How Consultants are perceived as Competent, when they are NOT
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 พ.ค. 2024
- Why do consultants often seem so confident and competent? In this video, I talk about how consultants are perceived as competent, when they actually are not. As a consultant in the first weeks of your project, you will need some time to better understand the client's organization, industry and problem at hand. Though the client will usually expect consultants to be competent and highly knowledgeable from day 1! Especially for junior colleagues fresh out of university, this can be a very challenging part of consulting. Based on a Harvard Business Review article describing what the authors call "learning-credibility tension", I share techniques that consultants use to overcome this challenge. The video covers important communication skills for consultants. It covers consulting techniques relevant to management consulting careers and your regular day in the life of a consultant.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:37 HBR article
02:56 Why consultants "fake" competence
04:48 Leverage the knowledge that you receive
06:44 Frame information as experience
08:02 Frame questions the right way
09:31 Being perceived as intelligent
11:31 Reflections on these tactics
12:08 Wrap-up
Referenced Harvard Business Review article:
hbr.org/2018/07/how-consultan...
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Hi
I am interested if the course includes a few practical real life case presentations from the start till end. With down loadable slides.
As an ex-MBB consultant, consulting = appearing super competent while doing a decent job and feeling like a massive fraud.
There is for sure some truth to that ;) Always great to see fellow MBB consultants watching the channel, appreciate it! Best, Heinrich
Consultants are high finance salespeople.
🤣🤣🤣
😂😂
I must say as an engineer whose job is to mostly communicate on software projects, I have been finding your videos valuable. The rephrasing of "What does it mean" -> "What do you mean by this?" is genius!
Thanks for watching Micave! Yes indeed, believe this one is quite helpful :) Best! Heinrich
Agreed! It sounds so simple but such a small change to imply so much.
You have to be careful with this. It is a great technique until it is not. I am reminded about a similar technique when you can’t remember a person’s name. Just ask the person how they spell their name .... which is genius until it terms out that their last name is Smith or Jones. You need to read the room. If everyone else seems to know, google it.
A medical doctor, an engineer, and a management consultant were arguing about what was the oldest profession in the world.
The doctor started… "Well, in the Bible, it says that God created Eve from a rib taken from Adam’s body. This must have required surgery, and so I can claim with a high degree of confidence that mine is the oldest profession in the world."
The engineer responded, and said, "But earlier in the book of Genesis, it states that God created the order of the heavens and the earth from out of the chaos. This was the first and certainly the most impressive application of civil engineering. Therefore, dear doctor, you are wrong: mine is surely the oldest profession in the world."
The management consultant leaned back in his chair, smiled, and then said confidently, "Ah, but who do you think created the chaos?"
Made me laugh ;) Thanks for sharing! Best, Heinrich
Then a woman steps out from behind all three and says 'actually im the oldest profession as i balance all three of your checkbooks'...
I think the value added by consultants is mostly around structure and approach. You can look much better at something than you truly are just because you structure it well
There is for sure some truth to that. Best! Heinrich
Wittgenstein said - philosophy is a byproduct of misunderstanding language.
Do Consultants live by that dictum?
Your observations are spot-on from my experience as an ex-consultant. When you first start a new project, you will naturally feel "imposter syndrome" until a few weeks into the project when you genuinely start adding value.
True that! Thanks for sharing your experience! :) Best, Heinrich
Great video - thank you. Some additional advice I give juniors. Prepare before any meeting. No mater how scared you are, fake the confidence, not the knowledge. Make notes, lots of notes and ask the spelling of anything your uncertain of. Then, point to your notes and ask a question of clarification (try not to make it a naive question). (There is always a gap). The value you bring is being able to ask the right questions. Answers are easy, questions are difficult. Most consultants don’t ask enough tough questions. Then immediately following, discuss with a mentor - get a good mentor if you don’t have one - the older the better.
Thanks for sharing Jeff! These are for sure great tips, will be helpful to others watching! Best, Heinrich
The best way to describe a consultant: someone who asks you what time is it, repeats what you told him and goes away with your watch.
In 20 years of my experience, it was never wrong.
This is the saying that I featured in the video as well ;) While there might be some truth to it, this is of course too simplified in my opinion. Best, Heinrich
Yeah- common critique. There's more to it: most businesses have about 100 watches, all with different times. Different execs have different hunches as to which one's correct. No doubt one of those watches is correct. Turns out there is a lot of value in reducing uncertainty and explaining why a certain course of action is justified.
Great tip with re-phrasing on "what do you mean by that". It touches on active listening and empathy techniques as well, both crucial to succeed in any setting. Consulting can be perceived as a con job often, but in my view, it's rather a problem of expectations. Consultants can offer advice and solutions, they can not lead daily execution - this is where it often fails.
Great thoughts - thanks for sharing Yuri! Best, Heinrich
I love this one. I have used the "leverage the knowledge you receive" and "how to frame questions." I also use what Chris Voss teaches in his book "Never Split the Difference" when I ask them something and then repeat it back to them via a summary starting with "It sounds like, it seems like, or it looks like." Great post!
Great topic. My 2 cents on this is: The more consultants prepare in advance the quicker they can provide value for their clients.
Today there are so many tools out there to do market research, buyers persona analysis and industry benchmarks.
Would be great if you can talk about those preparation process in further videos.
Keep going with this high quality content 👍
Great topic, thanks for suggesting it Paul! Have added this to my ideas list! Best, Heinrich
Hey Paul! Can you elaborate further on these things? I have zero knowledge of consulting, but would like to know more about these. Any resources etc to recommend? I currently work in healthcare, and see massive potential to introduce these tools (and be perceived as "groundbreaking" by my boss).
Another way you can ask about an unknown term is: "What is the official definition of this term?" You may be surprised by how different companies define a simple term very differently, which could impact your analysis and recommendation.
Great suggestion, thanks for sharing - appreciate it! Best, Heinrich
Agree, semantic changes in countries, industries, etc. This is a good justification for ask even "simple" definitions.
Powerful tips in this one! Thank you! This is one of my favourite videos of yours that I have watched so far. I will share this with my team of marketing technology consultants. Keep them videos coming, I enjoy them very much!
Thanks for your comment and watching! Sure thing, super happy to hear the video is helpful to you and the team! Best, Heinrich
This is of real value ‘behind the scenes stuff’ which has been articulated so clearly by you Heinriche.
Great to hear the video was helpful - thanks for watching Jake! Best, Heinrich
Just revisiting this video, as I saw that this article was being pushed again by the HBR on social media channels.
All great work and solid insights, Heinrich. As always!
Love your channel mate. All your videos are very insightful and very useful in practical life. Keep up the good work 👍
Hi Suhayb, thanks for your comment! So great to hear you found the video to be helpful! Best, Heinrich
I'm so glad I found this channel! I realised that some of the stuff I do is really along those lines. Loved the tip "what do you mean with this?"
Love it. You could say that the last example is just good preparation for a meeting - anticipating questions and keeping an answer up your sleeve :-)
Fair point ;)
Keep up the good work on these videos Heinrich! Having been both a consultant and a client, I evaluate three things to measure their ability to appear competent - the ability to listen, the ability to know when to shut up, and how organized they appear. When I hire consultants to perform work in my employer's organization, I'm also putting my reputation at risk, so it's just as important for me that they successfully complete their objectives.
Well said, thanks for watching Jung! Trust this will be helpful to many starting out in consulting. Best! Heinrich
This is immensely valuable information, and I am not even working as a consultant! I want to see more of that stuff!
Super happy to hear that - THANK YOU! Best, Heinrich
Thanks für the great hands-on insights. The topic on what value consultants create even if their advise is build up on this information of the employees sounds like a really awesome video.
Many people underestimate
- the blind spots employees have on their own system they act in on a daily basis,
- the limitations to act different, if you are part of the system
- the avoidance to state the hard truth to make hard decisions
- the inability to get from an awareness of a situation to consequent maybe even hard decisions
Really would love to hear you perspective on the value of consulting and where you see the limits what world class organizations could achieve here without external consultance.
Looking forward to the next videos :-)
I used all of these when I first started Consulting. I still use this. The important thing is - despite these, you can still value add. Great video and very honest. :)
Thanks for the honesty :) Indeed agree that despite all this, consultants can create value for organizations. Best, Heinrich
Good video. Most of the tips I already used intuitively :-)
What really helps to accelerate customer knowledge is gaining business insight about a specific industry. Of course, this is part of the experience you build in your career, but focusing on a specific industry really helps you feel confident and truly knowledgeable.
As a permie, I am always in awe at how contractors look so competent to the bosses and yet are so incompetent in practice at the same time, in the process earning 4 times as much as me. Kudos.
;) Thanks for watching, appreciate it! Best, Heinrich
Sometimes there is a revolving door between senior management and the consultancies, for example between internal and external auditors, in which case the consulting engagement is a related party transaction of sorts -- no-one is fooling anyone, except maybe the board of directors and its audit committee. On the other hand, the top bosses could simply be clueless per the Peter Principle. One thing's certain, never-never-never criticize the lack of tangible value delivered by consultants to your senior management -- in the first case they may be complicit and in the second case they are simply incompetent -- or you'll be looking for a new job before long.
I don't know what industry you are in (I am working in design/engineering) but my experience is not as clear cut, I have seen really competent and incompetent people on both side of the fence .
I have also been on both side of myself, I am now working as a permie after a decade of contracting .
Contracting definitely offer a financial advantage but also comes with all the drawback of running a business(accountancy, business insurance, variable incomes...), contractors also tend to get let go first in time of lesser workload and get no pension contribution or health plan (if you work for company offering any of these benefits).
I often see permanent members of staff complaining about how much contractors are paid, to be fair I struggle to understand where it is coming from, it is easy to just resign and become a contractor .
Appreciate the transparency! More such videos please :)
Great video Heinrich! Once again, thank you very much :)
Thanks for watching Thomas, much appreciated!! Best, Heinrich
This channel should be compulsory content for all junior managers. 1) because it teaches so many great techniques and ways to think and message and 2) when you become a manager you will be able to recognise which consultants your company employees have any actual value to offer or not
I was an internal auditor until recently so faced similar challenges with knowledge and credibility. Luckily I was internal so didn’t have the added pressure of clients paying a fortune for my time. During the learning phase the relationship can be a one-way street with one person giving and the other taking and this can be awkward and annoy people. I got a lot better at learning quickly and quickly being able to challenge people and add value.
Thanks for sharing Alistair! Great journey! Best, H
Hi!I just wanted to note here that I just had a consultant company come into my workplace last week and knowing these tactics I was able to experience them at first hand. By knowing what you said in this video I knew to keep the great ideas I have for the company for myself, so that the consultant could not steal my ideas. Instead I took my ideas straight to the CEO and I was actually fast tracked for quite a big promotion. Thank you, Heinrich
Happy to hear that you made this work for you soo quickly ;) Lots of success to you! Best, Heinrich
Heinrich, first of all, congratulations on your channel. Your content is not only useful for young professionals, everyone can learn something from you no matter the age!
Regarding the topic, juicy one indeed. In my opinion, unless the professional is really a specialist at a specific topic, every consultant is faced with situations like this. Some are really conmen and indeed take this too far.
However, what makes a consultant good at her/his job is the ability to quickly learn and get a holistic perspective of the company, and communicate the insights effectively. The process is key: As you said, sometimes the output is not new to the client, but the way it was obtained and communicated ensure its robustness. Sometimes clients just hire consultants to get external validation on what they already know.
Hi Manuel, thanks for your comment and your reflections! Fully agree, consultants at some point need to catch up and be in a position to really deliver value in order for them to be successful in their job. Best! Heinrich
True
Very insightful Heinrich, great video with practical use.
Happy to hear that, thank you!! Thanks for the comment as well. Best, Heinrich
Fantastic tips. I don't think it's negative at all! Frankly, learning "how to sell" is part of every job, whether or not one likes to admit it and to different extents. Any "client-facing" job requires "salesman" tactics, and there is nothing wrong with that. That is part of the fee - the good feeling that they give you when you buy from them.
Love this video! I didn’t get good grades in the early part of school due to my own lack of effort so I’m not a consultant but always been fascinated by the work you guys do. We all fake it till we make it (at least a little haha) but I found the video very helpful, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for your comment, glad to hear the video was helpful Gautam! :) Best, Heinrich
Sharing a few thoughts - Most management consulting assignments instructed by clients carry an ulterior motive. Very few consulting mandates actually are ordered by Clients to seek advice. Most Client's use Consultants as agents to drive their own agendas and motives. That's why beyond a point Consultants are used as footballs 😀 by each department until everyone gets tired and agrees to something. The stress is more from people management than actual deliverables. That has been my experience mostly, although that's quite limited
Hi Anirban, thanks for sharing your experiences. Agree that there is some truth to it, though frankly I never experienced it as extreme as you are talking about it. Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning thank you for your videos as always, maybe you did not because Mck is a very high-level consulting firm. If you had worked your way up on consulting on, say, Deloitte, CI&T, Work&Co, EY!, you'd feel that every week, depending on the client/team, even everyday... On such consulting firms you have to deal with middle management from the client's company. They will always want to advance their career, get their bonus and look for someone to blame if stuff goes wrong. Consulting firms are optimal for blaming when it goes wrong and not ever mentioning when it goes right.
I was smirking during the entire duration of this video hahaha. A "juicy" topic for sure!
Thanks for the comment Long! :) A juicy topic indeed.. thanks for the support!! Best, Heinrich
Great corporate advice Heinrich, I'm a manager at a DAX corporation, roughly the same age as you, and I can attest that I have used similar tactics 😆
It is not just trickery though, those tips really help make a lot of work much smoother for everybody involved.
Thank you for the videos! Its a very useful insight into consulting.
Great to hear that, thanks for watching Jennifer! Best, Heinrich
Heinrich, thanks for your video..it takes guts to present the facts like this..
Heinrich - your videos are amazing, thank you very much for the information shared
Thank YOU for watching Jose, much appreciated! Best, Heinrich
Sneaky sneaky with the mental math but also a fun trick if in good company with friends. :)
Such great content. Thanks! 🎉
Thanks Vanessa! Indeed, every project is more fun with the right team :) Best, Heinrich
Thanks, man! Very insightful!
Great to hear that Albert, much appreciated!! Best, Heinrich
Thank you for sharing!
Sure thing, thanks for watching Kim! Best, Heinrich
I'm not a consultant but these are great tips for anyone who communicates with clients and colleagues. Thanks
Coming from engineering, I think these tips are all quite valid communication tips.
Like in the context of Tip #1, even if I wanted to share my experience and knowledge openly, if someone came up to me and asked "tell me everything you know", unless I had just recently been writing my memoirs, I'd be pretty stumped as to where to start. But if you give me some information as context, then ask me to provide input within that provided context, I can much more easily give an answer that is likely to also be more useful.
Tip #4, even though you position it as potentially tricky, is often also a useful communication tool. Imagine I am presenting the output for some engineering analysis. A single slide might only have space to contain the inputs and the outputs of the calculation or analysis. The intermediate steps might be in backup slides, notes, or just in my head if I'm the one who ran through the analysis. When giving a presentation, it would be totally normal, and probably useful, to discuss the content depicted on the slide in the context of the calculations that were used, and for any sufficiently complex calculation, I would probably be both repeating parts of the calculation from memory, and recomputing parts of it in my head.
I might even argue that in any presentation, taking the time to review and memorize intermediate or derived steps in a given set of slides to use in discussion or to answer questions, isn't deceptive at all, and is actually a best practice!
Great reflections on these tips. Trust this will be insightful to others reading this as well. Thank you James! Best, Heinrich
Thank you for the in depth insight. I am a Management Consultant from Malaysia. I find your lectures very practical and relevant in consulting practice
Thanks and welcome! :)
Great video. A special appreciation for being so open and transparent about this topic.Not many out there are willing to share their trade secrets 😋
Happy to ;) Thanks for watching Julia! Best, Heinrich
Spot on! Be honest and intelligently constructive and practical is my advice.
I think the important thing a consultant (and their firm) brings is objectivity and independent validation. If you spend to much time focusing on a problem you might be to blinded by working in the weeds or to 'attached' to a view point (that's human). Also you think you have a solution and need outside 'experts' to validate that solution or approach. Management consultants can bring that capability. To some it may seem like "Borrowing your watch to tell you the time!" but in the end companies are paying for independent analysis and academic rigor.
To the last point about mental math, I disagree with you Heinrich. Just because someone cannot perform mental math does not mean they are not intelligent, it is just not a strength. The approach you outlined of running some figures out ahead of time is not deceptive, but I think is just good meeting preparation!
Great and insightful video, Heinrich. This is a difficult topic but is not just limited to management consulting. This issue and the accompanying solutions apply everywhere. Thanks!
Thanks for your comment, good points! Regarding the mental math, I was rather talking about the PERCEPTION that - from my experience - people have. Agree that intelligence is much more complex than mental math. Thanks for watching!! Best, Heinrich
I second everything you say Heinrich. I have worked with external consultants from Big 4 in various projects and always felt that they are not competent and do not know what they are talking about :) this was my impression from client side, now I have changed my position in the company and am working as an in-house consultant. It is not similar to external consulting though, you have insider information, even though you do not know all functions within the company you know organization as a whole, this is a huge advantage
Hi Yasemin, thanks for your comment! Yes, trust that as an internal consultant you have an information advantage. My point is not that external consultants are incompetent in general though, they just need some time to get up to speed :) Best! Heinrich
They're not incompetent, my point was they do not have time to warm up to projects as clients always expect them to know everything about organization, tools, databases, functions... from the very beginning. It s so much work to gain respect & trust from the client in your early years of career. In-house consultants are more advantageous in these points
@@yaseminhocaoglu8950 Fully agree!
I love this video! Subscribed!
Hi Manish, thanks for your comment! So great to hear you found the video to be helpful! Best, Heinrich
I just graded in IT and was not sure to start my own small bussines because lack of experience but this video gave me more confidence.. in actually no consultant knows everything or is super expert in something.
You earned a sub, great work!
Super happy to hear that - welcome to the channel Daniel! Best, Heinrich
Hi Heinrich, really interesting video. In this context I would like to know how a consulting project is pitched to a client, i.e. what kind of expertise does the client expect?
Additionally a general video on how consulting firms pitch projects to potential clients would be interesting.
Keep up the good work! :D
I agree
Great idea!
Usually, you'll have a global expert on the topic contributing to the engagement + local partners with expertise on the sector and function (+ some more junior research or implementation experts). These are the faces that go on the "pitch deck"/proposal and are the ones that 'steer' the project with senior clients and provide the credibility that firms need to project in order be hired in the first place.
Internally, experts/partners bring benchmarks (and this "corporate espionage" is mainly what they themselves learn from the engagements) and help make sense of the information more junior colleagues collect - - this is what the internal "problem-solving sessions" are all about.
What Heinrich discusses in the video is more applicable up to the EM/project lead level, before the consultant commits to a sector or function.
Thanks for the suggestion Julian! Vicentte already contributed some great points, thanks for sharing! Indeed an interesting topic, might create a video on this in the future, stay tuned :) Best! Heinrich
@@vijq Hi Vicente, thanks for the insights ;D
That’s a great video, thank you !!!
Thank you Karen, great to hear that. Thanks for watching! Best, Heinrich
Best viewed at 2X! Thanks for the video.
Thanks for watching Tom, much appreciated! Best, Heinrich
Yes, yes, and yes. You need to be able to build confidence. That emotional factor hits harder and more immediate than the knowledge factor.
I liked the part where he said turn information into experience.❤️🌻
Thank you Ankita, appreciate it! :) Best, Heinrich
Going to use these "sneaky tactics" for my upcoming interview HAHA
Good luck! Thanks for watching Dun ;) Best, Heinrich
Hey Heinrich! Something that I think would be *extremely* helpful to your users is a clear video about identifying and managing stakeholders using a stakeholder map. That is a complete game changer in literally any profession or interaction, but it's especially so in consulting. Any project/initiative/engagement will have multiple people with completely different goals and attitudes (pro or against the initiative.) Making an effort to plot them out gives you an amazing sense of clarity for how you manage each of those people to get the best possible outcome from them.
Hi Christopher, thanks for your comment and video suggestion. Yes, agree that stakeholder maps can be quite important. Might pick this up in a future video! Best, Heinrich
I love your heavy German accent. You go Heinrich
Guess I take this as a compliment - thanks Arzu! ;) Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning Absolutely, I really like German accent :)
LOL! This is great. Awesome content as always
Thanks for watching Jamila! :) Best, Heinrich
I really like this video and would like to see more of these.
Hi Anas, thanks for the feedback. Stay tuned, more to come! :) Best, Heinrich
This is so helpful!!!
Hi Youhui, happy to hear the video is helpful! All the best, Heinrich
I consider the first "tactic" very valuable even to the customer. Like you said, it's one of the main benefits an external person can bring to a company. To take an outside look on different levels and stuff. So it's not necessarily a "con-tactic".
The second one is simply not necessary I think. I think you don't have to go into details as where you got the information but it's no problem to say "I've read about this" and then you can usually find applications in the real world or examples even if you didn't have the knowledge at the time. Like "I've read this and I saw that happening when in company xy...". So basicaly you show you can apply your knowledge which then is true as you just did it in front of them. If you have practical experience, off course it's more convincig to talk from that but from a scientific standpoint it's better to use credible data and not just your experience anyway.
The third is simply necessary in many cases but you don't have to "fake" your way into it too much I think. Just go out of your way and ask the damn question. It's just honest if you ask about something you don't know. Just remain confident as you know many things very well and you're there to make the connections, not to be the "know it all". If someone calls you out on asking questions they just completely miss the point of having you there, no need to explain yourself to them. Just show them you still can contribute value to the project even without knowing everything in advance. Otherwise it's like a doctor that starts writing down the diagnose without having even asked the patient about his problems or why he's there. Doesn't look good if you ask me.
The last one... it's called Hallo Bias and it's not just applicable with calculating math in your head. If you're good at one thing, people will assume you're good at all other things as well. Doing it on purpose with faked math woul be pretty manipulative. Why not just take a topic you feel comfortable about and tell them a few things out of experience and about some knowledge from this topic and stuff? It's going to have the same effect and it's related to the topic, so you don't have to fake anything.
Thank you for your detailed reflections on these tips. This is much appreciated! Trust others will find this interesting as well. Best! Heinrich
This was quite interesting. If I were a consultant within my field I could probably add some value but I would have to find a way to work where I can be both transparent and direct. I am really not someone that are good with exaggerating my value, knowledge or experiences and I prefer when people around me don't do that too.
Hi Mikael, thanks for your comment. Can very much see where you are coming from. Hope you find a field that very much resonates with your passions and interests! Best, Heinrich
That is an excellent value ad. Play to your strengths.
I love all your videos!
Super kind of you, thanks for your comment Letizia - and for supporting the channel as a member! :) Best, Heinrich
Really insightful!
Thank you!! Best, H
Excellent tips!
Thank you Charles!! Best, Heinrich
Very interesting topic... I did an internship at a very high level management consultancy (11 years ago & not MBB).. as far as I have seen: a partner with industry experience comes in. A PowerPoint ppt was copied from an old project, replace with the CI of new customer and that's it.... After the presentation the client had the idea the consultants had an idea what the core issue is... However there is one important point: most projects today are technical & there is a high chance you say something which is bullshit if you do not understand the used technology in depth! Otherwise I have seen your tactics in action (except the last one, as I was in finance so too risky to fake calculations as a CFO will ask you to change one thing and then it's embarrassing)
Hi, thanks for sharing your experiences. Interesting indeed! :) Best, Heinrich
Hey Heinrich, I just wanted to say I really appreciate your videos and guidance. I'm in my senior year of high school, and I've been debating for years between going into management consulting or computer science. After watching a couple videos and interviews with you, I'm confident I love the field and want to pursue a career in that area :)
Hi, thanks so much for your comment and great to hear that I have also some high school people watching :) All the best for your future career - and lots of success and a GOOD TIME! in unversity! :) Best, Heinrich
Tip #1 can be also applied to other contexts. For example, contract manufacturers routinely take knowledge gained from one project and apply it to another. If you are a project manager working for such organizations, this is a very natural thing to do.
Hey Heinrich !
Could you make a video on how visibility and communication matters in consulting firms? How to get more visibility on the work you do etc. ?
Hi Chris, thanks for your comment! Check my old videos, made one on visibility! And made several on communication! :) Might indeed create an updated one on visibility in the future. Best! Heinrich
@@FirmLearning Do you have any good books explaining these concepts ? :)
Great advices!
Happy to hear that, thanks Dalia! Best, Heinrich
Great episode!
Great to hear that, thank you for watching Wan! Best, Heinrich
Very practical and useful strategies
Thanks, appreciate that! Best, Heinrich
I've had an successful (technical) consulting career for over 20 years now. It would've been great to have had you back then before I had to learn many of these things on my own. Ha! :) One video that would be extremely helpful (not so much to me, but probably to your general audience) is a video on how to break down and share complex technical ideas to non-technical people who have the checkbook. That's the one area that tech consultants struggle with the most.
Hi Christopher, thanks for your kind words! Video idea is well noted, might pick this up in the future! Best, Heinrich
I'm also in tech consulting so 100% agree with you there. I think Heinrich's background is in strategy which in my opinion is very different. To put it bluntly, they BS more than we do because in tech we actually have to know how to implement from a technical standpoint. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we are more worthy or anything. To your point, we struggle with the consulting side of things because we're more engineers in nature than consultants until we grow with experiences on projects.
@@dailyrant4068 Yes, what you say is true. But the thing I realized early in my career is that for us to get buy in for our ideas, we have to be able to figure out how to provide *just enough* of the right information framed in the right way too get buy in from the non-technical people (with check books) that have the ability to make the decisions. That is a challenge, because we *love* figuring out and explaining how the sausage is made, and we tend to want to show them the slaughter house instead of the restaurant. In reality, that type of communication to that particular audience needs to be reversed: "We want to build you a grand restaurant, here's the benefits TO YOU of having it, and here's some high level pictures/concepts of the kitchen, and here's the effort/timeline/cost of what it will take to make this happen." Save the discussions of the slaughterhouse to the appropriate audience. (It's Minto's Pryamid Principle)
The other *MOST IMPORTANT THING* I've learned in my career is to take the time to create a stakeholder map. Any project/initiative/engagement will have multiple people with completely different goals and attitudes. Making an effort to plot them out gives you an *amazing* sense of clarity for how you manage each of those people to get the best possible outcome from them. I'll make a separate suggest to Heinrich about making a video showing this, the ones on TH-cam are terrible.
Please write summary of your video as well. At times, I am so fast that I like to skim your video..a summary of your lecture with specific points, will help me remember them longer..thanks a lot for sharing ur knowledge
Thanks for the idea! Will think about it :) Appreciate you watching! Best, Heinrich
Haha, just the title of this video made me laugh. I have been doing ERP and other large scale business application consulting for about 10 years now. It's so true that at the beginning of a project you may have absolutely no clue as to what the customer actually wants and therefor what you're actually going to do! Active listening, being good at digesting and reiterating back to the client what they said perhaps with additional insight or a good question, and understanding the framework of the company & what is important to them are the primary skills I use. Countless times I have excited executive management or other project member on the client's side by understanding their business and their needs very quickly. They always say "Wow, he gets us. It's going to be great to work with him, because he really understands our business and what we need."
This is great!
Happy to hear - thank you Fred! Best, Heinrich
Hey Heinrich, can you create some videos on sales (ie how to "sell" your idea to skeptical clients/coworkers/bosses) and dealing with people in general (ie getting buy-in for a project, unearthing and overcoming hidden resistance and saboteurs, overcoming resistance to change etc). You know, the kind of "soft skills" bosses always talk about.
Also, I have a question: What's the difference between these kinds of skills and playing "politics"? Many disgruntled people keep complaining about how people who are less competent but play "politics" are the ones who get promoted, while they get passed over, for example. How do we know the difference between the two?
Hi, thanks for your comment. Yes, I already have a video on the "Sales" topic on my ideas list, might pick this up for a future video :) Regarding politics, I agree that these tactics can be part of what is considered with this term. I would argue that politics is a bit broader though and mainly implies to influence people in the sense that one manipulates the behavior of these people. Best! Heinrich
Awesome... I don't feel like anything is too sneaky to endorse,, or to actually do!!
There is this learning-credibility tension as they say,, and so some sneakiness is somewhat forced upon you to do, or else you're just not doing as good a job.. So don't feel bad when you're forced!!!
You shouldn't feel bad reaching for your gun, when there's another gun just about ready to shoot you!
Hopefully in the future clients will have more of an understanding over the consultant's job and his capabilities and limitations... Doubt it though..
Hi Ahmad, thanks for your comment. This is for sure one way of looking at this! :) Best! Heinrich
Very informative! What do you think about the loud german Coaching Mentors like Baulig or Tornow?
Good question.. did not have any direct contact with them besides their aggressive marketing and ads, therefore would not be fair of me to judge. Would be VERY careful though before spending significant amounts of money for such programs and do lots of research, also be aware that many recommendation sites with reviews for these programs are manipulated. Best, Heinrich
Awesome video!
Hi Klaus, thanks for your comment! So great to hear you found the video to be helpful! Best, Heinrich
From my experience. Using fancy IT terms will make you look competent, even if you don't know anything. lol
Interesting observation, thanks for sharing Rotena! :) Best, Heinrich
I used all of these when I was a consultant !
;) Thanks for sharing, glad I am not the only one noticing these techniques! Best, Heinrich
Some comparison insights between mbb and Oliver wyman, Roland Berger, Kearney? Many thanks
Hi, great suggestion! Yes interesting idea, might make a video on this in the future! Best, Heinrich
Do you apply any techniques to create many hypothesis at the beginning of a project to try to verify them afterwards and eliminate some of them?
Hi, thanks for watching! Yes indeed, already created a video on "solving tough problems" / problem solving methodology, covering some of these topics. Hope it is helpful! Best, Heinrich
Greetings from Chile, in my case, I'm an industrial civil engineer, and I work as a consultant in a public project that supplies technological solutions to to small and medium companies for free. The problem is that many of my clients demand extra services and they are willing to pay me. The point is that and dont have a clear way to charge my service because there is also software engineering involve and thus, more professionals. Thanks in advanced.
Do MBB firms conduct personality screening during the hiring process? What is the preferred Enneagram type? Seems you need a balance of introvert/information gathering and extrovert/presentation aptitudes.
Hi! Have heard of many firms that do personality tests (e.g. MBTI) AFTER the hiring process / for the new hires, to help them understand team dynamics etc. Not aware of any firm that is using personality assessment for the hiring process (and thereby somewhat implying that only some personality types can be successful consultants). Best! heinrich
Hi Einrich! Nice video :) I was wondering if it is possible to work for a consultancy firm in Germany without being completely fluent in German. What do you think? Thank you
Hi Nicolo, most large firms will want at least business proficiency in German. You might finde some boutique firms / niche roles where this is not the case. Best! H
Brilliant!!! :)
1:15 learning credibility tension. disclaimer: to my knowledge but not officially endorsed.
2:50 practical, street-smart.
3:25 if you ask this type of direct questions, you'll get often not so nice answers from clients.
4:00 close quarter combat.
4:35 four of these sneaky tactics.
6:10 to the board, to the c level.
6:50
first tactics: talk to maybe later person with the first get info.
second tactics: frame information as experience.
7:30 protray you as a big expert on a certain topic. .. from my experience, this is how we handle.
8:10
third tactics:
how to frame question the right way... she always look confident and know her things.
ask the client, what does it mean by you? ...
9:30
fourth tactics: signals you're smart by mental math.
use at your own discretion.
11:50 this to bridge the learning credibility tension.
from the article, from the very beginning, you need to be perceived credible, but still need time to build this knowledge.
It‘s called the consultant‘s virtue: Totale competency at absolute oblivion. And it really is a virtue when you think about it.
Thanks Martin, there is some truth to that ;) Best! Heinrich
Nicken und gelegentlich die letzten drei Wörter des Gegenübers wiederholen wirkt Wunder.
Ja solche Mirroring-Techniken sind auch oft ganz gut :) LG! Heinrich
Do you have a methodology to ramp up as quickly as possible on a new project ?
Hallo Heinrich,
ich habe mal wieder eine etwas ausführlichere Frage bzgl. meiner eigenen Karriere 😅:
Ergibt eine Tätigkeit in einer studentischen Unternehmensberatung (insbesondere im CCT in Berlin) Sinn für meinen Werdegang?
Kontext: ich habe einen ingenieurwissenschaftlichen Hintergrund und möchte mich ab Herbst auf Tier 2-Praktika im nächsten Sommersemester in Consulting und IB, gerne im Ausland (da Makel im CV: keine Auslandserfahrung bisher) und auf Studienplätze in Cambridge, Oxford, an der LSE und vielleicht bei weiteren Adressen bewerben.
Insbesondere für den Experience-Teil der Consulting-Interviews habe ich bisher allerdings nahezu keine Storys erlebt (und auch sonst keine wirklichen Leadership-Erfahrungen), suche daher eine extracurricular activity mit der ich mich ganz gezielt oft in die dort gefragten Situationen begeben kann - am besten innerhalb der nächsten 6 Monate.
Studentische UB ist mir da als beste Aktivität eingefallen um mein Profil in die richtige Richtung zu entwickeln, oder würdest du mir etwas anderes empfehlen?
Liebe Grüße,
Darius
Hi Darius, danke dir für die Frage!
Studentische Unternehmensberatungen sind grundsätzlich gut und spannend und da kann man mit Sicherheit einiges lernen! Bei vielen wirst du allerdings erstmal viel und lange auf internen Projekten und allgemeine Vereinsarbeit angesetzt, bevor du wirklich Klientenprojekte machst.
Insgesamt fällt mir auf, dass viele Leute, die studentische UB machen, sich ein bisschen zu sehr darin verlieren (kann sehr schnell sehr viel Zeit und Energie binden), da solltest du aufpassen.
Würde mich fragen, ob du stattdessen nicht noch ein bisschen mehr Zeit aus dem Studium rausholen kannst für ein weiteres Praktikum, denke das bringt dich - jetzt rein aus CV-Optimierung - weiter.
Dir viel Erfolg auf deinem Weg und Danke für den Support!
LG, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning Hi, danke erstmal für die wieder sehr ausführliche Antwort! Zu dem Punkt mit Studium verlängern für Praktika schreibe ich dir nochmal privat bei Instagram, da ich da etwas mehr persönlichen Kontext geben möchte. LG Darius
Great stuff
Thanks for watching Tamer! Best, Heinrich
I want to point out - as someone that deals with consultants often - it is very easy for experienced professionals to see through this facade, and lose respect instantly. I would argue instead to ask questions if you don't know and take notes because it shows your willingness to learn and acknowledge the client's specific neeeds. Ask the right question and practice listening.
Thanks for sharing Raza! Definitely important to be aware of this. Best, Heinrich
Thanks 🙏
Thank YOU for being a regular viewer! :) Best, Heinrich
Being productive in the learing curve, that what it is all about