This document summarizes advice from interviews with experienced consultants on a podcast. It provides tips for consultants at different stages of their career. For those just starting out, it suggests not taking oneself too seriously and asking seniors for coaching. For those at the 4-6 year level, it recommends considering going into industry or a smaller firm and being curious about every assignment. For more experienced directors and partners, it advises building relationships, adding value, and choosing what type of firm is the best fit. It also includes recommendations for self-improvement through reading, exercise, diet and mindfulness.

1. Author: James Brewin
17th April 2018
Source: Climb in Consulting
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JB Takeaways: Climb In Consulting Podcast, Selected Episodes
JB Takeaways
Get To The Point
Dom Moorhouse
Founder & Former MD,
Moorhouse Consulting
Adrian Bettridge
Managing Partner, Baringa Partners
“What advice would you give to consultantswith the
following levels of experience?...”
0-4 Years
‘Just starting out’
4-6 years
‘Consultant to Manager’
7+ Years
‘Director to Partner’
• Don’t take yourself too
seriously
• Don’t be afraid to ask seniors
for coaching
• Think about going out and
doing something else…have a
‘back-story’
• Think: do you have an
entrepreneurial itch?
• Read, look outwards
• Think about wider questions
of what you want to achieve
• Make sure your values are
aligned to the organisation
before taking equity
• Come on Dom’s retreat!
• Be curious, accept and learn
from every assignment
• Learn to tell a story
• Absorb as much as possible
• Build relationships!
• Think about what you are
going to be famous for, and
build that depth
• Be more intentional about
the work you do
• Build relationships!
• Add more value than you
receive and you will remain
relevant
• Turn from ‘chess master’ to
‘gardener’: create an
environment which
facilitates others
• Say yes to everything: take
advantage of the diversity of
consulting
• Learn as much as you can and
think long-term: patience and
learning over rapid progress, be
comfortable as long as you are
learning
• Be ambitious, but recognise that
you don’t know all the answers
• Make a deliberate choice on
whether you want commit
to a big-firm path, or to
specialise in industry or
with a smaller firm
• Make a deliberate choice
about what to do next: strip
away the sunk-cost bias of
time invested in a career at a
given organisation when
deciding
• Managing the Professional
Services Firm
• Getting Things Done
• The Primal Blueprint
• The Definitive Business Plan
• Show Me The Numbers
• Why We Sleep
• As a Man Thinketh
• How Will You Measure Your
Life?
• Elon Musk
• Team of Teams
• The 5 Minute Journal
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective
People
• Start with Why
• Drive
• Mindset
• The Icarus Deception
• Quiet Leadership
• Happiness by Design
• Bounce
• Read widely
• Think deeply about, and keep
track of, what you want to
achieve, outside of corporate
targets, in terms of health,
family, career, finances and
community
• You do not need to drink to
network and succeed
Make time for your morning
routine:
• Incorporate exercise
• Try ‘5 minute journalling’
• Try meditation
• Focus on diet, consider
intermittent fasting
• Have humility, recognise that the
client outcomeis the most
importantthing, not your personal
contribution
• When you co-invest others into your
goals, your chances multiply
• Gate One USP: high skill levels, deep
sector/competency expertise,
phenomenal EQ and empathy
Recommended
Books (with links)
Other Key TipsInterviewee
*
Simon Dennis
Founding Partner, Gate One
Stephen Newton
Founder, Managing Partner, Elixirr
• Choose the firm which suits
you the best, not just the job
you get offered
• Be selfish with knowledge and
experience, take in as much
as you can: watch how the
game is played
• Remember at your stage it’s
trial and error
• Recognise the value of your
network and focus on
building it, all the time,
whether you plan to continue
to be a consultant or not
• Don’t play at internal politics:
deliver value
• Recognise that 'Partner' is not
a job title or promotion, it is
going into business: to share
risk and reward, so think
about whether you like the
other Partners, and whether
you want to do business with
them
• Not a fanof self-help books -
best learning is from
experiences. Get life
experience rather than
listening or reading about
someone else: ‘get on the
pitch’
• All of life is sales, so don’t be
afraid of it, it’s not sleazy!
• Scratch the entrepreneurial
itch: have a try and ‘make
stuff happen’, remembering
that being an entrepreneur is
as simpleas, buying low and
selling high