Lateral hire consultants must race against time to make a manager promotion
Lateral hire consultants must race against time to make a manager promotion
In two years, they must become standalone consultants and effective managers.
Consultants spend considerable time stabilizing and learning the basic toolkit.
As a result, they run out of time to demonstrate readiness for promotion.
This is what happened to Tom.
Tom is a second-year lateral hire consultant.
He faces a serious problem.
He has just two months to prove he's ready for a manager role.
Otherwise, he would receive a 'Concerns' rating and most likely be transitioned out three months later.
It's an extremely tight timeline.
His project just ended, and now he must find a new one where he can become an anchor consultant. Only then can he demonstrate his readiness.
In this economic environment, it's a tall order.
But Tom was doing great eight months ago.
He had good projects and received good feedback.
We spoke when I was conducting research calls for this newsletter.
He didn’t mention any major pain points or challenges.
That was very unusual.
How come a second-year consultant doesn’t have any challenges?
Maybe Tom is an exception, an extremely talented and gifted individual.
But I suspected that he simply didn't share his deeper pain.
He forgot to remove his 'success' mask, which consultants often wear to project confidence.
Some consultants get used to wearing these masks, so they ignore their problems.
Tom has fallen into the trap of average performance.
He believed he was safe.
But, becoming a manager is a very special promotion at MBB firms.
It's a huge leap in expectations and required skills.
Expectations have grown much faster than Tom's organic development.
The irony is that sometimes, high-potential consultants get caught in this trap and are forced to leave prematurely while less talented colleagues progress further.
Read: The Trap of Average Performance.
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Tom has missed the most important ingredient for promotion - leadership sponsorship.
To make a promotion decision, partners must be confident that consultants can manage complex projects.
They must know consultants very well and be really supportive and enthusiastic about them.
That’s why sponsorship is the most valuable resource in consulting.
But, the competition is extremely fierce.
Leaders are busy and preoccupied with their own survival. They can support only a handful of consultants and prefer to support high-performing ones.
Most consultants don't know how to build strong sponsorships.
They work really hard, but their efforts don't pay off. They have many friendly partners, but none are ready to advocate for them.
As a result, they chase partners and ask for sponsorships. But it's as cringy as asking people to like you.
That is why the most reliable approach is to learn to outperform peers.
Only then can consultants stand out, get noticed, and be included in inner circles.
Read: How to build strong sponsorship.
That's where Tom has fallen short.
He was good enough to do project work but not great enough to secure leadership support.
That is why achieving high performance is the key to success.
I developed a coaching program for MBB consultants to help them achieve high performance. Only then can you secure your promotion.
If you are an MBB consultant and want to achieve high performance, please Book a 1-1 Discovery Session to learn more.
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