Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are questions that clients and participants have asked about specific challenges and topics. If any resonate with you, click on the link to see which programme provided answers.
Professional Development, Professional Services, Advisory Skills, Consulting Skills.
- At the start of a project, how do I go about identifying who my client is and what their objectives are?
- During my tenure at the firm, how do I leave a valuable legacy?
- For the assignment, why do I need to specify topics to investigate and outputs at the beginning of the project?
- How can I coach my wider team around problem-solving?
- How can I improve my personal effectiveness, planning and time management?
- How can I support a stressed-out team and help with their resilience?
- How do I analyse tons of data to come up with recommendations in the most efficient way?
- How do I prevent my projects from ‘growing’, with additional unplanned tasks, midway through the assignment?
- How do we as a team solve problems collaboratively?
- How do we encourage Account Managers, who have existing relationships with many C-level clients but not CTO / CIO, to move out of their comfort zone and engage with the technology leadership?
- How do we sell when we don’t own the relationship directly and usually have to get seniors and others to sell on our behalf?
- How do we stay strong on challenges on cost, especially when a client challenges with “But ABC Company can do this for half the price and all the same assurances and systemic support that you claim”
- I always avoid giving challenging feedback because it’s tricky, any advice on the best way to do it?
- I am fed up with writing countless proposals that take ages and never get past the first review, what am I doing wrong and how can I create stand-out proposals?
- I am having difficulty being persuasive or having an influence on the thinking of key clients, how can I address this problem?
- I am keen to progress in the firm, how do I go about becoming an ambassador of all the firm offers?
- I don’t have work life balance, what steps can I take to improve it?
- I don’t like the idea of networking but realise it is something I am expected to do, how can I establish and expand my network in a natural but focused way?
- I don’t think I’m very dynamic when I present some of the more complex data, as my team always look like they wish they were somewhere else. A colleague suggested telling more of a story, but I don’t get how I can use storytelling to engage my audience?
- I have heard that I should be asking my team for feedback about me. How do I go about that?
- I have heard that I should be asking my team for feedback on me. How do I start?
- I have heard the saying ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ and I wonder if that is why we are battling to implement our strategy. How could we do better?
- I know the concept of corporate culture and I know what our values are – I’m just not sure we live our values. How do we go about changing that?
- I’m new to the internal team, which people in the team are stakeholders and how do I recognise and manage them?
- I’ve got a big presentation coming up with my boss and her boss, what do I do to clarify my objectives and make sure my message is heard and understood?
- I’ve got a massive report to distil down into a few slides for my MD to present at the next board meeting, so I am wondering how I can structure it in a clear and logical way?
- I’ve moved up through the organisation and want to make sure I am a good role model, what are the most effective ways of coaching and mentoring?
- I’ve recently been promoted so now have to work on projects and manage other people, wondering how do I delegate, especially to colleagues who didn’t get promoted?
- If I want to improve my impact, how do I do that and what about building resilience?
- I’m familiar with values and corporate culture, just not sure we’re living the values. What can we do?
- In a competitive tender situation where everyone is saying the same thing about their firms, how do I stand out?
- In any form of communication, how do I understand my audience and influence decision makers?
- Most of our banking clients CTOs / CIOs have built their careers working with big system integrators but they don’t know our firm. How should we go about breaking in here?
- My line manager talked about the logic diagram – what is it and how will it help me?
- My team are very stressed, how can I support them to be more resilient?
- People tell me that they find it hard to follow my presentations, how do I correct this?
- Some colleagues mention doing hypotheses, are they something I need to develop and test? And if so, how do I do it?
- Some of my colleagues seem to be able to develop business easily, but I am not as confident, what can I do better when scoping an opportunity so that I create more of a compelling case to buy?
- The client has used consultants before and is sceptical about the value our project can bring. How can I suggest insightful recommendations that the client will implement?
- There are several clients that buy the same services from us every year, how do I get them to spend more?
- We are not doing well with diversity and inclusion, what steps can we take and how do I advocate for better inclusion and diversity?
- We’re falling short on our targets for diversity and inclusion, what do you advise we do?
- We’re struggling to implement our strategy, what do we need to do to make it happen?
- What do I need to do to improve my work-life balance?
- What do I need to remember when scoping a project and how do I start?
- What do you recommend doing to improve time management, planning and my professional effectiveness?
- What is a feedback culture?
- What is the best way of managing team performance?
- When analysing data, which findings do I use to generate conclusions?
- When managing change, how do I take ownership of my role?
- When presenting, how do I ensure engagement and buy-in?
- When speaking with clients, what do I need to do to be able to sell-in or sell-on?
- When trying to solve a client’s problem, what is the best logical process to use?
- Why is it important for me to understand and manage my behaviour and how do I go about doing that?