The fallacy of values-based consulting “Wait. What?” My regular readers should be forgiven for their cognitive dissonance. I have written often about my consulting values: Be authentic Be helpful Stay focused on results, I have even suggested that all consultants should have these same values. I might even still believe that, despite how self-centered and […]
I call myself a writer now. Sometimes words flow like a river; sometimes they are dammed up. Not elegantly locked behind a Grand Coulee-Hoover architectural-engineering wonder, but stuck in mud and sticks and crumpled leaves emerging in tiny trickles from the buck-toothed beaver monstruction or clogged in neural ruts unable to break free. Yesterday morning […]
Hiring Consultants = Weakness? My social circles do not afford opportunity to attend many black-tie events, but I do own a tuxedo. So, even though I thought it pretentious, I attended my thirtieth LBS reunion formal dress dinner in the Kent castle. “Boards are simply intolerable.” A tight circle formed around Mike, our only a […]
“I don’t get no respect, y’know what I mean.” “You know the definition of a consultant?” I was at a wedding dinner and the question came from another friend of the father of the bride. I had retired recently, but this entrepreneur didn’t accept that as the answer to the “What do you do?” question. […]
“Aaaask Alan” In the late ‘80s when my wife’s children were young and we first began dating, when an unusual question came up and I would know the answer, they’d say “Aaaaask Alan!” Everyone would laugh that I was the font of useless knowledge. That actually used to happen to me a lot. Billie would […]
“I know I should . . . , but I really want. . .” The angel on one shoulder, the devil on the other is a common visual device in cartoons: Tom the cat chooses whether to eat Jerry the mouse, Sylvester the cat struggles with a similar dilemma with Tweety Bird or as is […]
Everybody wants to be a star My brother-in-law was an English teacher before he went to the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business for his MBA. He was hired by Cooper’s & Lybrand as a consultant. He soon went to Indonesia putting a management accounting system in the state-owned oil company. Somehow I developed […]
“I hope I die before I get old” Well, that didn’t happen. Not for me nor for Pete Townshend, who wrote that song for The Who’s debut album released in 1965, the year I graduated from high school. I remember the song, though I was blissfully unaware that it had been banned by the BBC. […]
The X Things Every Leader Must . . . We’ve all read these articles, “Five Critical Traits Every Leader Must. . .” “Every Leader Should Do These Three Things.” “When the Chips are Down Leaders Keep Focused On.. .” The articles are filled with leadership buzzwords originating in the 1980s. Words like Vision, Empowerment, Empathy, […]
Consulting, a good start. Consulting is an early career choice that allows smart, resourceful people who have mastered sounding confident to find responsibility beyond that available in other industries. Consulting firms recruit from top undergraduate universities, business schools, and other graduate institutions, looking for “smart, nice, analysts with legs.” Firms want smart, analytical people because […]
