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Casual Articles - Consultants & Coaches: Don't Let Your Clients Deskill You!
Are you thinking about switching careers? If you are, you're not alone. Most Americans switch careers three times in their lifetime. Nevertheless, switching careers is scary. And it's especially paralyzing the older you get. But making a career switch is very possible and much more common than you might think. Before you're ready to leap, realize that it's a heavyweight decision that deserves some time and sol
It was a perfect bind.
Sometimes consultants are brought in precisely to fail, so managers can say after the program sinks: “See, even a pro couldn’t fix things, so don’t blame us!”
What they don’t say is how they undermined the program from the outset, whispering to associates, “Get what you can from him and blow-off the rest.”
In other words, don’t take him seriously.
But what happens when they do?
You’re succeeding with your content and methods, but you’re failing to win the hearts and minds of management, the ones who will pay or stiff you, and
Common sense at work: Such qualities as loyalty, energy, intelligence and hard work are certain to be in any consensus of what it takes to build a successful career.“However, there’s another essential ingredient that is too often overlooked,” says Ramon Greenwood, senior career counselor at www.CommonSenseAtWork.com> “That is having fun on the job.”In fact, most of us are downright ambivalent w
Without doubt, he was a hero, hurling himself into harm’s way as he did.
But the greatest threat he faced wasn’t the frigid water or the potential of the damaged jet to explode. It came from the very people he was endeavoring to save.
As is the unfortunate case so often, drowning people inadvertently drown their would-be saviors, because they’re panicking. So, we end up with a tragedy on top of a tragedy.
A similar, though less dramatic phenomenon occurs in consulting and coaching.
I teach the “Building Your Consulting & Coaching Business” class at UCLA Extension, and this is one of the odd but frequently occurring scenarios we discuss.
People hire advisors because they’re seeking dramatic change, and often they need a significant lift simply to survive in business or in their personal lives. Desperate, they reach out for help with one hand while trying to submerge their rescuers with the other.
One of the ways they do it is by DESKILLING consultants with their fears and doubts.
I was in the middle of an extensive program with a large financial company in the Midwest, and given the sorry state of its customer service unit my results were nothing less than phenomenal.
Specifically, my seminar ratings were incredibly high, especially in light of the fact that I was training overtly hostile people. They entered sessions with fears and concerns and deep misgivings, and left at least being open to, if not embracing the changes I was ushering in.
Their Director of Training couldn’t believe I was doing so well with folks she couldn’t handle, so at a meeting she said point blank:
“We don’t understand how your seminar scores can be so high.”
Effectively, she was implying that I was cheating somehow or that something was askew.
Her idea was to station observers in the sessions, which of course, would be very chilling to the learning process.
What could one say, “I’m a pro, and I know exactly how to get results from hostile trainees and you don’t, and that’s why my scores are high and yours are low”?
Her comments were aimed at deskilling me. There was no “winning” in this situation.
If I continued to score well, she looked bad; and if I scored poorly, I did.
It was a perfect bind.
Sometimes consultants are brought in precisely to fail, so managers can say after the program sinks: “See, even a pro couldn’t fix things, so don’t blame us!”
What they don’t say is how they undermined the program from the outset, whispering to associates, “Get what you can from him and blow-off the rest.”
In other words, don’t take him seriously.
But what happens when they do?
You’re succeeding with your content and methods, but you’re failing to win the hearts and minds of management, the ones who will pay or stiff you, and e
Employers have fears, uncertainty and DOUBT (the FUD factor) over your ability to actually do what you claim you can do in your resume and cover letter.Combine this with the fact that EVERY candidate looks good on paper, no-one leaves their previous job because they were paid too much, the work was too interesting and all the people were fantastic, and you can see the challenge you're facing. (I'm yet to see
I teach the “Building Your Consulting & Coaching Business” class at UCLA Extension, and this is one of the odd but frequently occurring scenarios we discuss.
People hire advisors because they’re seeking dramatic change, and often they need a significant lift simply to survive in business or in their personal lives. Desperate, they reach out for help with one hand while trying to submerge their rescuers with the other.
One of the ways they do it is by DESKILLING consultants with their fears and doubts.
I was in the middle of an extensive program with a large financial company in the Midwest, and given the sorry state of its customer service unit my results were nothing less than phenomenal.
Specifically, my seminar ratings were incredibly high, especially in light of the fact that I was training overtly hostile people. They entered sessions with fears and concerns and deep misgivings, and left at least being open to, if not embracing the changes I was ushering in.
Their Director of Training couldn’t believe I was doing so well with folks she couldn’t handle, so at a meeting she said point blank:
“We don’t understand how your seminar scores can be so high.”
Effectively, she was implying that I was cheating somehow or that something was askew.
Her idea was to station observers in the sessions, which of course, would be very chilling to the learning process.
What could one say, “I’m a pro, and I know exactly how to get results from hostile trainees and you don’t, and that’s why my scores are high and yours are low”?
Her comments were aimed at deskilling me. There was no “winning” in this situation.
If I continued to score well, she looked bad; and if I scored poorly, I did.
It was a perfect bind.
Sometimes consultants are brought in precisely to fail, so managers can say after the program sinks: “See, even a pro couldn’t fix things, so don’t blame us!”
What they don’t say is how they undermined the program from the outset, whispering to associates, “Get what you can from him and blow-off the rest.”
In other words, don’t take him seriously.
But what happens when they do?
You’re succeeding with your content and methods, but you’re failing to win the hearts and minds of management, the ones who will pay or stiff you, and
I am in my mid-thirties, and, as you can imagine, I have changed and looked for jobs many times in my life. No matter how successful was in my job hunting research, I realized that there are certain ground “rules” that need to be respected; otherwise, we will not get what we want from our careers.First of all, forget about your resume.A resume can’t get you a job. A resume won’t get you a job. Research
Specifically, my seminar ratings were incredibly high, especially in light of the fact that I was training overtly hostile people. They entered sessions with fears and concerns and deep misgivings, and left at least being open to, if not embracing the changes I was ushering in.
Their Director of Training couldn’t believe I was doing so well with folks she couldn’t handle, so at a meeting she said point blank:
“We don’t understand how your seminar scores can be so high.”
Effectively, she was implying that I was cheating somehow or that something was askew.
Her idea was to station observers in the sessions, which of course, would be very chilling to the learning process.
What could one say, “I’m a pro, and I know exactly how to get results from hostile trainees and you don’t, and that’s why my scores are high and yours are low”?
Her comments were aimed at deskilling me. There was no “winning” in this situation.
If I continued to score well, she looked bad; and if I scored poorly, I did.
It was a perfect bind.
Sometimes consultants are brought in precisely to fail, so managers can say after the program sinks: “See, even a pro couldn’t fix things, so don’t blame us!”
What they don’t say is how they undermined the program from the outset, whispering to associates, “Get what you can from him and blow-off the rest.”
In other words, don’t take him seriously.
But what happens when they do?
You’re succeeding with your content and methods, but you’re failing to win the hearts and minds of management, the ones who will pay or stiff you, and
Are you looking for new business cards that will help you market your law practice and you want a design that will look good but will also give someone all of the information that they need at first glance? When you are a lawyer you want something that looks professional because people that need a lawyer want someone who seems to be well put together and has the ability to defend them. Sometimes the appearance of
“We don’t understand how your seminar scores can be so high.”
Effectively, she was implying that I was cheating somehow or that something was askew.
Her idea was to station observers in the sessions, which of course, would be very chilling to the learning process.
What could one say, “I’m a pro, and I know exactly how to get results from hostile trainees and you don’t, and that’s why my scores are high and yours are low”?
Her comments were aimed at deskilling me. There was no “winning” in this situation.
If I continued to score well, she looked bad; and if I scored poorly, I did.
It was a perfect bind.
Sometimes consultants are brought in precisely to fail, so managers can say after the program sinks: “See, even a pro couldn’t fix things, so don’t blame us!”
What they don’t say is how they undermined the program from the outset, whispering to associates, “Get what you can from him and blow-off the rest.”
In other words, don’t take him seriously.
But what happens when they do?
You’re succeeding with your content and methods, but you’re failing to win the hearts and minds of management, the ones who will pay or stiff you, and
Knowing the differences in managerial practices in different countries is interesting. There are, for example, great differences among mangers in the United States as opposed to other countries. With the increasing investment of foreign firms in the United States, the syllabus of business finance is giving more attention to the integration of managers and workers from other countries into American society. This need
It was a perfect bind.
Sometimes consultants are brought in precisely to fail, so managers can say after the program sinks: “See, even a pro couldn’t fix things, so don’t blame us!”
What they don’t say is how they undermined the program from the outset, whispering to associates, “Get what you can from him and blow-off the rest.”
In other words, don’t take him seriously.
But what happens when they do?
You’re succeeding with your content and methods, but you’re failing to win the hearts and minds of management, the ones who will pay or stiff you, and either recommend you to the next client or be mysteriously silent when you ask them for a testimonial.
When you sense your clients are deliberately or unintentionally deskilling you, tell them in clear terms.
If they won’t reform on the spot, withdrawing from the assignment may be the best way to save your integrity.
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