Monthly Archives: September 2017

TNF #104: The power of rehearsal

Welcome Professionals…

…As top management consultants, we deliver most of our work in presentations. From the proposal pitch throughout sharing first hypotheses and intermediate results, convincing stakeholders up to giving a presentation on final conclusions and recommendations to a steering committee. All of these are presentations whether we use a formal slide presentation or free speech, whether we talk to a group or one-on-one.

A good preparation of these presentations is key and everybody knows that. Yet, I see a lot of effort put into the content while the power of a rehearsal is untapped. Only few teams and individuals acutally take the time for a proper rehearsal.

Of course, good content is the foundation of every presentation. Deep analytics, rigorous problem solving, creative thinking, and logical conclusions are crucial to every presentation. This work has to be done professionally without any doubt.

Once the content is clear, I see presenters spending a lot of time and effort in structuring the presentation, choosing the right words and graphs, adding pictures, polishing colors and so on. This is also quite important. While the polishing often goes on to the last minute before the presentation, a proper rehearsal is skipped in most cases.

This is a great mistake. While content, structure, and appearance are certainly tablestakes to every presentation, there are some additional elements of equal importance. These include

good connection between presenter and audience
projection of self-confidency
fluency and flawless execution (esp. when more than one presenter is involved
projection of a positive attitude

The above are most important elements for building a trustful atmosphere to move and convince the audience. This is why we do a presentation in the first place, otherwise we could just pass on a written document. Achieving these features takes a lot of general training and experience. It does also require specific training for the individual presentation. This is done by a proper rehearsal.

I will cover the key features of an effective rehearsal in next week’s TNF.

Stay tuned,

Malte

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TNF #103: Deadline

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Welcome Professionals…

…Recently I overheard somebody saying: “I must meet this deadline or my boss will kill me!” I was cringing when I heard so much negativity condensed in one single sentence. From a motivational standpoint this is the worst formulation of thought. Think about the elements of this sentence.

“I must”: Nobody must do anything in our rich part of the world. We all must die some day. Thats all. The rest we can choose.

“…meet this deadline…”: I actually looked up the word deadline, because I wondered where it comes from. Here’s what I found on Wiktionary: “According to the Oxford English Dictionary, early usage refers simply to lines that do not move, such as one used in angling. Slightly later American usage refers to a boundary in a prison […] beyond which prisoners were shot.” I never really liked the word deadline, but now I think it is disgusting.

“…or my boss…”: This is an externalized motivation. Our protagonist is doing it for somebody else, someone of higher authority. This induces a feeling of low self-worth.

“…will kill me!”: Clearly an exaggeration from my point of view. Other than prisoners in the original meaning of the term deadline, employees will barely get shot by their boss for crossing the deadline. Thinking about the act of killing will certainly be a severe threat that is completely inappropriate for this kind of problem.

You may call my analysis of this one sentence hairsplitting. And you may be right. My point is: Words matter! Let’s think twice before we use such a desperate sentence again. First of all for the sake of our own souls. Second for the people around us – our team mates, clients, and bosses, too.

Wishing you freedom of thought,

Malte

TNF #102: Take a stand

Welcome Professionals…

…Our business world is complex. A proper judgment calls for a broad overview, joined-up thinking, and analytical rigor. Good solutions require experience as well as creativity. This is why our clients draw on the expertise of top management consultants in finding satisfying answers to their questions.

What the client will expect is a clear guidance. What will strain the clients patience are ambiguous statements like “on the one hand…, but on the other hand..”.

I went to a conference recently where two approaches to one problem were presented. After the presentation, one of the listeners went to see several consultants who had been in the audience, all of which called themselves an expert on the topic. The listener asked a precise question: “Which of the two approaches would you advise me to use?”

What he received time and time again was a fuzzy “Well, it depends. Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages…”

I certainly do understand the dilemma of the consultant here. There is usually not just one way, there is no golden rule, there are always disadvantages and advantages to a specific approach. But this is no excuse to sneak out.

When the question is put as clearly as in the case above, the client is looking for a reference point from a trusted advisor. The client wants to hear an informed opinion. This is the time when the top management consultant has to take a firm stand.

These are some examples of taking a stand:

Approach B is the best-practice standard and used by most of my clients!
I would choose approach A because it safes precious time!
If you look for speed take approach A, if you look for comprehensiveness take B!

We must all strive to develop the experience and skill level to make a judgment call in our area of expertise. Of course, we will never take a naïve guess. When we enter new terrain, it is much better saying: “To answer this question, I have to study your specific situation in detail”. That buys some time.

Encouraging you to take a stand,

Malte

TNF #101: Humor epiphany

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Welcome Professionals…

…I had an epiphany a while ago. I re-discovered the importance of humor in my life, especially in my business life.

Humor has always played a major role in my life. Fortunately, I had a happy childhood in my family with 3 younger brothers where we always had some funny banter going on. As a school kid I used to tell lots of jokes and later at university, I participated in a student comedy contest. With a friend I founded a satire magazine, one of the first published in the internet back in 1996.

When I entered my job as a top management consultant something changed. I remember my first project where we celebrated the final milestone of the project with in a dinner meeting with our client. Soon enough I found myself joking around with the client, in part recycling some bits of my comedy repertoire. I think we had a fun time and I thought the client as well. Except for my project leader.

As I found out during the final feedback round, my project leader rated my behaviour at the dinner table as completely inappropriate. He evaluated my client handling skills as unsatisfactory as a result.

My epiphany occurred when I realized that my long forgotten experience with my first project leader still influences me in client contacts. At least in high-rank client contacts, it makes me act more serious than necessary. Seriousness is an extremely important trait in top management consulting, but overdone it can show as rigidity. So I am acknowledging the situation in my early career that made me suppress the humorous part of my personality. With new confidence I am deliberately adding more fun, banter, and humor to my client interactions. It leads me to come across as a more rounded personality and is relieving tension in various situation. After all, it is more fun to work this way!

Have fun,

Malte