“You don’t have a billable project code against the pre-sales activity? Sorry, not interested.”
Be careful what you wish for.
… and sometimes, there are unintended consequences.
Rewarding a child during the ‘potty training’ phase for successfully depositing in the target receptacle might train your child to hold it all in until the reward is presented.
Rewarding consultants for achieving high billable hours, and tying their bonus to the utilisation rate means that they will only focus on those activities.
They may not be keen to help out with activities such as pre-sales, joining bid team and responding to proposals, participating in the recruitment process, interviewing, coaching, mentoring.
As a consulting partner, you want everyone to be rooting for the organisations’ success.
That includes doing both billable activities (that generate direct revenue) and taking part in supporting activities, that help to grow the business.
If you find that your consultants only want to stay in the ‘Delivery’ lane, when you can use their help with growing the organisation, then you might want to take another look at the reward and incentive model.
People who are on survival mode, will only focus on what matters to them.
To broaden that focus and include things that matter to you and your business, then align those goals.
For example, a Haribo for every time the little one ‘sits and tries to go potty’ instead of the actual ‘pooping’ might be a more successful endeavor. 💩
Well, it worked for mine! 😁
#humanbehaviour
#leadership
#consultinglife
#onthepeiroll