Monthly Archives: January 2018

TNF #121: Free choice

Welcome Professionals…

…Let’s face it. The profession as a top management consultant requires an exceptional dedication of time and energy. Bringing solutions to top management’s most pressing problems cannot be an easy ride by definition.

Of course, investing so much of your time and energy can get exhausting over time. It is the number one reason why top management consultants quit. This reason is most of the time referred to as work/life balance – or rather imbalance to be precise.

The happiest consultants in the long-term that I know seem to have an inexhaustable spring of energy. Where does it come from? It has to come from the inside, no extrinsic factor like money or status can motivate for ages.

It is very obvious to me: Their work is fully aligned with their interests and their values. They are feeling real flow in their work. Their job has become a calling.

This is absolutely crucial. Choose your subject areas wisely. They need to match market needs, your abilities and your interest. Choose your clients. You must share the same values if you want to work with them for a lifetime. Choose your colleagues. You will become a bit like them.

It is your free choice, that will determine your success in the long-term!

Choose wisely,

Malte

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TNF #120: Beehive productivity

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Welcome Professionals…

…Have you ever noticed that people around you are influencing your work ethics? It seems to be much easier to work long hours within a room of hard working people than staying late at the office where everybody else leaves at 5 pm.

The average behaviour of people surrounding us is setting the current norm. If we like it or not, we constantly compare ourselves to what we perceive as normal. Even when we are sitting in an empty office that has no distraction at all, our mind may wander to all the colleagues who are already at home. On the contrary, it seems odd to leave when everybody else is still highly engaged and productive.

To pursue our goals, we want to choose our surrounding wisely. Our colleagues, our office mates do matter. Is it really the best idea to choose your home office for some deep work? Or will the mere thought that your children are playing downstairs derail your focus? Some co-working spaces are busy like a beehive, some others feel like a lazy coffee shop.

Wishing you a productive week,

Malte

TNF #119: Giving feedback

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Welcome Professionals…

…As top management consultants we all strive for continuous improvement. Feedback is essential to review our performance and take appropriate action steps for learning and development. However, there is a fine line between constructive feedback and destructive criticism.

Giving feedback is a delicate task and one can easily be misunderstood. I had this experience recently when I came across as judicial when giving feedback to someone. I should have spent more time on explaining where my observations came from, how they were perceived by other team members, and my intent to discuss a solution. Instead, by jumping into criticism, my statements sounded offending.

To make the conversation easier, it is quite common to wrap negative feedback into positive feedback. This is dangerous because it may either discount the positive side or the negative does not get heard. So I suggest to refrain from this widespread practice.

There is only one universal, good process for giving feedback. Give a neutral description of the person’s observed behavior. If relevant, explain how this is or could be perceived by important stakeholders. Outline the potential consequences.

Talking about feedback, you are always welcome to give me some. Just let me know about your observations,

Malte

TNF #118: Curiosity and effectiveness

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Welcome Professionals…

…I am currently spending my New Year’s holidays in a ski ressort in Austria. Today, we had heavy snow fall, about half a meter of fresh snow. I was sitting in a ski hut, waiting for the sky to clear up when I got into a conversation with a man sitting next to me.

It turned out he was a top management consultant! He had been a partner at Deloitte and was now working in a boutique consultancy focussing on digital advisory. Before we knew that we were both consultants, we quickly figured out that we had a common base of understanding.

The encounter showed once again the common mindset of top management consulting professionals. Above all it is curiosity and a strong urge to use time effectively. This is what I like a lot about our profession.

I wish everybody a good start into 2018 with a lot of curious encounters

Malte