I tweet a daily consulting tip on the @artofgig twitter account and compile them every couple of weeks here as a newsletter issue.
Here are tips 76-90
Consulting Tip #76: Be liberal in the media you accept as input, and conservative in the media you select for output. You should be willing and able to process everything from screenshots of whiteboards to spreadsheets as input, but limit your output to 1-2 core media.
Consulting Tip #77: Include useful links inline, appropriately linked, in emails. As a consultant, LMGTFY (Let Me Google That For You) is a part of being effective.
Consulting Tip #78: Be conservative in who you cc on emails, especially when communicating with senior executives. Even an innocuous seeming cc may have chain-of-command implications, be seen as second-guessing someone, or undermine someone’s authority.
Consulting Tip #79: Ambitious careerists may see other people’s consultants, especially those supporting senior executives, as “access hacks” and try to tempt them into influence-peddling games. Gently but firmly discourage all such attempts by making your own boundaries clear.
Consulting Tip #80: Understand in what way you constitute a “secret weapon” for your client and either play that role to the hilt (heh!) or refuse to play it absolutely. Don’t half-ass the role you’re cast in.
Consulting Tip #81: Clients may invite you to internal events with a ceremonial/sacred aspect, such as awards ceremonies or celebration dinners, to be polite. But unless you sense they really mean it, you should decline by default.
Consulting Tip #82: Good organizations, especially small teams/workgroups, tend to foster an atmosphere of intimacy and trust internally, like a family. As an outsider, be sensitive to their “family time” needs and back off if you sense you are intruding.
Consulting Tip #83: Do not accept gifts from clients that are either too personal or too expensive. If it looks like role-appropriate schwag relative to internal peers, you’re fine. Anything beyond that might mess with expectations/trust in subtle ways you probably don’t want.
Consulting Tip #84: Watch for signs of transference. Indie consulting is similar enough to therapy that you may attract inappropriate attachments from clients. You are not a parent, spouse, or best friend. You are a professional associate and service provider first.
Consulting Tip #85: Understand the seasons of the sectors you serve, but make your own seasons. Do not take notions like “planning cycle” or “sales cycle” too seriously. They are for large organizations acting at scale, not individual free-agent operators.
Consulting Tip #86: Learn to operate inside the decision cycle (OODA loop) of the client, but like an attentive waiter or parent who can anticipate needs before the subject becomes aware of them, not as an adversary.
Consulting Tip #87: When engaging a individual of interest within an organization, take note of the dissonance between their operating tempo and that of the organization: are they going with the flow, overtaking, pace-setting, or pace-disrupting?
Consulting Tip #88: Learn about the real history of an organization before attempting to understand its current state. Organizations have a tendency to present a timeless, ahistorical view of themselves that obfuscates unique traits under non-informative hagiography.
Consulting Tip #89: When designing and delivering workshops, decide upfront whether you’re preparing an intervention for a specific situation or a performance of general interest. The two require incompatible strategies and trying to do both usually backfires.
Consulting Tip #90: When developing a repeatable workshop offering, use a sufficiently modular structure so you can customize it, and build in enough interaction so it is self-personalizing to context.
Here is Compilation #5 (60-75) if you want to backtrack and catch up.
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