Learn to say NO

Being able to say no in the right situations is especially important in the consulting industry since we are often expected to have answers to everything and to be available 24/7 (just slightly exaggerating here, but I think you get the point). Let's take a look at the crucial skill to say no from two perspectives: project scope and extensive internal work.

Project scope:

To prevent your project scope from growing in a continuous and uncontrolled way (also referred to as scope creep) you need to learn to say no to a lot of people. As a consultant, there are two dimensions to the topic project scope:

1. If you are hired as a project manager, learn to keep the project scope within the defined boundaries (with the help of a precise requirements list in classical project management or with a refined backlog in an agile environment). This is the single most advice I got from experienced project managers and consultants. Keeping your scope from uncontrolled expansion is the make or break issue in most projects. Avoiding scope creep can sometimes feel like swatting away bees from a cake: You constantly have to keep saying no to stakeholders who try to add new requirements to your project. Of course you can’t say no to everyone every time. But in order to keep on top of changes, you need a transparent change request process which allows you, management and the sponsor to actively steer the project scope. To make your scope protection more understandable for the others, you should create total clarity about what will be done within the agreed budget boundaries. Even if you are able to realize more scope for the same cost: It still needs to be made transparent to the project stakeholders. In project management the term “gold plating” describes the addition of any feature which is not part of the original scope. The thing is: Gold plating does not get you the gold medal. Mainly because it adds more risks to the project and because stakeholders lose trust if they are not involved in scope changes. Instead of assuming that you should realize as many requirements as possible within the agreed budget, ask: “Dear decision makers, we have been more efficient in executing the project. We can either give back 100.000 € to the portfolio or we can realize requirement XYZ for that amount of money. Since it is a requirement important to our customers, we suggest to add it to the scope and compensate for the cost within project budget. How is your decision?”.

2. As you control the scope of your project, it is equally important to control the scope of your own engagement. Some customers see you as an all-purpose instrument, since a lot of consultancies offer quite a wide variety of services. Moreover a lot of consultants simply do what they are told - even outside of agreed and paid engagement boundaries. Let's look at the following situation: Your customers meets up with you during lunch and says: “I visited your company’s website and found out that you also offer database implementation services. I know that we hired you for IT project management, but it would be great if you could also help me with this database issue I have.” In this case you can of course have an initial meeting about the topic but you should see it as a sales meeting. The customer is requesting a different service - say no to simply doing it within the limits of your engagement - say yes to developing a new engagement from this lead.

Extensive internal activities:

In the consulting industry it is common to work on internal projects besides your client engagement (e.g.: internal knowledge sharing, publishing white papers, analysing markets, conducting benchmark studies, you name it…). We often take on internal tasks assuming that our colleagues know how busy we are (or we expect them to have at least thought about it), but that is hardly ever the case. Since you will usually be staffed on a project for 100% of your working hours, additional tasks will eventually end in multitasking. To cut it short: Multitasking does not work. Choose quality over quantity. Save your own and your colleague’s time by doing one task in an excellent manner instead of several in a mediocre way. Don’t get me wrong: I am not suggesting you to become a naysayer; If you actually have room to do internal projects - do it - definitely do it. But in a situation in which your project demands all of your focus and attention, be clear about it. Discuss it with your team and define priorities. Let everybody know that you are willing to do extra work but only as long as your main task (delivering excellent project work) is not negatively affected. I have heard the following statement quite a lot in this context: “She is still smiling - she must still have capacity to do some extra work.” Why does that strike a nerve with me? Because it implies that some internal task is more important than your emotional well being. In order to be able to perform on a high level you must be emotionally fit. The one who smiles is doing something right, not wrong. If people do not understand that and put a task before your well-being, say “no” to the situation.

Keep in mind that you will not be promoted simply because you did everything you were told. It might actually cost you more time in your development if you do so. Sometimes saying “no” can be a way stronger promotional factor, since it shows the ability to focus and the strength to identify and articulate your goals.

To sum it up: A clear and justifiable “no” can safe you a lot of time and keeps you focused on the important things - especially as a consultant.