Power Couple

I was a Management Consultant for 6 years.

What’s obvious to me now is that there is very little you need to know before entering the world of consulting. Desirable traits for recruiters include: enthusiasm, ability to travel (a lot), and a perceived tolerance for endless criticism. Efficiency, proficiency, resiliency, and expediency is taught on the job.

I had 2 out of 3. Good enough - I was hired!

Training day: First day on the job

Before assigned a project, one is required to go through training. You are placed in a conference room with 20-30 other new hires, a detailed agenda (sample below), and an endless supply of coffee that progressively gets colder as the day progresses.

Figure 1:

A detailed agenda of what key activities involved in “training day”.

Branding Ceremony: Welcome to the Firm

What people new to the world of consulting do not realize is that there is a legalized form of branding that is practiced. Here is how it goes down:

You will be given a test, generally administered on training day, consisting of a series of seemingly random questions. Done answering? Great. Your collective answers will assign you to a quadrant (Figure 2). Congratulations you have placed in your box!

Please note: Learn it well, this is now a part of your identity. For the rest of your consulting career.

Fig 2: Social Style Matrix

Your assessment test will likely end with a closing statement from your training administrator:

Learn your type in detail and about the other social types (how to: spot them, talk to them, breath around them), this will come in handy. Welcome to Accenture and good luck….

A week after Training Day :

I was given my first assignment: A project based in Fort Worth, Texas where the clients had their eyes set on “optimizing things”. The Managing Partner requested the team fly in one night earlier to huddle and discuss what to expect at the client site.

At 8pm four of us met in the lounge of a Fort Worth Sheraton, ready to be briefed. After a quick introduction, it became obvious I was the “greenest“ person on the team, by 4 years.

Then the Managing Partner began his “pep talk.”

Transcript from our briefing:  

Thanks for coming everyone. Tomorrow you will all be on the ground working directly with Joe, an Expressive, his boss Sharon is an Analytic which I will be reporting our weekly outputs to… A few watch-outs: John, the man funding this project is a Driver and will join our 3pm meeting every other Wednesday. For the Amiable folks in the room, please refrain from asking him about his weekend, he isn’t paying us to socialize. I think we are well positioned for repeat business with this client if we don’t f*ck things up. Don’t f*ck this up. Goodnight. 

I looked around in hopes of catching someone’s eyes to exchange a “WTF!?” glance but all I saw were nodding heads. That was the moment I knew exactly what I needed to do. After our debrief I drove to the nearest drug store store and asked the pharmacist to point me in the direction of the strongest antiperspirant. That was the day I began my 6 year relationship with Arm & Hammer, he’s a Driver.

Thnx.

N