Some people in my network frequently ask me how it feels to be a consultant and I always gave them the same smile before explain what I think about this uncommon profession. The first thing that came to my mind is that being a consultant is not for everybody because at least 20% of success came from your DNA, this is about your natural born talent that can’t be developed. The other 80% is how you deal every single day managing frustration, supporting overtime, skipping family time, adapting to market changes and customer indecision, resolving people issues, keeping all parties satisfaction, maintaining customers trust and upgrading your knowledge just to keep you in shape. It’s not as simple as it reads huh? Now imagine you are an IT consultant and multiple all this per ten.
Through the years I had realize that there is not a single way to success in this profession but I had found some tips to increase your capabilities so you can be me more than a good consultant, to be be a great one!
Let’s see some of them:
1. High Performance do not means to work more hours
People constantly think that working lots of hour’s means to be a high performance worker and this is totally wrong! A high performance consultant is the person who resolve all day duties in a couple of hours, helps others to accomplish team’s goals and also have time for networking or acquiring new technical skills. To do this, there are three simple ways: a) manage your time efficiently by prioritizing duties, starting with the complex ones using your full stamina of the early working hours and then use the last part of the day for the easy tasks, b) reduce time waste by taking less coffee breaks and spending less time at your social networks or doing personal matters and c) be a team player, super stars emerge from strong teams relationships, its more easy to get there with a bunch of guys helping you than do it all by yourself, believe me…it works.
2. Balance, you need balance!
As master Miyagi said to Daniel San in the Karate Kid 80’s movie, you need to have balance! You can’t success in this career if you do not have balance. Consultancy is always stressing, always playing versus the clock and the customer pressing, so start your days early, make at least 30 minutes of exercise by running in the park next to your place or find a gym close to your client office but do whatever you need to maintain yourself fit, because exercise create endorphins that make people happy. Eat healthy food, avoid fast food places by motivating your coworkers to find better places to eat during work time and if not, bring complements with you (fruit, vegetables). Finally, balance is also about not ruining your personal life because of your job, you must always find time with your friend, couple or family within your work week, being emotional balanced is critical to success. So if you are not doing nothing of these, what are you waiting for, go and Banzai! (If you saw the movie you will understand the reference).
3. Love your job as your love your couple or your hobbies
As other careers, to success you need to love what you do. IT consultants are not the exception. Must of the people went to work every day complaining themselves about what they have to do, about their coworkers, their bosses and also about the coffee machine then, they just live to see the clock and count every single minute to leave the office, without doing nothing about it. This is not love, indeed this is hara-kiri. So, I’m not telling you to leave your job as soon you finish reading this article, I’m telling you that if you do not feel comfortable on what you are doing I recommend you two strategies: 1) first, talk with your boss or supervisors, express yourself about what you feel and ask for their help to find out if there are some other internal vacancies in your company where you can fix; 2) If this doesn’t work, start dedicating a few minutes every day searching for other opportunities, maintain your resume updated and talk with your networkers in other companies. If you don’t move you will stay unhappy.
4. Learn and train; train and learn
Imagine yourself as a Jedi Knight, every single one need two things in their lives: a master and an apprentice. To be more successful you need to learn from the best’s. The ideal way to do this is finding within your company who is going to be your mentor, that person that you admire because of his or her technical knowledge and soft skills. Once you found them, be close to them, observe all their movements, understand the way they behave in front of the clients, how they lead people, how the manage projects, and then execute, evolve yourself by creating your own consultant personality and ask them for continuously feedback, always do, it’s the way to be better and better every day. After that, try to transfer that knowledge to the younger ones or less experienced in your company, get your own padawans and show them how works good for you, coach them, be a leader to them, help them to grow in their careers and also give them feedback. Believe me, you will also learn from them.
5. Deliver value in every move you do
Growing at any company it’s always complicated. Perhaps the consulting firms offer some fast track options there is no guarantee for anyone to accomplish it. Over the years I had talk several times with members of my different teams and they always ask me the same: What I have to do to be promoted? And the funny part is that I either have the same response: “You need to offer something different”. Ok as I did to all them, I will explain this to you too. To offer something different means not just came to work every day and accomplish your duties on time, because that why the company pays you, why the company is going to pay you more if you only complete the job you were hire to? It’s a tricky one, but to deliver real value means to do more that the things they expect about you, I they thing you can deliver one project, show them you can handle two, if they thing you can obtain two certifications, while not have three? Are you all following me? I think I made my point.
So no matter if you are new in this business or experienced, always remember that key of success is on your hands, and no one can take it away from you, no one. Good Luck!
Source:/gossipplays.com/
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