132 ◾ Odyssey—The Business of Consulting
2. To be in good physical health
Good health means being fit and energetic, to have a sense of vital-
ity and a zest for living. It means eating well, exercising, and resting
enough to replenish the body. The reality of course is that it is vitally
important to care for your body as well as your mind.
Nature has a natural bias towards balance and harmony. Your body
has a natural bias towards health and energy. Only improper treatment
can knock it out of balance. Just as your inner voice will tell you if
your peace of mind is offtrack, your body will let you know it is out of
alignment through lethargy, pain, and illness. It is imperative that you
actively manage your physical and mental health needs.
The Alameda Study (2005) was a pioneering research project that
tracked the health habits of 8,000 men for twenty years in Alameda
County, CA, to determine factors such as longevity, sickness patterns,
and why some men were healthier than others. The seven common
habits of the healthiest participants were determined to be as follows:
a. Eating at regular times each day
b. Eating lightly, especially fruit, vegetables, and lean source protein
c. No grazing between meals
d. No smoking
e. Moderate alcohol consumption
f. Being well rested, with seven to eight hours of sleep every night
g. Regular exercise, which helps digestion and the overall “feel” factor
All choices have consequences. Every bite of food, each drink, every
cigarette, and every overindulgence affects your health. Consultants
need minimal health baggage to be on top of their game.
3. To be committed to quality relationships
The third anchor of success is the quality of your relationships.
Interpersonal intelligence has been defined as your overall ability to
relate well with others and in consulting, to achieve peer-level respect
with the right buyer in client companies. Emotional intelligence is
defined as your capacity to manage your emotions and feelings to
benefit others while sensing, accepting, appreciating, and mediating the
emotions and feelings of others. In consulting, emotional intelligence is
an absolute prerequisite. The caliber of your one-to-one relationships,
above all, is the ultimate test of who you are.
The Mind-Set Factor ◾ 133
Remember that your technical competence comes second to your
ability to connect with the client at an intrinsic level, to establish rap-
port; people buy you first, then your proposition. Consulting is more
often than not a transfer of tempered enthusiasm. Marginal consulting
assignments are lost, all other things being equal, because the client
just did not believe or trust you. The real questions are as follows: How
much do you believe in the merits of your own case? How much do
you believe in you? How do you feel about yourself?
The quality of both your personal and professional life is largely
determined by your ongoing ability to communicate, interact, influence,
and negotiate with other people. Most client relationships are functional,
that is, time and circumstance related. However, your ability to connect
with and maintain long-lasting genuine friendships with the critical few
is vital to this success anchor. As clients’ circumstances change and as
executives move on, the common thread can be the consultant who
has a reputation for consistently solving problems and delivering results.
Relationship loyalty is the common denominator.
As a top-class advisor, you are a work in progress, ever growing and
learning from experience. Your personal character and professional
prowess are shaped, more than any other factor, by how you learn to
manage the uniqueness of each client situation.
Top class client work brings interpersonal communication to its highest
level. Remember, you are unique and complex; your client is unique and
complex. Therefore, relationships are unique and complex and provide the
arena to test the most fundamental success anchors: Do you communicate
your trustworthiness? Do you consistently deliver discernible value? Are
you a talented communicator? Can you tell people what you do in thirty
seconds or less? Can you illustrate what you do on the back of a napkin?
Following certain time-honored truths or principles certainly helps:
a. Trust is the willingness to be vulnerable to the actions of another
person. Trust means, above all, keeping your word and being reli-
able, consistent, and dependable.
b. Respect primarily means listening attentively, listening with your
eyes, listening with your mind. Listening is often a blind spot for
advisors, as they often want to talk and tell. It is important to seek
feedback on how well you carry out this vital skill.
Asking well-thought-out questions that engage the client’s mind
and heart are vital ingredients in generating respect.
134 ◾ Odyssey—The Business of Consulting
c. Openness in the communication process requires a degree of vul-
nerability, time, helpfulness, attention, and awareness of the different
mind-sets that your client brings to every one-to-one interaction.
d. Appreciation is the final principle. When you say “please” and “thank
you,” when you recognize contribution (e.g., Thank you for shar-
ing your thoughts with me) and ask permission (e.g., May I ask you
a question?), you automatically raise your client’s self-esteem and
increase the bond between you.
4. To do purposeful work
Making a significant contribution—making a difference—is what
defines purposeful work to significantly add more value than your cost.
How worthwhile do you feel your work is? Does it have a purpose that
matches your talents? Is your work a magnificent obsession?
As definitions of success at work have changed over the last few
decades, the role of the consultant has found a new significance. In
days past, companies offered their employees the appealing prospect of
a job for life, i.e., a career. Loyalty and hard work were rewarded with
job security and the prospect of climbing the corporate ladder. Today,
quality of life issues and personal/professional growth opportunities
are more powerful motivators among many executives and employees.
More consultants are providing temporary project-based work as com-
panies hold the line on committing to long-term employment.
The magnificent obsession that drives some consultants and execu-
tives is the key to their success and often, ironically, their failure. They
find themselves devoting the bulk of their time and energy to their
business and very little to family or personal life. Sadly, few seem to
know how to regain the balance.
It is possible to achieve mastery at work and have a high-quality
family life. However, many clients need the help that consultants can
provide to achieve their goals. This is valuable and worthwhile work for
both the consultant and the client. In fact, for many clients, it is life sav-
ing, transformational, and even “priceless.” Your challenge is to sell the
value of your services in the first instance and then to enjoy the chal-
lenge of delivering it in the second.
5. To have financial freedom
Your ability to create personal and business financial advantage in your
consulting business is central to your success as an advisor. Money has a
bad reputation because many people perceive they do not have enough of
The Mind-Set Factor ◾ 135
it. People often attempt to rationalize the failure to have money. To justify
their lack, you will hear them say, “money is the root of all evil” or “money
can’t buy happiness.” Both of these concepts are incomplete. Money is not
the root of all evil, although poor money management could be.
For you as a professional advisor, there are two critical questions:
a. Do you want to be wealthy?
b. Do you want to stay in the middle of the pack or join the elite?
Becoming wealthy from the fruits of your professional service firm is
a measure of your ability to command high fees with high margins.
Financial freedom is about building lifetime assets. Wealth generation
requires a can do mind-set and is the result of smart work, perseverance,
planning, and, most of all, self-discipline.
Value-based fees and best practice advisory and execution skills are the
learnable competencies necessary to hit the top of professional practice in
financial terms, but mind-set is the glue that cements it all together.
6. Self-actualization: to be living a full life
The sixth anchor of success is to embrace the idea that life is for liv-
ing. Success is a journey, not a destination. Today, to live on the outer
edges of your potential means you must be a continuous learner—
consciously adapting, changing, and growing. Being an expert advisor
is being the ultimate learning professional. Avoid the natural tendency
to get back into your comfort zone, a retreat that paralyzes the oppor-
tunities that come your way. To help others identify their talents and
achieve their goals, you must first use your own talents and achieve
your own goals. You must self-actualize to explore and develop your
personal and professional potential.
Here are things to consider as you contemplate your success mind-set:
a. In your professional journey, put as much effort into who you are
as what you do. Take 100% responsibility for developing your com-
petence and confidence levels. You are unlikely to reach your full
potential without having both of these working in splendid harmony.
Identifying and working with your God-given talents is as near to
fulfilment as you are likely to get.
b. Learn how to be a top class advisor by following a proven success
system. Being functionally competent to be an advisor is less than
half the battle. The key battle involves a mind-set shift.
136 ◾ Odyssey—The Business of Consulting
c. Never do it alone. Surround yourself with people who will challenge
your thinking, your feelings, your behaviors, and your practice. The
question asked by one of our MasterClass attendees was, “Who con-
sults to the consultant? Who nurtures the nurturer?”
The mind-set and activities that got you to where you are today may
have served you well in the past, but ask yourself how these attributes
will serve you in the future. No amount of success in your practice will
compensate for personal distress. Do not become a prisoner of your
business success at the expense of your peace of mind, health, and
close personal relationships. Make a decision to be the most competent
advisor possible by applying futuristic thinking and continuous learning
with a positive mind-set. A wise grandfather once said to his grandson,
“Make a concerted effort to keep in touch with the small people, the
tall people, the young and old, and the others you love.”
Measuring Your Success
The Rubicon “Total Success” concept identifies six metrics of success.
Allotting ten points per factor, how do you score yourself on each one?
For a graphic representation, map your scores onto the wheel and join the
dots to represent your success pattern (Figures 6.2 and 6.3).
10
1
10
10
10
10
10
60
10
10
10
10
10
10
6. Happiness and
peace of mind
5. Financial
freedom
1. Good
physical health
2. Quality
relationships
3. Purposeful
work
4. Self-actualization:
living a full life
1. To have
good physical
health
4. Self-
actualization:
to be living
a full life
2. To be
committed to
quality
relationships
5. To have
financial
freedom
3. To be
engaged in
purposeful
work
6. Happiness
and
peace of mind
Figure 6.2 The success wheel + scoring grid.
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