The Many Untold Truth(s) About Work & Success as a 1-Man Consultant
Whatever you think, I guarantee the opposite is true. Because it is.
What do you think about when the word consultant crosses your mind?
You may think all talk and no show.
Maybe, well dressed and suited up.
Or, perhaps, a pure commander.
None of that is true. In fact, many peers of mine are grounded, witty, reliable, conscientious, and above all, willing to commit to task completion.
Surprise, surprise.
But that should not be surprising, in my humble opinion. Our mandate as 1-Man consultants is to get work done better, faster, cheaper, with less effort, or with fewer resources.
There is no time to thumb our noses at others.
And… why should we?
All Talk and No Show is Irrelevant
I know why 1-Man consultants are slapped with this nomenclature.
It arises out of work necessity. We must speak to C-Level leaders to get our work done. Client stakeholders from within are annoyed because we get to communicate our ideas to their bosses when they cannot.
I know. It sucks.
It appears that the outsider is favored.
However, that is just one side of the story. The reality is we have higher stakes. Imagine what happens when we screw things up during the leadership meeting?
The implications magnify a thousand-fold. These nose-up-the-air senior management folks will start wondering…
- Who hired this clown?
- A consultant who cannot present eloquently? Like, really?
- Why doesn’t he have the answers to my simple question? Have we been paying him to skive on the job?
By the way, no one will jump in to defend me when I am under attack by the client leadership. My team consists of I, Me, and Myself. That is all I have.
And so, if you genuinely want to become a successful 1-Man consultant, I urge you to master the following.
- Presentation skills — Every point presented must lead to a decision point.
- Simple pros and cons comparison — Be clear of the consequences we must accept when sh*t hits the fan.
- Confronting impasse — There will be, I guarantee. It will bubble up to the surface when you are pushing for some serious change in work processes. People do not like change.
These skill sets are not easy to master. We must confront the consensus view and bring the senior management along in our journey.
There is plenty at stake.
Well Dressed and Suited Up Is the Exception, Not the Norm.
You happen to see us at our best on our need-to-dress-formally day. Otherwise, not a chance.
We focus on the work in front of us. Sometimes, there can be fires that need to be extinguished immediately. Or overnight.
I remember sitting beside the in-house software developer troubleshooting software glitches.
I remember guiding clients step-by-step for software testing at 10 in the evening.
I remember calling product distributors late in the evening to ask for discounts.
We are perpetually working to solve problems from our business partners or clients. Because we understand that is the only approach to carry ourselves through the entire consulting engagement.
We dress for the occasion. Trust me. You are most likely to see me in my polo tee and jeans than in my corporate battle suit.
That need-to-dress-formally event is, at best, once a month.
And maybe, thank God for that.
We Are Not Pure Commanders. We Are Our Own Elite Small Unit.
With film, I have to be a team player; it’s a whole different thing. I can’t just be a one-man show. I have to learn how to use people to the best of their ability and motivate them to be as passionate about the project as I am.
- Ice Cube
Firstly, operating as a 1-Man consultant requires us to be multi-faceted. We need to view the entire consulting engagement as a machine with many moving parts.
It is a complex social ecosystem, after all.
And it is not about commanding others to do the work. Why would we do that? I can hire a team of part-timers and freelancers to help me.
That is a cheaper option in terms of cost and time. I can sit back and sip coffee.
But it doesn’t work that way. 1-Man consultants need partners and peers.
Fellow T-shaped consultants are notoriously hard to find. And they are too busy to help you.
That is why we influence our client stakeholders to work with us. By the way, I mean with us, not for us.
We need to find heavyweights who know what needs to be done to get work done. We seek the opinions of experienced client stakeholders to stress test our ideas.
- Has this been done before? If so, did the previous attempt fail?
- Has this initiative not been performed previously? Did the idea get shot down? Why so?
- Is this engagement aligned with your strategic initiative? How can we move together?
The pure commander impression comes from above-average meeting frequency. It gives the impression of that 1-Man consultant standing in front telling others what to do.
No, the reverse is true. We are actively seeking the opinions of our clients on how the consulting engagement can be better conducted for successful closure.
1-Man consultants do a lot of work, even covering for our clients because they are too busy to support the engagement.
We are our foot soldiers too.
Be nice.
It is not easy to talk and work all day.
Parting Keynotes
I wish I could jump in and say that being a 1-Man consultant is an easy job.
It is not true. In fact, the opposite is true. We work hard, seek active support from our consulting clients, and do our best to push client management to move in the right direction.
That is the unsexy truth.
And I guess… that is the fun of working in a 1-Man band.
I enjoy rolling up my sleeves and getting my hands dirty.
I wonder if that is the case for you, Shreya Badonia.
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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