What’s the difference between working in a large Consulting Partner and small, medium or boutique sized one? For me, it’s…
What do bank accounts have to do with high performing teams? Well, understanding the concept of Emotional Bank Accounts (EBA)…
We watched #Soul yesterday – me and the ninjas. There’s a scene where Joe gets a lesson in active listening…
“Would anyone believe that you and me – both successful in our professional lives, have gone through abuse and sexual…
“Are there any PMs on the training who might have very strong personalities?” “Why do you ask?” I was a…
Consulting Partners are rightly thinking about hiring the best, regardless of location. This will give you a competitive edge of…
Most of the biggest challenges in struggling projects is issues around scope, requirements and change management. I think the biggest…
I’ve had good fortune to work with amazing #offshore team especially in #india, in many of my recent roles. We’ve…
Has anyone twigged yet? Those who work with #offshore teams? I wonder whether anyone realises that the remote collaboration world…
Do you want to know the 5 words that are the secret to really effective #communication and connection? No, you…
“I, and I alone, am responsible for everything I think and feel.” Naval Ravikant. This is something I believe in,…
“The Functional Consultant role is 100% remote – how effective will I be when doing workshops?” M had gone through…
A Consulting Partner needs to really only do two things well: 1. Deeply understand requirements. 2. Execute well. Any Partner…
Who’s the most effective #CRM executive champion/sponsor? A. Finance Director B. CEO C. Marketing Director D. Sales Director E. Ops…
Do you build your CRM platform yourself or do you get someone to help you? Buying software that can be…
“I’m only being paid a fraction of what I’m billed out at. It’s not fair. I can run my own…
“What’s your definition of success? What do you want to get out of this business of yours?” For me, the…
“I exercise 5 days a week.” (but I live on junk food and sweet treats all the time). “I never…
“We can do it all ourselves. It’s cheaper than getting a Consultant Partner to do it. How hard can it…
“Yes – you can name your variable ‘bob’ if you want to, but no – you shouldn’t.” Ninja #2 is…
It gives me goosebumps and shivers down my spine! No, it’s not my lovely Husband attempting to woo me with…
I was asked to stand down, while the stakeholders had a ‘spirited internal debate’ which ended up with the Team…
“Um… John always made sure things like that worked automagically.” They couldn’t figure out why the financial records weren’t coming…
We were asked to audit a system that had been built by another company years ago. It was a MONSTER.…
“This is sh*t! We are being treated like kids! How do they expect us to perform when they pull stunts…
Congratulations, you’ve just been appointed the Exec Sponsor for the CRM Project. But, what do you do now? The 5…
Which grabs your attention? I’m submitting a few topics to London’s Calling’s Call for Presentation/Speakers in March and What topic…
When I hear about CRM projects that are so badly designed and implemented, it makes me want to poke my…
“You must try this restaurant, it’s got the most delicious pad thai – they even made me a non-peanut version…
Funky new features is not a good reason to get Salesforce. Although I admit, there are some features that are…
A beautiful new swimming pool in a hotel is not successful if no one is using it. “It’s too cold.”…
How did out of date apps like ‘Netscape Communicator’ and ‘Mozilla Mail’ get referenced as ‘modern’ in the Brexit deal?…
Bid response, Proposals, Solution documents. These are just some of the documents that may need more than one person to…
When I run a big team, I can tell those who’re on a smooth progression up the consulting career ladder.…
If you had to rate your day, every single day, with a score from -2 to 2, what would the…
I was talking to a seasoned Project Manager who felt trapped. While she was extremely good at her work, she…
“Here you go – these are the build estimates for the user stories. Can you come up with a pricing…
WYSIWY. What You See Is What You Get. You don’t hear that term nowadays – but you’d recognise it if…
What happens when you don’t manage expectations properly? Anger and disbelief. And #Tier4. That press conference yesterday definitely provoked a…
“OMG – the culture was so toxic! So much empire building – and it was next to impossible to get…
Historians are really Big Picture people. They have such a macro view of world events, and can see how things…
What do you do if you have an escalated situation with a client where emotional outburst and personal attacks might…
“Are you nuts?!” Ms Ego on my shoulder prodded me in the neck. I turned down a potentially lucrative coaching…
“So I’m calling to thank you for guiding me through the Consulting Masterclass – it helped so much during the…
“A great class requires the hand of a master sculptor. The details at the margins. The choices about what not…
“You might be a rockstar Certified Technical Architect, but your arrogance and your pattern of belittling others, will be your…
How do you handle explosive situations in a workshop when emotional outbursts have derailed the conversation? It can happen. I…
A team that has chemistry, where the group dynamics just works – is magic. It’s like conducting an orchestra, where…
I was going to read the whole Encyclopædia Britannica from A to Z. I told Andrew, who was suffering from…
Solutions Architect vs Project Manager. To become super expert at a special skill, or to become really good at a…
Hot potato. Some partners treat their clients like hot potato when the organisational culture doesn’t promote cohesive behaviour. Sales will…
How do you feel when you get a contract that seriously leans AGAINST your favour? I’ve seen contracts and agreements…
I love games. In fact, I was once addicted to World of Warcraft. I can wax lyrical about how it…
We got our hands on the proposal that the competitor was planning to submit and present. In his email, our…
High performing teams helps company move quicker, faster, and more efficiently. However, team dynamics can be complex and can be…
“Yes he worked with me on these dates. He performed some of the duties of a Junior Project Manager, and…
What do you call a consulting partner who misrepresents their internal capability and competency to the client and signs them…
“But what if I don’t get another contract? I still have a mortgage to pay.” I was just speaking to…
Everybody is walking around with invisible moat and defence wall around them. “How are you doing?” “Oh fine, you know.…
Sometimes I wish I could do the Vulcan mind-meld. 🖖🏻 The ability to directly connect my mind to yours, and…
Agency. The control you have over your life, your work, your circumstance. There is a difference between what control you…
Sooner or later, short term thinking leads to pain. If you are only keen on closing that deal without spending…
2020 has been utterly crap for so many people. Job losses, financial insecurity, illness, death. There are so many LinkedIn…
“Vagueness is a salesman’s friend.” D, who heads up Delivery at a Salesforce platinum partner said to me today. This…
In Dec, I am giving away 12 courses on The Art of being an Excellent Salesforce Consultant (all sessions from…
You know when you get into such a deep flow that time disappears? When the only thing that is in…
It’s ok for relationships and friendships to be temporary and transient. If we’re lucky, we meet that person who just…
Sun Tzu Art of War. I’ve read it before, but it didn’t resonate. My world is one of teamwork and…
Pet peeve – bad subject lines! I swear I spend half my time ‘tidying’ up subject lines because the email…
To close projects successfully, you need to have delivered to spec. To deliver quality specs , you must test robustly.…
My secret superpower: The ability to unlocking resourcefulness and creativity in my team with humour. As a Project Manager, managing…
Many of us walk around unconscious, without seeing, and without hearing. I asked my current batch of trainee Samaritan volunteers…
Systems thinking and critical thinking rank right up there with emotional intelligence in terms of skills that makes a consultant…
A process diagram should be so good that you can hand it to someone who has never seen one before,…
What does leadership and project management have in common with the values of Stoicism? A lot, in fact. Wisdom The…
The consulting life is demanding. Back-to-back projects, and if you’re good at what you do – you’ll be in demand.…
How many psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb? One. But the lightbulb must want to change first. Self…
The one Super Power that is key in navigating relationships and communicating effectively? Social awareness. It’s the ability to tune…
“You don’t have a billable project code against the pre-sales activity? Sorry, not interested.” Be careful what you wish for.…
Agile Manifesto’s second principle: “Welcome changing requirements, even late in development.” Putting aside impact to budget and timeline with the…
In situations where consultants go into project as the solo team member, they typically have to handled the end-to-end engagement,…
I am very protective of my team. Each member of a high performing team needs to be able focus their…
Quality <> Perfection. Many delay shipment of releases or products/software because they aren’t ready… the software isn’t “perfect” yet. “QA…
My previous post panicked my parents. I didn’t mean to, I was just relating an incident about a panic attack…
Data Migration can be quite a complex and deserves to be treated as its own project. However, it’s generally an…
I had to leave the meeting room very quickly and walked into a vacant office. I shut the door and…
Nobody owes you anything. The world is not fair, and never will be. You will die, and everyone you care…
Hurt people, hurt people. Abusers were once abused. Sometimes. I don’t normally get angry, but incidents of domestic violence and…
So a mistake was made. Through a series of miscommunications and misundertandings – the instance was installed in the wrong…
You need to truly understand the importance of testing, or you will never be able to deliver robust software. This…
When mistakes happen, it is usually due to poor communication, and sometimes lack of the right resources. Sometimes it’s due…
Who should pay for bug fixes when a client engages a Consulting Partner to configure and develop a system? The…
There’s a lot of discussion about whether a contractor would be suited to a permanent role in software development, especially…
Technical debt. It’s when you build software in such a way that will require re-work in the future to “put…
My “happy wall”. It was the wall of my home office where my lovely husband had put up a large…
If you are a medium/large consulting partner, your job descriptions should be very well honed towards how you run your…
I was talking to a senior architect who was incredibly frustrated. Due to cost cutting, the main project manager was…
Many people don’t understand that signed off requirements in a software delivery constitute a contractual agreement. It’s what you say…
There’s a common misconception about the term ‘requirements’ especially when applied to Agile projects. Many believe that User Stories are…
“Why are you doing this? You’re not making any money out of giving away free courses.” I’ve also been coaching…