The idea of ‘T-shaped’ professionals is not new. The consultancies they leave behind not only lose their super-managers, but are still no closer to finding their future leaders.įinally, those who do succeed in making the transition can find it too sudden and too dislocating, often taking a considerable amount of time to become effective.Īs one senior partner in a strategy consultancy put it: “I spent ten years being taught to behave in a certain way - then I had to spend the next ten years unlearning it.” The effect of this is a massive drain of expensively groomed talent, as principals leave the organisation to take their expertise to its logical conclusion or to look for another pond in which to become a big fish.

They’ve done everything they were told and yet have come to a dead end - just as the ground is being cut from under their feet. Principals can find themselves in a bizarre and confusing holding pattern: popular and praised by clients but continually being told by partners that there is something missing.

Getting stuck in the ‘holding pattern’ trap Whereas putting someone forward as a partner is taking a bet they will eventually increase the size of the pie for the partnership as a whole. Partners are not in a rush to end this state of affairs - super-managers are a great asset and difficult to replace. Because their personal identity is centred on their technical expertise they have a blind spot to learning broader commercial and consultative skills Mitigating risk of course is critical but sometimes messages can inadvertently limit the willingness to experiment and pilot ideas which are key to innovationĦ. Their mindset is often fixed on solving existing problems and then executing solutions, rather than using a more entrepreneurial focus to create future opportunitiesĥ.

They get lost in detail and struggle to synthesise information and articulate points succinctlyĤ. Sometimes 80–20 in favour is enough to enlist a boardģ. They focus on ‘rational perfection’, trying to get the exact answer, rather than on meeting the commercial imperatives of direction, deadline and budget. When in a potentially intimidating environment like a boardroom presentation, they fall back on this identity, rather than having the intellectual and social confidence to listen, learn and speak in the listener’s languageĢ. Typically these professionals have expertise in a subject area or industry but then present information in specialised or abstract language to executives. We have identified six ways that ‘I-shaped’ professionals often get in their own way:ġ. A ‘super-manager’ rather than a partner-in-waiting. The end result of this process is that, despite having made a serious of rational and successful decisions, the principal ends up too narrow and too specialised to be an effective ambassador for the whole firm. But as their careers progress, they are increasingly encouraged to become specialists and are indeed praised and promoted for success in their field. On the lower rungs of the ladder they find themselves valued for their generalist abilities. Young people become consultants because they see it as a career that offers variety and stimulation. To understand how this happens we need to look at the conditioning consultants receive throughout their careers. There is a major blind spot in the way consultancies develop their staff and one which emerges when consultants reach principal level.Ĭonsultants who have successfully developed their careers up to this point and who are competent and popular principals somehow seem inadequate to the demands of partnership. No-one can accuse consultancies of under investing in their staff - the cost of developing a junior consultant to principal level runs into hundreds of thousands.ĭespite this considerable investment in raw talent, consultancies are still coming up short in the most crucial area - finding the future leaders who will ensure their future prosperity and even survival.

Consultant principal vs principle