No Expectations . . . but a Real Surprise!

Years ago, my wife and I were in Paris and we decided we wanted to take a break from touring basilicas, museums, and galleries . . . and . . . just . . . go . . . to a movie. As we perused the newspaper (yes, it was back then!) a helpful Parisian told us to look for “VO” or “Version Originale” and we would get a film in English. With this information, and trying to pick something suitable, we picked a movie where the poster was of a piano player. The movie? Amadeus. We were blown away. Blown away by the music, the story, the acting. It was a block buster (no surprise to us) and to this day we still have special memories of going to the movie on the Champs Elysees.

More common, however, has been a different experience. The experience of having “high” expectations for movies . . . instead of none . . . and being disappointed when they don’t deliver. Maybe you can relate? Expectations in consulting, as in movies, are a critical element of the experience

A limitation for Newbies

One of the challenges when you are new to consulting is . . . you are limited in experience and thus, the scope of your ability to intervene in client’s situations . . . to say it more plainly, “you are not sure what you can do.” Not yet. Even professionals appearing the most confident may be masking their inexperience and less-than-robust-resolutions-to-consulting-issues. Still, many get into consulting because they want to help and often, naturally, tend toward a personality of helping solve problems, encouraging others to develop their own competencies, and expecting continued growth and accountability for themselves.

The new consultant often can make one critical mistake: “trying to do too much.” A correlary to this problem is, “letting the customer assume you can do more than you can.” A consultant must manage both the customer and their own expectations.

One Goal but Two Views

One way to have good outcomes, early on, is to remember that the client does not see what you see. But, at the same time, you do not see what the client sees either. You have to describe it to them—and they to you—and, working together, you understand and then act.

Imagine for a minute that you are trying to defuse a bomb. All you have available to you is your observation skills, prior experiences, and intuition to guide you as you look at the bomb. But as a consultant you do have one other thing. You have a partner—the customer. Now imagine that although this partner can’t see the bomb—they are not seeing it like you are—but does have something you don’t . . . a manual telling how to defuse the bomb. How would you proceed?

Seems easy enough, doesn’t it. You communicate and defuse the bomb. Having done this multiple trainings with work teams, I can tell you that one of the first barriers to succeeding at this task is to rid one’s self of the expectations of what the “other” partner should do. The person at the site of the bomb expects to be told exactly what to do. The person with the manual expects the partner to help them “see” the bomb. Their expectations—and maladaptive coping—make them focus on elements that preclude a successful approach. At first. Slowly, they learn to focus on their own tasks and begin to work as a more efficient team, eventually solving the problems and succeeding.

The point is, to be successful, you need to carefully, manage your own . . . and your client’s . . . expectations. Leading the customer be being realistic in their expectations, recognizing the time involved in developing the past patterns and issues, and helping them to face the real work of change gets easier with experience. For the “newbie,” just remember two things: One, focus on what you really can do (“I can interview the team and see if I have a suggestion for how to help, and if not, help you find someone who can.”); and Two, don’t let the client’s hope for an easy or quick fix over-ride your judgement of the needed actions.