Learn the importance of communicating what sets your consulting firm apart from your competition.
When you run a consulting firm, you have to answer one very important question. What makes you special? If you can’t articulate what sets you apart from all the other consulting firms out there, you’ll be hard pressed to win business away from them. You’re going to have trouble winning the bid when other firms are in the mix. Have a clear statement about why you’re differentiated. It’s that differentiation that will enable you to compete on quality instead of being in a race to the bottom on price. Read more
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Whether it’s knowing what you need and what you don’t on a project or knowing how to manage conflict effectively, a long 500 mile stroll can help you build these skills.
A few summers ago, I hiked the ancient Camino de Santiago trail across Spain. It was the best month of my life for many reasons. Along with a lot of other great things I got by walking almost 500 miles, it also taught me some valuable project management lessons that I can use at work.
Less is More
When you are carrying everything you need for a month on your back, you learn to be very smart with differentiating what you need versus what you want. Variety in clothing colors and styles drives complexity and weight in packing a backpack. By the end of the trip, I found that I used 20% of the clothes I packed 80% of the time, and the rest was dead weight. I ended up throwing away a lot of the “I want” clothes and just washing and wearing the “I need” clothes more.
LESSON – As I scope future projects at work, I will ruthlessly force myself to differentiate between what is essential to deliver well, and strip out all the “nice to have” parts of the project that aren’t absolutely required.
Someone Has Probably Done this Before
An amazing thing about the Camino de Santiago is that people have been walking that same trail for over a thousand years as part of a Christian pilgrimage. Whenever I got a blister or a twisted ankle, I realized that hundreds of people probably had that exact same problem at the exact same place and got through it somehow. When I walked by the 800 year-old ruin of a hostel for medieval pilgrims, I realized they probably dealt with the same loud snoring and other problems that today’s pilgrims face. My guide book had the following quote from the journal of a German peregrino in the 1400s that could still be written today – “The women (nuns) in the hostel yell at the pilgrims a lot. But the food is good.”
LESSON – Whenever I start a new project at work, I will seek to learn from the experience of others who have done similar projects in the past.
Our reader poll today asks: As the year-end approaches, how did the year turn out for you versus expectations?
Significantly better! I’m shocked at how well we did 14.54%
Better than expected 39.83%
As expected 20.93%
Worse than expected 20.05%
It was a disaster, and we never expected it to be this bad 4.65%
Better than expected. 55% of you reported you had a better than expected year this past year. 15% of you were surprised at how well you did. Why did this happen? Look at your expectations and how they were set. Were you too pessimistic? That might have led you to miss opportunities early in the year because you were timid. Did you miss a major market trend? How will that trend play out next year? Don’t simply be satisfied with having a fantastic year – consider the reasons it happened and what you can take advantage of in the coming year. For those who did worse than expected, evaluate your market assessment practices. Did you fall prey to the tyranny of the numbers (e.g., “goal is last year +10%”)? How might you do a better job of identifying market drivers and forecasting more accurately in the coming year? Learn from your experience this year to have a better year next year.
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Learn about the consensus-based decision-making style and the situations when it’s most appropriate.
The fourth style of decision-making is consensus-based decision-making. This is when decisions are reached with a cross-functional team. People from different departments are having their input, and buy-in is essential. You should reserve this style of decision-making for the biggest decisions you’re trying to make. However, recognize this can take a lot of time. You have to get everybody saying yes before the decision is made. You’re going to have individuals from multiple groups, multiple functions, all working together, coming up with that final perspective for the final decision. And performance of the individuals is measured by the team’s outcomes since everyone is involved in making the call.
Allow me to offer an example. At one point, we were launching a brand new website for our company. This was a major investment for the organization, and we needed to make sure we got it right. There was no urgency around making this call, and we knew there would be a lot of meetings and analysis that needed to be done. Ultimately, we needed agreement before we turned that website on. We needed to make sure that finance, IT, marketing, sales, operations, and customer service were all on board with that decision. Needless to say, the steering committee’s job of getting all those people together and driving the input from those organizations was a monstrous task. But in the end, because we had taken our time and gotten everybody to give their input, we had buy-in on the final decision. When we executed it, it went very quickly and very well.
As you think about situations where you’re going to use a consensus-based approach to your decision-making, understand it will take a long time and you’re going to get input from a lot of different groups. But ultimately, you will have that buy-in when you say go.
Want to learn more about decision-making strategies? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start improving your decision-making strategies. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
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Our reader poll today asks: How open is your leadership team to new strategic directions?
Very: They’re happy to shift to a new strategy that makes more sense 25.85%
Somewhat: It takes strong effort to compel change 37.64%
Not very: It takes a massive market shift to get them to move 26.40%
Not at all: Don’t even bother talking to them about new directions 10.11%
Moving with the market. 62% of you expressed a willingness on your leadership team’s part to shift strategy as the market shifts and new opportunities emerge. A word of caution here – be sure you’ve set out a clear mission and vision for the organization to serve as a north star. Without that, you risk meandering and getting distracted by the latest trend instead of driving your organization to a chosen destination. Being too willing to change course can put you at a disadvantage versus more focused competitors. For those with leadership teams less willing or even unwilling to shift, recognize the market is always moving. Either you change your business or the market will change it for you with the latter being significantly less desirable. If they’re unwilling to move, show them a cost of inaction – what does their world look like in the future if they don’t take action today? Sometimes seeing that stark future picture can spur them into action.
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Learn about the democratic decision-making style and the situations when it’s most appropriate.
The third style of decision-making that you can use is democratic decision-making. This is when a decision is reached by a majority vote. Buy-in is desirable, but it’s not essential. These are the decisions that we just have to make and then move on with life. Individuals are going to interact. You may have a committee where people come together and form an opinion, but ultimately, we set a deadline, we vote, and we move on.
Imagine a situation where you’re trying to choose a new color and floor plan for the office. This is not a huge decision. It’s not a make-or-break call for the organization, but we do need to make the call and then execute it so we can get back to work. You may assign a committee of people to ultimately choose that color, and you’re going to put it to a vote. Now, not everyone is going to be happy because this is a matter of personal taste so many times. We want as many people as possible to be happy, but we want to make the call and get it done.
As you think about situations where you’re going to apply democratic decision-making, they should be for those smaller decisions that aren’t going to have a huge impact. You need to set a deadline for things to get decided so you can move on and execute.
Want to learn more about decision-making strategies? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start improving your decision-making strategies. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
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Our reader poll today asks: How effectively do you help your teams arrive at their own solutions rather than giving a solution to them?
Very effectively: Almost everything we do is the team’s idea 17.52%
Effectively: I help them often but sometimes drive my own solution 71.89%
Not effectively: My solution often dominates the conversation 7.37%
Not at all: I almost never use the team’s solution and always default to mine 3.22%
Let them own the solution. While the majority of you responded that you let your teams develop and implement the solution to a problem, there is a pretty strong hint of leaders driving their own solutions. While you’re responsible for leading the team, it doesn’t always have to be your solution. Sure, your solution might be the best one but is it significantly better than the one the team generated? If there’s only a marginal difference, try letting the team run with theirs. They’ll be more excited about it, learn more effectively from where their plan had shortcomings, and be more invested in the outcome which should lead to better execution and higher engagement. Reconsider your role in the problem solving process and move from problem-solver-in-chief to being the enabler of your team building, executing, and learning from their own solutions.
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Learn about the participatory decision-making style and the situations when it’s most appropriate.
The second style of decision you can make is participatory. This is when you’re going to make a decision with input from the people who are going to be impacted by the final call. Participatory decisions are made when the decision is much bigger and there’s a lot more risk involved. Getting additional information from more people is going to reduce the decision-making risk. Also, by getting buy-in, you’re reducing execution risk because people have had an opportunity to give their input and have a say in the final call that’s made.
As far as that final call, in participatory decision-making, there’s still a smaller decision-making authority. It may be an individual or a smaller group. This aspect of participatory decision-making can feel a little autocratic, but we’ve gotten input along the way. And the individuals are going to interact with each other as this decision is being made. Getting all the people in the room so that they can hear each other’s perspectives is going to help you drive to a better decision.
Allow me to offer an example. Recently in my firm, we looked at raising prices on some of the services we offer. This is a really big decision and it has a huge impact on the financials of my firm. So I couldn’t rush off and just make an autocratic decision without getting input from the other people I work with. So we sat down, we had a conversation, and we weighed the pros and cons. People had their say and they brought up things that I hadn’t thought of. We highlighted some risks that we were going to have to mitigate along the way. Ultimately, as the leader of the firm, I had to make the final call. But I got input from the people who are going to be involved in executing the decision so that we get better execution on the back end.
As you think about making decisions in a participatory environment, remember you should be using this style when the decisions are bigger. You have a little bit more time to make the decision because you need to gather more input along the way which takes time and meetings. But ultimately, that smaller decision-making body is going to make the call.
Want to learn more about decision-making strategies? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start improving your decision-making strategies. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
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Our reader poll today asks: How strictly do you enforce contract terms when someone backs out of a deal?
Very: That’s what contracts are for. There need to be consequences 42.22%
Somewhat: If it’s last minute with no good reason, we’ll enforce. Otherwise, not really 41.21%
Not strictly: We’ll only enforce terms in the most egregious cases 13.56%
Not at all: We may as well not have signed a contract 3.01%
Terms matter. A large portion (42%) of you strictly enforce contract terms when one party backs out of a deal and another large portion (another 41%) enforce them if it’s a last-minute change. Contracts have consequences. Parties should expect to be held to the terms of an agreement. The implication for you is, as you’re going through a contracting process, be sure everyone clearly understands all the terms and that the triggering of a penalty clause won’t cause excessively punitive consequences. Make consequences proportionate to the offence otherwise you run the risk of permanently damaging a relationship or getting pulled into litigation which may be seen as a cheaper option than paying the penalty. Fair contracts with reasonable consequences are always a best practice.
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Learn about the autocratic decision-making style and the situations when it’s most appropriate.
The first style of decision-making is autocratic, and this is where decisions are made at the top. Buy-in is not seen as an important aspect of making this decision, and actually, it may be counterproductive to involve a lot of people in making the call. Typically, in an environment where you’re making autocratic decisions, work activities and roles are very tightly structured, they’re monitored, and well-controlled, and command and control is a very important aspect of making these types of decisions. Performance on an autocratic decision is measured based on the individual’s execution of that call.
Our reader poll today asks: How clear is your organization’s mission and vision?
Crystal clear: It’s direct, differentiated and inspiring. 20.36%
Very clear: I generally know where we’re headed. 30.17%
Clear: Even if it is a little generic and uninspiring. 28.42%
Not clear: I’m not sure where we’re really headed. 12.28%
Opaque: We don’t have an articulated direction. 8.77%
Setting a clear vision. Half of respondents know their organization’s mission and vision and find it very clear and generally compelling. For the other 50%, even though many stated their vision and mission are clear, it lacks inspiration and for the remainder it’s not clear at all. People want to share a higher purpose. It connects their efforts to something larger than them and gives meaning to their work. Invest the time in crafting a clear, compelling mission and vision statement. Eliminate the buzzwords. Make it short, memorable, and inspiring. Repeat it constantly and make it ubiquitous across the organization. Sharing it once isn’t enough. Once people see how their work connects to what the organization is trying to achieve, it helps them take action without direction and can generate more passion for their work.
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Our reader poll today asks: How would you describe the mindset of the majority of the leaders in your organization?
They’re always willing to put the organization’s well-being ahead of their own interests 27.68%
They mostly put the organization first but sometimes act selfishly 40.22%
They’re often self-centered and occasionally put the organization first 21.77%
They always come first before the organization’s interests no matter what 10.33%
Organization first… mostly… While about 70% of you report leaders in your organization either always or mostly put the organization’s interests ahead of their own, an alarming 30% of you said those leaders are putting their interests ahead of the organization’s. Such behavior is catastrophic. People see it happen and then emulate that behavior because the mindset is “well if they’re taking care of themselves first, they’re not taking care of me so I have to take care of myself.” Before you know it, no one in the organization is doing right by the organization and everything crumbles. So what can you do? A few things. First, remind people of your organization’s values. If they’re not prominent, make them top of mind. Second, when you see self-interested behavior, ask questions to clarify why the behavior is the right choice for the organization. People generally know when they’re doing something wrong or selfish. Third, lead by example. When you put the organization first, people know it and they emulate those behaviors too.
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