AMCF - Managing Your Consultants Seminar

16 April, 2002

Authors David Maister and Patrick McKenna of the new management tome, First Among Equals - How to Manage a Group of Professionals, spoke to seminar attendees about managing consultants. Both Maister and McKenna are recognized expert advisors to professional service firms.

The premise of McKenna and Maister's book is that in order to manage professionals as individuals and teams in the short and long term, there are a number of fundamental actions that firm management has to take, namely:

• Clarify specific roles within the firm (in the job specification if necessary)

• Have a mandate that describes each person's rights and responsibilities in relation to each other (including senior management)

• Relationships have to be developed on a one-on-one basis before any management can take place

• Trust and enthusiasm must be inspired as money is not the best or only motivator (this is best achieved when staff are led by example and an honest and positive approach is adopted)

Hindrances to good management in consulting firms:

• Most management in consultancies are senior consultants and not educated in leadership/management (interpersonal skills are not on an MBA curriculum). Most firms use the wrong criteria to choose managers. Being a manager should not necessarily be a promotion - it should be recognized as a different type of role to that of a successful delivery consultant/business developer.

• Managers must get genuine fulfillment and satisfaction out of other people's success to be good at managing groups of people. Most professionals like to achieve on their own and therefore they are not always good managers. Money and incentives should go to successful practitioners/revenue generators and the manager role is one of professional service rather than promotion.

Roles in Management:

• There is a difference between a Leader, a Manager and an Administrator. A leader is the person who chooses the route (there is only a small percentage of human beings who can inspire followers - it is not possible to create these types of people systematically). The word "manager" comes from the archaic French for "the holder of horses" (this type of person needs to know "when to give sugar and when to flick the whip"). The word "administrator" comes from Latin and means "server of god", therefore he/she is the person who would figuratively ensure that supplies for the route are available.

• In management, focus should be on the manager and his/her ability to deal with people as human beings rather then from a role to role perspective.

Managing Individuals (the role of the Trusted Advisor as Coach/Mentor within the firm):

• Relationship development is as important with your staff as it is with your clients. Trust has to be earned before your staff will commit to you on the level you need for them to be performing at their best.

• Coaching and mentorship is the key to career growth in any organization. Successful coaching is being continually demanding of individuals and judging how much stretch is appropriate in each situation. The overall goal is to be substantively helpful to your colleagues.
  

• The benefit of being a trusted advisor to your staff is that they will:

  • reach to you for advice;

  • accept and act on your recommendations;

  • bring you in on big problems;

  • treat you as you would like to be treated;

  • respect you;

  • share more information that helps you to help them;

  • lower the level of stress in your interactions;

  • give you the benefit of the doubt;

  • forgive you when you make a mistake;

  • protect you when you need it;

  • warn you of dangers;

  • be comfortable and allow you to feel comfortable;

  • let you know about issues sooner rather than later;

  • trust your instincts or judgments.

• A trusted advisor:

  • seems to understand effortlessly and likes the people with whom he/she deals;

  • is consistent and dependable;

  • always give a fresh perspective;

  • doesn't try to force issues;

  • o thinks things through and let's helps people arrive at their own decisions (doesn't substitute their own judgment for others);

  • stays calm;

  • can separate logic from emotion

Managing groups:

• Most organizations by natural order are comprised of individuals who can be classified as follows:

• 10% Dynamos (people who act as if they have careers rather than jobs)

• 80% Cruisers (people who operate well in their roles but do not necessarily aspire to reach beyond them)

• 10% Losers (people who are not up to par)

• Successful teams are not about togetherness per the natural order of things - successful teams are about discipline. Job specs need to be very specific and there needs to be agreement about all the expectations management has of an employee beforehand. A well run organization needs buy in from top management about appraisal methods and everyone in the group needs to have agreement about their relationship with the leader/s and with the group as a whole - e.g. clarification of peers rights and expectations of each other.

• The McKinsey mentality - senior staff are not told what to do, but if you say you will do it you must do it - otherwise your inaction is tantamount to breaking your word. This exemplifies the power of peer pressure and is more appropriate in a matrixed management environment.

• Every organizer needs an enshriner of the values, with the guts to enforce the values (e.g. the Pope in the Roman Catholic Church). This group leader must be held accountable for his own actions, before he/she will garner the respect needed to successfully manage the group.

• Dale Carnegie espoused that the only way to influence someone was to find out what they wanted and show them how to get it. As a manager, the goal is to help others realize their own goals. This needs to be done on a gradual basis by helping staff by focus on each step of their career progression, so that they are not overwhelmed and/or daunted by the grand plan.

• If there is no career path within the firm, concern can be communicated to staff by confirming that there is a commitment to their success whether they remain with the firm or opt to work outside the firm. It makes sense to build up networking and alumni groups with ex-staff as they may become future clients.

• Without appreciation most people give up. It is important for managers to congratulate success and show appreciation for their people. This show of appreciation must be proportionate to the effort taken and believed to be sincere before it will be valued.

• Training in and of itself is a waste of money if it is given without day to day coaching/mentorship. Coaching alone is more continuous and sustaining than training in isolation.

• Management should spend a day a week watching over the business and identifying potential areas for improvement/staff to coach or mentor. Focus on the bottom line whilst relevant should not take precedence over this important process. Even if not chargeable, time taken to develop the practice and its people should be recorded and group leaders should be assessed not only on their personal numbers, but on the overall performance of the group. In some management roles it might not be appropriate to expect the manager to bill at all.

• Most underperformers have emotional influences that impact their ability to perform. Managing staff effectively means being able to influence them on an emotional level. Interpersonal skills are of more importance in management than technical skills.

What is the benefit of working effectively in groups?

• joint intellectual exchange & brainstorming;

• support and collegiality;

• the effort of the whole is usually greater than sum of the parts;

• constructive challenges and arena for critique;

• forum for consolidating and defining values;

• leveraging joint marketing potential.

Practical considerations in managing a group

• Is there any point at all to having practice development meetings?

• Litmus test for practice development meetings - dispense with the food and see who comes. To ensure a successful meeting you must all be communicating on the same page. Make sure meetings have a purpose - not just an agenda. Every successful business meets weekly and has an action planning focus for the group which covers cross marketing opportunities, practice development initiatives and metrics to measure progress to date (group accountability) and projections to set future targets to aim for.

• When planning a course of action in a meeting - ensure ideas are actionable can actually be delegated and done. Get commitments to action and make them voluntary undertakings. Keep commitments small, plausible and manageable. Establish your contracts for action - set out expectations. Follow up between meetings to monitor progress and ensure that plan is on track. Celebrate successes when they are achieved - people like to be part of winning teams.

How to motivate your staff -

• The key to successful management is creating energy and action rather than holding your staff to a set plan.

• Inspire a dream vision (key in competitive times) - much more effective than financial incentives. Get people to buy into your firm and its philosophy. This is essential to internal branding to support the external branding your firm probably spends so much money on.

• The secret to motivating people is not money, it is: energy, drive, enthusiasm, excitement, passion and ambition. It is generally hard to find examples of this firm wide - it is usually found in localized pockets and is directly attributable to the individuals involved in managing the group and the level of their interpersonal skills.

• Encourage people to extend themselves so that they are constantly growing and developing. Sometimes, in professional services, the role of the coach might be to manage expectations of staff. Most consultants are very motivated and ambitious people anyway and they may need to be reminded to take each step at a time so that they are not overextended and can manage an appropriate work/life balance.

• Key to success is good habits - not a grand plan. Acknowledge and encourage your staff for having disciplined work practices - not only when they reach goals.

It is not a sustainable argument to say that senior management does not have the time to invest in managing their consultants effectively:

• The average management consultant is working 2880 hours a year, of which 1600 should be billable, therefore 1280 are not billable. If you were to deduct 480 hours as individual time (coffee breaks, etc) you would still have 800 hours a year (200 hours a quarter) to invest in your people and your firm for the long term.

• The dream must be combined with discipline and therefore time should regularly be allocated to managing and mentoring the group.

Requirements for successful management:

• A leader who has the character, courage and shared values to act as the impetus for these changes. Exemplary leadership is necessary to lend these objectives credibility. He/she must have non-negotiable minimum values where leadership is prepared to put credibility on the line (e.g. resignation if objectives are not fulfilled). Firms must be based on principles rather than business practices - otherwise you are leaving your ability to influence on the table.

• Size is not a competitive benefit - better organization and discipline is. Mergers and Acquisitions are a window of opportunity for great change however; they beg the question, "Why you need a sledgehammer to crack a nut".