Consultancies and Professional Service Firms

Professional service companies attract highly qualified graduates with outstanding academic achievements. Yet, it takes more to be successful in the long run in such companies—far more!

 

People who achieve long-term success in these companies have developed a very personal style, which appeals to clients on an emotional level and at the same time offers them a high degree of insight and expertise.

At the start of a career as a consultant, solicitor or accountant the analytical skills and expertise take centre stage. As you moves up through various hierarchy levels this changes. Now soft skills become increasingly important. These decide whether a team is managed and motivated successfully and also to what extent clients are satisfied with service the receive.

Career jumps from one level to the next are often more difficult to manage, as with every move the tasks and respective required skills change dramatically (see also our article on “Developing a leadership culture in the consultancy industry”). The number of available development and support programmes decreases once management level is reached. There are few programmes for the continuing development of experienced consultants and partners.

We know “the business”, have all held leadership positions in renowned consultancy firms at some stage and have established national and international coaching practice over many years in this field.

We help you address these challenges. Based on our work in and with consultancies and professional service firms, we are able to devise individual development programmes, which are tailored to the specific needs of consultants, principals, partners and members of the executive board.

For instance, in recent years we have developed strategies with executive board committees for their business, helped to position Partners and Practice Heads in an industry and geographic region, overseen a generation change in service departments, helped Managers to move up to partner level and helped consultants through “crisis situations”.