Avoid being staffed on a bad project
MBB consultants feel powerless when staffing forces them on bad projects, but it's not completely hopeless. This post helps you to protect your career without damaging your relationships.
You are being staffed on a bad project you don’t want.
It can be an industry you don’t want. It can be the toxic leadership you want to avoid.
A McKinsey consultant messaged me last week:
“I was on the beach this week waiting for the project that I really wanted. But it got delayed. Now the staffing team is trying to force me to join a mining case that nobody wants in the middle of nowhere. What should I do?”
There are multiple things you can do (if you want to learn more about the staffing process, here’s the more detailed guide on this topic).
But in this post, I wanted to discuss specifically the situation when you are forced onto a bad project.
First, understand one important thing:
Although technically the staffing team can force you on any project, they generally don’t want to do that.
It’s a huge headache and hassle for them.
Here’s the thing:
Forced staffing is very bad for office morale. The staffing team and partners want to keep the spirit of free staffing. They want to keep the market forces of supply and demand working. And the precedents of forced staffing demotivate consultants.
One important caveat: The advice I share is specifically applicable to McKinsey and to bigger offices. Also, it works in a similar way at BCG. But in other firms, the staffing process can vary significantly.
That is why the staffing team prefers to do it differently.
They want you to say YES voluntarily.
That’s why they’ll apply psychological pressure on you.
Yes, you are in an unfair situation. There’s a huge imbalance between consultants and staffing.
New consultants don’t know what they can or cannot do. That’s why they are afraid to say NO.
But the staffing team is extremely experienced in these things. They have been doing it every day for many years. They have more information, experience, and power over consultants.
What can you do in this situation?
Just don’t say YES.
You know, like how vampires can’t enter your home without an explicit invitation. It’s the same with staffing. They won’t confirm you until you agree.
If you don’t agree, they need to turn it into an ugly scenario. And they don’t want to do it as much as you don’t want them to.
How to do it?
Be polite and empathetic, but firm.
Say something like:
“I am really sorry, but this project is not aligned with my long-term career goals.”
Typically, in this situation, consultants come up with different reasons. Then, once the staffing team responds with solid logic and arguments, consultants start to flip-flop and then weaken their position. Eventually, they give up under pressure.
But you don’t need many reasons. Just choose one and stick with it. This way, it will be much easier for you to keep the logical coherence of your negotiation.
The staffing team might push even harder. Expect at least 2-3 waves of attacks. They might involve partners and your evaluator. It may sound scary at times. But hold your fort.
I know, my advice sounds super simple, but it is actually very hard to execute. We are hard-wired to respond with definitive answers and react to logical arguments. It’s very hard to neither say YES nor say NO. But if you can do it, the prize can be significant.
Risks
Let me be clear. There are certain risks of using this tactic. You will need to walk a fine line here.
You may piss off your staffing team. There are two main negative implications.
First, they can deprioritize you in the staffing process. But this isn’t something you should fear. If you achieve good performance and build a strong reputation, you should find your own staffing directly with partners. As a tenured consultant, you can’t depend on the staffing team.
Second, they can provide feedback to the evaluation committee that you were difficult in staffing. It’s a little bit unpleasant outcome, but not lethal. The feedback from partners from real project work will weigh much more.
Tradeoff
But understand the key tradeoff you are facing.
It’s better to upset staffing than suffer on a terrible project for 2-3 months because one bad project can completely derail your whole consulting career.
Eventually, the staffing team will see that you are not caving, and they will give up and find a new victim.
That’s exactly what happened to my client.
He dodged a really bad project.
Who knows how much horror and suffering he avoided by that?
As the next step, we focused on finding the project he really wanted.
If you want to learn more about the staffing process and how you can improve your strategy and execution, read this extended guide on staffing:
If you are an MBB consultant and want to improve your performance through personalized coaching support:
We will discuss your pain points, challenges, and aspirations: no strings attached, just straight answers to your biggest questions.
If you want to learn more about my coaching program, read this post:
The coaching program for MBB consultants.