous and people in Strategy teams seemed to have a chip on their shoulder. What I quickly realized was, that each project is a blend of the following 3 types of engagements and the work that you do can span various engagement types, be it for the same or multiple clients. In fact, getting experience across all 3 types of these engagements can make you a much better consultant and trusted advisor. Projects in Management Consulting vary depending upon the Industry and Client and typically fall into 3 buckets:
Strategy engagements
Transformation engagements
Change management / Program Management engagements
Note that I have not included implementation projects here. In my opinion, Consulting firms usually own the areas of defining the strategy and following it up with a detailed roadmap for implementation. It is then up to the IBMs of the world to implement the software, be it a payments automation system or ERP.
While there are differences in the work delivered across these project types, they usually have 3 things in common:
1. Address a problem: All MC projects originate from a problem or gap in the client’s operations, processes, cost, controls, regulatory compliance, etc. Bottom line - MC engagements address and provide a solution for business problems.
2. Time-bound: A typical Strategy project lasts about 6 to 8 weeks. Mergers & Acquisitions strategy engagements are even shorter on account of the secrecy involved. MC projects can be longer if they have an implementation element (e.g. ERP implementation, Cloud Strategy, Data strategy for regulatory compliance). Shorter projects focused on Strategy are usually more fast-paced than longer duration implementation projects
3. Action plan: Most MC engagements wrap up by providing the final strategy and at the very least, the key action items and a roadmap for solving the (usually long-run) business issue.
Team Structure:
Management Consulting projects tend to have lean teams as the intention is to quickly understand the pain-points of the business and provide a strategy that can be implemented by Client staff. The typical ratio of junior staff to Managers is ~4:1 but may vary depending upon Client demand.
Project Life Cycle: Strategy engagements
1. Partner / Director sells project at client—> BRING TOGETHER A TEAM (you may or may not have worked with them before)
2. The team starts Week 1 (or Phase 0 ) at client site - This usually involves conducting kick-off workshops to understand the business and gather information on pain-points/ challenges/ gaps from key stakeholders
3. Week 2 to 4 - The team does more research into the details of the gap/ issue by conducting more 1-on-1 interviews (usually with people who attended the workshops in Week 1), meetings, Activity Analysis,s surveys, etc.
4. Week 4 to 5 - The team presents initial findings to junior stakeholders and incorporates feedback. In some cases, they may need to go back to the drawing board and tweak the strategy
5. Week 6 - Team (usually Manager/Senior Manager and Partner/Director) present final strategy to Executives
Transformation engagements:
These differ from Strategy engagements in that they are mostly related to changing the business operations of large organizations - usually on a global scale. These may run Long term (months to years) and in phases, usually replicating the same approach across multiple geographies. Examples include standardization of business processes, centralization of operations, implementation of an ERP system globally, etc.
Change management / Program Management engagements:
These engagements run in parallel to large scale transformation or regulatory compliance projects. The need for a Program Management engagement stems out of the requirement to track and report on the multiple projects/ workstreams running under the overall engagement/ program.
People tend to dismiss project management engagements as status reporting, but these are high visibility engagements with exposure to the C-suite and are crucial to the success of large scale transformation programs. In fact, project management is a top skill for senior consultants and executives alike.
P.S: Enjoyed this? Here are a few ways you can get more:
Navigate your first year in Management Consulting like a pro!
Learn the most practical, actionable skills you will need to succeed as a new Management Consultant in just 7 days with CONSULTING KICKSTART™️ . Learn more at www.byondgood.com
Got more questions on Consulting? Comment below or email me at punya@byondgood.com. Punya is a former management consultant with 15 years of experience at 2 Big4 firms, serving top Fortune500 clients. She has lived and worked in 6 countries and changed 3 careers working across several industries. Punya is passionate about coaching new and aspiring Consultants to succeed in Management Consulting.
Because I get bored easily! …. really…. that’s it!
For more context - I joined Consulting after working for over 8 years in Big 4 Audit and international Compliance for 5 years. I was really lucky to get an internship/articleship in a Big 4 Audit firm when I started my career. It opened so many doors for me later but thework itself was mind numbing. In fact, I’ve been told by one of my seniors that “I viewed Audit as a liability!!!” I left the Big 4 firm as soon as my 3-year internship ended and without a job in hand! THAT’S how much I hated audit. I joined a Risk Consulting firm soon after that had projects all over the world. That was very exciting to me as I had never traveled internationally, on my own before. The work was ok but the lifestyle was great! But the learning stopped after the first few years and so I started applying to top B-schools to fulfill my dream of doing an MBA. After my MBA I had 2 options in B-school placements. The first job was working for a global bank, doing more of the same thing I did pre-MBA for more money. The second was to try something radically different with the potential to learn and grow more. This was the opportunity to pivot to Management Consulting. So, I moved to Consulting after my MBA and was very excited about my new career….till I actually started it that is! Tbh, I cried the first day I started working at a Big4 Consulting firm! I was at a firm event, with all international senior Partners in attendance, and I was standing outside the venue - talking to my boyfriend - in tears - thinking I had made the worst mistake of my career by choosing this profession. The people were so different in the way they communicated, their executive presence, confidence, and (what seemed like at the time) extroverted behavior unnerved me. I was like a fish out of water and very VERY uncomfortable. In fact I almost quit after we had an internal training that included a personality assessment. I felt there was no point being in a profession where my personality type was rare if not non-existent. If you haven’t taken the Myers Briggs personality test, I highly recommend it. Any guesses for my personality type? I (Introvert) N (Intuition) F(Feeling) J (Judging). But I ended up staying 10 years. Why? Because that Consulting made me push the borders of my comfort zone… EVERY. SINGLE.DAY. Can’t say the same about many other professions out there. Even though my personality type wasn’t the best fit for Consulting, I realized I could pick the best learnings from Consulting and create a unique style that resonated with many clients who didn’t quite like the slick overconfident consultant types. So here’s what made me stay a decade in full-time Consulting: 1. Constant learning - As a Consultant, it is your job to stay one (or a few!) steps ahead of your clients. That means: · knowing and more importantly, having a point of view on industry trends, · training yourself on the latest technology/ software · applying its features to solve the issues faced by your clients · developing strategies to constantly innovate and create efficiencies for your clients Only after spending a a few years in Big 4 Consulting and climbing up the ladder, did I understand the level of effort and time investment it takes to become a professional with this depth of knowledge and the ability to apply it to multiple clients with different issues/challenges. I once worked for a Big4 Consulting firm that invested in a 2-year training effort to get 40,000 people certified in various Digital/ Automation software! This is the extent to which firms need to invest in their people to enable them to serve clients. 2. Reinventing my brand – Before I joined Consulting, I had just about heard of an Elevator Pitch. I didn’t appreciate how important it is to know your Elevator Pitch and your Brand as a consultant (yes – those are 2 separate things!). Imagine being an outsider on every project and billing by the hour for your ‘expertise’. Obviously the client stakeholders would want to know what exactly you are doing at the project. This is your elevator pitch for the project. Now extrapolate that to an internal discussion with a new Partner, who wants to know the value you bring to the firm/ project you are on. (Also known as, “why did the firm hire you!?”) This is your internal elevator pitch for your firm. And now think about a combination of the value you deliver to your clients, skills and experience you bring to your firm AND the way you are developing 1 or more skills (e.g. IT Cloud strategy, Finance operating model etc.) to be “known” for a specific area in the firm. This is your Brand. As you focus on new skill sets you want to develop, so you will build your Brand. 3. Mentoring and developing people - This is the part I really enjoyed once I had built a solid brand within my Consulting firm. Giving back by mentoring and informally coaching new consultants or consultants going through milestones like promotion, parenthood etc. made the Consulting experience really “human” for me. And as the famous quote goes: “They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel.” I learnt as much from the exercise as I gave out. And I built friendships and associations that have helped me back to this day. 4. Building, growing and re-building my network - In my early Consulting days I was naive enough to think that I had “built my network” if I knew 2 key Partners. I got a rude shock when I came back from my 2nd maternity leave to see that the main Partner who I worked with, had retired (unexpectedly) from the firm. So my network was totally wiped out in a week!
I had to learn, the hard way, to build a network that was deep AND wide enough to support me through such upheavals. But once I developed that muscle, I was golden. 5. The people - It’s so true when they say that you become the average of the 5 people you spend most of your time with (I’m paraphrasing). I worked with really smart, confident and ingenious people in Consulting, who had excellent presence and communication skills. This polish definitely rubbed off on me over the years.
Most importantly, I learned to develop a Consulting mindset - the big picture thinking and problem-solving skills that Consultants help C-suite executives with. Consulting projects allowed me access to senior leadership in Fortune 50 companies, who would have never given me time, let alone seriously considered my ideas to solve their challenges. 6. Developing the “life skills” – Consulting teaches you core skills that are transferrable to any profession. Be it client relationships, project management, storyboarding, leading workshops, analytics or problem solving. When I moved to Industry after 10 years in Consulting, I definitely leveraged my Consulting skills and had an edge over other peers because of the way I presented and analyzed business cases. I went through several milestones in my consulting career and I doubt if any other profession would have given me the opportunities for growth I got as a Big4 Consultant . Consulting is not for the faint-hearted though. (Check out my other answers for why people leave consulting) But I will say that the learning and professional edge you get is well worth it.
P.S: Enjoyed this? Here are a few ways you can get more:
Navigate your first year in Management Consulting like a pro!
Learn the most practical, actionable skills you will need to succeed as a new Management Consultant in just 7 days with CONSULTING KICKSTART™️ . Learn more at www.byondgood.com
Got more questions on Consulting? Comment below or email me at punya@byondgood.com. Punya is a former management consultant with 15 years of experience at 2 Big4 firms, serving top Fortune500 clients. She has lived and worked in 6 countries and changed 3 careers working across several industries. Punya is passionate about coaching new and aspiring Consultants to succeed in Management Consulting.
I have worked at Big4 firms for 14 years (Audit-4 and Consulting-10) and I’ll tell you that it is insanely competitive, super fast-paced, the politics is frustrating, there is minimal tolerance for emotional reactions and you are FAR beyond your comfort zone …. ALL THE TIME.
At this point I’m sure you’d like to ask: WHY - WOULD - YOU - DO - THAT - TO - YOURSELF? And while we're are having this heart-to-heart, let me also tell you that: I have joined 2 Big-4 firms TWICE…once in Audit and then in Management Consulting. No, I’m not a masochist. Yes, I am aware that there’s a whole HBR study about the psychology of people who work in such firms/ organizations. But let me backtrack for a bit and tell you a quick story about my love-hate relationship with Big-4s. Big4 Audit I grew up in India and joined Big4 Audit in 2000. At that time, getting a job at an MNC was considered a HUGE deal. I had NO idea what I was getting into when I signed up to become a CA (Chartred Accountant) intern. It was late nights, disgruntled managers, getting up at 5am for CA tuition classes at the other end of the city and then landing up at the client site to work 15–20 hours on the project because it was Close season. At the time, I hated every minute of it. As a 20 year old I had ZERO life, TONS to study and nobody who was happy with me (my bosses for not putting in 28 hours a day and my friends and family for not being around in general). And I hated it enough to leave without a job in hand the minute I had taken my last CA exam! This took about 4 years !! I had no idea what I was going to do next. I just wanted out. A few months later I qualified as a Chartered Accountant and started looking for another job. And it was then that I realized the power of working for a Big4 firm. I literally applied for 1 job (non-Big 4 firm), interviewed and received the offer in 1 week and started traveling all over the world for my projects in 1 month! THAT is the power of the Big4 brand. The 4 years in Big 4 Audit I had on my resume, automatically signaled these skill sets that I had developed over those 4 years:
Extremely high standards of deliverables
Flawless attention to detail
Supreme client relationship management
Polished communication and executive presentation skills
After a few years at this company, I wanted to do my MBA and switch careers
Enter Big4 Consulting
To be honest, working in Consulting is a whole different ball game than Audit. But the Big 4 quality standards, presentation and attention to detail remain the same.
I worked in Big4 Management Consulting for 10 years at two Big4 Consulting firms across India, U.K. and the U.S. Did I LOVE every minute? Absolutely not! Was I challenged to grow, reinvent my brand, learn the latest skills and totally refine my executive presentation skills? 100%!
Here is a list of skills I developed in Big4 Management Consulting:
Networking
Project Management
Building my brand
Communicating/storyboarding
Managing teams
Business development (Sales/ Proposals)
Client relationship and account management
So overall, working at Big4s has been a mixed bag. It stretched me FAR beyond my comfort zone which was PAINFUL but that’s what made me gain so many diverse experiences and skill sets which make me the professional I am today.
I didn’t like the LONG hours and (at times) unmanageable expectations on balancing client work, travel, internal firm initiatives, mentoring - all while balancing my family with 2 kids under 3!
But what I loved about the 14 years I spent in Big 4s is the way they have shaped my professional life, the doors that have opened for me just because of the Big4 brand, the standards that have been drilled in so well, I hold myself to them even today and the fantastic network I have established that has brought in opportunities I only dreamed of.
No…working at a Big4 is NOT overrated.
P.S: Enjoyed this? Here are a few ways you can get more:
Navigate your first year in Management Consulting like a pro!
Learn the most practical, actionable skills you will need to succeed as a new Management Consultant in just 7 days with CONSULTING KICKSTART™️ . Learn more at www.byondgood.com
Got more questions on Consulting? Comment below or email me at punya@byondgood.com. Punya is a former management consultant with 15 years of experience at 2 Big4 firms, serving top Fortune500 clients. She has lived and worked in 6 countries and changed 3 careers working across several industries. Punya is passionate about coaching new and aspiring Consultants to succeed in Management Consulting.
Over my 20-year Corporate career spanning 5 companies and 6 countries, I’ve had the opportunity to work with and be inspired by several leaders. Only a handful of those were women - but what exceptional women! They seemed to have it all - the career, the family, the lifestyle. Each of them had a different personality and work style, but they were tremendously successful and respected in their field. To top that, they made it look so easy!
As I grew in my career, I faced my own set of challenges - switching career paths, changing countries, and balancing all this with starting my own family in a different country. This was certainly not as easy as it looked! So I asked for and distilled the advice from my role models.
Turns out, almost all of them do these 10 things regularly that get them tremendous success and respect in their workplace:
1.They areclear about their brand value and communicate it confidently
When you’re crystal clear about the value you’re bringing to your employer or client, it raises your self-worth and boosts your confidence. Not to mention, helping you negotiate a much higher compensation.
Each woman leader I worked with, knew exactly how her skills and actions translated to value for her clients and employer, and was not afraid to ask for her worth.
Tip: Draft a one liner statement based on these 2 questions:
· What are you known for?
· Who do you help? Think about “you” as a brand (I help CEOs do…..) and not your employer (I work for ABC company). Focusing on “you” and your skills vs. the name of your workplace will allow you to clearly communicate your value at the next meeting or business opportunity.
2. They speak up and have a clear point of view (POV)
Have you ever been in a meeting when you shared an idea, nobody reacted and then a male colleague said the EXACT same thing and everyone loved it? Or you got cut off mid-sentence and the whole discussion went a different way? It’s more common than you think.
Most of us would let this slide and then fume later. These women leaders made it a point to speak up and express their point of view and rationale behind their thinking. Whether the meeting participants agreed with them was irrelevant; the key point was that they made themselves visible and their opinion heard.
Tip: The next time you get cut-off mid-sentence in a meeting, make it a point to get back in the discussion at the next opportunity using “As I was saying earlier….” or “Coming back to the point I was making …….” Or “I’m glad you concur with the point I made earlier…..”.
I have also used “That’s exactly what I said 5 minutes ago!” in an informal group discussion where a male colleague literally repeated a POV I had expressed earlier in the meeting. Hey! You gotta do what you gotta do! (I wouldn’t recommend this phrase in a formal meeting though.)
3. They design a well-defined career path
If you don’t know where you’re going any road will get you there
- Lewis Carroll
Where do you see yourself in 5 years, 2 years, even 1 year? Does it make you uncomfortable to think so far ahead? Are you letting your career run on auto pilot?
In conversations with each woman leader, I realized they always had a vision for their career. Some told me that they do not plan more than 2 years out because the economy is so dynamic, but they had a clear vision of their career path until those 2 years.
More importantly, they had broken down that vision into bite-sized actions on a career roadmap. This helped them identify the skills they needed to learn and the way they needed to show up today to become the leader they envisioned tomorrow.
Tip: Conquer the overwhelm that comes with a big goal by drafting a career roadmap. You’ll get a bonus sense of accomplishment for completing your bite-sized milestones as you move towards that big scary career goal.
4.They build a following
A successful leader knows the value of teams and making people grow. The woman leaders who inspired me, genuinely cared for the professional growth and success of the people in their teams. They showcased this in multiple ways –
· by investing the time to teach a new team member,
· letting a ‘rising star’ team member handle bigger areas independently to develop confidence and prove readiness for the next level
· even letting a team member switch to another job or team so they could upskill and achieve their career goals
In all cases, it was about the team member’s growth and long-term success. These women earned their teams’ respect by investing in their success. And in-turn, these teams were deeply committed to these woman leaders and their success.
5. They ‘look’ professional
All successful woman leaders I’ve worked with had this common thread: Executive Presence.
You could be the sharpest tool in the box, work the hardest, but still get sidelined because you don’t “look” capable enough for your client or employer.
Executive Presence is not about being the best-dressed or most beautiful woman in your workplace. It’s certainly not about wearing make-up or high-heels. It’s about showing up professionally dressed with poise and confidence.
Who would you like to hire? A smart person with good executive presence who shows confidence and composure in dress and demeanor (suggesting he/she is capable of handling complex roles)? Or a brilliant but mad scientist who shows up disheveled, looks harassed and distracted (suggesting he/she could break down at the thought of handling large operations)?
6. They’re NOT the go-to ‘party planner’ or ‘coffee getter’ Yes – I said it. I have yet to see ONE successful woman leader who was also the president of the “Party Planning Committee” (sorry Angela!)
I once worked with a strong woman leader on a project where a senior (male) leader joined in for a few days. On a Monday morning, we were going to the pantry when she asked him: “Coffee?”. His response: “Yes – cream and sugar please”.
WHAT?!
He just assumed she would get him his coffee! And mixed to perfection at that!
As I fumed silently, she looked at him calmly and said in a perfectly normal voice:
“So – will you be coming with us to the pantry?”
He was dumbfounded to say the least. And I was wowed by her cool response to a very sexist situation.
This is not to say that you have to be stuck-up and can’t do the occasional team coffee/ bakery run. But how many senior male leaders do you see physically getting coffee for their teams or planning office parties (vs. showing up and paying with their business credit cards)?
Whether we like it or not, it is a gender stereotype – best not to fall into that trap.
7.They show emotional balance:
I’m not saying that successful women leaders are heartless. On the contrary, showing occasional vulnerability and sharing your story can help build powerful work relationships with your teams and clients. We’re not machines after all!
Showing emotional balance at work is about how you handle challenging situations with your team or clients – conflict, missed deadlines, difficult projects, late nights. Do you crumble under pressure or flip out if a client complains about a work deliverable? Or are you able to objectively assess the situation and see how to fix it?
All the uber-successful women leaders I’ve met in my 20-year career, were deeply respected for their maturity and capability in handling sensitive work situations, while staying on top of all their work commitments.
I want to be that senior woman leader who exhibits a sense of control and composure as the million projects in her world run magically, while other people run around like headless chickens trying to meet their deadlines.
8.They do not gossip Never have I ever come across a successful woman leader who engaged in any form of gossip. This includes complaining about co-workers, comparing compensation / bonuses, getting “personal info” on colleagues, work relationships etc. Enough said.
9.They are Disciplined
Almost all successful women leaders I’ve met, were extremely disciplined – about their schedule (always on time for meetings); health (waking up early to get a workout, eating balanced meals); family life (blocking time for family activities, assigning certain days to travel) and time (avoiding meetings that could be emails).
They managed their time extremely well which allowed them to manage multiple work projects along with prioritizing their families and themselves.
10.They Say NO
When you meet a woman leader who is extremely successful, you have met a person who has evolved the action of ‘saying NO’ to an Art form.
I have met talented women who raise their hand for everything, die trying to deliver on all their work commitments, sacrifice family life, get raccoon eyes from all the late nights and still disappoint their seniors at work because their deliverable did not ‘wow’. Yikes!
And then there are those women leaders who know exactly how much work to take on themselves or know whom to delegate it to (usually their ‘following’ – see point 4 above), so they can deliver stellar results; all while having a life.
Tip: Setting boundaries and managing expectations is the key to having it all.
Women who are deeply respected at their workplace have also ‘grown-up’ in their career, facing the same challenges as us. But it’s their response to these challenges that has made their careers skyrocket! Which of these 10 actions will you implement in your career next? Write in the comments below.
P.S: Enjoyed this? Here are a few ways you can get more:
Navigate your first year in Management Consulting like a pro!
Learn the most practical, actionable skills you will need to succeed as a new Management Consultant in just 7 days with CONSULTING KICKSTART™️ . Learn more at www.byondgood.com
Got more questions on Consulting? Comment below or email me at punya@byondgood.com. Punya is a former management consultant with 15 years of experience at 2 Big4 firms, serving top Fortune500 clients. She has lived and worked in 6 countries and changed 3 careers working across several industries. Punya is passionate about coaching new and aspiring Consultants to succeed in Management Consulting.
It’s not easy managing humans. Humans come with aspirations, dreams, emotions, and challenges. Being a manager in today’s workplace is not just about being a leader, it also requires acting as a mentor, friend, and counselor.
Managing a talented team is hard enough in a normal business environment. Add to that the complexities of remote work and you’ve got yourself a cocktail that is anything but a happy hour.
It’s also the most rewarding experience to nurture and contribute to the development and success of a super talented team that is the envy of everyone in your organization.
The past year (2020) has seen a massive shift in the way we view the future of work. These 10 rules are essential for any manager as we head into a hybrid workplace:
1. Be Inclusive “Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
Henry Ford
2020 saw us all battling a never-ending barrage of virtual meetings. Small-talk took a backseat; new joiners were onboarded remotely with a ‘Welcome package’ and most return-to-work plans are still hybrid. Gen Z may never ever know what a water-cooler conversation is! If there was ever a time for deliberate connection, it is now.
A manager has a pivotal role in shaping these connections in his/her team. Organize (or ask someone on your team to organize) virtual coffees/birthday celebrations to make team members build a personal connection and share non-work stories. Encouraging people to bring different perspectives and ideas to the (virtual) table goes a long way in bringing people together and building trust.
2. Give Regular feedback
“Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.”
- John D. Rockefeller
Make it a point to provide ongoing feedback to your team after every major (online) meeting or presentation. Schedule a “debrief session” and discuss what did (and did not) go well in an objective manner. Not only will this help your team grow, it will also ensure there are no surprises (for your team) at year-end.
Make sure to highlight when a team member did something particularly well. On the other hand, if someone messed up, show some grace and discuss learning opportunities without blame – they’re already feeling pretty rotten anyway!
3. Check-in with each team member
“Communication – the human connection – is the key to personal and career success.”
- Paul J. Meyer
This is not another performance feedback session. Use one-on-one check-ins to understand the aspirations of your team members; where they want to take their career, and discuss how you can help them achieve their goals.
Get to know their prior experience and strengths so you can leverage their skills in the best manner possible. The more you ‘get’ your team, the farther they will go to make you look good.
4. Do not micro-manage
“There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.”
- Simon Sinek
When you’re working in a vacuum (which we all have been doing in the past year), it’s easy to think that you’re the only one with your nose to the grindstone. Tell your inner micro-manager (everyone has one!) to chill out when you feel like pinging/texting your team for updates every hour.
Give people the benefit of the doubt. Trust your team to give their best and let them do their job. You’ll be surprised at the efficiency and loyalty that you win as a result.
5. Be proud of your team and show it
“To lead people, walk behind them.”.
- Lao Tsu
Do you believe you have the best team?
Do you believe that your team, at best, is average?
Can I tell you a secret? The more you ‘show’ your team that you ‘think’ they’re the A-team, the more they will become that A-team you’ve always wanted. If you already have an A-team, it is even more important to appreciate their efforts and keep them motivated.
Keep your team motivated and challenge them to do better. Always speak highly of your team and their accomplishments with senior management.
6. Provide a Line of sight
“in the absence of information, people will create their own.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans
In these uncertain times, when most people are concerned about job security, a manager’s job is to reassure and motivate their team to give their best and avoid attrition. Providing a view into future projects that your team will be working on is one way of doing this. Schedule weekly team touchpoints to give a line of sight into future work engagements.
Guiding your team on what they need to do to get better year-end results or get promoted also shows that you consider them a key team member for the long run.
7. Be Transparent in Communication
When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective.”
- Stephen R. Covey
Ok - maybe translucent! As a manager, you may not be allowed to share every detail that senior management tells you, but sharing (allowed) information on the overall strategy of your department/company will earn you the trust of your team. Set up weekly touchpoints to discuss topics like return-to-work, organizational shifts, and changes in responsibilities with your team. The more included they feel, the more they will trust your leadership.
8.Provide opportunities to excel
“When one of us shines, all of us shine”
- Moira Rose, Schitts Creek
Just like you challenge your muscles with that difficult yoga pose or an extra half mile run, your team needs to be challenged so they can grow. Give your people opportunities to lead independent work areas or create a presentation for senior management (that you will review of course). The more you train your team to take on complex tasks, the more complex projects you can deliver for your senior management.
9. Act as a connector
“It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.”
- Napoleon Hill
If you want your team to look up to you, show them how you can accelerate their career growth. Especially in this environment where people are stuck to their desks, you must create opportunities for your team to interact with senior management, whether it is including them in an important meeting or asking them to present to a senior executive.
Start viewing your team as the relationships you build and nurture that can potentially help you grow in your own career in the future.
10.Balance empathy vs TMI
As a manager you will be a leader, mentor, and friend to your team. A good manager however, knows where to draw the line between empathy and too much information (TMI).
Asking about your team’s families and friends health – empathy
Demanding to know whether your team members have been vaccinated – TMI
Sending a Linkedin request to you team – perfectly acceptable
Sending a Facebook /Insta request and/or commenting on their social media pictures – borderline intrusive
“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
Whether you are a seasoned or aspiring manager, the above 10 rules will solidify your managerial experience. Which rule resonated with you the most? What would you like to add to this list? Write in the comments below.
P.S: Enjoyed this? Here are a few ways you can get more:
Navigate your first year in Management Consulting like a pro!
Learn the most practical, actionable skills you will need to succeed as a new Management Consultant in just 7 days with CONSULTING KICKSTART™️ . Learn more at www.byondgood.com
Got more questions on Consulting? Comment below or email me at punya@byondgood.com. Punya is a former management consultant with 15 years of experience at 2 Big4 firms, serving top Fortune500 clients. She has lived and worked in 6 countries and changed 3 careers working across several industries. Punya is passionate about coaching new and aspiring Consultants to succeed in Management Consulting.
I entered the conference room with sweaty palms and a dry mouth. I’d been anxiously awaiting this evaluation since the meeting invite landed in my inbox. I was optimistic and hopeful.
I thought everyone would know about the stellar job I’d been doing all year. They’d know about the late nights I put in and the extra training I took to learn that latest software. They’d know I went out of my way to keep those extra demanding clients and managers happy with my work, team and projects.
And then, I had a bad performance review..... a TRAIN WRECK!
I didn’t know why. I thought maybe it was my nasty boss or all those pesky projects that didn’t meet the timelines. I considered maybe it was those extra demanding clients.
This negative mindset sums up how so many of us describe our performance reviews. Yet a poor performance review doesn’t mean your boss, clients or projects are to blame.
You’re your own strongest weapon, but you’re also perfectly capable of sabotaging your success. Instead of blaming others, it’s also worth self-reflecting to understand how you can improve your next review.
Here are seven common mistakes that can turn your performance evaluations into a cringe-fest—and what to do instead.
1. You don’t seek feedback proactively
Proactively asking for feedback will change your entire attitude toward performance evaluations. Most people wait for year-end to get their final performance appraisal. It’s human nature to avoid what feels like confrontation and in some cases, a personal attack.
When you ask for feedback proactively, you take the power back. You break down the evaluation process into bite-sized chunks, which is far easier to accept and work on than the avalanche of feedback that you get at year-end.
What to do instead
Set up a 15-minute monthly or bi-weekly recurring touchpoint on your manager’s calendar. Make it a quick call where you can ask them for feedback, what you’re doing well and where you can help them more.
2. You don’t keep a running list of achievements
If you’re anything like me in my early career, you probably sit to prepare for your year-end discussion a day before the meeting. When you have so many other things to do, having an evaluation meeting feels inconvenient and unnecessary. It’s not!
If you’re not going to prioritize your evaluation, your boss won’t either. So why not invest the time in building your business case?
What to do instead
Spend five to ten minutes each week to record what projects and additional initiatives you’ve worked on, the responsibilities of your current role and the clients or team with whom you worked. It could be as fancy as an excel sheet with formulae and as basic as a list on a piece of paper.
3. You’re unaware of the impact of your work
Year-end evaluations are all about the numbers. Most of us are aware of the hours we put into our work projects, how many systems we handled, the processes we improved or the cases we worked on. Very few people are aware of the tangible, numerical impact of their work.
Early in my career, I used to think I was too junior to ask how my projects were impacting the client. Other times I was so inundated with my workload that I didn’t have the time to think about the overall impact of the larger project.
Knowing exactly how your projects have impacted your firm or your client’s organization will help you quantify the impact of your work. This is a must-have when it comes to year-end evaluations. You’ll also get a boost of clarity that’ll help you confidently communicate your case for year-end reviews.
What to do instead
At the end of each project, schedule ten minutes with your manager or partner to understand the impact of your team’s work. Next, extrapolate it to your direct role on the project to quantify your contribution.
4. You stay in your comfort zone
The sure-fire way to not get promoted is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and getting so good at it that you cannot be replaced.
If you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted.
The next time you want to stay in your comfort zone, push yourself. Raise your hand for that stretch role and take on more responsibility.
What to do instead
In your next 1-1 feedback session with your manager, ask how you can contribute by taking on more responsibility. Not only does this make their life easier, but it also signals that you’re maturing as a professional and you’re seriously invested in your career growth.
5. You don’t upgrade your skillset.
Every new role is an opportunity to build your skills and knowledge. This should be your criteria for taking on any new project or role.
Building a portfolio of skills that could potentially fit multiple roles (and updating your resume to show this) will make your profile more marketable within your organization and outside of it.
What to do instead
Before taking on any new role, list out all the new areas you’ll be working on. For example: is this role helping you develop your leadership skills, learn new software or handle a larger client? Whatever it may be, write it down in a running list.
6. You don’t have a cheat sheet
As the person going through the performance evaluation process, it’s your job to make it easy for your manager to give you that promotion, pay increase or new project.
The more seriously you take your performance evaluation discussion, the more seriously your manager will act. Unfortunately, verbally rattling off a list of achievements during your evaluation meeting at year-end is not going to cut it.
What to do instead
If you haven’t already, create a one-pager of all your accomplishments and projects (along with impact numbers) for the year to facilitate the year-end conversation. Keep this up to date with your latest projects throughout the year and use it for your 1-on-1 meetings as well.
7. You ignore previous performance feedback.
Almost everyone takes feedback personally. We get defensive and try to justify our behavior or actions. We feel bad about ourselves and make ourselves feel better by telling ourselves that our manager should be ignored.
We refuse feedback because we’re paralyzed by the rejection or delusional about the situation. That doesn’t help anyone. It took three job changes for me to realize that some of the feedback I’d been getting consistently was true and I needed to fix it.
What to do instead
Objectively assess the feedback you have received. Does some (or all!) of it ring true? If possible, ask for an informal evaluation from your peers and juniors by asking them to list out your top three strengths and weaknesses. You’ll be surprised at what comes back.
Year-end evaluations don’t have to make you squeamish. Spend 10 minutes each week to proactively follow the tips above and take your power back. Your career is worth it.
P.S: Enjoyed this? Here are a few ways you can get more:
Navigate your first year in Management Consulting like a pro!
Learn the most practical, actionable skills you will need to succeed as a new Management Consultant in just 7 days with CONSULTING KICKSTART™️ . Learn more at www.byondgood.com
Got more questions on Consulting? Comment below or email me at punya@byondgood.com. Punya is a former management consultant with 15 years of experience at 2 Big4 firms, serving top Fortune500 clients. She has lived and worked in 6 countries and changed 3 careers working across several industries. Punya is passionate about coaching new and aspiring Consultants to succeed in Management Consulting.
“We’ve decided to give you another year to try for a promotion”
I had been anxious about this discussion with my boss all week long. Year-end results were being announced and it was my second time trying for a promotion that I really wanted.
Excuse me ….what?! I had been giving my best at work with great feedback from clients and yet, I was lagging behind every peer and junior colleague as I watched them shoot up the corporate ladder.
I felt frustrated, angry and stuck in a cycle of blaming the whole world….
“…..It’s the 2 sets of maternity leave I took for having my kids” ‘…..I’m a minority in this organization’ ‘…..I’m just not good enough’
I internalized this decision as a flaw in me, my talent, my personality, my life choices and decided I was just not cut out for a life in Consulting. I looked for other jobs and almost took one offer but something in me forced me to evaluate my actions.
Maybe ‘I’ was missing something. I had been doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. What if I put my ego aside and made a change in the way I was shaping my career?
I went back to my boss and several senior Executives and asked them for help. And this ONE advice I got changed everything.
“Punya….people are running their career like a political campaign”.
This completely changed how I looked at my job. It hit me that I had been driving my career on auto-pilot the whole time, waiting for things to happen.
I created a 6-month plan to take action and started implementing these ideas. Taking charge of my success was my biggest career breakthrough and this changed everything. Here are the steps I took:
1. Ask for help: Most people are willing to help you. You have to be clear about what you want and ask for it. What’s the worst that could happen? The answer is ‘no’ if you don’t ask anyway. And not everyone in my firm had the time to help either. But as I started asking for help, most people were willing to give me advice and I gained clarity on my next steps.
2. Bring a POV: Don’t be the note taker in meetings. That’s a sure way to getting assigned the permanent job of drafting the meeting minutes. While it requires talent to capture all the details of meetings, especially with senior executives or very technical client stakeholders, it does not help to position you as a leader. I started really engaging in the meeting discussion and expressing my Point of View (POV). At first, it felt weird, but as I started using that muscle, my confidence grew and I started getting noticed by my seniors for my ideas.
3. Own a project from start to end: I had always been the person who just took whatever projects/roles came my way. It was only when I consciously started discussing my roles on projects and what work areas I would own and be accountable for, that my seniors started taking me seriously.
4. Be deliberate in building relationships: As an introvert, I hate networking. I hate attending random events and hoping I would, by chance, meet people who could make a difference to my career and vice versa. It's exhausting! But targeted networking? Yes please! Doing my research to shortlist the professionals who could make an impact in my career and vice versa, shifted my entire approach towards networking and got me tremendous results.
5. Raise your hand a.k.a. make your boss’s life easier: If you can become the go-to person for your boss/ seniors, you’re golden. I started communicating my brand and asking for opportunities from my network, grew my team/supporter following to deliver, and communicated my team’s achievements. This helped me get projects that were a perfect fit to my skills and also helped me mentor my team and help them succeed in their career.
6. Act as if: This is not a “fake it till you make it” so much as a mindset shift. It took a while before I realized that I had all the skills to get promoted, but I was not ‘signaling’ that to my seniors. I wasn’t showing up in the senior role I wanted, I wasn’t displaying confidence and I wasn’t thinking like a senior executive.
The moment I told myself I was ready for the next level, it was like a switch flipped and everything came together beautifully.
Did these actions push me way out of my comfort zone? Yes.
Did I have the steepest learning curve of my career that year? Yes.
Did I get promoted? Yes!
So, if you feel stalled in your career, ask yourself if you’re taking the above steps to drive your career vs. waiting for things to happen. Communicate your worth and seek out the opportunities and people that can help you succeed. Run your career like a political campaign!
P.S: Enjoyed this? Here are a few ways you can get more:
Navigate your first year in Management Consulting like a pro!
Learn the most practical, actionable skills you will need to succeed as a new Management Consultant in just 7 days with CONSULTING KICKSTART™️ . Learn more at www.byondgood.com
Got more questions on Consulting? Comment below or email me at punya@byondgood.com. Punya is a former management consultant with 15 years of experience at 2 Big4 firms, serving top Fortune500 clients. She has lived and worked in 6 countries and changed 3 careers working across several industries. Punya is passionate about coaching new and aspiring Consultants to succeed in Management Consulting.
