Why bother

For many years, I used to dread being asked at parties “…and what is it that you do for a living?” 

“I’m a consultant,” I’d reply. “And I always feel that my next word should be ‘but’.”

Once in a while that line would get a laugh (let’s face it, probably borne of pity). Sometimes I’d end up being regaled by a story about an awful consulting experience. More often, I’d experience that sinking feeling of someone feigning interest in a subject they find boring, having regretted asking the question in the first place.

You might have already spotted that there is an obvious way to deal with this problem: find a more interesting answer to the original question. (There’s also: go to better parties, but that’s not within the scope of this article.)

And there is a more interesting answer. It’s grounded in another question — one that sits just behind “what is it that you do?”. And that’s the question of why we do what we do.

When you boil it down, there are only three reasons to be an independent consultant.

Make money

The lowest-order — but unignorable — reason to work as a consultant is to make money. Most of us have to work for a living, and consultancy can be a well-paid profession: ONS data indicates that a significant number of us make over £100,000 a year.

While money is not innately interesting (at least not to this writer), what is interesting is the relationship that we each have with it. One reason that consultants have a bad reputation is that too often in our industry we have prized income generation over doing the right thing. The bookshelves groan with stories of consultancies behaving unethically (in some cases illegally) to generate a quick buck. My ex-business partner used to describe other consultants as being “not so much in the business of consulting as invoice maximisation”. This is a way of thinking that you might term ‘money before value’. 

If you want to learn about somebody’s values — their real values, that is, rather than the ones they claim to have — watch how they behave around money. It will have much to teach you. Over the years I have encountered many organisations who, for example, screw every supplier to the floor on price while presenting themselves to the public as supply chain benefactors. I have seen ‘ethical’ consultancies take on dubious clients. On the positive side, I have worked with many individuals and businesses whose word was their bond, and who kept their promises even when unforeseen circumstances meant it cost them to do so.

The choice, then, is not whether money is part of our ‘why’. It is about what we are prepared to do to get paid. I have long been an advocate of consultants taking something akin to the Hippocratic oath: ‘first, do no harm’. When surveying our industry, it would appear that this is easier said than done.

Make a dent

A higher-order reason to work as an independent consultant is because you are seeking to make a positive dent in the work and lives of those you serve.

Most consultants and consultancies take pride in their ability to make a dent — for good reason. We are in the business of problem solving. If we do this well, it can have a positive impact on the fortunes of our clients and their businesses. 

Helping an organisation to make and/or save money is part of making a dent, but it is far from the whole picture. Your work might help to improve your client’s career prospects, smooth ways of working across teams, repair a broken system, or develop an innovative product that delights a client’s customers.

There is an intrinsic motivation in such work: the satisfaction of a job well done. There are also extrinsic rewards: advocacy and word-of-mouth tend to be a consequence of the positive dents that you make. And those positive dents can inform your consultancy’s marketing efforts, which should always be impact-based.

Make a difference

For many people, making the right kind of dent and the right kind of living is enough. But for those of who want to level up, the highest-order reason to be an independent consultant is to make a difference.

This is where we achieve sustainable impact on the world around us: where our work brings with it positive consequences that long outlast the length of the engagement. It is when we have made a profound impact on the lives as well as the work of those we serve; where we change not only minds but hearts.

You might be sceptical that such impact is possible within the constraints of an industry as arid and commercially-focused as consultancy. But I can point to any number of examples in my own work and the work of others. There is the client I had dinner with last year who told me she wouldn’t have sold her business (and been able to provide for her family) without our input. At Corporate Punk we have won multiple awards for helping people build happier, healthier work environments. A friend who works as an education consultant has helped propel speaking skills high up the national agenda. Another is intervening in AI for the public good.

We become independent consultants because we believe we can see and solve certain problems better than anyone. We each have it in us to make an enormous difference to those around us and the world at large. 

Sometimes we just need a little support to unlock our potential.

Oh yes. And these days, I quite like being asked at parties “…and what is it that you do?” 

My answer: “I help companies create workplaces where people flourish. And I help other consultants flourish too.” The most common response? “That sounds great.” 

Doesn’t it just?

If you’d like to tune in to the world of independent consultancy, check out our podcast.

What to take from this article

Make money. Make a dent. Make a difference. The choice is yours.

Explore more