{"id":580,"date":"2020-02-28T18:28:22","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T18:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/?p=580"},"modified":"2020-02-28T18:28:24","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T18:28:24","slug":"consulting-people-and-personalities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/28\/consulting-people-and-personalities\/","title":{"rendered":"Consulting People and Personalities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

People and Personalities<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This section will cover some of the high-level personalities\nyou will find throughout your career. These are not meant as a stereotype and\nevery person is different in some form or fashion, but the overall personality\ntypes should prepare you for what to expect at your clients\u2019 site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personalities<\/a> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Go-Getter<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Go-Getter is the A-type personality who is an always-working,\nnever-sleeping overachiever. This person is usually hardwired to push\nthemselves and others around them to succeed. It can be in your favor to align\nyourself with people like this in the organization and cherry-pick some of\ntheir traits that will allow you to succeed. They will be great allies to have around\nand can have road blocks cleared in your work, hammer out items that are\nperceived to be difficult and keep the project and work moving forward. They\nhave a hard time letting tasks stall out. Be careful, however, as A-types can be\nperceived to have a lack of empathy. They may push you and others around them a\nlittle too hard and cause some friction. Their goal of ultimate success may\nalso lead them to push everyone out of their way and play a bit more of a\npolitical or cut-throat game in the work environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Grouchy IT Guy<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The grouchy IT guys exist in almost every organization. He\nusually lives in the IT organization, wears ironic pop culture t-shirts and\nseems to always be upset about something. Other departments are not safe either\nas there are equivalent counterparts everywhere in the organization. There is\nnot much you can do when dealing with the grouchy IT guy. He is surly, loves to\ncomplain about everything wrong in the organization and usually enjoys crushing\ndiet cokes all day. It will play in your favor to stay as much on their good\nside as possible, especially if they will play some role on your project,\nwhether it is technical advisory or conducting code deployments. Do not let it\nget you down when you feel like you are not liked or appreciated by this\nperson. Don\u2019t worry, he does not like or appreciate anyone. If his attitude\ndoes actually become a hindrance on your work or creates a hostile environment which\nyou are uncomfortable with, raise the concern with your project leadership and\nsee if they are willing to talk to the client sponsor to help resolve the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember, everyone goes through some sort of personal life\nproblem from time to time, so don\u2019t let it get under your skin and be patient\nwhere you can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Person that should Avoid Buses<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Every company and client is going to have one or a few folks\nwho others will tell you \u201cwe don\u2019t know what we will do if he\/she gets hit by a\nbus\u201d. This person has a vast and profound knowledge of the business and is\nknown as the subject matter expert. There is no type of documentation you can\nread to get the amount of comprehension this person has in their head. They are\nabsolutely vital to the projects\u2019 successes and usually will be happy to share\ntheir wisdom with you, if they feel like it will help them grow the organization\nthey have invested so much in. Many times, they are just looking to help you\noffload some of the dependency on themselves which can be stressful for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may also find the opposite attitude where the subject\nmatter expert is standoffish, and feel threatened by the consultant as the work\nyou are doing may appear to reduce the dependency their employer has on them\nand fear it may make them expendable. It is best to work in a partnership with\nfolks like these and earn their trust over time. There usually is never enough\nproject work to ever really replace people like these in the organization. Just\nmake sure they avoid the 305 local bus if it doesn\u2019t stop in time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chatty Kathy<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Chatty Kathy takes water cooler talk to the extreme and then\nwill continue to talk until the sun goes down. The topics will range from work\nrelated to weekend plans or to the life happenings of her cats. I am clearly stereotyping\nKathy here, but this personality is found in men and women alike and the topics\nof discussion can vary from day to day or person to person. They usually have a\nhard time knowing when to end conversations and taking nonverbal cues for when\nthe other person may be trying to exit the conversation. You may not even get in\na single word or care to want to get a word in, but this person can often carry\non a conversation with themselves for a very long time. Out of politeness, many\nof us will smile, nod and listen rather than end the conversation. This is all\nclient time that is being wasted that could be used on more important things.\nAs mentioned before, having some form of comradery with others is essential to\nyour success, but spending hours a week having your ear talked off is not a\ngood use of billable time. If you have a hard time ending these conversations,\nit is perfectly ok to kindly mention you have something you need to get back to\nat your desk. If you are cornered at your desk, a simple white lie of needing\nto prepare for an upcoming meeting or a restroom break, or a trip to the\nkitchen for some water can usually force the break in conversation that you may\nneed to escape. Beware, if you end up with a stage five clinger, as they may even\nfollow you to the restroom or kitchen. At this point, you will need to dance\nthe fine line of being stern on ending the conversation but be sure to let them\ndown easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grinders<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The term \u2018grinders\u2019 is used synonymously with the client\nfrom hell. They usually work their consultants really hard and for long hours.\nThey are never appreciative and may even speak harshly and negatively to the\nteam, no matter how good of a job they do. Nothing is ever good enough. Do not\nlet grinders get you down or discouraged. In your career, you will have many\nengagements with a client on some level of the grinder spectrum and they cannot\nbe avoided. Do your best and accept that you may be in an unwinnable situation\nand you should not be held accountable by your firm or your project manager. If\nyou feel like the folks on your management team are unaware of the situation,\ndo not hold your tongue. Send an email of your concerns early on and see if\nthey can assist in easing the pain. If not, you will have documented evidence\nof acknowledging the situation and will not be held accountable if things do go\nsouth. Remember, not all projects last forever and for years on end. Hopefully,\nonce you roll off the client from hell, the next project will be a lot better!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unsure New Guy<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Unsure new guy or gal never feels confident or sure of what they are doing. They will email you before making any decision, or walk over and ask you if it is acceptable to send you an email about being unsure about making a decision. You will be conflicted in wanting to be a helpful coach, mentor or subject matter expert, but the constant interruptions will take a toll on your focus and productivity. In the beginning it is best to show some patience. Give the support he or she needs and answer the questions they may have. Remember, at some point you were probably the one asking the questions and without others proving you answers and guidance, you would not be where you are. Try to set up touch points or meeting and bundle all their questions into those blocks of time to avoid the constant pings. If overtime, they do not get their feet under them and become self-supported or confident enough to take initiative, it may require some more hands on mentorship from leadership to get things going. There will be a point where you become more of a baby sitter then a mentor and at that point it would be best to have some harder conversations with the resource that maybe consulting may not be the right fit for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you interested in starting a career in consulting? Be\nsure to read the full book Jack of all Trades Master of Some; An Introduction to\nConsulting<\/a> available on Amazon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People and Personalities This section will cover some of the high-level personalities you will find throughout your career. These are not meant as a stereotype and every person is different in some form or fashion, but the overall personality types should prepare you for what to expect at your clients\u2019 site. Personalities The Go-Getter The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":603,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book","category-consulting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":581,"href":"http:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions\/581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}