3 Things I Wished I Knew Before Working With Highly Strung Consulting Clients
Managing our clients is instrumental to the success of our 1-Man consulting practice
Consulting clients come in all shapes and sizes.
Some are calm and collected. Few are cucumber chill. Very many are highly strung (meaning easily nervous).
You know, people who push the panic button often?
This is the thing.
Consulting work is a service-oriented profession. We work with people, not machines.
And we are affected by those around us.
Therefore, we must learn to manage ourselves, our clients, and the situation.
This is especially so when we are building our 1-Man consulting practice on the side, and we cannot afford to lose the clients we currently have.
Point 1: Focusing on Ourselves Can Solve Many Problems as a 1-Man Consultant
No one loves the idea that we can be our own problem. Our fingers point outwards.
But we must be practical. Working on ourselves is productive.
- We can learn to get our messages across better
- We can design our PowerPoint slides better
- We can conduct our workshops better
- We can manage our emotions better
- We can control our time better
You see, there are many things we can do if we want to. And it is easier for us to change for the better. Our actions, resolve, and minds are one and the same.
Hoping our clients will change for the better is… wishful thinking.
None of my consulting clients changed how they carry themselves throughout that 1 engagement.
Cucumber types stay cool.
Temperamental types remain spicy.
And so, these are my recommendations for fellow 1-Man consultants.
Own our emotions and the problems in front of us. That way, we put ourselves back in control of the situation.
Next, we do our best to understand why our clients behave the way they do.
Point 2: Understanding Why Clients Are Jumpy Is Necessary for Us to Manage Them
Clients think and respond differently. You know this.
- Some people are calm. They can find their way out of a jungle without a map or GPS.
- Some folks are action-driven. Give them an axe, and they will start chopping trees.
- Some professionals are schedule-aligned. They plan time for everything.
- Some individuals need control. They don’t like unexpected events.
- Some characters are ambitious. They need results.
Yes, the client ecosystem is diverse. They have different motivations in the workplace.
So, what makes them highly strung?
Don’t overthink it. The answer is straightforward.
When they don’t get what they want.
And.
When they cannot explain their thoughts with clarity.
A combination of the 2 generates anxiety.
You cannot get a logistician to be aligned with you if you start a meeting with an agenda, timeline, or breakdown of work. They cannot understand you.
The same logic can be extracted and applied to the operation folks. They must know what has to be done next, so subsequent tasks can be executed without delays.
What about the people in the finance office? You will never get their support if you are out to burn their consulting expenses without any projected returns within a year or 2. Nope, not happening.
And so, this is my thought process.
Consulting clients become highly strung because they are unable to align their needs with our work.
And so, they spill their emotions on us.
They are not unprofessional. They tried to explain. But for some unknown reasons, we (just) don’t get them.
To prevent all that from happening, we must understand their motivation to start this engagement in the first place.
The objective of the engagement is the best starting point for conflict resolution.
Point 3: What If We Are Confronted by The Client? What Should We Do?
If a bomb is about to explode and you know it — You can do 2 things.
- Disarm it
- Avoid it
You always charge a guy with a gun! With a knife, you run away.
Al Pacino played an intelligent character in The Irishman. The above quote demonstrates it.
It works brilliantly for 1-Man consultants dealing with highly strung clients.
Firstly, you might be directly confronted by a client for a task, a missed deliverable, or a slipped milestone. That is normal. We get confronted 80% of the time.
But how do we handle that confrontation?
You need situational awareness if you choose to disarm your client. The best way to do so is to be prepared before any meetings.
- Find out all tasks that have been delayed. Is it by you or the client?
- Check whether the delays will affect the completion timeline. If yes, have a path of mitigation in place.
- Find out whether delayed tasks affect the Key Performance Indicators of that client. Are there any internal variable bonuses tied to timely milestone completion?
These are the thought processes I go through before attending any client meetings.
Now, let me share my rule of engagement for client confrontation.
- I will not engage in any heated debate if the topic involves money or personal attacks
- I choose to walk away first
- Let them calm down
I initiated a conversation 1 week later. I find this time duration optimal as people need space to simmer and work themselves out before a productive discussion.
I need time to ferret from others what I missed or understand the gravity of the situation.
Once, I retaliated immediately to a client’s direct provocation on the quality of work. He called me 2 weeks later to apologize and explained that the recent passing of his father clouded his judgment at work.
I was shocked. Because I thought it was me.
I felt bad for weeks. And so, I learned.
Everyone explodes for a reason. My job as a 1-Man consultant is to stay calm, find out why, and focus on delivering my best work, given the environment I am exposed to.
Nothing else matters.
Parting Keynotes
Clients are humans, after all.
Yes, a few of them will appear highly strung. They wear emotions on their sleeves, and they do appear provocative occasionally.
But engaging and extending that provocation has nothing to do with our work. We must deliver.
Therefore, I suggest 3 things to focus on when working with highly strung clients.
- Manage our own emotions
- Understand their intentions
- Disarm or avoid confrontations as it happens
We become way more productive as a result.
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure. Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.
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