3 strategies to radically improve your productivity
Learn to eliminate mistakes, comments, and unnecessary iterations to free up time to think, problem-solve, and impress your leaders.
This is extremely important if you've found yourself in a bad project.
I know it's overwhelming.
You don't know where to start and what to do. It feels like nothing can help you.
If this sounds like you, keep reading for effective solutions.
When my clients join my coaching program, many have serious performance issues and urgent situations.
As a first priority, I put them through the same exact process I will teach you in this post. It's like an ICU room (intensive care unit). First, we stabilize vitals. And only then can we focus on healing.
I call this stage "Stop the productivity bleeding" because it has the same urgency if you are gushing blood from your artery.
It's extremely damaging and must be stopped immediately.
Why does it happen?
Consultants make basic mistakes and spend all their time fixing them, which puts them in reactive mode.
Everything becomes urgent. They accumulate 'content debt'—unfinished work, mistakes, and new tasks start flying at them faster than they can process.
They choke and get overwhelmed.
As a result, they don't have time to think, which leads to even more mistakes.
This creates a vicious cycle that is extremely hard to break.
Here are the strategies you can do to break that vicious cycle:
1. Accept tasks well
The most damaging mistake is solving wrong problems.
Consultants waste time, destroy confidence, and erode leadership trust.
This happens when consultants misunderstand expectations.
They are afraid of asking questions and probing for additional information.
Every time they accept tasks, they make this simple trade-off.
Feel uncomfortable now or look stupid later.
Sadly, many implicitly choose the latter one.
Instead, ask clarifying questions—Why, How, and When.
Seek to understand expectations because you can't read minds.
If you don't know them, your chances of success will be close to zero.
There will be moments when you can't ask any more questions, then play back your understanding. That way, you prompt your leaders to correct you and share more information.
Finally, proactively propose your plan and expected outputs to catch misalignments early.
Read the post Accept tasks well to learn more.
2. Prioritize content
Another problem is that consultants don't spend enough time on important content.
They love to multitask, trying to tick off all to-do items, but this spreads them too thin.
Important tasks don't get enough time and attention, leading to low-quality outputs, more comments, and iterations (wasted time).
Instead, allocate disproportionately more time to priority content.
It's impossible to complete all the items on a to-do list. Nobody will appreciate that.
Focus on the ones that matter.
Aim to create one impressive content slide per day.
That will keep you disciplined and focused on producing high-quality outputs.
Read the post Master prioritization to learn more.
3. Produce high-quality outputs
Consultants are trained to work in iterations.
They were told sending a very early (ugly) draft for alignment is normal.
As a result, they produce dummies with lots of visual noise and ship them to managers.
But managers can't accept these low-quality outputs.
They react negatively and provide many comments.
This triggers a new cycle of useless iterations and kills your productivity.
You create a snowball effect. The more you work, the bigger it becomes.
Instead, focus on producing the best quality outputs you can.
Ideally, you want your outputs to be accepted from the first go—no follow-up iterations.
Imagine how much time you can save.
Read the post How to create great slides to learn more.
Consultants make all these three types of mistakes at the same time.
Their work becomes a tangled mess of issues.
How do they ever get anything done?
They condition their managers to see them as consultants who always produce crappy outputs.
Instead,
Implement these three strategies to boost your productivity.
It will be your first step to becoming a confident and high-performing consultant.
When my coaching clients complete this first stage, they observe a step change in performance.
They stop making silly mistakes, can think clearly, and problem-solve creatively. Their leaders appreciate their great ideas and trust them more and more.
This helps them to kickstart a virtuous cycle—a positive momentum.
They become more confident and less stressed. They start smiling.
Only then do we embark on the second step (Accelerate), when they learn how to win, over-deliver, and impress in this profession.
P.S.
If you are an MBB consultant and want to achieve high performance, please Book a 1-1 Discovery Session to learn more.
Learn more about the Hero's Journey coaching program.