Simply 'putting in more reps' is not the best way to learn slide-making skills

Lateral hire consultants don’t have time for trial and error. They need a better approach.

Having spoken to over 100 MBB consultants, I've noticed a common theme:

‘I just need to put in more reps...’

I often hear.

But this is highly ineffective.

It assumes making many mistakes.

But mistakes damage reputations and relationships with leaders.

Consultants accumulate enough damage, leading to staffing issues, stagnated development, and poor ratings, eventually resulting in counsel-to-leave outcomes.

In the current economic environment, there is little tolerance for underperformance.

It's also a time-consuming approach, taking months and months to learn.

Managers usually provide feedback on outputs, not inputs.

So, consultants struggle to identify root causes.

They keep repeating the same mistakes again and again.

That is why it takes so many reps to learn.

The best way to learn slide-making is with the help of an experienced coach.

An experienced coach can reduce learning time from months to weeks and help fix the most damaging mistakes.

But it's impossible!

Where do I find a coach who will invest time in me? - I expect you say.

And I agree with you!

Your managers and partners are preoccupied with their own survival.

That's why I've developed a coaching program for MBB consultants.

So consultants can get qualified and timely help.

For example, practical exercises in the coaching program boost slide-making skills and productivity, often turning around career trajectories in weeks.

In weeks, not months.

Here are three advantages that consultants get in the Hero Journey program:

1. Calibration

Consultants can't calibrate their performance.

They work in isolation, and every task they do is unique. They don't know if their work is good or bad.

They must learn on just one data point - themselves.

This is an extremely difficult environment for learning.

Instead, imagine you can calibrate your work with other consultants.

Consultants who are going through the same journey as you do.

You can see the best output for every task you do: a proverbial quality bar.

It will give you a clear goalpost where to stretch yourself.

Consultants are smart. If they see a clear quality target, they can reach it. Usually, it takes 3 to 4 exercises to achieve that target.

2. Reliable Routine

Consultants don't have reliable routines.

They work haphazardly and make many basic mistakes.

They misunderstand expectations, work on the wrong problems, and don't allocate enough time for problem-solving.

Then, they stop at obvious answers and ship poor-quality outputs to leaders.

These are all results of poor training.

Nobody explained how they must work effectively.

In the Hero Journey program, consultants practice effective routines.

They practice accepting tasks, prioritizing content, producing high-quality outputs, and presenting them. They receive immediate feedback on the full slide-making process, not just the outputs.

As a result, they develop reliable routines and fix basic mistakes.

3. Consulting Toolkit X-ray

Consultants often blame their slide-making skills while they have gaps in problem-solving.

These gaps can be in structuring, storylining, conceptual, analytical, research, or other techniques.

Then, it becomes a tangled mess of problems consultants can't figure out and solve.

It's extremely helpful to diagnose your full consulting toolkit.

Typically, 2-3 quick wins can improve the whole operating model.

To identify them, you need someone with experience and pattern recognition. Someone who has worked with dozens of consultants and helped them become successful.

The practical exercises are designed to test your different problem-solving techniques. It's like going through an X-ray and seeing your toolkit from different angles.

This way, we ensure consultants don't have any blind spots.

Finally,

Lateral hires don't have time to learn through trial and error.

They need effective solutions right away.

So they can move from surviving to thriving.

But, creating perfect conditions for learning is extremely hard.

Finding the right coach among your colleagues and convincing them to help you is nearly impossible. You will need an extreme luck to get that.

That is why I developed a coaching program for MBB consultants.

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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