Dear friends,
Have you been a consultant? An independent consultant/contractor/freelancer?
How do you manage the fact that you're not really an employee? You're a company with a client.
How do you manage the different people, stakeholders, personalities, and the fact you have little background knowledge on internal personal divisions that might effect you and your work?
It seems to me that consultants are supposed to be these magic 'fixers' who come in and deal with some difficult project, or, like economic sanctions--are just to prove that the company/group is doing something about a project. Or, the consultant is doing some job that no one else is willing to do.
Consultants, as non-employees and non-parts-of-the-normal-team, are inherently outsiders, who have to gain insight into the deep inner workings of the group for which they contract and also maintain their independence. How do you manage the balance?
I'm new to consulting and would like your thoughts. What are the toughest challenges? How did you transition from regular work to consulting? What else should I know?
Best,
Alena
Dear Alena,
ReplyDeleteI love the freedom I gain from not really being an employee but a service provider.
I don’t tend to engage with the office politics beyond making sure that the person I am working for is happy with what I am doing. I am supportive with technical details directly linked to my task that might help in the fight around internal office politics but I leave it to him or her to fight the battles. Not having to deal with an organisation’s internal politics is one of the big pluses of being a consultant.
I prefer to accept jobs that let me work form home and only require that I come in for the occasional meeting. This makes it easier not to get affected by the office politics.
I accept that there are different types of consultants – those who are supposed to ‘fix’ some issue in the organisation and there are technical service providers who offer a skill that in house people don’t have. I am one of the latter - I produce data that allows organisations to measure levels of insecurity of their own staff or population groups they are concerned with. wwww.insecurityinsight.org Being a technical consultant gives me the freedom to stay sufficiently aloof from the office politics.
I am actually doing two kinds of work: firstly there are the pieces that pay well and that an organisation wants in security related field. I put all my professional skills into these jobs but not my heart. The product is owned by someone else and I know that I will have to give my baby up for adoption. The second types of projects are my data projects that provide people with insecurity insight. These are the projects I love and where I work with people who I like to work with. For these projects I negotiate a co-ownership of some sort: I get some of the pieces of the outputs in some form or another; I might be allowed to use some of the information as a policy brief for my own website. It is the second type of projects that sustains me and my enthusiasm for work. I am building my own organisation and that makes it easy enough not to worry about other people’s office politics.
If you wanted my advice: develop something you love and that you can combine with your consultancy work. Let go of other people’s projects and focus on your own. If you want a real transition from your former employee to being a freelancer – make sure you really fall out of love with your old job because you are in love with something new YOU are creating.
Christina
I currently work in management consulting as well, and I agree with what Christina said - it's important to stay out of office politics and not get too emotionally involved. It is true that our assignments are often jobs that no one else wants to do, but that is sort of what we signed up for when we decided to become consultants! It helps to keep a sense of humor about things.
ReplyDeleteI tend to work on projects where we are providing insights/expertise outside of the domain of the organization, so I don't encounter this too much. I generally do not work on-site. However, I would advise that if things get political, it is important to get your main client contact involved to emphasize the unpopular idea is coming from them, not the pushy consultants. Sometimes there is a tendency to use consultants as a buffer to deal with a messy issue they don't want to be involved in, and that's not fair to you.
So to sum up, keep out of office politics, keep your head down and do the best job possible, and appreciate the fact that people think you are an expert. Also, a little humor goes a long way in diffusing tough situations!
In the industry I am in we tend to work on site. There is an element of dealing with office politics simply because office politics can make it difficult to complete a project. But we don't get involved in them.
ReplyDeleteWe are seen as specialists. We are hired because we have skills in implementing a project that internal employees do not have. We can leverage our expertise to overcome internal politics and help various parties see their required contributions to a project. We do not need to gain deep insight into the group of people we are working with, rather we look to access who is responsible for the project. Is someone blocking the project from moving forward? Is there a way we can help them to stop blocking the project? If we can we do. If we cannot we simply do our job, document it well, and present it to the person making the decisions. Ultimately it is the client who is reponsible for the work done. If they are allowing internal politics to stop a project there is nothing you can do but look for a different placement. If the project manager is a good one, they will be able to see which parts of the project are being held up and they will investigate why and help move it along.
As a consultant your reputation is based on your ability to get the job done well and in a timely manner. Depending on your industry knowledge transfer is highly important.
DataXstream has been in consulting for nearly 15 years. We have long term friends and good relationships that have come out of the assignments we've had over the years. You can still have a good working environment as a consultant.
Cailin Yates
From a Reader:
ReplyDeletei have been consulting since 1997, and it's been great. you can see lots of stories, videos, tips, and tools at www.thomaszweifel.com
From a reader:
ReplyDeleteI have been a consultant now for years. It has its advantages and disadvantages. I love the freedom and flexibility to set your own schedule, and the opportunity to take time off when you want. I do not like so much the idea of working alone all of the time because I miss the team aspect of a work community. And of course, I miss the job security of a permanent job.
From a Reader:
ReplyDeleteI have been a consultant now for years. It has its advantages and disadvantages. I love the freedom and flexibility to set your own schedule, and the opportunity to take time off when you want. I do not like so much the idea of working alone all of the time because I miss the team aspect of a work community. And of course, I miss the job security of a permanent job.