Eric P. Butts

Career Coach. Management Consultant. Writer. Marketer. Accountant.

  • Home
  • About
  • Useful Resources
  • Articles
  • Products
    • Free! Member-Only Content Library
    • Success Factory Coaching Application
    • Excel Bootcamp
    • Breakthrough Resume Writing
    • Copywriting Services
    • Corporate Ladder University (Book)
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Disclaimer
  • Login
You are here: Home / Archives for consulting

June 19, 2019 by Eric Butts 5 Comments

How to Take Notes in Meetings Like The Rich and Powerful

 

How to take notes

Do you ever feel like your day has so many meetings they all start to blend together?

So many details to capture. And sometimes not even knowing anything about the meeting topic.

It’s a real struggle. And because of this, one of the most important things you can do in your career (especially management consulting) is make sure you know how to take notes in meetings.

Working on consulting engagements, it’s not uncommon to have multiple meetings to prepare for the “real” meeting with the client. If you’re lucky, the meetings will yield some useful information.

There’s a huge problem with all of these meetings though – people have short-term memories. By the time the participants leave the meeting and get back to their desks, they remember minimal pieces of the discussion.

And even worse, when you ask people later about their commitments made in the meeting, they act like you’re speaking in a language they’ve never heard before. (Maybe accountability could be considered a language and that’s why they’re not familiar with it.)

That’s exactly why you’ll find the rich and powerful to be avid note takers.

When it comes to meeting notes, you’ll want to email those out to all invitees and be sure to focus on capturing the 6 following pieces of information.

Don’t worry if you’re having trouble following along in meetings. I’ll show you what to do in that situation too.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Management Consulting Tagged With: client management, consulting, how to take notes, management consulting

December 27, 2018 by Eric Butts Leave a Comment

The fastest way to build strong business relationships that will endure the test of time

stronger relationships

I recently took a training on advanced networking and one of the things I talked about as my desired outcome was more techniques on forming stronger relationships faster. The training was with Performance of a Lifetime, a program which involved a lot of improvisational work as the primary method to work on those networking techniques. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Management Consulting Tagged With: consulting, professional networking, relationship management

October 9, 2016 by Eric Butts 2 Comments

What to do when you hate your project

Consulting Project Exit Plan

I can’t remember a time when I’ve seen so many colleagues leaving the firm. Some people are jumping because of a unique opportunity not available within the firm. Others quit go to a competitor (ouch!). I remember when I made a change to a competitor and there were a whole lot of questions about the why. Part of me just needed a change but I also knew that the firm’s timing wasn’t going to work for me, so I acted accordingly.  [Read more…]

Filed Under: Management Consulting Tagged With: career, career advice, career management, consulting

April 24, 2016 by Eric Butts 15 Comments

10 Excel Formulas Every Consultant Should Know

Top 10 excel formulas

Excel is one of those things you can spend a lifetime trying to master everything it can possibly do. Luckily you don’t need to know everything Excel can do to get a lot out of it.

I work with a partner now who is known to make the claim that Excel is the world’s largest Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

Also, I can tell you when I started in business school at Kellogg, we used two fancy macro workbooks to run sophisticated statistical analysis until they shifted to having everyone use STATA.

STATA was/is infinitely better than Excel, but you’d be amazed at what you can do in Excel, with a little bit of coding know-how.

This post is about the Excel formulas, though – the little statements you type into a cell to make magical things happen.

Read on to dive into the ten Excel formulas you need to know and love to…excel as a consultant. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Excel, Management Consulting Tagged With: accounting, consulting, data analysis, excel

March 2, 2016 by Eric Butts Leave a Comment

Professional Boundaries: 4 Undisputable Reasons Why You Need to Set Them With Your Clients

Why you need to set professional boundaries with clients

On time and under budget has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

In order to do that, some clear professional boundaries and expectations have to be set before agreeing to a consulting engagement. Those boundaries will act as the guiding principles if any significant changes in information come up during the course of your work.

You might be thinking your business can’t afford to turn away money because of some stupid policy.

You’d be thinking wrong. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Management Consulting Tagged With: Boundaries, client management, client proposals, consulting, Professional Boundaries, Risk, Scope Creep

February 25, 2016 by Eric Butts Leave a Comment

How to Get People To Prioritize Meeting Deadlines

How to get people focused on meeting deadlines

Not every deadline you have to hit is going to be reasonable.

Sometimes deadlines won’t even feel possible.

Part of your job as a consultant is to make the unreasonable possible. This often entails assigning a ton of action items and dates to people who probably would prefer you faded away into oblivion.

Part of having an action item that’s worth anything is making sure you have a mutually agreed due date.

But there’s another piece of the puzzle that’s frequently overlooked – the respect for the deadline. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Management Consulting Tagged With: consulting, management consulting, project management

February 18, 2016 by Eric Butts 1 Comment

How to Get Due Date Commitments For ANY Action Item

 

Every action item needs a due date

When it comes to building a career in management consulting, you learn that many of the success habits build on each other.

One such habit is setting due dates for every action item. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Management Consulting Tagged With: action items, consulting, management consulting

February 4, 2016 by Eric Butts 1 Comment

3 Unforgivable Mistakes Consultants Make When Pitching a Client

 

3 Common Consulting Mistakes

Management consulting was different back in the day.

It used to be about selling some solution you developed to a prospective client because you knew it worked.

After all, you spent countless hours developing pristine PowerPoint presentations to showcase how great a service you provide. How could you let it go to waste?!

It’s a natural response, but one that does both you and your client a disservice.

Consider the three points below next time you have the opportunity to pitch a client. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Management Consulting Tagged With: client proposals, consulting, management consulting

January 28, 2016 by Eric Butts 1 Comment

12 Habits of Highly Successful Management Consultants [PDF Download]

 

12 habits of consulting

So you’ve made it through the three steps to becoming a management consultant, nailed the interview, and accepted the job offer.

Now your journey as a management consultant begins.

Because the truth is a lot of people who start in consulting don’t last more than a couple of years. Some of the attrition is voluntary (e.g. because of excessive travel), and some is the result of staff being coached out because it’s clear the situation isn’t going to work for either side.

For those who stick around and find success, they have a few habits in common that I’ve observed. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Management Consulting Tagged With: consultants, consulting, management consulting

January 24, 2016 by Eric Butts Leave a Comment

I went from hating flying to flying for business every week

 

Fear of flying for business shouldn't cost you your dreams

I hate flying.

The requirement of flying for business was the one reason I didn’t pursue consulting coming out of undergrad. Instead, I thought I wanted to go into audit. Auditors had to visit client sites, but my sense was most of their travel was by car. And that was good enough with me (After showing up for an interview without my pants, that plan didn’t work out, which you can read about at your convenience.) [Read more…]

Filed Under: Management Consulting Tagged With: career management, consultants, consulting, management consulting

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Featured Posts

3 Reasons Your Management Consulting Resume Didn’t Get a Call Back For An Interview

How Bad Can It Hurt To Say Thank You?

5 Ways to Avoid The Manager Power Trip

Sometimes You Have to Do First and Ask Questions Later

When Is The Best Time To Quit Your Job?

Popular Posts

  • 5 Reasons You Should Be Proud to Ask Dumb Questions at Work
  • What Does It Mean to Have a Sense of Urgency
  • Always Stay Close to the Gatekeepers
  • Why Are There Still So Few Black CPAs?
  • What's the Difference Between FP&A and Accounting?
  • 3 Reasons Average Students Become Good Accountants
  • One Thing You Should Never Do on Linkedin
  • How to Handle Double Standards in the Workplace
  • How to Pass the CPA Exam Without Breaking the Bank
  • Masters in Accounting Isn't The Sweet Treat Some Students Think

Recent Posts

  • Do you want safety or excellence in your career?
  • A job searcher’s worst enemy
  • Are you falling for one of these career killing lies?
  • How to job search like a man
  • The one blog post that saved this consultant’s job

Stay in Touch

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Disclaimer

© 2012–2019 Eric P. Butts