6 ◾ Odyssey—The Business of Consulting
levels. It is vital that you know what your percentage mix is and whether
that mix is optimal for your talent and motivation. More than 80% of con-
sultants spend most of their time on Level 1 and Level 2. Only 10% to 20%
make the breakthrough to work at Level 3 and Level 4.
Archimedes said, “Give me a lever and a place to stand and I will move
the world.” Your leverage is determined by your position in the parallel pro-
cess model, and position is everything in creating personal and consulting
advantage.
Communication and Team/Organization Dynamics
The parallel process levels also help illustrate how teams come together and
communicate (Figure 1.3). This process must be internalized by a consultant
as it is very helpful in assessing team and executive dynamics in the context
of providing solutions for corporate growth and expansion.
Performing
Wisdom
Experience
Partnership
Norming
Knowledge
Relationship
Peer-level
respect
Storming
Information
Task
Participation
Forming
Data
Activity
Reporting
Master
Practitioner
Trusted Advisor
Competent
Warrior
Good Soldier
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Knowledge
Team
Process
Communication
Growth
Figure 1.3 Communication and team/organization dynamics.
The Consultant’s Growth Path ◾ 7
Team members at the forming stage are getting to know one another
before embarking on a new adventure, a process that is often accompanied
by a certain level of enthusiasm and heightened expectations. The reality of
course is that not everyone sees things the same way; differences in outlook
may often surface. Then comes the storming stage when these differences
become potentially divisive. Team conflicts must be worked out and processed
to get to a point where members are able to accept, process, and understand
one another’s perspectives and contribution. This is the norming stage. Having
achieved this cohesion, the team arrives at a point where it can deliver “excep-
tional collective performance” (ECP): the performing stage. This is a stage
where the consultant is the team leader or facilitator, where roles and objec-
tives are clear, results are achieved, and rewards are shared appropriately.
Think of a football or a hockey team. You are excited to be picked, but
now there’s the drudgery and discipline of preseason training. It is only
when you persevere through this phase that the process of doing what
needs to be done and working together as a team becomes the norm. By
following the discipline of working well together, the team gels and is able
to perform effectively in the game (ECP) and go on to win.
You will also experience the forming, storming, norming, and performing
dynamics on an individual level as you grow your business.
In the knowledge stream, consultants at Levels 1 and 2 concern themselves
primarily with the raw data and information that comprise the kinds of low-
level intervention associated with the Good Soldier and Competent Warrior.
The integration of experience, mind-set, and emotional intelligence gives the
Trusted Advisor the funded wisdom to operate at higher levels, developing
peer-level respect with clients to produce exceptional results. As a Trusted
Advisor and Master Practitioner, you develop strong relationships that enable
the C-level client to partner with you in high value interventions and solutions.
The communication stream follows the same path. At Level 1, the Good
Soldier is concerned with low-level consulting interventions such as report
delivery. There is participation at the second stage where the two-way flow
of information between consultant and client begins. At Level 3, the consul-
tant arrives at a thorough understanding of the client’s objectives through
dialogue and rapport, which generates peer-level respect. At the mastery
stage, the Odyssey consultant is working in partnership with the client on a
long-term basis, in a climate of undisputed trust.
Communications is to a relationship as blood is to the body. Without
either, there is no life. Communication is therefore imperative to the devel-
opment of strong business relationships.
8 ◾ Odyssey—The Business of Consulting
The Consulting Levels in Detail
We characterize the Level 1 consultant as the Good Soldier (Table 1.1). Your
consulting output is transactional in nature; you sell directly to the end user
who needs the product to meet immediate work needs. At this early stage
of your career, you are unaware of what you need to learn, and so you are
unconsciously incompetent. Sometimes we refer to it as the “arrogance of
ignorance”; you do not know that you do not know. In the human dimen-
sion, this stage is represented by the hand.
At Level 1, you are hands-on and transaction orientated, as are the buyers
you tend to deal with. They are not looking for business solutions, and they
are not positioned to see the big picture. They want a day’s training or some
coaching. They want 80 assessments for a team building exercise. The work
you do is time bound and off the shelf and only seeks to improve opera-
tional efficiency in that specific area. The way you think and work tends to
be short term.
Life as a Good Soldier
When my husband John and I started in business, we were Good Soldiers.
We set up our company in March 1989 with one product, a business man-
agement course. We named our company Century Management because
we were relatively young at the time and wanted to appear substantial and
long-established.
We planned to blossom where we were planted. Living in Kildare,
Ireland, we approached our local businesses—the butcher, the baker, the
Table 1.1 The Good Soldier
The Level 1 Consultant: The Good Soldier
Step 1 Physical
Consultant growth stage The Good Soldier
Buyer type User of a product
Market positioning Transactional sale
Needs analysis Work needs
Learning stage Unconscious incompetent
Human dimension Hands/physical
The Consultant’s Growth Path ◾ 9
accountant, the solicitor, and the local small- and medium-sized business
owners—the people who would not be inclined to go to the corporate
houses for training. And our vision worked. We began to develop a loyal
and happy local client base.
At that stage, we were running the business from our converted garage.
Our main objective was to fill the Business Management Competency
Course (BMCC), which we had created. The BMCC program comprised
several business modules that were relevant, practical, and results orientated
for small- to medium-sized businesses.
Having the helicopter view into many businesses and helping them solve
their problems and achieve their visions suited our style and work. We loved
working with a varied clientele. This perspective enabled us to develop a
strong reputation for making a difference for people in both their personal
and business lives.
We may have been short on experience, but we were certainly big on
ambition, and that’s typical of most consultants at this stage of their develop-
ment. They arrive into the profession from either technical or general man-
agement with high hopes and vigor. The scope of the consulting business
is a breath of fresh air after the limitations of management, and this fuels
a passion and a sense of freedom. Very often, however, consultants throw
themselves into activities with limited success or results. The Good Soldier
years are always a mix of excitement and struggle.
Level 2 consultants are Competent Warriors (Table 1.2). They sell their
product-based solutions to functional managers with a particular prod-
uct requirement. They are now aware of the gaps in their skill sets and
are consciously incompetent. This is what’s sometimes referred to as the
Table 1.2 The Competent Warrior
The Level 2 Consultant: The Competent Warrior
Step 2 Intellectual
Consultant growth stage The Competent Warrior
Buyer type The functional manager
Market positioning Product solutions
Needs analysis Product needs
Learning stage Conscious incompetent
Human dimension Head/intellectual
10 ◾ Odyssey—The Business of Consulting
“embarrassment of exposure”; you know you do not know. The human
dimension is the intellectual component, the head.
Kicking It Up a Level
John and I knew that we had to move our offering up a level. We had to
source resources to advance us from the feast or famine cycle, to give us
something more than just the one product. During the Competent Warrior
years, the consultant who wants to “kick it up a level” puts their manage-
ment and business hat on. They look beyond their own services and explore
collaboration and partnerships with other professional consultants.
We decided to connect with a renowned global expert, Brian Tracy, who
provided us with the resources and the brand to expand our offering. We part-
nered with Brian and incorporated his materials into our portfolio of solutions.
We also formed a relationship and business partnership with Bill and
Dave Bonnstetter at Target Training International and Success Insights
(TTISI). Bill and Dave continue to research and add world-class innovative
systems to the world’s leading assessment solutions in business diagnostics,
job competency and measurement, personal talent, and behavioral and moti-
vator systems. They were the first organization worldwide to computerize
temperament/behavioral profiles.
Since we had been handwriting our behavioral reports up to this point,
their materials transformed much of what we did. Similarly, their software
and know-how revolutionized our systems and made the reports we pre-
sented to clients far more professional.
We were no longer one-dimensional. We had what we could legitimately
call a portfolio of solutions. We were also able to license out our business
training programs to other consultants, which helped to widen our revenue
base and smooth the troughs and peaks that tend to dog those early years.
We had broken out of the Good Soldier stage and become Competent
Warriors. Consultants at this stage of their career tend to have an established
track record and reputation. You are known for being good at what you do,
and any innovations you make start to bear fruit. You still get lean periods,
but you have survived the early years and adding to your portfolio gives you
breadth and depth. It is at this point that people typically think about hiring
an additional consultant, an administrator, and move—as we did—from the
garage to professional, purpose-built offices.
You are still in the product business, but there has been a subtle shift
in how you think about yourself and your clients. You are out prospecting,
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