Every year at consulting firms there’s a time where you have a mad exodus of people. The messages are delivered in all types of fashions but it ultimately comes down to two words: I quit.
In truthfulness, some need to go and some come with a little pain and the question on what could’ve been differently to keep them.
The reason this phenomenon is different than working in industry is because all of the promotion decisions happen at the same time in consulting. When you work at a company, you definitely have performance reviews but rarely are you confronted with your shortcomings in the same way as you are in consulting.
For example, in industry there’s often a chance to see you did a great job but we don’t have any open spots at the next level right now. Going into it, you kinda know someone has to quit, get fired, or die for a promotion opportunity to become available.
There are three reasons people typically are leaving the business. 1. They don’t want to travel anymore. 2. They don’t like the people they’re working with (and see no end in sight) 3. They didn’t get the promotion they wanted.
Let’s talk about #3 and if you want to cover #1 and #2, let me know and I’ll get into that a different day.
Notice on #3 I said “wanted” and not “deserved”. A lot of people want to start out making their case for promo by talking about how long they’ve been around (aka managed to not get fired). There’s nothing inspiring about this. Results should be your focus. Then and only then should you consider talking about your years of experience.
Years of experience is more of a hedge against you not screwing up when you get dropped into a new situation. The more experience you have, the less “new” situations and therefore risk you’re likely to come across.
Speaking of risk, here’s another thing. Knowing you can do something and demonstrating / convincing other people of your capability are totally different, unrelated things.
If you want to get promoted, get your receipts in order and make a case nobody can deny.
That ended up a little more ranty than I was expecting but I felt like I needed to get that out.
Those are the types of things I work with people on in the Success Factory (if you didn’t apply, it’s too late for April), but you can get some inspiration from my book.
Some people inevitably will come back and say it doesn’t look like it’s for them. My advice to them… don’t buy it then.
For the smart ones who buy it, read it, and apply some of the ideas, I’m confident they will get more value than the cost of the e-book, regardless of where they are in their career. Fundamentals never go out of style.
Get the book here:
https://ericpbutts.com/clu-book/
– EB
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