Is Celebrity Apprentice good business training? By Lew Sauder

I don’t watch a lot of TV, but one of my favorite shows is Celebrity Apprentice.  Not that I think it’s quality TV by any means; I just get a kick out of seeing how petty some of these washed up rock stars and former Playboy models can act on national television.

I started watching it with my kids thinking there were leadership tips they could learn for when they get into the business world.  Instead I generally use it to teach them how NOT to act when they get in the real world.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the premise, the typical season starts out with a team of eight men against a team of eight women.  Each team is given a task per episode to raise money or market a product and Donald Trump announces at the end of the show which team won.  One member of the losing team gets fired.  They continue to eliminate one person each week, redistributing players to other teams if it becomes lopsided, until it comes down to two finalists.  Those two compete against each other in the season finale to determine the Celebrity Apprentice.  Some observations I’ve made about the show are:

1. Since the object of the game is to avoid getting fired, the participants are playing not to lose rather than playing to win.  It’s an interesting dynamic as teammates pretend to be team players, trying to win for the team, but knowing that if their team loses, they could be singled out to be fired.  The project manager knows that they are responsible for the task, but if they lose, they can choose two people from the team to bring back into the board room to argue why one of them is the scapegoat – I mean reason – the task failed.  This is not an environment that induces risk taking.  If the project manager decides on a bold approach and it fails, the PM is most likely to be the one fired.  If a team member has an opportunity to take a risk to help the team, they’re better off playing it safe and going below the radar.
2. Few celebrities are good leaders. Perhaps the most entertaining part of the show is watching a former actor try to direct a diverse team of people who are more interested in showcasing their own capabilities and looking good, than in helping the team succeed.  It results in a team with three or four people vying for control, when there is supposed to only be one designated leader.  The test of wills often ends up with a weak leader submitting to one or more of their team members. If the team loses, the team members throw the PM under the bus for being a weak leader.
3. Unprofessional behavior in the board room. Donald Trump’s board room has the appearance of a very formal setting.  A long beautiful conference room table where Trump and his two offspring advisors, Donald Junior and Ivanka, sit on one side while the participants submissively sit (or stand) on the other.  It’s a beautifully decorated room in the prestigious Trump Tower in New York City. Despite its solemn setting, this is where the team members get nasty.  F-bombs and other obscenities are regularly bleeped out, team members make accusations of others’ behavior and lack of assistance and team members have been known to cry.  The Donald often sits and lets two or more team members go at each other, essentially enabling the petty back-biting.

 

So I sit watching this circus with my family and criticize the above behaviors pointing out to my kids the poor management and leadership skills that the various contestants display.  But the more I think about it, the more I realize how real world it is. I see these violations in the business world all the time.

People are always worried about either getting fired or getting passed up for promotion for screwing up.  It’s much safer to keep your head down and just do what you’re asked than to try something bold and risky to increase the odds of failure.  And why make a suggestion for a new way to innovate your organization’s process and risk pissing off the manager that designed the current one?

A former actor may have been nominated, or even won an Oscar, but it’s no indication that they can manage.  The same can be said for business managers.  Usually the most productive worker bee gets promoted to be the boss when the opportunity arises.  It’s no indication they will be good at managing.  It’s a completely different set of skills. Leadership requires a combination of confidence, humility, empathy, decision making and many other abilities.  Assuming that a good research analyst can lead a team is as illogical as assuming a good actor can do it.

Professionalism is no better in the business world than in Trump’s board room.  I’ve heard f-bombs in the nicest mahogany lined offices and in the offices of corporate presidents.  And people get thrown under the bus on a regular basis, both privately and publicly.

So it brings me to the question I should ask myself before I use it as a business lesson for my kids: Does Celebrity Apprentice simply prepare us for how business works? Or does it point out all that’s bad about corporate politics to teach us how not to act?

I’d love to hear your take on this.  In the meantime, maybe we should just switch to watching The Office.

About the author: Lew Sauder is the author of Consulting 101: 101 Tips For Success in Consulting (www.Consulting101Book.com)  He has been a consultant with top-tier and boutique consulting firms for seventeen years.

My Five Biggest Surprises from Consulting, by Lew Sauder

I started as a Consultant right out of college.  I interviewed with several of the top firms but my grades weren’t good enough – and I probably interviewed horribly – so I never got past the screening interviews.  I ended up being hired by an excellent boutique firm and eventually got in to a top firm after getting a few years of good consulting experience under my belt.

The main reason I was attracted to consulting was for the variety.  I thought it sounded cool to go from client to client, never getting too tired of your surroundings before moving on to the next project.  I learned that consulting also gives you opportunities to solve problems and get involved in high-profile projects, but I still think the variety is one of the many great things about consulting. 

There were a number of things that surprised me about consulting.  I was an IT major for my undergrad and expected to be writing programs for clients.  That was true for the most part, but the firms I worked for had additional expectations for me.  Here are the top 5 that surprised me:

1. You are expected to sell.  In consulting, everyone is responsible for sales.  While your performance evaluation will have five or six areas on which you are measured, the major focus is really on two numbers – utilization & sales.  Utilization is the percentage of billable hours you provided to clients in relation to available hours.  Early in your consulting career, your most attention will be on utilization. You’ll want to get on a billable client project and stay on it to maximize your billable hours.  Most firms have new consultants target about 90-95% utilization, which allows you some training, vacation time and a couple of sick days throughout the year.  As you move up the ranks, your utilization target gets smaller and your sales target gets larger.  The additional time you are not spending on utilization is expected to be spent developing relationships, creating proposals and other sales efforts.  While at a client, you are supposed to keep your eyes and ears open for new opportunities.  If you spot a problem a client is having, notify your managers to suggest a solution.  It could result in a follow-on project. 
   You are also expected to begin developing relationships at your clients.  The theory is that as you develop relationships with your peers at the client, they will move up the ranks as you do and will be senior managers at their company when you are one at your firm.  The long-term relationship will hopefully result in more business.
2. You are an outsider.  I thought I would be doing work to supplement the client’s existing staff and that was true in some respects.  But while I naively thought they would welcome this nice guy coming in to help, there were a fair number who resented my presence.  Consultants represent unwelcome change within an organization.  Whether a new software application is being implemented or some process improvement study is being conducted, change instills fear of the unknown with the company’s employees.  Will this mean layoffs?  Will they need my department any more?  What if they move me over by that creepy guy on the 3^rd floor?
   Whatever their concerns, there was always a level of distrust with consultants.  I tried my best to endear myself with client employees.  That worked on some but there were always a few that I could never win over.  Assuming that as the default attitude at a new client helped me to tread lightly at the beginning.
3. You can get called away at a moment’s notice.  I remember once on a Thursday night, sitting at home watching TV around 9:00 when the phone rang.  It was from a partner in our firm that I’d never heard of from the Phoenix office.  He saw in the database that I had a skill set that matched their need at a client and that I was on the bench (unassigned to a paying client).  He wanted me to drive three hours south to Springfield, IL the next day to help them out on a project that was in trouble.  He thought they would need me for 3-6 weeks.  I called my boss at home, waking him up.  He said he knew the partner and that I should go.  It was a long day-trip. I got up early and made it there by 8:30, worked until about 6:30 and then drove home.  I ended up working on that project for about 6 weeks, staying at a hotel during the week.  I could have just as easily been called to fly to Los Angeles or London the next day. 
   Saying no to a project is something you don’t want to get a reputation for in consulting.  If you’re already assigned to a project, your management may fight to keep you on, but you go where you’re told to go.  If you’re on the bench, you might be able to put in a request for a local project, but your skill set drives your placement more than where you happen to reside.  That’s why there’s so much travel involved in consulting.
4. Expectations are higher for you than for the client’s employees.  As a programmer in my early days, I would be placed at a client working side-by-side with the client’s employees doing much the same thing.  We would each be assigned to develop a component of the custom software application.  It seemed to me that, despite my outsider status, we were equals on the project.  That was an incorrect assumption.  We each had deadlines.  For the client employee, it was more of a suggestion, while mine was a requirement.  When the project ran behind, my client-employee counterparts continued their 8:00-5:00 schedule, while my consulting buddies and I worked late evenings and weekends to finish our work and then take over the client’s work to get the project across the finish line.
   We also had to submit status reports and time sheets in our “spare time”.  We would be asked to facilitate meetings and participate in discussions to resolve project issues, while client employees casually went about their days.  At the time, I thought it was more than just a bit unfair.  But over time I realized that I was being compensated more for these higher expectations, and it was making me a more valuable employee over time. 
5. Learn how to get around in your city.  I grew up in a small central Illinois farm community.  When we went to the city to shop, it was to the mall in Peoria.  Public transportation meant car pooling with someone’s mom.  So moving to Chicago was a significant culture shock to me.  I had to learn the expressway system, the Metra Rail system and Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) system for busses and elevated trains.  There were times I would allow myself two hours for a 45-minute commute to allow for traffic, getting lost, stopping to pee and finding a place to park. For those of you who will accept a consulting position in the same metropolitan area where you grew up, this may not apply as much.  There are also schedules and routes on the internet and GPS systems that provide directions with traffic updates.  It is still good advice to know general information such as neighborhoods and relative locations of urban and suburban landmarks to have a familiarity with the area in which you live and work.

For those of you that have worked in consulting, what have been your biggest surprises? 

About the author: Lew Sauder is the author of Consulting 101: 101 Tips For Success in Consulting (www.Consulting101Book.com)  He has been a consultant with top-tier and boutique consulting firms for seventeen years.

Five Steps to Better Client Communication By Lew Sauder

Communication is an important facet of developing relationships with your clients.  What some consultants don’t understand is that little things they do – or don’t do – can affect their credibility and their professional reputation negatively.  Here are five subtle things you can do that make a big difference in establishing your image as a professional as well as earning the client’s trust.

1. Make phone calls with a voice mail message in mind: Perhaps this has happened to you.  You call someone and get their voice mail.  You didn’t count on that and when you hear the beep, you stumble over your words and sound like a certified idiot.  You wish you could just hang up and start over.  I’ve been on the sending and receiving end of these messages and both are uncomfortable.  When you do this with a client, it undermines your credibility.  Whenever I need to call a client, I stop for 30 seconds, take a piece of paper – sometimes just a Post-it note – and jot down a few of my talking points.  If I get their voice mail, I’ve got a nice outline to use to leave an intelligent message.  And you know what?  If they answer, I still have a well thought out message to present to them.
2. Address the recipient in every email: I see a lot of emails where people just start typing what they want to talk about.  It’s a pretty abrupt way to start communicating to someone, especially if you’re talking to a client.  Just putting the person’s name softens the tone of the email.  You don’t have to start out with “Dear” or any other formal salutation.  This is also a benefit when people are cc’d on the email.  Not everyone looks to see who the email is to and who is copied.  Specifying who the email is to makes it clear.
3. Proof read every email: I took a typing class in college, although I think they call it “keyboarding” nowadays. After many years of typing programs, proposals, reports and emails, I’m a pretty good typist.  I laugh when I hear those Dragon speech recognition commercials because I can type almost as fast as I think; or maybe I just think as slow as I type.  Anyway, as much as I am able to keep up with my thoughts as I go, I always go back and proof read my emails and I’m amazed at how often I have typos that I need to correct.  It’s a habit that’s saved me embarrassment many times.  I often get emails from people who obviously don’t proof read and it makes them look unprofessional.  Sometimes, I can’t even figure out what the hell they’re trying to say.  Proof reading should be done for all emails, but it’s most important for the ones you send to your clients.
4. Have a purpose: I marvel at the time that gets wasted in meetings by people who just need to speak to let people know they are there and engaged.  I see it particularly when someone’s boss is present and they need to remind the boss of their presence.  My favorite tactic is when they adamantly agree with their boss.  It allows them to tell the boss they’re listening while doing a little ass-kissing at the same time.  I’ve been in meetings where I wasn’t asked a question and didn’t have any value to add, so I kept my mouth shut.  If you’re just there to get information, it’s OK to stay silent.  If you have a question, stop and ask yourself if it’s necessary to ask in the meeting, or if you can pull someone aside afterwards to ask.  Otherwise, don’t waste everyone’s collective time.
5. Say thank you: Consultants are often stereotyped as being arrogant and condescending.  I’m amazed how often they live up to the stereotype.  Many consultants believe that they are smarter and better than most of their clients and it shows in their attitude.  They’ll ask the client for some information and once it is received, they go on their merry way providing the client with their indispensable expertise.  In reality, the consultant is there to serve the client.  Consultants have a lot of expertise and may be experts an many things, but the client is just as knowledgeable of their own business and, by the way, controls whether your firm gets any more business.  Thanking them for information that you request or for doing a favor shows humility and indicates to the client that you respect their time.

None of these are earth-shattering tactics, but they are little things that make a big difference.  What tactics have you found that have helped you be better communicators with your clients?

 

About the author: Lew Sauder is the author of Consulting 101: 101 Tips For Success in Consulting (www.Consulting101Book.com)  He has been a consultant with top-tier and boutique consulting firms for seventeen years.

 

Personal Branding

There is a lot of talk today about personal branding.  The tools available are plentiful.  Social media tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and the up-and-coming Cuora allow you to easily get your personal brand out to the world.

Additionally, tools such as Blogger and WordPress allow you to set up a blog or website – or both – within minutes.  If you would like to publish a book, you no longer need to submit a manuscript to multiple publishers until one of them accepts it.  You can self-publish for a relatively small outlay of cash.

If you want to write articles, online magazines – ezines – offer an excellent way to get your brand published and noticed.

The whole branding phenomenon began back in 1997 when famed business writer Tom Peters published the now famous article “A Brand Called You” in Fast Company Magazine.  If you have never read this article, I would strongly encourage you to read it now.  If you have read it, I’d urge you to read it again.  I’ve been a Tom Peters fan since he wrote the ground-breaking book “In Search of Excellence” with Bob Waterman in 1982.  Since then, he has published scores of books and DVDs about reinventing businesses and reinventing yourself for success.  “A Brand Called You” was essentially an extension of his previous writings.  It just seemed to catch traction with the Fast Company crowd and with the prevalence of Web 2.0, has continued to pick up steam.  It’s never been as important as it is today.

Over the past three years, the economy has been in the dumper.  Home values have plummeted, the stock market plunged to historic lows and unemployment has risen to historic highs.  We have recently begun to see the economy show signs of improvement, but it’s taking its own sweet time.

The stock market has risen, but shows little stability.  Home sales have started to slowly increase, but will require years of improvement before home values show any significant correction.  And employment is slowly starting to take hold

But it’s a different employment market than it was three years ago.  While the threat of a double-dip recession is not as great as it was a year ago, businesses are still reluctant to make the commitment to hiring full-time employees.  They are much more likely to turn to consulting firms to provide their labor for them.  This can range from staff-augmentation firms that provide freelance experts as needed, to full solution services firms that come in to manage and fully staff enterprise-wide projects.  When the work is done, the team or individuals can be swapped out for a different group of people with the expertise needed for the next project.  While this costs the business more on a per-hour basis, it gives them the flexibility of having the appropriate expertise for each project without committing to hiring full-time employees whose skills may not fit the next project.

With this trend in mind and the fact that more people are vying for these jobs, it’s more important than ever to work on your personal brand.  The consulting firms and the few businesses that are hiring have the luxury of selecting the best and the brightest in the job market.  What can you bring to the table that provides them with enough value to justify hiring you?  Once you identify that, how do you brand yourself to convince them of that?

To start with, you should have a presence on at least a couple of the social media sites.  LinkedIn is the minimum requirement.  Whichever ones you are on, your message should be persistent and consistent; persistent enough to contribute regular content to develop your brand, and consistent content with each post.  Signing up for ten different social media sites and never providing updates adds no persistent value.  Posting a serious article on a business issue one day and then pictures of the big bash over the weekend the next day is not consistent.

After that, start a blog and write articles with serious and consistent content.  Study and learn as much about the industry as you can.  Share your opinions and ask others for theirs.  Become part of the community, providing your input and soliciting opinions of others.  It takes a while, but eventually you will start to see a response, and then another.  Soon you are participating in a community.  When people Google (or Bing, or whatever) your name, they will find your brand.  And they’ll know what you stand for.

What have you done to brand yourself today?

About the author: Lew Sauder is the author of Consulting 101: 101 Tips For Success in Consulting (www.Consulting101Book.com)  He has been a consultant with top-tier and boutique consulting firms for seventeen years.

Being an Outsider at the Client Site By Lew Sauder

One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard from new consultants is the inability to fit in at the client site.  Going from client to client, they always felt like an outsider and never felt a sense of community.

I remember early in my career, I was talking to a client and he asked me what consulting was like.  I explained to him that I go to different clients and work on projects for periods of a couple of days to as long as a year. It depended on the nature of the client’s need and what they needed me for.  I explained how the work was different at each project and that I worked with a different group of people each time.

He looked at me as if I was crazy, “…and you like that?”

I was a little taken aback.  I did like that.  That was what attracted me to consulting when I was interviewing in college.  Once in, I was able to confirm that it actually was exciting to go from place to place meeting new people, experiencing new locations and corporate cultures, and solving problems.

It was during that conversation that I realized that consulting wasn’t for everyone.  He liked the comfort and security of going to the same office and working with the same people everyday.  He couldn’t imagine changing his routine all the time like that.  I was just the opposite.  I couldn’t imagine the “Groundhog Day” monotony of having the same view for the rest of my career.

I do admit that I often felt like an outsider.  I’ve been to client sites where they had special perks like company picnics or outings to local restaurants.  Sometimes they included consultants, but usually they didn’t. I always assumed that we weren’t included unless we were specifically told so. I had my own community with the consultants in my own firm.  As we finished projects and moved on to new ones, we didn’t see each other as often, but kept in touch and caught up at occasional firm meetings.  Then I would create a new sense of community on the next project.  It was just a more dynamic form of community than the clients enjoyed.

Another way we felt like outsiders was not being part of their cultural.  We would be in brainstorming sessions and someone within our firm would recommend a change to improve the client’s process.  We would get a smirk or a funny look and be told “that just wouldn’t work here”.  Culture is a set of unwritten rules that get followed by an organization, usually driven by internal politics.  If you’re not “in” the culture, you don’t understand until you’ve been on site long enough to be “culturized”. Consultants are often not onsite long enough to be culturized.

The worst form of feeling like and outsider is when the client assigns your workspace.  When consultants work at a client site, the client rarely has a lot of available office space available.  You tend to be assigned two or three to a cubicle, or they will take a conference room, put tables along the perimeter and have an entire team of consultants share the “war room”.

How you deal with that determines how well suited you are for consulting.  If you are adamant that you need your own office and want your privacy, you probably won’t last long in consulting.  However, if your underlying purpose is to solve problems and get the job done, you relish working with a team and can block out conversations of others while you work, can get your work done in cramped quarters and don’t need the status of your own desk or fancy office, you may be on your way to being a successful consultant.

Keeping Your Cool Under Pressure

It hasn’t happened often, but I’ve worked with some very unreasonable clients.  Either they have exaggerated expectations of their highly paid consultants, or they know that they can get away with abuse without the threat of us going to Human Resources.  I’ve never taken it personally and I’ve found that if I look closely enough, I’m not the only target for these people.

Considering the rates they’re paying, I’ve never been able to figure out why they don’t work with us rather than against us. I suspect each difficult client has their own reason.  Some people like to stir the pot and exhibit their power over other people.  Another observation I’ve made is that they like to push people’s buttons to see how far they can go, and consultants are easy targets.  Maybe they were bullies when they were in grade school.

With this type of client, I’ve found that the worst thing you can do is let them get to you.  They may rant and rave about how badly you or your firm as screwed up.  I had one client tell me that I was just a paper pusher and he had to walk behind me doing damage control.  I had to wonder, if all I did was push papers, how much damage could I have caused?  But I didn’t bring that up.  I tried to stay calm and ask questions.  In the most non-confrontational way, I would try to diffuse the situation and ask him to provide specifics in an effort to help resolve the problem.  I knew he was being irrational and just blowing off steam.  I could have yelled and called him an asshole, but for me to get angry in response would have just escalated it and potentially gotten me removed from the project so he could save face.

Speaking of saving face, I’ve found that sometimes, they are so irrational, it’s a no-win situation.  If the client thinks you’ve done something wrong, it may be best to fall on your sword, apologize and ask what you can do to rectify the situation. This is a particularly good strategy when the client is right.  Denying that you screwed up when you really did looks much worse than just admitting you are wrong.

The key tactic is to remove emotion.  Whether they are trying to get under your nerves or doing it unintentionally, you must maintain your professionalism and keep your composure.  There is nothing to be gained by heating the argument up further.

This applies even more so when it comes to emails.  If a client sends you an unfairly critical email, you may have a first instinct to flame one back at them.  But documenting your angry tirade will only give them evidence to support removing you from a project.

You may think that being removed from a project like that is a good solution if it will get you away from this jerk.  But if you leave because you couldn’t handle a client, that could be a black mark on you within the firm, that will last the rest of your time in their employ.  Rolling off of the project could also land you on the bench reducing your utilization, and by extension, your evaluation rating, your raise and your bonus. It’s best to suffer through to the end of the project and move on.  That’s one of the great things about consulting; right about the time you’ve grown weary of a client, you get to move on to the next project at the next client.

When a client flies off the handle, there could be a thousand reasons ranging from their boss being a jerk, to personal issues at home.  It can be for any number of reasons.  Even if they have a legitimate argument, it’s no fun to be ridiculed unnecessarily.

If you can say something to ease the tension or help solve the problem, that’s great.  Sometimes though, you just need to be the sacrificial lamb and take their wrath.

What about your experiences?  Have you ever had to deal with an unreasonable or bad-tempered client?  How have you dealt with it? Did you retaliate with your own anger or let them have their say and move on?

About the author: Lew Sauder is the author of Consulting 101: 101 Tips For Success in Consulting (www.Consulting101Book.com)  He has been a consultant with top-tier and boutique consulting firms for seventeen years.

Preparation

It has often been said that success occurs when preparation meets opportunity.  It’s always been one of my favorite sayings and I’m amazed how often it rings true.

Preparation as a meeting attendant: One of the most obvious settings where this occurs is in meetings.  Most business meetings are scheduled through Outlook, Lotus Notes or some type of integrated calendaring software.  Along with the invitation that comes in your email, there may be documents attached.  This can be as simple as an agenda, or any number of documents that are intended to be reviewed during the meeting.

If the document is sent in advance of the meeting, it’s a good assumption that you are expected to review it prior to the meeting.  Otherwise, the meeting organizer would just bring copies to the meeting.  I’ve had this become an issue with clients.  I’ll send out a meeting invite with a document attached, intending for them to read it and to provide feedback at the meeting.  There isn’t time in a 1-hour meeting to cover the whole document.  I often have people show up without having even looked at it.  They see the document for the first time in the meeting.  We end up spending an hour to get through the first couple of pages.  To reduce the chance of this occurring, I often send a separate email with the document, specifically asking them to review it and bring comments to the meeting.  While this improves my hit ratio, I still have to spoon-feed some of the meeting attendants on the documents contents.

This is where there is a big double standard for consultants.  When clients come to a meeting unprepared, you need to deal with it.  A consultants coming to a meeting unprepared is unacceptable.  If you are invited to a meeting, check for any attachments that need to be reviewed.  Whether you print them or review them online is a matter of personal preference.  The first check should be to understand your role in the meeting.  If they want feedback, you must be ready to provide it.  If you are just there for informational purposes, you still should be familiar with the content of all documentation.  If your role us unclear, contact the meeting organizer to get an agenda or to find out what your purpose is in the meeting.

Prepare to be on time: Another important factor in preparing for a meeting is allowing enough time to get there on time.  Showing up late is an excellent way to show the other participants your disregard for their time.  Even if most of them habitually show up late, you should not be in that group.

Prepare for questions: Finally, while in the meeting, be prepared for any questions.  Try to anticipate questions that could be asked of you.  Stay focused so that when a question comes your way, you’re not caught thinking about what you’re going to wear to your friend’s party next weekend.

Prepare to run the meeting: If you are the meeting host or organizer, there is additional preparation involved.  If you plan to use a projector, sufficient time should be allowed to have it set up and running prior to the meeting.  Additionally, if there are agendas or other documents that need to be printed, print them at least an hour prior to the meeting.  Printers seem to be programmed to go down or jam in the last minutes of the hour right before a meeting starts.

Emails: Preparation goes beyond meetings too.  Staying up to date on emails ensures that you can avoid the embarrassment of being uninformed with someone who runs into you in the hall and asks about the email he sent to you three days ago.

Project planning: If you are in charge of a project plan, it’s a good idea to review the current tasks at least within the next week to be able to answer a manager or a client that asks for an impromptu status.

Staying current in your industry: Preparation also means staying current with technology and trends in your industry.  There is no way to stay current on everything at all times, but subscribing to – and reading – online trade magazines from your industry will allow you to speak intelligently about many of the concepts that come up in meetings and other conversations.  If top management brings up one of those topics that you just read about, that is a big opportunity that could meet with your preparation.

What about your experiences?  When has your preparation – or lack thereof – intersected with opportunity and affected your success?

About the author: Lew Sauder is the author of Consulting 101: 101 Tips For Success in Consulting (www.Consulting101Book.com)  He has been a consultant with top-tier and boutique consulting firms for seventeen years.

Performance Evaluations – Carrot or Stick?

This is about the time of year when companies are finishing up their annual performance evaluations for 2010.  It can be a bittersweet time.  You get to receive some frank feedback from your boss, while being reminded of your flaws and areas of weakness.

As a manager, I get to see this from both viewpoints.  I give evaluations to my direct reports and then sit on the receiving end for my own review with my boss. The common approach that I’ve seen at most employers is the grading scale of 1-5 on anywhere from 5-10 criteria that have varying weights of significance.  The process goes something like this:

Self-Input/Self-Evaluation: Here the employee gets the first word in and provides a description of what they accomplished in each functional area.  They usually also get the option of assessing their efforts with the grade of 1-5.  I’ve seen people give themselves 5s across the board thinking the manager will use that as a starting point, hopefully limiting the amount that the score will be reduced; or they can be as honest as possible, still usually overestimating their value.

Manager Evaluation – Many managers simply copy and paste the self-input comments from the employee into the actual review while others integrate the employee’s comments with their own.  Then they perform their own assessment determining how difficult the evaluation is going to go based on the delta between the self-assessment and their own.  Once this evaluation is complete, it can go through multiple levels of management review.  Some firms force a bell-shaped distribution of final scores so that there is a lower 10%, an upper 10% and a majority of employees at the 3 level.  I’ve heard of companies that even fire the lowest 10% every year, but that’s extreme, brutal and over-the-top competitive.

Execution of the Review – When the employee’s score has been approved by management, the manager sits down with the employee for the formal review.  Some forms have the composite score on the back page, which forces the employee to either sneak a peek during the review or to wait until they’ve walked through the whole thing.  The manager goes through each section explaining the rationale behind each assessment.

Optional: Protest/Attempted-Negotiation – There can be 1-2 iterations of the employee coming back to the manager to protest their score and/or the verbiage in the evaluation.  There is usually very little the manager can do at this point since the rating has been reviewed by multiple levels of management and normalized with the rest of the pack.  If something has been glaringly overlooked, perhaps changes can be made, but it’s rare.  The manager just has to allow the employee state their case.

Explanation of 5 point system – This is done at varying points within the process.  While most people look at it as the equivalent of the school grading system where a 5 equates to an A, a 4 is a B and so on, it’s usually approached differently for evaluations.  In most cases, a grade of 3 means that the employee met expectations – did everything that was asked of them and completed it to the manager’s satisfaction.  A 5 means that they walked on water.  This is usually reserved for employees that were given some herculean task – a high-profile, failing project and resurrected it from the ashes.  As expected, few people are even put in those situations, so 5’s are few and far between.  A 4 is somewhere between 3 and 5.  They highly exceeded expectations for the challenges they were given.  A 1 is a total slacker and a 2 is someone who either needs to get their shit together or find a less challenging line of work.

Based on these descriptions, A 3 is more equivalent to a B and a 4 is like an A.  The 5 is a high honor roll A taking AP classes.  This translation is the hardest part to communicate.  People with a composite score of 3.X still see it as a C, when in fact, it’s a B+ on a forced curve.

I often wonder what the effect is of these exercises.  I’ve read studies that say it hurts morale more than it helps.  I’m sure the 4s and 5s don’t see it that way.  There are other approaches like 360-reviews and one place I worked where they just never did reviews – or raises.

The biggest problem is that the feedback is often only given once a year.  At one place I worked, evaluations were given quarterly and after every project.  This provided frequent feedback and few surprises at the end of the year.  Someone who got a 3 had been getting them for most of the year.  Managers in most firms consider performance evaluations as a necessary evil, not to mention unbillable time, and can’t fathom giving them more than once per year.  But frequent feedback is what is necessary to give an employee the information they need in order to know where they stand and to continuously improve.

What has been your experience?  Have you had good or bad experiences getting or giving performance evaluations?

Lew Sauder is the author of Consulting 101: 101 Tips For Success in Consulting (www.Consulting101Book.com ) He has been a consultant with top-tier and boutique consulting firms for seventeen years.

The Lost Art of Saying Thank You

I have three kids whose ages range from nine to sixteen.   Whenever they receive a gift, whether it’s from a family member, a friend of the family or one of their pals, we make sure they write a thank you note to that person.  It’s important that they learn the value of showing gratitude.  In addition to making the gift giver feel better, I believe there is a personal benefit to telling someone how much their gift or gesture means to them. I hope my kids get as much out of saying thanks as the person they’re thanking.

I also hope that it carries over into their careers.  It’s so important in a professional environment to show gratitude when people do something for you.  Certainly you want to do it for the big things.  When you get a promotion or recognition from your boss, hand-write them a note to thank them and let them know that you couldn’t have done it without their guidance.  If you truly believe their guidance had nothing to do with it, you can still thank them for recognizing your efforts.

Of course you also need to send a note to someone who interviews you to thank them for their time.  I’ve interviewed many people over the years and am amazed at how rare it is to receive a thank-you note.  It’s certainly not what gets you the job.  I don’t recall ever saying, “Let’s give her the job because she sent a thank-you note.” But it helps to set you apart if you happen to be on equal ground with another candidate.  When someone sends me a thank you note for an interview, it gives them a few more points.  If they don’t get the job, I’m more likely to remember them the next time a position comes up.

It’s important for smaller things too.  If one of your peers goes out of their way to help you out, it will mean a lot to them if you send a friendly email thanking them.  If you can thank them in front of the whole team in the staff meeting, that’s even better.  They may claim embarrassment, but deep down, they’re loving it.

It’s most important to show your appreciation when a client helps you out with something.  In a professional services environment, we often tend to forget that we’re there to serve the client, not the other way around.  If a client employee finds a lost file for you or directs you to the key person to help you get you the answer you need, you’ll be amazed at the goodwill you can generate by sending them an email thanking them.  If it created a benefit for the project, it would help to copy their manager on the email.

We live and work in a world of distractions.  We’re inundated with texts, tweets, emails and a hundred other things that interrupt our focus.  When someone does something for us, we’re appreciative deep down; we just don’t always take the time to thank them for it.  What we don’t realize is it makes a big difference to the person you thank, and makes you feel pretty good too.  The next time someone does something – anything – nice for you, take the time to thank them.  You’ll both feel better.

For more tips on professionalism, career success and client management, check out my book, Consulting 101: 101 Tips For Success in Consulting at http://www.Consulting101Book.com.

5 Alternative Job Search Strategies to Differentiate Yourself in the Market

As one who has lost his job in each economic downturn that has occurred throughout my career and changed jobs once on my own accord, I’ve been through the painful process we call job search more often than I care to admit.  I’ve been through the frustration cycle of searching the job boards, customizing my resume to the job postings, submitting it into the black hole of the internet to hear nothing in return.

I’ve read articles and blogs by the “experts” that provide all the tips on searching for jobs and then tell me to differentiate myself.  Well if we all follow the same advice that all of the experts suggest, how do we differentiate ourselves?

So I combined into my experience as a job seeker, a job hirer and a book promoter and came up with some strategies that may help one differentiate themselves in a large market of job seekers.

1.    Publish articles in magazines that focus on your expertise. Everyone has some expertise in some area that others don’t know about but would like to.  Because you work with people who know about your business or industry as much as you do, you may lose sight of the fact that you’re deep in knowledge that people outside of your industry may be looking for.  Getting published is easier than it has ever been.  Do a simple internet search for ezines or industry trade publications and you are certain to find one that specializes in your area.  Write a well-written article that showcases your experience and expertise and submit it.  Once it’s published, cite it in your resume with a link.  This not only differentiates you as an ‘expert’ in your field, it shows the employer that you are willing to share your knowledge and that you’re serious about what you do.
Alternatively, start a blog and update it regularly.  If you display your knowledge, skills and experience in an intelligent and succinct manner, prospective employers will take note and remember you.

2.    Do volunteer work in your expertise.  This may not be a new suggestion, but it does differentiate you for a few reasons.  First, it keeps your skills sharp.  Like exercise, if you stop doing your job for any extended length of time, your mind tends to get dull.  You forget things that were second nature and it will be hard to ramp back up when you eventually get hired.  Secondly, it fills gaps in your resume with practical experience.  In this ‘great recession’, a resume gap is not the stigma it used to be, but the larger the gap, the more it becomes an issue. Volunteer work can help to reduce the gaps and avoid raising concerns unnecessarily.  Finally, non-profit organizations are feeling pain these days too.  Helping them out with your skills makes it a win-win situation.  Who knows, you may network with another volunteer that can help you find a job.

3. Focus your skills towards the healthcare industry. Over the next several years we will be experiencing a perfect storm in the healthcare industry.  As part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), healthcare providers will be paid incentives for implementing Electronic Medical Records systems over the next four years.  Beginning in 2015, providers will be charged penalties for non-compliance.  This will create a shortage of specialists in Information Technology, Healthcare, Project Management and many other specialties.
Additionally, HIPAA 5010 is a new set of standards regulating the electronic transmission of healthcare transactions.  By federal law, healthcare providers need to convert from the current standard 4010 to HIPAA 5010 by January 1, 2012.
Finally, the International Statistical Classifications of Diseases (ICD) is a set of codes that designate diagnosis, description of symptoms and causes of death for healthcare providers. The industry is converting from their ICD-9 standard to ICD-10, which increases the number of code designations 8-fold. ICD-10 codes must be used on all HIPAA transactions by October 1, 2013 to avoid delays in reimbursement payments.  Targeting your skill set – regardless of your industry background – toward the healthcare industry can improve your chances of getting hired.

4. Take a class in Marketing. While doing your job search, many advisers (expert or otherwise) suggest going back to school to either learn a new skill or brush up on those that you may have gotten behind on.  If you’re able to afford that while unemployed, I would recommend a marketing class.  Looking for a job is the process of marketing yourself to potential employers.  A marketing class will provide you with valuable knowledge on targeting your market – employers – and positioning yourself for your skills to get ‘purchased’ by a ‘consumer’.
I’ve often heard the advice that you should show quantitative value on your resume.  Don’t just tell them that you managed a project or implemented a process; state the value in quantitative terms.  But as a job seeker who has updated his own resume, and an employer who has read hundreds of them, I know that it’s tougher to do than it sounds. It requires identifying and defining your market and understanding what your consumer wants.  Once you do that, you will be better suited to position yourself for that market and state the value of your past experiences in terms that mean something to them.  You may not be a marketer or sales person by trade, but you are now in sales mode and your resume is your ad copy.  A marketing class can help you learn some tricks of the trade to better sell yourself.

5.    Consider Consulting. As any unemployed individual knows, many businesses are hesitant to hire full-time employees.  After the painful, morale destroying process of laying off masses of their employees over the past few years, they are reluctant to begin ramping up staff until they are sure the economy begins improving at a faster clip.  It’s as if everyone is waiting for everyone else to start the recovery.  On top of that, healthcare reform has many businesses waiting to see how much more it will cost to insure new employees.
Businesses have become accustomed to working lean and doing more with less.  If a project comes up that needs to be done, they are more likely to hire a consulting firm to come in, complete the project and get out.  When another project comes up, they can bring in a whole new set of consultants with different expertise and do the same thing.  Businesses like the flexibility of using consultants without the long-term commitment of hiring more employees.  There are consulting firms that are now hiring.  Healthcare reform is driving a large portion of that, but the fact that consulting is an alternative to hiring is also a big push.  There are also options to go independent if you have industry contacts and experience.
Should you decide to consider that route, working in the consulting industry, whether as an independent or with a firm, requires some additional skills.  My book, Consulting 101: 101 Tips For Success in Consulting, provides in depth insight on how to manage client expectations, improve your communication skills and manage your career in a consulting environment.

I’d be interested in what other tactics you’ve used to differentiate yourself in this market.  Please feel free to send your ideas and share them with other readers.

Lew Sauder has worked as an IT consultant for 17 years. He is the author of Consulting 101: 101 Tips For Success in Consulting (www.Consulting101Book.com).