10,000 hours
Malcolm Gladwell popularized this number in his book Outliers (affiliate link). Based on the research of Anders Ericsson, Gladwell notes that you don’t really start to excel at something until you put in the requisite blood, sweat and tears . . . or 10,000 hours of focused energy. Yes, the Beatles were brilliant, but they also toiled at their craft in hundreds of small German bars in the early 1960s. Yes, the goal is to be so good they can’t ignore you.
Trivia: Ericsson slightly disagreed with Gladwell, which made a great Freakonomics podcast here.
Sure, consultants are a quick study
We consultants pride ourselves on getting smart on a topic quickly, and logically structuring the problem to a few recommendations. True, it’s a skill and a craft. A nice trick.
The problem comes when some consultants start believing their own marketing (read: bullshit). They repackage “best practices” or simply muddle their way through the “consulting process” as if this were the 1970’s when clients first saw SWOT analyses. For good or bad, our clients are more savvy than ever. Your “smooth move” 5 years ago, is frankly, just not as smooth as it used to be.
Professional coasting = career death
I am not preaching here. I am confessing. There were times when I was “mailing it in” and putting in 2 hours of work, during a 8 hours day. Not pretty, but true. Trust me, lots of corporate America is woefully inefficient.
Stay busy, hustle, learn
When you are not staffed, stop pretending you are busy. . . you are not. “Let me check my calendar and prioritize” is not the right answer. The CFO looks at you with this break-even analysis in mind: your salary = billing revenue x net margin. When a partner/principal gives you a task, embrace the ambiguity and start doing the work.
Without sacrifice, it’s imitation. . . not excellence
Proficiency is not excellence. With the internet-speed of everything, it is too easy to “know something about something”. Given a half-day with a talented analyst, I can drum up some seriously smart things to say on most any topic. Yet, you and I know that watching a Youtube video does not make you a master who can charge $300/hour. Operational efficiency is useful (sure, why not use some best practices), but it’s not a sustainable strategy. Copying the competition will never make you stand out.
Do the work
This is a ridiculously obvious point for anyone in professional services, but is a particularly relevant criticism for young professionals. Professor Carol Dweck has done decades of research on growth mindset and concluded that our desire to improve, grow, stay positive, overcome challenges is a super power. Basically, you can get smarter.
Some key takeaways might be:
- Of course your brain is looking for the easy way out; thinking, growing, learning takes calories
- Focus on the process, not just the results
- The answer is “not yet”
What does excellence look like?
- Understanding the edges of the puzzle, knowing what’s in / out of scope
- Developing your own point-of-view that might be different from prevailing wisdom
- Knowing when to advise, nudge, disagree with the client (for their own good)
- When to stand up for your convictions and beliefs, vs. take-in new information that contradicts your thinking
- Developing a network of other experts to bring in lateral ideas from other disciplines, functions
Seek out work
This helps you develop an internal network, learn new skills, get staffed, and gives you sales practice. If you can build rapport and win work from a grumpy partner, winning work from a paying client will be that much easier.
If you feel like you are coasting. . you are. You know it, and scary. . . others do too.