Key Behaviors
McClellan quickly impressed everyone with the levels of morale he created. He equipped the troops, drilled them, marched them past hundreds of congressional reviewing stands, and personally cut a dashing figure amidst the capital’s social scene. He was nicknamed by the press the Little Napoleon.
Only Lincoln suspected trouble, because McClellan’s dash was confined to a tight perimeter around Washington. When Lincoln badgered him to fight, McClellan always had an excuse—he was outnumbered, the training wasn’t completed, his intelligence about the enemy was insufficient, the weather wasn’t right. Ultimately, the general moved south with the agility of a behemoth, and was roundly defeated by Lee on several occasions. Lincoln replaced him with George Gordon Meade, who later won at Gettysburg and then served under Grant.
McClellan had the skills to fight, but not the behaviors. He was meticulous, but not aggressive; he was patient, but had no sense of urgency; he oversaw detail well, but couldn’t comprehend the larger picture.
We see people like this every day—otherwise wonderful fits for the job, but lacking the personality, volition, behaviors, and other ineffable traits required to actually get the job done. The salesperson who knows the product expertly, but can’t bring himself to ask for the order; the entrepreneur whose research skills can create innovative products but who is uneasy working with others for funding and marketing; the natural athlete who chokes because she can’t function well under pressure.
The same holds true for consultants. Most consultants who fail are not lacking skills or opportunity. They are lacking the behaviors that create success. You’ll hear that external consultants mainly fail due to undercapitalization. Don’t believe it. They fail because of poor selfesteem and the inability to deal with buyers as peers and partners.
Internal consultants fail for similar reasons. They are usually quite adept technically, often certified in a gazillion programmatic interventions and constantly attending courses. But they don’t appreciate or grasp the behavioral necessities for the job, and spend virtually no time developing those essential elements.
What behaviors are required? Here are some candidates with some explanations attached.
High Degree of Assertiveness. In the sales lexicon, you have to be able to ask for the business. But equally important, you’re dealing with people who may well outrank you with whom you want to establish peer level relationships. That doesn’t come about from obsequiousness, sycophancy, or a “Yes, sir!” attitude. You should be able to hold your own, defend your beliefs, refuse to compromise on the ethical and quality criteria that protect your client.
You must have the spine to demonstrate that a project is illconceived or pursuing the wrong ends; that personality and turf conflicts must give way to finding cause and the organization’s well-being; and that, while your client may be the expert in finance or manufacturing, you’re the expert in consulting.
The secret to assertiveness: Never raise your voice, but back up what you say with factual evidence and observed behavior.
High Degree of Persuasiveness. Persuasion is needed more on the inside than the outside, because an external consultant is often already paid and has great leverage in threatening to walk away. But internal people can only walk to their offices, so persuasion is a better weapon than threat.
The key to consulting persuasiveness is to demonstrate that the changes you seek are in the other person’s self-interest. No stakeholder is going to be too keen on change unless you can show that he or she will be demonstrably better off. That ability—to persuade and not demand— is the difference between commitment and compliance.
The secret of persuasiveness: Think from the outside in and determine ahead of time what self-interests you can best appeal to in order to create behavior change. (Hint: Ego is very powerful, but on the other person’s part, not yours.)
Moderate to Low Patience Level. Consultants must be imbued with a sense of urgency. No matter what the reason for a project’s delay—or, worse, failure—the consultant will be blamed. It’s your job to move expeditiously and fine-tune in midflight, not on the ground.
You must move when you’re about 80 percent ready. This is because the final 20 percent of preparation is dysfunctional. The amount of time spent will never provide 100 percent perfection and, most critically, the client doesn’t know the difference. That’s right, the final 20 percent is not even recognized in the eye of the beholder, yet consultants fidget around forever trying to make certain that every loose end is tied in a perfect square knot. As we say in New York, fugeddaboudit.
The secret of urgency: Don’t make elaborate project plans, but rather general mileposts that the client accepts but that you intend to beat every time.
Moderate Attention to Detail. This might sound crazy, but it really doesn’t matter if every t is crossed or i dotted. We’re dealing with success, not perfection here. It doesn’t matter if the new compensation system you designed to combat attrition doesn’t have a colorful binder or separate website. It’s minor if the focus groups aren’t getting the refreshments promised while providing feedback on improving customer service. It’s the decreased attrition and increased service that matter.
Delegate details, ideally to the implementers, or to administrative staff (although the latter is often a luxury these days). Don’t allow yourself to be bogged down in the swamp of minutiae. Your buyer doesn’t obsess over detail, and neither should you. Complete what’s essential for the quality of the results, but don’t sweat some of the mechanisms being less than perfect. Aircraft take off every day with small things wrong, so the likelihood is that your project will also fly even if something is squeaking or discolored.
One of the reasons that the vaunted quality movement exhausted itself was that the practitioners were too obsessed with issues that never, ever reached the customer. I can make a case that quality improvement is irrelevant if it doesn’t impact the customer, and the same applies for almost any consulting intervention. Let’s not confuse ends and means.
The secret of avoiding detail paralysis: Ask yourself, “Does this affect the quality of the results in the eyes of the customer, or is the imperfection hidden and unknown to the end user?”
If you can master high assertiveness and persuasiveness, moderate patience, and comfort with relatively low detail, you’re situated in a great place behaviorally. If you can’t, then that’s the kind of coaching, mentoring, and development you need, not your umpteenth coaching certificate from Coaches R Us.
There are other behaviors that help:
- Flexibility: the comfort in finding more than one avenue to reach the same destination.
- Resilience: the ability to bounce back from defeat and/or rejection.
- Perspective: the ease to place life and work in balance so that pressure doesn’t overwhelm you.
- Humor: the ability to defuse a situation by helping everyone lighten up and reduce stress.