A dramatic turnaround from a struggling consultant to scoring a fantastic win

The first year is the most difficult for consultants. They can't score meaningful wins, and it feels like never-ending torture. Let's discuss how consultants can change that.

Christine faced an imminent Concerns rating three months ago. This would have been a virtual job death sentence for her.

As a lateral hire, she struggled to find projects. Utilization was nearly zero, and development had stagnated.

But three months later,

Christine not only survived but thrived, scoring a big win in her project.

She presented her content to senior clients in a SteerCo meeting, and partners were impressed and praised her.

How did she pull off such a dramatic turnaround?

Christine developed and joined the Hero Journey coaching program and executed a three-step turnaround plan: Survive, Stabilize, and Accelerate.

Let's dive right into it:

1. Survive

Her situation was dire—unstaffed for four months with a mid-year review in four weeks.

Christine's main priority was to secure a new project.

But, finding it in such competitive times seemed impossible.

To differentiate, she leveraged her pre-consulting experience. She contacted partners in her field and offered her 'beach' support, which converted into a few new assignments.

But she had to change how she worked because her previous 'beach' work hadn't resulted in any projects.

That is why,

🎯 Christine focused on improving her slide-making skills to impress partners.

She completed multiple practical exercises in the Hero Journey coaching program, allowing her to identify quick wins and fix the most common mistakes.

Then, she demonstrated her upgraded skills to partners, which caught their attention.

As a result,

✅ Christine managed to get staffed on a client project just in time.

That was the first time she got staffed on her own.

Then,

🎯 The next priority was securing a good rating.

Although getting staffed improved her case, she was not out of the woods yet.

Her low utilization could easily tank her case.

She mobilized her supporters by talking to each one of them. Then, she emailed them and her evaluator with key points on her impact and demonstrated strengths.

Later, Christine's evaluator thanked her for the clear, top-down communication.

Initially, she was worried to come across as too braggy. But then we crafted it together to make it objective and professional.

As a result,

✅ Christine has got a good rating!

Her evaluator mentioned it was a close case, but she made it.

2. Stabilize

Christine wanted her new project to go much better than previous ones.

She knew leaders quickly make up their minds about consultants based on first assignments. That is why it was important to start performing well from the get-go.

That is why,

🎯 Christine had to make a strong first impression.

Her first task was to create a dummy deck for the project kick-off meeting.

Previously, she would create a ‘Frankenstein’ document with random pages and stickers and send it to her leaders.

But this time, Christine focused on creating a high-quality document. She created a neat structure on one page and then prepared a few high-quality deep dives.

As a result, it took only a couple of iterations to complete that document and send it to clients. Her partners were super impressed.

✅ That was the first time her document was accepted so well.

Her manager liked how she worked and invested more time in coaching her.

3. Accelerate

After a few weeks, Christine became more confident with project content, clients, and leaders.

🎯 Christine decided to accelerate her performance.

She asked her manager for permission to present at the next SteerCo meeting.

To prepare, she worked obsessively on her presentation, syndicating it with clients and rehearsing it many times.

As a result, it went amazingly!

✅ That was the first time she presented her content to senior clients and leaders.

And that was the first time when partners praised her for outstanding work. She became visible to leadership.

You can imagine how Christine felt at that time.

Of course, just this one win will not make her a high-performer consultant. She must score many more wins in the future.

But at least she has started believing she can do that.

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P.S.

Initially, I hesitated to take Christine into the Hero Journey coaching program.

I was unsure she had enough time to pull off this dramatic turnaround.

But I am glad that we took this risk.

Christine demonstrated unusual character, grit, and resilience.

In her case, having someone in her corner helping and cheering for her made a big difference.

Going through this journey alone without effective coaching and mentorship support is extremely difficult.

If you are an MBB consultant and want to achieve high performance, please
Book a 1-1 Discovery Session to discuss how to do that.

Learn more about the Hero Journey coaching program.

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