|
| Welcome |
 |
Those of you who read my blog know that I have some
pet peeves about presentations. Here comes another one.
Now I enjoy listening to good speakers, particularly
those who can hold my attention, communicate their message,
and throw in a little entertainment. And not long ago,
I heard such a speaker at a meeting. He had energy,
enthusiasm, and a compelling message.
He didn’t really need the seemingly endless string
of PowerPoint slides he used, which all looked the same.
Each slide included six or seven complete sentences—in
bullet form, of course—and one small, animated
graphic crammed into the lower right corner.
Because each slide was so packed with stuff, the speaker
used his red laser pointer to highlight every sentence
on every slide. Granted, he was a true marksman
with that pointer and never missed his target.
But watching that red dot ricochet across the screen
was like watching an Olympic ping pong match. My neck
was killing me trying to follow the action. His use
of that laser pointer was nothing short of audience
abuse.
I’m not saying there’s no role for a laser
pointer in a presentation, but give it a rest. It’s
possible to reduce the clutter on a slide in a way that
doesn’t detract from its message, and then the
audience can follow along without a pointer to illuminate
every thought in the presentation.
The Laser Institute of America (yes, it’s a real
organization) believes additional safety regulation
regarding laser pointers is an important legislative
priority. I hope any new law includes a provision for
protecting audiences from laser pointer overload.
As I said, it’s a pet peeve. Enjoy this month’s
issue. If you have any comments, please send me an email.
Mike
McLaughlin
Editor, Management Consulting News
|
| Interview:
Patrick Lencioni |
 |
Why do some teams produce great results while others
get bogged down in project plans and politics? The project
team is at the heart of most consulting work, so we
invited Patrick Lencioni, bestselling author of The
Five Dysfunctions of a Team, to share
some advice on how to sidestep the landmines and get
the most from project teams.
|
| Increasing the Return on Your Marketing
Investment |
 |
Is your marketing investment doing enough for your
business? Participate in the confidential survey, Increasing
Marketing Effectiveness at Professional Firms,
and you will get to see the results on:
- What
key marketing initiatives do professional service
firms evaluate?
- How effective are their measurement/evaluation tools?
- How do professional marketers overcome the many
obstacles to measuring and evaluating results?
This study is co-sponsored by Expertise Marketing LLC
and the LawMarketing Portal. Marketers at large and
mid-sized professional service firms helped to develop
the survey questions.
The 25-minute confidential questionnaire is directed
to senior marketers in a broad cross section of professional
service firms worldwide, including: accounting, architecture,
numerous consulting specialties, engineering, executive
search, law, and many others.
Participants will get a complimentary copy of the full
report, which will be available in early 2006.
This study concludes on December 15, 2005,
so if you want to participate, do it soon.
Take
the survey now.
If
you have any questions, feel free to contact:
Suzanne
Lowe, President, Expertise Marketing LLC
www.expertisemarketing.com,
978.287.5080
Or
Larry Bodine, Director, LawMarketing Portal
www.LawMarketing.com,
630.942.0977
|
| Keeping Consulting Projects on Track
to Success |
 |
 by
Rob Cimini
If
you’ve been in the consulting business for a while,
chances are you’ve had a project that didn’t
go quite as planned. You’re not alone.
In
a study by The Economist Intelligence Unit, executives
said that 40% of organizational improvement initiatives
failed to meet their expectations. The news is worse
for information technology (IT) projects, which were
judged to be unsuccessful by almost 75% of one survey’s
respondents.
Unfortunately,
consultants have no silver bullet for this ongoing problem.
The complexity of the work, client culture, and external
factors combine to create project environments that
aren’t always conducive to success.
Research
shows that one of the primary reasons for disappointing
project results is the consultant’s failure to
set and manage the client’s expectations. And
based on my experience, that one simple practice—meeting
your client’s expectations—can mean the
difference between project success and failure.
Living
up to your client’s expectations may seem the
obvious objective for any consulting engagement. But
to improve your odds of achieving a great project outcome,
you need a systematic approach for fulfilling those
expectations. To that end, you must:
-
Define what is meant by client expectations;
- Accept personal accountability;
- And manage the process of meeting client expectations.
Define Client Expectations
To clarify client expectations, you must first define
both the “client” and the scope of client
expectations. The client isn’t just the person
writing the check, but includes everyone who has an
interest in or who would be impacted by the project.
In project management terminology, these are the stakeholders.
You
must understand stakeholders’ expectations for
the project and that their definition of success may
be different from the planned scope of the project.
The best consultants dig deeply to get a real picture
of the client’s organization and business issues
and to uncover the stakeholders’ tacit—as
well as stated—expectations for the project.
Accept Personal Accountability
Based
on your assessment of expectations, you and the client
need to agree on which expectations will be met and
how to meet them. And once that agreement is reached,
you must accept accountability, along with the client,
for following through on those expectations.
Often,
the most daunting problem is the client’s resistance
to accepting accountability for the proposed project
outcome. Overcoming this obstacle can be a severe test
of the consultant’s commitment to accountability.
But managing resistance productively is essential to
fulfilling the project objectives and ultimately meeting
the expectations of the stakeholders.
Consultant
accountability is not a negotiated outcome that is re-qualified
as project obstacles arise, but an unwavering position
established at the project initiation.
Manage Client Expectations
Achieving accountability and meeting client expectations
are critical parts of a working, dynamic management
process. You must constantly monitor agreed upon objectives
and expectations to assure they are being addressed
and to make course corrections as needed. It’s
this process that takes a consultant beyond the realm
of subject matter expert to project manager.
General
management skills will help the consultant navigate
the nuances of a client’s organization and manage
client expectations. By demonstrating leadership skills,
communicating effectively across the client’s
organization, and building strong relationships with
client stakeholders, the consultant builds credibility
and engages stakeholders in supporting the project.
Perception Is Reality
In
the end, the truest measure of project success is whether
the client believes that you met and accepted accountability
for expectations. Earning that perception can present
a formidable consulting challenge, especially given
that you must also apply your technical expertise to
the project.
A
commitment to making that perception a reality, aided
by an active management process, will keep your projects
on the right track.
`````````````````````````````
Rob Cimini, PMP is a Principal Consultant at Apogee
Management Group, a consulting firm that specializes
in helping clients maximize their business opportunities
through project leadership. Learn more at www.ApogeeMG.com.
|
| A Snapshot of Consultant Blogging |
|
According to a recent Management Consulting
News study, blogging has yet to catch
on as a high-value marketing tool. In a survey of roughly
400 consultants, less than 10% are using blogs in their
practices.
What’s the reason for the low use of blogs by
the consultants in this survey? Maybe it’s because
58% of respondents aren’t sure if they’re
getting marketing value from their existing Web sites.
Adding another Web-based tool may seem like too much
effort for an uncertain return.
For some perspective on the value of blogging, take
a look at Dave Lakhani’s article below, “Why
Consultant’s Should Blog.”
|
| Why Consultants
Should Blog |
 |
 by
Dave Lakhani
You
can’t turn on the television or pick up a newspaper
without someone talking about blogging. The question
you should ask yourself is: “Does my consulting
practice need a blog?”
The
answer is yes.
Creating
a blog will help your practice:
- Drive more Web traffic to your site
- Create a following for your business
- Give clients a sense of who you are and the personality
of your business
- Generate higher search engine rankings
- Attract media attention to your perspectives.
One
of the most powerful potential outcomes of blogging
is to increase specifically targeted traffic to your
Web site at little cost. Nearly every professional service
provider spends hard earned money to maintain a Web
site, drive traffic to it, and to convert visitors into
clients. A blog is a valuable tool for bringing prospective
clients to your door.
The
challenge is that most professional service Web sites
are nothing more than electronic brochures that leave
the client feeling confused and unable to see the difference
between similar providers. A well-written blog can help
draw out those important distinctions in the client’s
mind.
The ABCs of Consultant Blogging
- Current, relevant content is the key to
a successful blog. You must give readers
fresh and insightful information. They may have read
about the subject before, but give it a different
or new twist. Your blog is a great educational platform,
so use it to answer prospective client questions about
important issues.
- Write with personality. Blogs aren’t
consulting reports, so don’t write them that
way. Be generous with your opinions, facts, and analysis,
but do it with some flair. Let your readers get a
feel for who you are and what your firm is all about.
Make them laugh, arouse emotions, or surprise them.
That is the secret to getting more subscribers and
getting them to read and recommend your blog.
- Cross-Market Your Practice. Many
people who sign up for your blog will also be drawn
back to your Web site to sign up for your online newsletter,
giving you additional opportunities to communicate
your marketing message. People still typically read
their email more often than blog posts, so don’t
miss the opportunity to encourage blog readers to
sign up for your email newsletter.
Every professional service provider should have a blog.
Blogs have become as important as a Web site in a consultant’s
marketing strategy. Embrace that fact and you’ll
have another way to build relationships with prospective
clients long before they ever meet you.
`````````````````````````````
Dave Lakhani is a consultant, speaker, and the author
of Persuasion:
The Art of Getting What You Want.
Visit his Web site at
www.boldapproach.com.
|
| Lessons from HR Executives |
|
What’s
on the HR executive’s agenda? That question was
posed to almost 100 senior HR executives by researchers
at the Aberdeen Group.
As
expected, executives are concerned with the impact of
rising benefits costs. But the companies researchers
consider to be “best in class” are focused
on building stronger teams for their businesses.
Here
are the top three priorities for survey respondents:
- Focus on internal talent and succession planning
(69%)
- Build a better brand to attract new people and retain
existing ones (54%)
- Create budgets to secure the top candidates (54%)
Today’s HR executives are awash in issues, but
keep these three in mind. They’re at the top of
the list for most HR execs.
|
| Coming
Attractions |
|
 “Consultants
invest way too much time fretting about elevator speeches
that end up sounding something like this, ‘I'm
a management consultant specializing in leadership development.’
These short spiels are absolutely worthless.”
- Jill Konrath
Want
to know how to get in front of more clients?
Next
month, consultant and author Jill Konrath helps us kick
off the New Year with a new way of looking at selling
services. Konrath is the author of Selling
to Big Companies and a recognized
expert in complex sales strategies and creating business
value for B2B sales organizations.
Look
for the interview with Jill Konrath in the next issue
of Management Consulting News
on January 3, 2006.
|
Teams
fall victim to dysfunction because they are made
up of human beings, and we are inherently messy,
fallible creatures.
